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Santo Domingo

 

AJL 10/02/06

 

 

When I was in high school, in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, there was a gaggle of girls known as “hippie chicks” wandering the halls. One can still find such young ladies even today if they are sought in the right places. You may have encountered the type yourself somewhere, sometime. Hippie chicks used to use the word “man” as a form of address, regardless of the gender of the person so addressed, and also as a random interjection in just about every sentence uttered. It’s my understanding that the modern version of the hippie chick has replaced “man” with “dude,” but I can’t personally vouch for that. They were frequently seen garbed in loose, flowered dresses, fringed things, bellbottomed jeans, and the like. If you got within ten feet or so of a hippie chick, you’d notice a strong aroma of something cedar-like, sharp and somewhat acrid. That was not the natural aroma of the hippie chick. It was sandalwood. Oh, sure, you’ll hear it called “patchouli,” but that’s just to throw you off the scent, as it were. Patchouli is merely a means whereby sandalwood can be brought to your nose, thereby kicking it.

 

My hypothesis as to the reason for the wearing of sandalwood perfumes by hippie chicks is that it was believed by them to disguise the smell of marijuana. It didn’t work all that well, and marijuana would have been infinitely preferable to sandalwood, as far as I’m concerned.

 

There are four aromas in the everyday world which I cannot abide, and the fourth is sandalwood.* My dislike of the scent is probably the reason I’m not married to a hippie chick, with seven or eight little hippie children scurrying about quoting Abbie Hoffmann. (Lord knows some of ‘em were damned cute, and they certainly weren’t all that particular, what with being stoned all the time.) But enough of hippie chicks and their relative merits.

 

Santo Domingo is primarily flavored with… yes, sandalwood. This fact makes it difficult for me to give an impartial report on its qualities, reeking as it does of hippie chicks. Suffice it, then, to offer these few notes:

 

Santo Domingo is a snuff of excellent quality. It is black in color, moist, and of a medium-coarse grind. Sometimes it has a slight hint of menthol (about as much as, say, S. Gawith’s Honey), and sometimes it doesn’t. I don’t know why that is, but I have noticed such inconsistencies in F&T’s products before, most notably in Old Paris.

 

The nicotine level is medium or a little better, and it’s very kind to the nose. Easy to use as an all-day snuff; it doesn’t clog or overly cloy. The afterblow effect is a nice, clean tobacco scent with a bit of cigars.

 

As you may have gathered, I don’t particularly care for sandalwood, but I still occasionally use this snuff as an all-day-er. I did so today, in fact. It’s good enough that I can overcome my imperfect respect for sandalwood. In short, I recommend it, man. It’s far out.

 

 

* The other three are burnt coffee, mildew, and decomposing roadkill.

 

Santo Domingo is available from Mars.