Stanwell Green & Indigo

Well now, this makes me wonder if I even smoked the same tobacco as the other reviewers!

To be honest I wasn't even expecting much when I bought this pouch, what with having sampled a number of cheap STG brands shortly before and not being particularly impressed by the general quality, and the name of "Green & Indigo" promising at least some kind of aromatic experience. So, imagine my surprise when after a couple of bowls I found out that to my taste this isn't that bad a blend at all. True, it's rather heavily aromatised - and I don't even consider myself a fan of aromatics - but in this instance the pieces fit together nicely and the mix of tobaccoes (black cavendish, burley, virginia) is also well balanced, and the quality of the leaf seems perfectly fine. Apple and blackcurrant is an interesting combination of flavour (and I'll definitely need to dabble with some blackcurrant in my homegrown tobacco too) giving a very strong - perhaps even misleading - pouch impression but here it does work, producing a cool, mild, somewhat fruity & spicy smoke which at the end of the day is fairly uncomplicated despite all that went into it. Was a bit moist at first and hard to light, but got quickly better after drying a bit.

This is actually a 2-star review leaning on 3 stars, so I'll need to buy another pouch of this if I get the chance to truly make up my mind about this.

Typical Danish sweet blend from Stanwell's.

The pouch aroma is, as they claim, apple and blackcurrants. The trouble with these really fruity, sweet varieties is that they can easily end up being one of the following.

a) a pot-porri ingredient b) a cough-drop substitute

c) long-time occupant of jar and hidden away in your tobacco store cupboard alongside all the other hideous blends that you have tried from Dan Pipe.

Don't get me wrong, This isn't a Dan Tobacco blend and none of their own concoctions can remotely be regarded as hideous or unpalatable. It's just that DT just sells such a huge variety of blends you want to try them all good or bad. Especially when the world ends on 29th March and Germany stops all tobacco shipments to this country.

Sorry, to continue with the review.

The tobacco mixture is black and tan and very, very dry. It's very coarse and difficult to load unless you break it down a bit more. It takes hundreds of relights and is very frustrating. When you think you a got the core alight it just dies on you.

The taste is something like candy floss meets english orchard, with a twist of ribena. The aromatic haters will have this one on the bus of doom for sure. There is no tobacco taste I can detect and I can see this one really making you feel sick if imbibed on a regular basis.

So, put this alongside Sundays Fantasy, your Captain Black and the majority of Larson's Danish pouch blends at the back of your cupboard and just dig it out when you fancy something sweet and sickly or when you've got a cold.

A typical mild aromatic blend. Sort of a bubblegum taste. You can taste a tobacco, which is good and also aroma that is not offensive. Can be enjoyed. I am giving it 2 out of 4 stars. (But thinking about 3...I give this blend a little time)

Update: 2 stars are enough. Green & indigo is a little bit spicy, but sometimes harsh. Just typical aromatic

Got a huge sample of G&I from a friend as i truly was excited to have a taste of apple in my bowl. So far for the theory.

Look is nice and dark with golden Virginia and brown Burley ribbons inside. Smell is sour like cider and nothing else.

Packs well takes flames easily and burns nicely with no relighting and no tongue bite.

The first half of the bowl there's nothing but perfume of apple and citric notes. No tobacco taste at all. Aroma is really too much for my head and I was about to quit but then the flavors got less annoying in the second half. Still not a hint of tobacco detectable feels a bit like smoking aromatized cardboard.

This one is especially for the kind of smoker that doesn't like to have tobacco in a smoke. Probably going to end up mixed with a pure and quality tobacco but never smoked pure again.