Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) Half & Half

Unpretentious tobacco, simple, easy, quite smooth. Burley and Virginia flavored with artificial (not natural) essences. Not a strong casing but a mild to medium flavoring (you can taste the tobacco too). Don’t think to have a great tobacco and don’t think to have a trash. Simply average tobacco. Two stars, that’s all!

It was a matter of time that I tried the whole OTC thing- a long time at that. To think that I spent the better part of a decade in a smoke shop without hardly sampling anything of the ilk is sort of funny; I was always yanking down those jars of Peter Stokkebye which, after a while often failed to give me what I was looking for until I began to try my hand at creating my own blend. But the other aspect keeping me from getting there was the knowledge that anything in a pouch was sure to be dry as a bone; pipe smoking customers were few and far between, and when they did come, they were not looking for the OTC products.

As a teen I know I tried pouches of god knows what with a buddy or two, only to have the corn cob fall apart and suffer some bad tongue bite. But here it is nearly 20 years that I began to smoke a pipe in earnest and still know nothing at all about what Prince Albert is- or was.

See, a certain well-known tobacco marketer (which will go nameless here) has gone and put out a line of variations on OTC blends- the usual mostly burley concoctions. Having a great appreciation for this company's blends, I've been thinking about pulling the trigger on a canister, but knowing myself well enough I thought I should first go out and do the genuine OTC thing first- before I got myself in trouble buying 14 ounces of something stinky not at all to my liking.

So finally- I stopped at a shop and bought a pouch. The young clerk had to point me in the direction I needed to go, and there wasn't much there- mostly cig tobaccos. But there was H&H, looking traditional. The clerk said nothing when I told him I'd never tried it but was a pipe-smoking vet. He didn't even grunt as he rang me up.

Once home, I grabbed my thick-walled no-name black Italian sitter and filled it. I knew I wasn't going to be doing somersaults of joy, but what I found was something smokeable- with some undefinable flavor. It wasn't real love, but it wasn't bad. Having a slightly contrarian nature and being a full fledged adult used to things sometimes initially unpleasant , I chuckled to myself as I fired up the screen and read the ugly reviews. I'd not looked at any reviews of H&H- at least not lately- I knew what I was going to find was cocked eyebrows and unmitigated scorn. And so it was.

Not once did I feel the need to ditch my bowl, and it never did get truly nasty on me. I stopped smoking when hunger took over, and when I looked later at the dottle I found little of anything left- knowing I'd stopped smoking at just the right time by some strange chance. I'll give the detractors one concession- H&H burns hot fired up like an old steam locomotive ready to jump the tracks in a fury of combustion.

The next night I used my antique Drury Lane sitter from London. The walls of the bowl are like Fort Knox or the Pentagon. I reclined on my couch and read, not paying too much attention to the fire under my nose- but this time was more pleasant than my first try. That time I noticed the nicotine a little more, but it's not considerable.

I'm glad I've tried H&H. It'll never be a go-to for me, but something a little more modern and refined might be. After all, there is zero Orientals, Latakia or Perique in it- so how wonderful could it be? Burley as an element is still a little new for me when its there in strength. As a lover of the past though- I went there, and found it none so cautionary as modern critics might have it. My guess is that H&H has been reincarnated more times than once, though.

To those "modernes" who find this so horrid- I might ask if its that bad, you'd never have gotten habituated to a pipe to begin with if things like this were basically all there was? Really?

H&H is smokable, that gets it a 2 star rating on this scale. That is really the best that can be said for half and Half. Looks good in the pouch, smells OK, packs and light really well. Upon puff #1 I wasn't impressed and this weed didn't impress me upon finishing the bowl or the pouch. Weak flavor, weak nicotine, and burns a little hot. NEXT.

UPDATE 4/8/2015: Scraped the bowl and salt treated my Peterson System 315 for two days and I can still faintly detect the ghost of Half & Half.

My late grandfather smoked this, and I remember being at the grocery store with my mom or dad, and we would buy him some when he would visit. I buy it every so often because of him. My guess is that he liked it because of the anise-like flavor. Half & Half certainly conjures the anise of Italian cookies and anisette that were more than familiar to our family of Italian heritage. It is not a go-to blend, but I do enjoy it somewhat. What I don't enjoy is how it ghosts a briar pipe, especially a Peterson System. It lingers and it relentlessly finds its way into subsequent bowls of different blends, no matter how hearty. IMHO, this should be enjoyed in a cob dedicated to Half & Half. Doing so will save you a lot of frustration.

To me, this blend is very different than the other classic American burley blends. The licorice or anise topping is very noticeable in pouch note, room note, and flavor. I do not understand how smokers cannot taste the topping in this. It does work well with the tobacco, and the classic burley nuttiness is never masked. I am sure the virginias add sweetness to the blend, but they are a bit hard to detect beneath the topping and the burly.

This is not a bad smoke by any means, most drug store tobaccos are quite good. It has a nice simple flavor and is very enjoyable. The topping leaves a sort of fresh or cool feeling in the mouth that is reminiscent of menthol cigarettes, although much less intense, and lacking the menthol flavor. Also, unlike Prince Albert, Carter Hall, Sir Walter Raleigh, it is pretty moist in the pouch and can use a bit of drying out.

Personally I prefer Carter Hall but to each their own. This stuff is not half bad.

2 stars for excellent burning qualities and no tongue bite. I just couldn't get behind the flavoring they used, but I could see how some could.

Just ok, I would smoke this if I had nothing else. I did detect some chemical notes, but nothing unusual. Just figured I would give it a shot.

I tried some Half & Half a while back, and while I couldn't find anything wrong with it, I really could find much to write home about either. I am now in the process of re-discovering this blend, and I like it more and more with each bowl. It packs and lights easily, and I have no trouble keeping it lit all the way through. It's flavor is interesting, and while it doesn't compare with CH, it's still better the PA or SWR. They bore me to death! The room note has gotten several favorable comments, and that's always nice. Doesn't bite at all, and as far as OTCs are concerned, I think it'll be my first choice behind CH. Quite nice!

Half and Half is about as simple as they come. Burley and Virginia with an anise casing. To me it has a plain jane Virginia forward taste to it, almost like a cigarette tobacco. The anise flavor fades as the bowl progresses. It started scorching hell out of my tongue, so I avoid this stuff from now on. I had about a third of a tin that ended up in the trash.