Kendal Gold Cherry and Vanilla

Kendal Gold is the umbrella name for the shag-cut tobacco family Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. produces in the town of Kendal in England's Lake District. The family's body is built from Brazilian- and Indian-origin, heat-cured light Virginia leaf; largely stripped of stem, it's cut into fine golden strands. The producer steams and softens the tobacco, cuts it, toasts it on a hot cylinder, and then applies the top flavoring — so the family's members are versions of the same body offered with different scents.

Entry No. 8 in the series carries a cherry-and-vanilla flavoring over the Virginia body. The two scents balance each other: vanilla is creamy and round, cherry sharper and fruitier; underneath, the leaf's own herbal, honeyed sweetness can be sensed.

The fine shag cut is packed with the fingertips, lights immediately, and resists going out; since it burns fast, slow smoking is needed. Nicotine is measured. Suited to smokers wanting a tobacco on the aromatic side that can be smoked all day.