Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) Velvet

I find this basic tobacco to be just that - basic Burley. It smokes cool and slow as long as you don't puff like a coal fired locomotive. Nice cut and packs well. My wife doesn't like the room note at all. She says it smells like a cigarette. It's a pleasant enough mild smoke as long as you don't expect too much from it.

My mentor in pipe smoking went through many a can of this blend, so I'm sort of biased for it. It was one of the first tobaccos I ever smoked and it's never left my rotation for long. There is no casing to this blend, and the pouch aroma comes from Velvet's processing and fermenting techniques. Most of the other reviewers hated it- I love the stuff. It's cut in what I call a crimp cut and is one of the easiest blends to pack in a bowl. It can bite a little if you're not careful, but overall it stays fairly cool. It's one of the best tobaccos for building a cake in a new pipe that I've ever found and the odd aroma won't stay in the bowl if you'd like to swap the pipe to another blend. I prefer Velvet as a nice "wake me up" smoke with some strong French Roast. It has enough nicotine to get you going and the taste is mild enough for your first smoke of the day. An excellent OTC blend and a pretty decent burley overall.

My Grandpa on my mother's side was a pipe smoker. His brand was Velvet. More than likely, I was 7-9 years old in the early 1980s when I tried smoking for the first time. I probably puffed one my Grandpa's Dr. Grabow pipes after asking him to try it. I am sure he thought I would hate it, but I liked it. Later, I grabbed an old pipe and some Velvet tobacco from his cabinet and lit up. I must have liked it enough to sneak a pipe smoke in whenever I visited his house. He died when I was 13. I became a cigarette smoker in my early teens and rarely revisited pipes until recently. I have not had a cigarette in over 6 years having vaped in that time with some occasional pipe and cigar use.

My childhood taste buds must have been different as I cannot stand Velvet now. Maybe the recipe has changed since the early 1980s. It has too much of a cheap liquor taste to it. It almost gives you tongue bite when taking it easy, and it will definitely give you tongue bite if you smoke faster than that.

I must confess that I am a burleyphile at heart. This is not to say that I only smoke burleys ... as I do enjoy a myriad of tobacco blends. Nevertheless, when I'm in the mood for a no nonsense, smooth, and nutty tobacco taste ... I'll reach for a burley. I've smoked quite a few codger burley blends in my day (e.g. Carter Hall, Prince Albert, Sir Walter Raleigh, Half & Half) and still do ... but for some unknown reason I've put off trying Velvet. Perhaps because like so many pipers I've gotten caught up in that whirlwind of trying many of the so-called "boutique blends". Oh well, so many tobaccos ... so little time! I recently saw a Youtube video by the "artful codger" who did a great job of sharing the history of this long time blend. It piqued my interest and I decided to pick up a pouch and give it a try ... and I'm glad that I did. This blend reminds me a lot of Carter Hall ... yet it's still slightly different ... perhaps even smoother and nuttier ... just what I like & expect from a burley blend. That's saying a lot for me as I really like Carter Hall (it's been my go to burley smoke for many years). So now I understand why Velvet has withstood the test of time. I notice that many other reviewers on here don't necessarily share my sentiment, but that's OK. If this isn't your cup of tea there's plenty of other blends out there to give a whirl. By the way, burley's smoked in a cob pipe seem to make a perfect pair ... just like baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet !

Velvet... more like corduroy, here's why: Its smooth, but there are ridges of flavor that appear during the smoke if you vary your technique. Slow short sips get me sweetened fig/prunes. Retrohale gets me the burley, also sweetened. Longer easy sips show the liquor, though I cant decipher which one. Hard and fast starts to show the otherwise completely absent cigarette taste that others describe. Nasal inhale presents a prune juice punch-like flavor to me. Also, you can just mindlessly smoke it nice and easy for a simple good taste while you are otherwise occupied. This is a good codger to cut your teeth on, but also one to enjoy anytime. It's not my favorite one, but I'm finding its merits very quickly. A must-try for sure if you like this type of tobacco.

As one would expect a nice mild Burley. Nothing that really stands out, in either a good or bad way. Smokes easy, packs easy. The moisture out of the tub is perfect by my tastes. I find myself agreeing with the average score I see here as I type..2.3 stars is about right.

It's a pretty run of the mill smoke. For such an average smoke I've sure burnt through quite a few tubs though! Due to that I guess I'll round up to 3..

Additionally, I have smoked both the Pinkerton and the current STG incarnation..no discernable difference between the two by my taster..

This blend is truly unremarkable. A sweet licorice tub note that yields very little taste. It has the nostalgic room note of the the “old guys” puffing away at the public golf course, ca. 1975. The guys that smoked this stuff in the clubhouse also smoked King Edward cigars out on the course. Most these guys were WWII vets and were always quick to regale me with stories of fighting on pacific islands or in European forests. For that reason this blend, and others like it, are nostalgic for me. It’s not bad but it’s not good either. It’s the white sandwich bread of tobacco blends. I don’t buy into the hate for this blend but I equally don’t understand those who sing it’s praises. For me it’s a good blend for mowing the lawn or walking the dogs but it’s not something I’d sit down to read a book or listen to music with. It’s just a simple blend from a much simpler time, a time when men who lived thru amazing perils passed their stories on to a young junior golfer who hung on their every word. Now I’m as old as they were when they were telling me their stories. I miss the “old guys”.

Mostly Flavor Lacking And Boring, But There Are A Few Nuances To Be Appreciated - If this is the "good ol' days," then they sucked.

[Tin/bag - Wow, overpowering whiskey/bourbon. After several whiffs, I can start to catch a little dark sugar and some sweetness. Soft to the touch, cube cut that does give a sense of Velvet with its fluffiness.]

Mild burley with slight fruit note here and there and a little sweetness in the aftertaste, almost a vanilla. Very slight tingle on the tongue and once or twice in nose (nothing like a Perique nip). Mostly flavor lacking and boring. A little bit of cigarette in there faintly at the end of retro. Also a little bitterness at the end of exhale, and maybe a little nuttiness from the burley, but it also seems to have chemicalized twist to it, again very faint. It did get a little better towards end of bowl, but maybe that is me tuning in better to the very slight flavors. Reminiscent of picking up some dried leaves and smoking them, though I have never done that, and there is a little sweetness in there.

I do not like Lane Limited Ready Rubbed much (think cigarette on that), and I rank this one behind it. This sure didn't start the day off with great pleasure. It will be my last pouch I am pretty sure, and it will sit in the mason jar until I die most likely, since I do not throw out tobacco at this point. I will try to appreciate it more in a year or so, I don't expect aging helps any, but I will try it one more time.

Burns fairly cool, even with heavy puffing. Not a moisture builder either, but I didn't finish down to the bottom of the bowl. I pitched it at the last 8th of bowl.

What a pleasant surprise. I had always thought velvet was another cheap cherry blend that tastes bad and smokes hot. I read some reviews and decided to give a go and was very pleasantly surprised. Just a nice burley with some sweetness added. A very nice all day blend. handles well and stays lit. I found velvet to bite if provoked but a normal cadence won't burn your tongue. Aromatic lovers will be let down as may some burleyphiles due to the minor addition of casing/topping but for the guy who likes burley with a little something sweet, velvet will not disappoint.