Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) Clan Aromatic (Original)

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.

This new Orlik version of CLAN is much different and much better than the original one, it is a ribbon cut blend, (no more shag), has a good, fresh quality tobacco flavor and it is less aromatic than the old version, mild and uncomplicated all day smoke. one of the best OTC tobacco pouch.

I’m emotionally bounded to this tobacco, so I fear I can’t be as objective as I’d like to in reviewing it but, isn’t pipe smoking all a matter of personal enjoyment in the end? If a blend has a personal story/meaning to you, can you leave aside all the aspects and the factors not directly attributable to the blend itself and enjoy the smoking at the same time? I surely cannot.

The same summer I broke into pipe smoking I had a chat with my neighbor, an 83yo Alpino (Alpini are an Italian mountain warfare corps, literally “the alpines”), pipe smoker from a long time, a man from another époque, really.

“Where do you buy your pipe tobacco?” I asked him. This question paved the way for a long, unexpected and very pleasant conversation. He took me into his house, grabbed some old coffee metal tins from a shelf where he uses to store the tobacco, opened them up and let me sniff. He was a smoker of natural Italian blends – mainly Forte and Comune, being also an ex Toscano avid smoker – but, so he told me, after having tried different blends, he finally settled on aromatics. Well, his own aromatic blend, that is to say : half Borkum Riff Whiskey and half Clan. Actually, this not so orthodox (who cares? He damn loves to smoke it!) mixture was given to him by his personal Doctor in exchange of some homemade grappa (typical Italian strong distillate). “Now it’s been years since I’m smoking this, alternating with some straight Clan” he concluded. Eventually he gave me something like 15/20 grams of both the tobaccos in order to try.

After this long but necessary digression, let’s get into a quick overview of this Clan : not being a fan of aromatics, I smoke this blend quite seldom. I always found that the aroma of a freshly opened pouch of this blend is really unique, the flavors (both from the tobacco varieties involved and the from the topping) are nice, and in the nose I mainly get sweet, alcoholic and tangy notes, and I like it.

Overall, it’s a tobacco you can smoke all day long without paying too much attention. The flavor is constantly there, without any sign of evolution or complexity though, and the combustion is uniform. In order to lit the pipe with two matches and forget about any further relighting, I let it dry for an entire day prior smoking. Besides, I recommend not to puff to avidly : it will turn bitter and bite your tongue as a pit bull.

Talking about taste : mainly different shades of sweetness and subtle spiciness that often overcrowds. Yet, it all stays tight together, it’s the same taste at every smoke. A nice, tasty blend I’d suggest for novice pipe smokers who prefers aromatics over others.

I hope the little story foretold may suggest that pipe smoking isn’t just pipe smoking lock-stock-and barrel : it can be an ensemble of things, a “social glue”, or simply a pretext for two or more people who share this passion to get to know each other, sharing anecdotes and experiences, as it was for me.

“I used to go to Switzerland to buy both pipes and tobaccos”, was his answer to my very first question. And the same goes for me nowadays.

Cheers Everyone, Brandr ODS

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 don't get why there are so many negative reviews, maybe because people write before thinking? (Or in this case before smoking the full pouch) I'm not an aromatic smoker so this review is a surprise also to me, but any pipe smoker can't live without trying almost once this tobacco in his life. First of all after the production passed to Orlik something is changed: the cut is no more shag, as I expected, but the usual ribbon cut for pipe tobacco. The colour goes from bright yellow to orange with some black (cavendish or the imperceptible latakia?). The pouch aroma is cavendeish-ish with some liquorous notes. The moisture is just right, not too dry, not too moist, maybe I was just lucky to get a fresh pouch. It burns well, tongue bite is not a problem if you know how to manage it. The flavor is difficult to define, I can compare it to mild virginia cigars with some hint of vanilla sometimes. The taste is somewhat sweet but not overwhelming, which is a point for me, it leaves my mouth clean and not too dry. I can't say anything about room note but other people say it is nice. I prefer it in small or medium sized bowls. Do I recommend it? Absolutely, because it is rare in Italy to find a cheap blend (8€) which is a decent all-day smoke. Unfortunately it is no more the classic Clan, I wish I could try the old Niemeyer version, maybe I would have changed idea about it, but now it's just a good aromatic that can be found anywhere.

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 ....

Well good old Clan...bought a this famous monster of tobacco on my way to work cause left my blend in the hurry on the living room table and the only thing they had at the corner store was Clan.Packed my pipe and primed it.Actually it was it wasn't so bad as I expected it.(last time smoked Clan back in 1992).The aroma is sweet,butterscotch like and some vanilla flavors too.The cut is too think so it burns like hell...so pack your pipe extra carefully and smoke it slowly another wise you'll get nasty bite into tongue and pallet.When I got home I stopped tobacco to a jar with seal and sponge on the lid to make tobacco less fry.Let it stand there for 3 days and burning quality got little better. You can try Clan...perhaps you might like it but I still love my Macbaren Plumcake as a aromatic or to some semi-aromatic.

I think Clan has evolved a lot since its first pouch, nevertheless is still a good product to be for what it cost. You’ve to keep an eye how you charge it and how you smoke it. Clan isn’t a beginer tobacco, in order to taste all his tobacco you have to smoke it very slow. The aroma and the taste are really good a little bit like Toffee, but it vanish over the time leaving space to the real tobacco.

Ok , lots of negative reviews...But wait - do not dismiss this OTC (at least in the UK) classic! If you are looking for an all day smoke , that packs , lights and behaves (without being a one dimensional bore) then this is it. I like English blends, so appreciate the presence of Orientals / Turkish here. As for the 'aromatic' tag... A very light touch in my opinion. Clan Aromatic is not sickly sweet - far from it. Fourteen different tobaccos produce a cool ,complex (but not too challenging) smoke. Fantastic spicy (but cultured) Orientals - adding depth without dominating. Fresh from the pouch, 'quality, moisture, and cut' are right on the money...Talking of which , this is a couple of £'s cheaper than my usual 'Premium' (tinned) blends... An 'emergency' purchase to 'must have' in one fell swoop. Go on, join the Clan.