Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) Sir Walter Raleigh

My cobs have been working overtime lately; for some reason I decided to launch into a mini-tour of drug store blends. I'll start off by saying SWR is not a bad smoke. Compared to PA, SWR shares a bit of that burley chocolate smell in the pouch, although SWR is less sweet, more like bitter cocoa. There's also a note I can't quite put my finger on. Something like a little bit of mint? Cut green wood? I don't know. The cut of SWR is unique, very fine. PA is fine cut as well, but still retains a bit of tuftiness. SWR is just dry, chunky bits of burley kibble. Loading a bowl of this is less packing than pouring. Also unlike PA, there doesn't appear too much added in the way of humectant. The smoke is very mild and tastes almost exactly like it smells. Not a lot of flavor. People throw around the term 'all-day-smoke,' but I think this is a blend you probably actually could smoke for five hours straight and barely notice (flavor-wise, not necessarily nic-wise). If you want to really enjoy a pipe, there are better blends. If you just want to smoke, SWR is a very serviceable background kind of blend. Personally I prefer PA (between the two) and find it more satisfying in the flavor department, but there's certainly nothing wrong with SWR. Indeed I can see why some people might prefer SWR because it seems to be more additive-free. I probably won't buy another pouch unless the whim strikes me or it's the only thing available. It could be used as a blender, but even then I'd probably prefer PA, as PA just has more burley flavor and I like a little more moisture in my blenders (I keep my 'good' tobacco on the dry side). As a final note I'll observe that this was the absolute cheapest pipe tobacco available at my local smoke shop, even cheaper than the Dream Castle generic cherry-bombs (which I will *not* be visiting during my OTC tour 🙂 ).

Picked this up as a cheaper tobacco to smoke with the guys while having a drink. As a newcomer to pipe smoking, it's a good blend to smoke casually. The sweetness is a bit off-putting at first but now that I'm nearing the bottom of the pouch it's a pleasant thing to come back to. It needed some airing to smoke well but there were few problems with burning out or burning too hot in a well-packed pipe. Not a bad blend to pick up if you're low on money or need something to smoke quick and enjoy on a car ride.

I wanted to like this blend because of nostalgia from 45 years ago of my dad's best friend smoking it. The first thing I noticed when I opened a pouch of SWR was the cut of the tobacco. It almost seemed as though it had been finely ground rather than cut. I suppose it was chopped so finely in order to conceal stems and twigs. It tasted exactly like Prince Albert and it had the same room note. There are better blends available at the same price (SWR aro & Carter Hall) so it couldn't be considered a good value even if it is cheap. Still, it is an honest blend with no awful additives, fillers, artificial flavorings, etc so it is worthy of 2 stars.

In my quest for good smokes I always seem to shoot for the esoteric and miss the obvious. While I'm a huge fan of Prince Albert I haven't really looked into codger burleys beyond PA. Being thrifty I got the idea to head by the nearby tobacco stop and see if they had any pipe tobacco at all. They had the typical stuff like PA, SWR, Half & Half and Carter Hall. I picked up a pouch of SWR and Half & Half since I've actually never tried them before. I had a newly acquired estate pipe in hand so I figured why not break it in with SWR. Upon opening the pouch I was greeted with the smell of raisins, figs and an ever so slight rum smell. My wife said it smelled like a "fruity granola bar" which I agree is pretty accurate. It's a pretty chunky cut which I can say I'm ambivalent about. Loading up my new Amphora sandblasted bulldog I gravity filled the pipe with an extra pinch on top and gave it a nice charring light. One more match and I was off to the races. SWR struck me as a nice burley with some of the raisin and rum flavor coming through but not as strong as I suspected. There was some burley nuttiness that I enjoy but not as much as PA. The one detraction was that it can turn bitter if you puff a little too hard or it's a bit windy out but it's quite easily controlled as long as you puff slow and steady. It burned fairly fast and even though this is a pretty large pipe I was done in about 40 to 45 minutes. That can be good or bad depending on time constraints or how much free time you have to burn (pun intended!). If you want something simple, not heavy on nicotine, tasty with some burley nuttiness then SWR will certainly fill the bill. It's not a nicotine or flavor blast and it's quite simple from beginning to end but I truely am admiring simplicity both in life and pipe tobacco. SWR is quite simple but still has much to offer in that simplicity.

As we all know this is a straight burley with some sweetish topping. It is chopped into inconsistently sized pieces and was on the dry side when I purchased the 1.5 oz pouch. Still in the pouch, it smells also of chocolate and slightly of alcohol. Packing and lighting was easy...to keep this lit longer I fill a bowl, false light and tamp and then refill and light...burley flecks burn quickly so this works well. The aroma was very nice...a little sweet and buttery-nutty, no real sour taste on the palate. I'll definitely buy this again since it is on the lighter side of the "topping" spectrum, which I prefer, a nice drug-store blend. I have spent countless hundreds of dollars on high dollar tobacco, been disappointed and found this simple, inexpensive burley eclipses quite a few of them.

I must give this another star. I seem to have written off SWR too quickly on my original review below (which is untouched). I must put it in the same ring as those which I single out in my original review. It is very easy to light and keep lit and is very unpretentious. Simple is sometimes what one needs. I indeed did finish off the small sample that I had and can now recommend it.

Original review: This is the current stop on my trip down OTC lane. I must say that I am not very impressed at all with SWR. Thankfully, I only have a 2 ounce purchase to deal with. The only plus of this blend is that it is a cheap blend and I really can see why it is priced as low as it is. This may indeed end up in the trash bin very shortly. I don't really detect any real taste with this blend at all. I really can't see what all the postive reviewers see in this at all. I find Carter Hall, Prince Albert and a couple of the Captain Black blends far superior in taste and overall quality. I won't be buying this again.

My dad was a pipe smoker and SWR was his favorite blend. I guess that's why I wanted to like it so much. But either the recipe has changed over the years or my memories are clouded by my nostalgia. Not entirely bad and I can understand why some people smoke it. It's just that for me, there are better burley blends available.

Echoing the review immediately below, I am fairly ambivalent concerning SWR. As I usually tend to the English side of the tobacco spectrum, this is not a surprise. However in terms of making recommendations I am learning that it is difficult to rate a blend for others to reference as this is such a subjective measure. I'd probably rate this higher if blends of this type were my normal cup of tea. Actually I did like it better than the Edgeworth blend which was decidedly boring and one-dimensional to me. This was a tab more tasty and was the blend I used to wean myself off of cigarettes. I tried a bowl yesterday to renew my impressions and will most likely keep what I have left in the pouch as a rainy day backup. In other words...it's not that bad.

This is simply a cased burley cube cut type tobacco that has many loyal, devoted fans. Personally, when I desire this type of smoke, I prefer either Granger or Prince Albert. I find SWR kinda boring and I usually can't finish a bowlful. However, I know several people who smoke only this in their Dr. Grabow pipes and would smoke nothing else. As they say, to each their own and that's why their are thouands of tobacco blends.