[Slow Triathlete]

Thanks everyone for your kind remarks. This has turned from just a Showdown to me to a passion so to speak. After reviewing so many blends one would think that you would become jaded to trying anymore but I always look forward to the next blend. While I didn't know that there were so many different VaPers out there when I started I'm glad that there is a wide variety of choice in this genre. Everyone's tastes are different but I hope that my reviews give a little bit of guidance to everyone when they are delving into the wonderful world of VaPers. Okay, enough of this. Let us move on to the next review.


Woooo Woooo, it’s time to hop on the train. The C & D Night Train that is.

Everyone who I talked to about this blend had the same response. “Get ready, you’re in for a ride. I hope you like nicotine!!” And then they would usually chuckle. They all told me that this was one strong smoke and not to smoke it on an empty stomach.

I ordered a 4 oz sample of this from pipesandcigars.com and it arrived in brick form so I quickly started pulling it apart and rubbing it out a little bit. It seems to have the perfect moisture content straight away. I put this in a jar to let it rest a bit after rubbing it out and unfortunately I forgot about it. Now it’s about two months later and I think that it’s about time to break this stuff out and give it a whirl.

Right off the bat this blend gives off a sweet/sour fruity kind of taste. Delicious in my opinion. The spiciness of the Perique also kicks in very early on. Whoa, I can tell already that this one is going to pack a punch. This blend stays lit better than most that I have encountered. But watch out because if you start puffing on this too fast you will regret it. I let it get away from me one time when I was reading and not paying attention. Didn’t really notice anything except the spiciness of the Perique became almost overwhelming and the next thing I know my head starts to swirl from the nicotine. I actually had to put the pipe down and go to bed after that one.

If you take your time with this and sip on it very slowly it is a very, very good smoke. The sweet/sour flavor remains pretty consistent throughout the smoke but the sour takes over a bit near the end but not in a bad way. The spiciness of the Perique is present the whole way through and really adds to this blend I feel. It adds a kind of dark spice that plays in contrast to the sweet/sour flavor that I mentioned.

I assume that the room aroma is as strong as the blend because at one point my wife walked out on the porch and said, “Man, that stuff smells like it would kick your butt!” She wasn’t far off of the mark.

While I wouldn’t recommend this to a new pipe smoker, if you have a few years under your belt I would highly recommend it. Some people enjoy the stronger stuff and some don’t. I think that I lie somewhere in between. While I will definitely keep this on hand for an occasional smoke there is no way that I could smoke this on a daily basis. For those of you who may be cigar smokers I would compare this blend to the La Flor Dominica Chisel. This is so far the strongest blend that I have smoked so far in this genre but it mixes strength with great taste and that is what sets it apart. I think that this is going to take over the 9th spot. While it could go higher based on the quality of the tobacco I feel that the overwhelming strength of this blend actually hurts it because, for me at least, I can’t smoke it everyday. Someone who likes the stronger blends more than I do would probably rate it higher. I’ll leave it up to your judgment.

Here are the current standings:

1) McConnell Scottish Cake
2) Samuel Gawith’s St. James Flake
3) Escudo
4) GL Pease Filmore
5) H & H AJ’s VaPer
6) Peretti’s Park Square
7) H & H Anniversary Kake
8) G & H Louisiana Flake
9) C & D Night Train
10) Reiner’s Long Golden Flake
11) Treasures of Ireland - Limerick
12) Dorchester
13) Luxury Bullseye Flake
14) McClelland Bulk 2015
15) GL Pease Telegraph Hill
16) Kajun Kake
17) Luxury Navy Flake