Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) Clan Aromatic (Original)

A friend of mine brought back this pouch of Clan tobacco from Spain as a gift for me. (It's blended in Holland, though.) The pouch describes it as "...cool and fragrant, mild in taste and slow burning ... containing no less than 14 different tobaccos from all over the world."

This is definitely a unique tobacco. The scent from the pouch was very natural (reminiscent of cigarette tobacco) but with a strong overlying medicinal smell like a sweet cough syrup. What really surprised me about this tobacco is the cut of very long, thin strands (shag?). Using this tobacco is like filling up your pipe with alfalfa: you don't trickle it in so much as stuff in tangled globs.

I was a little reluctant to fire up this blend because of the decidedly unpleasant smell. Much to my relief, however, it wasn't too bad. Although I could taste the faint sweetness that my nose had detected, it remained a fairly natural tobacco experience. Best of all, this thin stranded tobacco packs and burns surprisingly well.

In the end, however, I felt that although it's not a bad tobacco, it's not one that I would bother reaching for when there are others I enjoy far more. And there's something about the mediciny cloying character of the tobacco that unsettles me.

One of the more common tobacco blends, at least in my country. Cheap and easy to find are things that add to its popularity.

It burns really faster than other tobacco blends and it has a dry feeling right out of the bag. I didn't enjoy my exprerience with this one, it has a very mild aroma and due to the fast burn it might make some pipes hotter than usual. Those are briefly my negative remarks. On the positive side it's one of those tobaccos that you won't usually need a relight and it's a fairly light smoking experience.

It's a cheap tobacco but since there are better ones in that price range I wouldn't recommend it but I would suggest that if you haven't smoked that classic tobacco even once to give it a go. It's not for me but it might be for you! I believe due to many reasons, like those mentioned above, it's probably the most popular tobacco that has its lovers and haters.

Décevant et sans véritable saveur perceptible. Pourtant l’arôme est délicieux et un vrai plaisir olfactif. Dommage qu’il ne donne pas en bouche ce qu’il fait sentir

Clan, it burns really well, has a interesting though unidentifiable taste imo and a fantastic room note. With those points for it you would think it should be at least 2 stars.

BUT

In the UK it's £15 a pouch, that's the same as most other tobaccos. So why should I buy Clan over Bruno or Peterson for the same price. Or Amphora Full or Original which are far better tobaccos that are also almost 5 quid cheaper per pouch.

Then there's the bite, no matter what I do this stuff bites hard and burns hot and fast.

I don't see the point of this tobacco. There's virtually no flavour - only some faint sweetness topped bitterness - and it doesn't really smell like much of anything either, when it burns.

It's not "bad". If you buy it, it won't wake your face cringe or anything. It's just a waste of time and cash.

It's a purely uninteresting tobacco. Don't think about it ; get something else instead.

Well i tried 1 bowl of clan aromatic as an offer of my friend harris.the cut is no ideal it lights easy burns normally.as i smokes it the taste was confusing to neutral..i didn't get the alcohol taste as a matter of fact ut was very neutral.mid nicotine not an all day blend.i didn't get anything positive from this blend.i don't recomend it there's nothing unique of this blend i am sorry!

From the name and pouch art you may be fooled into thinking this is some kind of Scottish mixture and may even conjure images in your mind of the highlands and whiskey etc - and you would be sadly hoodwinked. This blend is in fact a Dutch style aromatic and all the tartan artwork won't change that a jot.

Once you open up the pouch you are greeted by a most beguiling and enticing aroma of sweet liquor and molasses. That, unfortunately is where the good times end with this blend.

It packs easy enough and takes a flame well...a bit too well in fact, oh mate does this blend burn, even when sipping lightly the tobacco is so incendiary you find yourself at the bottom of the bowl in no time at all, this is where sipping comes in, because if you don't you'll get the worse tongue bite of your life.

The blend boasts 14 different tobaccos contained within but good luck tasting and identifying any of them, the flavour is incredibly flat, even retrohaling won't yield any substantial flavours.

At the end of the bowl you're left with a tingly tongue, a sense of disappointment and buyer's remorse...but hey, at least your room smells faintly nice!

A pleasant room note does not a good tobacco make, it's almost like a non-smoker created a blend that they would enjoy from an audience point of view. You'd be better off buying a much better blend and a cheap candle from Poundland to compensate for the room note. Seriously, give this one a miss, it's really not worth it.

I live in the UK so when I first began pipe smoking I just had to try this classic. No matter what I did with it I couldn't take to it at all. The aroma was the only thing that had any appeal, and I found that as a novice I was prone to have difficulty in packing the very long strands into the pipe. A seasoned veteran pipe smoker suggested that I do as he did and mix it 50/50 with Condor ready rubbed. This had the effect of me abandoning it completely as I simply couldn't get the resulting concoction to burn properly.

I would say that, contrary to popular belief, this may be a tobacco for an experienced pipe smoker who knows how to fill and smoke a pipe properly. My early experiences of it were very negative, and I have never smoked it for over 30 years.

It obviously has a lot of appeal as it's still on sale in every other tobacco outlet in the UK. In Scotland the shops aren't allowed to put any tobacco products on display, so I now buy all my tobacco online. Pipe smoking is definitely no longer in fashion in the UK, and standing asking a young shop assistant whether they stock various pipe tobaccos, because you cannot see them on display, is sure to upset the younger element in the queue behind you waiting to buy their favourite cigarette rolling tobacco. Most of them cannot afford "real" cigarettes.

Sorry, went off the topic there. In short, I would say that everybody should try this mixture, and those who can identify 3 of the 14 tobaccos in the mixture should be offered a prize. Air freshener sprays are cheaper in the UK than this aromatic tobacco, and won't burn the bowl out of your pipe.

I am trying to come up with a way to describe the pouch aroma, but i fail. It is of undefined sweetness, some alcoholic hint and some spiciness.

Packing and lighting are easy and pretty much the only good thing to say about it, is its excellent and fast burning properties. But as has been said so many times, it burns hot, hot, hot. That becomes better when you do recondition the always dry contents.

Taste is sweet, and spicy, with some slight alcohol note. And believe it or not, you will get plenty of tobacco taste as well.

It does not has as much of a tongue burn but it literally rips your tongue apart. Think brushing your tongue with sandpaper, that is pretty much the experience traditionally offered by Clan. Again, something that gets better if you humidify the tobacco to a proper condition. But it still will just torture you no matter what you do.

If you do not know the history of this blend then all you need to know is that it was made up to get rid of all the scraps that where produced when making other blends. That's no joke either, an ex-employee of Niemeyer confirmed that, so here is your answer to that question. And also the answer as to why its still in production.

Room note is of some heavy sweetness and its gotten better with its current incarnation. But you still either like it or not, there is no middle ground as it seems.

Do i recommend this blend? Well, that depends. I *do* recommend this blend because in all its inferiority it still *is* a true need to know tobacco. But for its plain evilness i do *not* recommend this tobacco to anyone. So, in the end you have to make up your mind on your own ....