Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) Five Brothers

The tobacco smoked in all those clay pipes in colonial times was strictly and exclusively Virginia tobacco, the only tobacco then known in the Western world.

Burley was introduced in the mid 19th Century, at about the same time that the British discovered "Oriental" tobaccos. When the Dutch found that burley admitted flavourings more easily than any other tobacco, they learnt to blend with it, and burley found a place in Continental Europe. But cased pipe tobacco was illegal in Great Britain until 1986, so there was never much call for it there and Burley never caught on in England, or throughout the British Empire and Zones of Influence. Thus, the shag that Sherlock Holmes is said to have smoked was certainly not Burley shag!

Most of the tobacco smoked thoughout the world before, or indeed after, World World I was certainly not burley, but Virginia.

FIVE BROTHERS is pure dark-cured burley, and thus quintessentially American. This type of burley is usually used to give body to certain blends. Smoked alone, it is potent. I like it. I never smoke it, because you can't find it in New York. In a corn cob it does not taste harsh, and since corn cobs are small...Try it with some Tennessee sipping whiskey why don't you. Boccato di cardinale!

The least expensive pipe tobacco i've come across, and now I can see why. Very fine cut left the tobacco almost cunchy in the pouch making it difficult to light ...but once the fuse is lit its a nicotine bomb. If you consider ''taste'' a frill...this might be for you.

If you like gourmet tobacco flavored with such things as dandelions, butterscotch and candy canes then move on ,this is not a tobacco for you!

If you like John Wayne movies and eat rare steak with nothing but salt and pepper. If you like to drive cars (or even better trucks) with carburetors and no computers. If you think the only flavoring you should put in a cup of Joe is George Dickel. Then this might be up your alley. Straight up strong Burley that taste like tobacco (gasp!) Toasty,nutty and a nice pepper spice hit. Put on you big boy pants and wait to get hit with a glorious nicotine punch. I have smoked stronger though(Mammoth Cave Twist and D&R Picayune come to top of mind). I do like too hydrate it some to slow down the burning process so i can enjoy the goodness of the tobacco longer. I like to hand roll it as well when i need a quick smoke break and don't want to hassle with a pipe. Although i don't smoke this all day long i will certainly smoke 3 -5 bowls a day ,if i have it.

If you have ever wondered what your great grandfathers likely smoked then this is about as close as you are gonna get by today's tobacco's. Thankfully my local tobacco store started carrying 5 Brothers and i don't have to order it online. My only complaint is it does not come in a bigger pouch or a tub.

Five Brothers, the pride of the string cut tobaccos, the stuff of legends. For smoking or chewing; that alone should be the first indication that this brand is not for the faiint of heart. Five Bros is another one of those brands that I rememeber from my years growing up in Philadelphia. It was sold in a brown paper cylinder with a clay pipe in red and black and the mark of the John Finzer Company. It is now sold in a foil pouch, but still as exciting.

This was, and is, a string cut, or shag, largely from bottom leaves. Also known as "bird's eye" because of the method of cutting keeps stems in with the tobacco. See the Sherlock Holmes stories for the descriptions of shag tobacco. If moist and fresh, it can almost be smokable; not fragrant and flavorful, but smokable. If dry, it is Satan's blow torch.

Assuming that the pouch you obtain is fresh, you will find that the tobacco leaves the pouch in long strands, packing easily with just that spring in the bowl. I prefer a smaller bowl, perhaps a cob or clay, a meerschaum will also work well. The first light or two is sufficient to bring large blue-gray clouds in the room. That's a tobacco aroma, bitter and full. Five Bros has a characteristic nicotine "kick" that appears about 1/4 into the bowl, discernible but not overwhelming. By the 1/2 of the bowl. you may develop a tightness in the chest which will pass, leaving you w/ hiccups. Sipping water or coffee while smoking alleviates this sensation. 3/4 bowl and the full effect comes into play. You are now fully aware that you have been smoking a real tobacco. The mouth may be dry, or drier than you've become used to, your clothes are now imbued with the tobacco aroma, and the bowl is left with fine white/gray ash. This is what smoking was really like before WWI, which is why so many of the early 20th century pipes had smaller bowls.

AS said, not for the frail or the weak- intentioned. I could never smoke more than two bowls a day of this tobacco, and certainly never consecutively. It is, however, great to rescue pipes that have had crummy aromatics smoked in them.

Others in this family of high nicotine string cuts were Honest, Ivanhoe, Cutty Pipe, and Penn's Best. I have smoked them all and I cannot recommend them to any but experienced smokers because of their burn and noxious qualities.

Five Brothers is not for the weak of heart and most definitely not for those sensitive to nicotine. It has a nicotine kick as strong as any pipe tobacco I have tried, and that is something over five hundred.

A fine shag cut burley, Five Brothers burns fast and very hot. Slow down your puffing cadence and it still burns fast and very hot.

The room note is not that bad, similar to a non filtered cigarette (which is quite different from the bitter smell of the tobacco in filtered brands).

Burley is virtually tasteless without some sort of flavoring, so I have given it a flavoring rating. My taste rating of mild to medium does not indicate a particular flavor, but takes cognizance of the fact that when you smoke this you know you are smoking.

