MacBaren has a full line of Captain Black inspired tobaccos which are usually ranked higher than the original, all under the Seven Seas line. I did have Seven Seas Original years ago and my general tasting notes are fairly similar but I can note that the mechanics of the MacBaren version was vastly superior. Captain Black Gold is much more natural in aroma, hay, a hint of vanilla, and bit of an ammonia off-note. TIN AROMACaptain Black Original has a chacom tobacco pipes rich and inviting aroma of vanilla, raisins, and milk chocolate. LOOK & FEEL OF THE LEAFCaptain Black Original is an approximately 60/40 mixture of black to tawny ribbon of average length and breadth.
I had quite a few relights trying to smoke this stuff. However I received the least amount of tongue bite smoking this out of these three tobaccos. The cherry flavor was not as offensive as the pouch aroma promised, and it melded well with the general Captain Black profile of spiced rum and vanilla. My suspicion is that they soak some light cavendish in cherry goop and mix that with Captain Black Original to produce this blend. The amount of nicotine and percentage of nicotine in each cigarette, in thirteen imported brands and nine brands of domestic cigarette are presented in tables 2 and and3,3, receptively.
Among the imported brands, cigarette “pine” contained the lowest amounts of nicotine and cigarette “Winston” contained the highest amounts of nicotine (14.40 mg). The percentage of nicotine in these imported brands was different. Statistical analysis showed that in imported brands, there was a significant difference in the amounts and percentage of nicotine between the cigarettes randomly chosen from four different packs of each brands. For a tobacco so ubiquitous, so marketed to the novice pipe smoker, Captain Black tobaccos are incredibly challenging to smoke. They come from a time where pipe smoking was far more prevalent so there would always be someone around to show a new smoker the ropes.
If you like Cavendish tobaccos, then you must read on. I recently smoked 3 of the 5 versions and enjoyed them all immensely. I smoked Captain Black Regular (white package), Captain Black Gold (gold package) and Captain Black Royal (dark blue package). The other two versions that I didn’t smoke are Captain Black Light (light blue package) and Captain Black Cherry (red package). You usually find Captain Black at various chain stores that sell pipe tobacco such as CVS Drug Stores, Walmart and other chains. Don’t let the chosen distribution chain for Captain Black fool you.
If there are any tobacco snobs reading this, and you’re already rolling your eyes, just wait until I tell you what I smoked this in. A rich mixture of traditional matured, broad-cut Burleys, bright Virginia and toasted Black Cavendish tobaccos. FLAVOR PROGRESSIONCaptain Black Original has fairly consistent vanilla-rum-lemon-vinegar-hay profile up to the last quarter when the spiced rum takes over. SMOKE & ROOM NOTEThe heavy cavendish component gives all of these tobaccos a silky mouthfeel, but the smoke is strangely thin. Flake tobacco sliced thinner than usual, the resulting product is then rolled into tight tubes then sliced a second time, resulting in thin medallions.
Helping a 60-year-old brand that was stagnant and consistently underperforming in the little cigar category “rise from the ashes,” (so to speak), would require more than a fresh new look. As a first step, we gathered insights from focus groups, online surveys and sales data to better define our target consumer and identify the emotional and rational drivers to influence purchase. I first tried the original version, Captain Black Regular. The pipe smoking community and many online stores refer to it as “Captain Black White” because of the white packaging. However, it is officially “regular” if you read the manufacturer’s website.