Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) Half & Half

In the quest for my perfect old school codger blend, I was pleasantly surprised when I came across Half & Half. The pouch I have been smoking I acquired back in 2019. Bag note is nice and sweet cinnamon/cardamom type of spice. A little hint of alcohol is lurking behind the spice note in the bag. Once you light the pipe, you can tell there are both Burleys and Virginias in the blend but neither take the front seat. The spice note remains consistent in the smoke, and alcohol doesn’t come a whole lot. Kind of sweet, earthy, a little nutty tasting blend. Hay like Virginia comes every now and then. Very cool burning smoke. No tongue bite even when pushed. I give it no drying time although it looks a little wet. Only requires very few relights. Leaves little to no dump at the bottom of the bowl. I personally won’t call this an aromatic blend. This has way less top note than Velvet, Carter Hall, and Sir Walter Raleigh. Somehow the toppings used here go really well with the Virginia/Burley combination. I like it quite a lot. I will be buying more pouches of this and enjoy in the morning. Definitely a winner among the codger blends. Three and half star blend for me.

Nope! This is one of the worst tobaccos Ive ever tasted. It has a flavor that reminds me of rotten fruit. Or like fruit juice that has gone bad. Bag note smells like jailhouse hooch and tastes just as bad. Never again.

Tin note is all over the place. I smell molasses, cocoa or choclate, some citrus, but there's a fruit smell there I could not for the life of me figure out. Closest I could figure was juicy fruit gum. I got the opinions of several people, and the consensus was currants. That smells about right. I guess it could be cardamon, but I am NO cardamon aficianado. Do cardamon aficianados exist? Probably. Even Cheetos has flavour experts. Annnyways, taste is good, but totally different from anything Ive smoked previous. The tobaccos themselves are kind of subdued by the topping, at first. The burley is predominant, molasses and nuts, and the virginia I only notice in the citrus notes. By halfway all that remains is the burley and it's pretty darn good. The cocoa and molasses notes pick up. All with that cardamon or currant flavour right there, lingering on in the aftertaste. Like other reviewers here, this stuff kinda grew on me. It's inexpensive, so that's a star. It burns well and doesn't bite much, so that's a star. The flavour is decent and has some nuance, that's half a star. 2.5. All in all, this stuff is a bit bizarre, but good. It really shines in the latter half of the bowl, after the topping has dwindled. I'd recommend to every pipe smoker, because it is so unique a flavour profile you won't likely forget it, for better or worse. Based on the reviews, you may hate it, you may just love it, but no matter what, you'll have an experience you can discuss for years to come. That's worth half a star, I figure. 3 stars.

So far this is the best OTC tobacco I have tried. Lights very easily and stays lit. No tongue bite and doesn't get overly ashy near the bottom of the bowl. Can definitely taste hints of citrus, couldn't detect any plastic chemical flavoring like a lot of others have noted. Overall a really smooth smoke, will definitely be adding it to the rotation.

I'm smoking the Pinkerton version after a long long time, well here's the story: I had tried and hated Half & Half in my earlier pipe smoking days, you know, those Captain Black pouch smoking days in the old 2000's, and had decided not to smoke it anymore, and had actually put an opened half used pouch in a pack with other pouch tobaccos I didn't use and dumped it in my father's house about ten years ago before I moved to live in another City... About three weeks ago I was looking for a painting brush in my old stuff and found that same pack full of tobaccos and revived the moisture on some of them to try after all these years to see what I think now that I'm more of an experienced pipe smoker. I'm not a burley Fan and usually I hate burley based tobaccos but, man, oh, man. Being a pouch tobacco and all, it's fairly good. I've had the same experience with Amphora full aroma recently and am very happy with this find, I'll get some STG Version and try that too of course and will compare the two versions on my YouTube channel later. And now for the review: It feels more like a Virginia Based blend to me rather than Burley Based. This does not have that tangy taste I get from most burleys and is sweet, I dono if it's the aging or something else. But it's good, no tongue bite, burns cool and good. i Don't get any of the tastes mentioned here from this tobacco now that I'm half way done with the bowl, tastes like a good straight Virginia to me, with an undertone of honey in the room note.

A beautiful American traditional mixture that I have enjoyed in my rotation for many years.

USER TIP: When I get a new pouch, I dump the contents on to a clean piece of paper and add two large "pinches" of Lane's BCA. I mix this together and allow to dry overnight. The next morning I stuff it all back in the pouch. I learned this trick from my Pop-Pop when I was a boy and saw his H&H spread out all over his workbench.

I also believe that STG has improved the overall quality of this blend. If you haven't tried it in a while it may be time to check 'er out again.

Not bad. Tin is definitely better than the pouch. I almost stopped at a pouch. I literally scraped my last bowl out of the pouch that I had thrown in the glovebox, just barely having enough to make it home (forgot my main baccy), and I thought "hmmm there's something there" so I bought the tin. This has an excellent flavor if smoked slow. Almost a sweet ginger, butter and honey on bread flavor. It wont knock your socks off, but you'll like it. Another good, clean, all day smoke. My #2 next to SWR. They alternate days very well. Whereas SWR is a light molasses/anise flavor, this is a light zesty spice flavor. Its hard to narrow down the flavor. I don't want to say dill, that's clearly not right, but I've smelled this before in a pouch of "pickling spice". My grandmother made preserves of various things, pears apricots etc, and used an odd spice combo like this for some recipes. I have to add, I opened a can of Velvet and Half/Half at the same time, side by side. They look identical, and several of us could tell no difference between the tin odor. Once emptied into glass jars, and allowed to rest, a slight detection was made of a hint of cherry in the Velvet. Which is odd, 'cause Half/Half, supposedly has a slight cherry topping also (or so I have been told).

I find this tobacco uninspiring. It lights easily and stays lit. It produces plenty of smoke, but not much else. You do notice the burley right away, but you also get a taste of anise (black licorice), which I do not like.

In the interests of full disclosure, I am not a big fan of burley-dominate blends and Half & Half is loaded with burley. So why did I order it? Morbid curiosity and occasionally I find a blend that I do like. This was not one of those blends. The pouch note was unremarkable. Upon lighting it I picked up a cocoa taste, not bad but it didn't last and gave way to the burley. On to better things...