Although a tobacco in the cheaper price range, this is not quite so thrifty as it first appears, for the pouch is only one and a quarter ounces.

Five Brothers is a tough go for me when smoked straight. It does have a use. This tobacco is a versatile mixer. If you find a latakia blend overly stout in that weed, or an aromatic that is overly flavored for your taste, mix it with this and it will be notably toned down while maintaining much the same flavor profile. If you find a particular tobacco that is hard to light and/or keep lit, a hearty dose of Five Brothers will solve the problem and the flavor will remain in the same ballpark as before. But this does not move Five Brothers to a "somewhat recommended" rating from me. Why? There are other burleys on the cheaper price scale that do this job even better, Prince Albert in particular.

As I smoked most of this pouch as a mixer, I used a multitude of different pipes, going from Dr. Grabows to Dunhills.

This is one of those love it or hate it blends. I love it, and I will tell you why.

First off, some people say this is just a RYO masquerading as a pipe baccy. This is not true. I roll my own and I've tried several RYO brands and rolled this as a cigarette. It is a league of its own. If you're trying to get off the coughin' nails this is the blend to put in your pipe.

Packing this blend takes some practice. Pack it harder than you normally would and once she's lit tamp her frequently. Other reviewers have used the analogy of lighting a fuse. I think this is right on, once she's lit, you'll have a hard time getting it to go out unless you don't tamp her good. Once the fuse is lit... Get ready! This is not for those who can't take much vitamin N because she slaps you hard and makes you like it!

Some people may not like the taste, but I love the rich nuttiness. It's full, real baccy taste. Like a saucy redheaded high school sweetheart, take this slow or she will bite hard! But if you sip it and give it the respect it deserves, you will be rewarded with a nice nic hit and a pleasant, nutty hay baccy for those of us who don't like aros.

This blend is not for everyone, and not liking it doesn't make you any less of a man. However, I think it's a good idea to keep a pouch of this around. It's a great mixer to give dull blends an extra punch, and it's nice for getting a nic hit when you want it but don't want to buy a pack. If you're curious about burley, I reccomend this. You will know right away if burley is for you.

Don't get me wrong, this stuff is a one trick pony. But it does it's trick so well. If you are looking for a strong flavored and heavy hitting baccy and don't feel like messing with ropes or twists, keep this in your rotation. It's so affordable, there's little reason not to.

This is definitely an unusual blend. I received this as my free sampler from Lane a while back. It comes extremely dry as has been mentioned in the many reviews, but burns fine, if not, too fast. There is some nice burley flavor in this one. I have used it on occasion for blending, but I prefer Carter Hall in this role over Five Brothers.

This blend is very similar to a tobacco that my buddy's FIL smokes called Thuoc Lao. It is uncanny how closely it resembles in cut, texture and strength. The flavor is not that different either, but I prefer Five Brothers to that one. The Vietnamese typically only smoke that tobacco with water pipes due to its strength.

I like this blend and think it pretty good for the price, but the only thing that really differentiates this from the other famous OTC's such as SWR and CH in a positive direction is the heavy nicotine hit. I, personally, would rather stock my cellar with some C & D burleys that would be comparable in strength and inexpensive in bulk.

As for taste, I prefer SWR and Carter Hall and many other burleys to this. Don't get me wrong, I found nothing repulsive in its taste. I just prefer the other two of its contemporaries. I also don't like how fast it burns, something the other two don't do. So I do somewhat recommend this blend, but can't go with three stars due to the above reasoning.

Five Brothers looks, smokes, smells, and tastes like a throwback to an earlier time. Men smoked?sometimes they smoked pipes, sometimes they rolled cigarettes. However they chose to smoke, the plain Burley which is Five Brothers was there for them. I rolled a whole lot of cigarettes during my post-secondary poverty years and these Brothers would have been right at home hanging out with my bandmates from back then--Drum, Bugler--and chatting up my Euro-trash girlfriend, Amsterdam Shag.

Trouble is, the fine shag cut of Five Brothers, the neutral flavor, the insanely fast burn?I doubt many recent converts to the pipe will find these things appealing. Frankly, I suspect many won?t even recognize this stuff as pipe tobacco now that the division of labor between pipe tobacco and RYO stuff is pretty much complete.

The praise this stuff gets is way out of whack with its quality, but I suppose we?ll be mired in a Burleyphilic, cheap-is-good-because-the-future-is-uncertain phase at least until housing prices rise. Heck, maybe it?ll drive down the prices for genuinely good Burleys like Solani?s Aged Burley Flake. Now that would be something to celebrate.

I?ll probably trot this stuff out once in a while to use as kindling for Barbary Coast and other unhappy burners. And if ever I come home to find all my pipes have disappeared?well, if there?s one thing I can easily borrow in my neighborhood, it?s a pack of rolling papers.

For a guy who needs to hammer a bowl of Granger with a half can of Cope in each cheek to properly elevate my serum nicotine level, I can tell you that this is a rip-your-head-off nickel buzz machine of the first order. Everything about this weed is STRONG. I'm wondering when these blinking lights are going to stop. Its what I imagine being trapped on a tilt-a-whirl for an hour would be like. Strap on your big boy pants before you fire this one up! Its burley on steroids - or maybe methamphetamine.