Smoke is light and dominated by an artificial berry and menthol casing. Flavors fade as the bowl progresses, Burley is stronger in the second half, but it has a musty flavor. Either low-grade or over processed Burley (or both) for sure. Tended to get hot, but careful puffing kept it cool enough.

By the last third, The chemical flavors have mostly dissipated, the tobacco starts to taste a little like burning paper. Going further brings back some of that clean men’s room smell and some sour notes. Bottom half of the bowl delivers strong rations of nicotine.

However, good or bad, life’s too short for drugstore tobacco. Support your local (or online) tobacconist, and do yourself a favor.

First, the cut has changed from cube to a ribbon(?) The pouches that I'm picking up locally are a bit on the moist side, but a light pack (required for most all the OTC blends) still yields, to me, a nice tasteful, cool, relaxing smoke. My pipe of choice for Half and Half is a Missouri Meerschaum Diplomat, but in all honesty, the Diplomat can make dog droppings taste good!

Second, the taste is of anise, which I enjoy immensely. Others have spoken of "ghosts" left in their pipes, but not something I experience. I mix H and H up with Carter Hall, Price Albert, Cherry Blend (another misunderstood blend), Sugar Barrel, and Granger, all in the same pipes, with no ghosts that can't be removed with a pipe cleaner and filter change. The one thing I enjoy most about H and H is the flavor I taste in the stem even after the bowl is long gone.

As it's been mentioned here many times, taste is subjective. I have no problems with H and H. It lights easy, stays lit to the bottom, leaves no dottle, and is about the cheapest blend available, short of the generics. If you decide to give it a try, remember to keep your pack loose. If it's biting and leaving a wet bowl, your pack may be a little too tight.

Of all three blends this is my least favorite. It got very sour towards the bottom. I detected a weird chemically taste. Carter Hall and Prince Albert are in my opinion better smokes.

Each to his own, of course, and I suppose it’d be all right if you couldn’t get anything else; it isn’t hateful – but I wouldn’t recommend it. I think I’d give it one and a half stars if that were possible. It might be all right to smoke it while doing something else, just for the sake of a smoke; but I can’t imagine anyone sitting in their armchair and enjoying a bowl of this for its own sake.

Upon opening the package, an immediate aroma was very noticeable which I would describe as being almost fruity, "liqueur-like", with maybe a dash of licorice. When smoked, however, I did not detect any taste of this flavoring, nor does it add to the room note. Other reviewers mentioned that H&H is a cube burley and maybe that's the way this tobacco was cut in years gone by, but it is not cube cut now; more of non-uniform size flakes. The tobacco seemed to be properly moist but not wet.

I found this tobacco easy to light in a briar pipe and it stayed lit during almost the entire smoke. Re-lights are easy. Not much of a room note but it is pleasant.

For those who experienced a lot of tongue bite from this blend, I'll just say that I've had better quality burley blends than H&H and they ALL bite somewhat. This blend is no worse as long as you smoke is slowly in small puffs. I'll also admit to a bit of residue at the bottom of the pipe after smoking but nothing a p/c can't handle.

All in all, not my favorite OTC blend but not bad and...good thing because i've got 14 oz. of it to soldier my way through.

Three stars for an OTC.

Mostly I taste the burley, although there is a nice "twang" from the bright. The anise flavour that others have noted only comes out as an occasional bitterness, but not enough to make me pass on it. On the room note; my wife wrinkles her nose when she is in the room, but has never commented in any way.From that I gather it comes across as "pungent" rather than unpleasant.

Often this gets classified as "old codger tobacco" which I think is unfair. If you want a pleasant inexpensive smoke that you can find just about anywhere, then one can do worse than H&H.

I'm updating this to add a recent discovery, add some latakia in a 3 to 1 ratio, (3 of H&H and 1 of latakia). Wait a day or two for everything to blend in and you will have pleasant experience.