Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) Sail Cavendish (Sail Aromatic)

Found this one at a gas station in my small town one summer. Turned out this was the favorite blend of the only other pipe smoker that I know of in my town. They kept in on hand for him so I thought I would give it a try. Really found it quite enjoyable. They say it has Latakia in it and I must say I never could single it out, however the blend is very tasty. It has really good tobacco flavor and some sort of a topping that I could never really identify. I probably smoked three packages of it before I needed a change and now they don?t carry it anymore. Seems my other pipe smoking friend in town kicked the habit (due to his wife?s complaining!) Would certainly like to try the yellow if I ever run across it.

Everyone has a certain tobacco that they judge a touch less harshly than all the rest, be it due to a pleasant experience, memory , et al. Green Sail occupies that place for me. It looks odd in company of my old, strong tobaccos, rather like the pizza delivery boy in the biker bar. Its flavour is mild, smoke is gentle and aroma is unique. I like a bowl of it now and then, when my palate has had Latakia overload, or rubbing out isn't so appealing. I suppose the reasons I have kept it around over the years are twofold: its plainess is unobtrusive and when the thought police kick in my door this is most likely the one tabak they'll overlook...

I have had pretty bad experiences with drugstore brands. I once bought a pouch of Backwoods; a soggy heavily cased tobacco that will ruin any pipe, quite an unpleasant experience. I tried Amphora original and it tasted and smelled like cigarettes with a nasty bite. So I abandoned this variety and moved on to enjoy the higher quality brands, particularly english and balkan blends.

Recently however, my curiosity lead me to purchase a pouch of Sail Aromatic (Green Pouch)And to my surprise, this stuff was quite good. It had a perfect moisture level and burned nicely. When I oppened the pouch, the first aroma that hit me was of anise. As it cleared, the scent seemed to be mostly of chocolate and raisins, Glosette Raisinettes Candy? The taste resembled the aroma with a little musky nuttiness. The room note is pleasant and not overwhelming. Oh and did I mention that it's inexpensive?

I think I will turn to this when I'm in the mood for something a little sweet, or if my favorites are running low.

Update 26/12/02: Well, after 20 bowl fulls or so, my opinion of this tobacco has changed. I find it to be very bland and boring, kinda like smoking paper. I can also sense a chemical like bitter taste that tends to linger after a smoke session, possibly from the humectants. No more OTC tobacco for me.

It's fun to be able to just walk into a grocery store and buy pipe tobacco, isn't it? Don't think I don't relish the exotica of modern pipe smoking, which seems half gourmandizing and half espionage, but buying tobacco with no more effort than a stroll to the corner store is a real treat. Sail Green is not the world's best tobacco--it bites some and the taste, a sort of dusky nuttiness, probably isn't for everyone. But this tobacco is cut well, it won't gum up your pipe, and it smells good to people around you. It's also a bargain, compared against your average fifty-gram tin of perfection. I like the taste, and find this to be a pretty good working tobacco--unobtrusive yet flavorful, and tolerant of careless technique. It's also mild enough that you can smoke it any time, whether or not you've eaten. For those of us who live on deadline, and who often wake to tea and tobacco and an urgent need to write 2000 words before a decent breakfast, easiness on the stomach is a great and good thing. As with any aromatic, I wouldn't smoke this in your best flake pipe, but that caveat aside, I like this stuff and am usually happy to smoke it.

The pouch aroma is very pleasant. That Dutch Cavendish aroma.

The tobacco is soft when smoked, but I found it to be tasteless. Just nothing there except for hot air. Very disappointing.

Perhaps I got a bum pouch, as JimInks noted. In any case, I just can't recommend this.

According to the pouch this is made in Denmark by Orlik. Its a coarse cut tobacco with what I perceive is a very mild vanilla scent in the pouch. In the pouch it is quite damp and its easy to clump the tobacco in your hand. In fact when I opened the pouch I had to literally separate the 50g chunk into its coarse shreds just so I could pack my pipe. The majority of the tobacco is Burley with a few bits of dark Virginia. I don't see any orientals nor Latakia. But what I do see is quality.

My first mistake was not allowing the tobacco time to air out and dry up a bit. In my haste to try this blend I went straight from pouch to pipe......it lit easily enough but the last quarter of a bowl would not burn...it was just too wet and I knew it from how smooth it was to smoke to upon reaching the quarter bowl the smoke became a harsh steamy draw.

My second mistake was using a Brylon straight Yello-Bole. This tobacco burns hot, though the smoke drawn was mellow and relatively cool, and surprise, surprise, fairly dry. But burning such a moist bakkie in a straight pipe is just a no-no....all that gurgle and moisture end up in the mouth really fast near that quarter full mark.

I let it breathe and dry out for 6 hours and loaded my favorite full bent Briar. Lit easily and stayed lit with occasional light tamping. The draw fills the mouth with a very mild and dry smoke which I find tastes of nothing, but I don't usually taste anything with just about everything.

This, in my opinion is not an aromatic at all compared to a black Cavendish C.B. Royal. But as I understand it, Europeans view the term aromatic somewhat differently than North Americans.

The room note is not offensive but don't expect sweet odors...to me it simply smells like mild tobacco note with perhaps just a mild wisp of vanilla. My wife thinks it smells great.....its one of her top ten favorite smokes as well....yeah she also smokes pipe.

What I like the most about this blend is how smooth and mild it is. I found no tongue bite and I'm a fairly heavy puffer. I could smoke this stuff all day....and I do except for when I want nice odors where I reach for my C.B. Royal, and at the end of my day when I always reach for my Blatter & Blatter Mild English.

If you like a really mild smooth smoke like I do, you have to give this one a go. Just don't expect much and you'll be rewarded with nice smooth ride. Just be sure to let it dry out first or you'll be very unhappy.

I guess I love this tobacco for what it doesn't have...tongue bite and a rancid room note. Beginners especially should give this a try.

A nice mild aromatic tobacco. Nice once and a while, but I got tired of it easy. Ill recommend it but would choose other readily available ones over this one. Would not recommend for aromatic smokers as the room note is poor.

I picked this up based on the many positive reviews. I didn't really care for it. Not sure why. For a drug store tobacco it's made with quality leaf. I've tried other Danish blends and didn't like them either. It's probably me. That's why I still somewhat recommend it. It's not bad tobacco and a lot of people seem to like it. It's just not my cup of tea.

Definately, anise is the major flavouring component. My experience was that it was pretty cool-burning.Not a very full-flavoured tobacco. I DO recall seeing Sail Green pouches as a kid in the late '70s-early '80s. BTW: I enjoyed it smoked in a homebrew corncob/delphinium stem pipe (try this!), in addition to my usual briars and mini meersch.