Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) Sir Walter Raleigh

The first time I tried SWR was in the early 2000s. At that time it was a striped pouch in a box. The tobacco could only be described as granulated with a slight hint of cocoa. I remember shaking the 14oz tub and thinking it sounded like dry oats. After a couple of bowls I found The tobacco was unimpressive at best and I may have been a bit of a novice and a little snobbish so I rolled it up and put it in the back of my tobacco cabinet with the other blends I didn’t care for. Fast forward to 2024- I was doing some cleaning and found it, still preserved in the paper coated foil pouch and figured “what the hell……I’ll light up!” It wasn’t too bad so I ordered a fresh pouch to compare.
The new pouch was super fresh and fragrant with the smell of cocoa, brown sugar and had a sting of acetic acid (vinegar) smell to it. The same sting you get when you stick your nose in a tub of fresh Prince Albert. I looked through the previous reviews here to see if anyone in the past said anything about the smell of vinegar but didn’t find any. Knowing this isn’t an aromatic tobacco I didn’t expect a“1Q” fragrance but I also didn’t expect it to smell like an aged Virginia. I codger packed the first bowl and it was very pleasant, very similar to PA and Grainger. Just a simple burley tobacco. Like all the old American burley blends they do best in warmer weather and I found by the end of the pouch I really like it and should order more. This tobacco won’t necessarily “knock your socks off” but it’s definitely a good companion to your morning coffee or a drive to work. It’s very enjoyable when you want to puff on something when you walk the dog or drown a worm. If you don’t expect a lot from SWR you won’t be disappointed. I have an old pocket tin from the Brown and Williamson days that says “sooner or later -your favorite tobacco” maybe one day he will wear you down too!!

Love the cube cut, loads and burns very well. From a meer, came across as mostly an unflavored burley, a nice change of pace. From a cob, i get some mustiness and a little bit of sweetness and aromatics; kind of reminiscent of old books. From a briar, i get a lot more must and aromatic character. A very strange set of sensations in the vein of leather/old book/grandparents house.

If not for its terrible bite, I'd smoke a lot of this.