Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) Half & Half

I really wanted to like this blend. I went to 3 different smoke shops to pick up a pack of this classic. It's easy to see by reading all the reviews here that there are a bunch of folks who really like this one, but it's not for me. The smoke had a foul taste that sort of turned my stomach. I won't be trying another bowl. Not recommended.

A curious, paradoxical tobacco. It smokes a little too wet for my liking but the real enigma is the difference between the start of the bowl and the mid to end point. After running out of a couple of my favourite blends, a freind gave me a pouch of H&H. I was delighted with its near aromatic properties at the start, but it turned mightily sour and bitter from around the half way mark. For a minute I thought that some foreign body had crept into my pipe! However, repeated smokes only offered the same result, a shame because I would have otherwise considered H&H an excellent stand-by blend .

I smoked Half and Half when I started out with pipes about a year ago. I really liked it a lot. Plus it's readily available everywhere, and is inexpensive.

I'm honestly not trying to be a tobacco snob -really I'm not, but when I went back to H&H after trying some high end tobaccos I noticed a very unpleasant melted plastic flavor that I hadn't noticed before. That was the end of H&H for me.

I packed this with much care about airflow. NO matter how tight i packed it, half and half had excellent airflow. And Tasted great. Kinda hard to get burning but burned rather well.

Taste wise it varied from a hay/alfalfa taste from the virginias, with a wonderful nutty burley almost like the first bowl of prince albert in a brand new pipe, with a nice minty taste. The taste came in that order the whole smoke. The flavor would change right at the moment i almost found myself getting tired with the current taste.

THe pouch smells like wet alfalfa with poultry seasoning. The tobacco is rather moist for a straight up non aromatic as this is. THe mint is a rather light topping. Just wish the flavors of the tobacco could meld together more with the mint.

OVerall a GREAT smoke. I will be keeping this. The virginia is wodnerful, a little more nicotine then i care for, but it oly did light nipping on my tongue. I smoked it in my latakia/perique pipe and half and half covered up the fox and hound perfectly. Cant even smel the latakia or perique in the pipe now. SO this is an interesting blend.

My friend John, a pilot with the RAF in the Second World War, once described Half & Half, rather contemptuously, as "What the AMERICANS smoked." John did not have much respect for this blend. Truth be told, it is not subtle, not nuanced, not refined, not sophisticated, not elegant, and by no means given to poetic raptures. It is, however, always on my tobacco shelf. Simple it may be, but, after exploring the world of virginias, stoved virginias, latakias, oriental mixtures, Half & Half is a welcome return to simplicity. Furthermore, I have tried many, many different tobaccos with mouth-watering tin descriptions that left me wondering to which the descriptions were referring, for they were certainly not referring to the contents.

Good golly, Half & Half just tastes good to me, and I'll keep it around.

Cheers to you all!

I picked up a pouch of Half & Half fairly early on in my pipesmoking career, at the recommendation of a co-worker who had served in the army with a fellow who smoked it. What can I say, I'm a sucker for a good story.

Poor decision making methods aside, I found Half & Half to be fairly reasonable stuff. I took to smoking it fairly frequently, and it served me well in my transition from cigarettes into pipe smoking. It didn't bite noticably, and was fairly easy for my inexperienced hand to pack into my cob. I would definately recommend Half & Half to another cigarette-turned-pipe smoker, especially over a cased tobacco.

I still occasionally pick up a pouch at the grocery store when I'm feeling in the mood for something pleasant, but not overpoweringly flavory, to hit my nicotine fix.

Half & Half - Oh how I wanted to like this. It would be great to find a blend and brand that you can pick up just about anywhere for a low cost. I'm sorry but this is ghastly stuff. I nearly gaged from the tin aroma and that aroma stayed with me throughout the smoke. A lot of effort went into trying to like this one. I truly wanted to become somewhat of an "old school" smoker...one of those guys who just doesn't like real expensive stuff but I guess I am just ruined. Ick!

Selecting a pipe tobacco is clearly a matter of personal taste. (After all, it would be pretty silly to ask anyone other than a child "What's the best color?")

I've been smoking H&H for roughly 45 years -- and exclusively H&H since L.L. Bean ceased producing they're wonderful pipe tobacco. At the rate of about 20 bowls per day, I personally find H&H not only a wonderful smoke, but one that doesn't wear on me. At least as far as I can tell, the flavor has remained pretty consistent and the only significant change is that, somehow, they removed some of the "bite" that I used to get early in the day.

This ain't your pappy's Half & Half. One of the joys of sitting at my grandfather's knee as he puffed on his H&H was the tremendous aroma of both the tin and the smoke. Sort of like flavored wood chips. Sensual and warming. Nothing else smelled like H&H. Well, as you will read here and elsewhere, H&H has changed over the years. I recently tried a pouch and found that it has no distinguishing aroma at all, and flavorwise, smoking it is not unlike smoking a cigarette through a very strong filter. Although it lights and burns like a good tobacco should, I find nothing here to recommend it. Only my Scot heritage demands that I finish this one and only pouch as alas, my memories of this blend are all pipe dreams.***An Update: I found a use for this baccy: I mixed it (half and half) with Solani Green Blend to cut the over-the-top Apple flavor. I ended up with not-too-bad a smoke. So, instead of throwing out two dreaded tobaccos, I have a blend I can enjoy.