Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) Skandinavik Regular

Tastes like soy sauce, on fire, in your mouth. Not my thing, and I like the Sails and Troost and the other Danish Cavendishi. I liked the old Skandinaviks much better. The mildly aromatic blue package is (in my opinion) more like the old stuff than this.

Not my cup of tea...sorry Peter.

Update 2-13-10: So I picked up a package of this the other day at my local tobacco shop. I've been smoking through a pack of Sail Regular and Skan's Full Aroma offering (which has become a go-to wintertime smoke for me this season). I had tried and didn't like the Regular last time I tried it several years ago, but I noticed the pack and realized that I hadn't tried the Orlick version. Since the Full Aroma quality has increased (IMHO) in the past few years I decided to give it a whirl.

Yes, this is a better tobacco than it was a few years ago. As a test, a few bowls into the new pack, I loaded up a bowl from the old half pouch of the disgusting stuff and did a head to head. Yup, certainly an improvement in the "New Package". It seems that the quality of the leaf is higher and the amount of processing is lower. Mild, no bite that I could detect, a nice woodsy "tobbaco-y" scent and flavor. Similar to Sail Yellow but no anise notes, instead there's something there that reminds me of the "toased smell" that one gets from a newly-opened pack of Lucky Strike Cags (unfiltered, of course). Room note neutral to pleasant to my SO.

No soy sauce was detected.

So, I'm thrilled to have another good affordable natural type cavendish in my rotation. What a nice suprise to have a formerly mediocre tobacco redeem itself a few years later. Hats off to Orlick.

It's inexpensive too. A little more than $4 per 1 3/4 Oz when ordered through JR. Tins cheaper but for everyday smoking I prefer pouches 'cause they're handy.

Now I'll say that this is recommended, in fact, I'll wager that there'll be an order for a few five packs being sent out to JR in a few days once I finish this pack and the other one that I bought at another shop yesterday!

Straight from the tin, this is basically a partially rubbed out burley with some Virginia, though the Va is waaaaay in the background, I'd say. The smell is tobacco-ey, which I count a good thing.

I'd put this in the broad group of pipeweed well suited to a break in lawn chores or for newbies (see below). It seems to be best matched with a nice cob.

A plus is that you can smoke it as is on a breezy day or rub it out a little when the breeze goes down or you go inside.

A minus, for me, is that I sometimes puff it too hard looking for a bit of taste and instead get a mouthful of flavor-free hot air. If I remember correctly, I have this experience when I try Skand Reg in a Meer, a combo which some may deride.

The problem is that the taste is uniform from the beginning to the end of the bowl, and it has no Wow! quality or (maybe better) no Yecch! quality, either.

I've recommended Skand Reg to new pipers to help them gain skill rubbing tobacco out, loading the pipe properly and getting a taste of straight burley to compare with other pipeweed. Since it's easy to keep lit, beginners don't get frustrated with relights, excessive puffing and the dreaded bite. There's not much to put them off. As others have said, Skand Reg is preferable in every way to drugstore aromatics.

I know skilled pipers who keep this on hand. Can't say I'm one of them, though.

4.22.06 I've started to mix McClelland 5100 with my bowlful of Skandinavik and like the combo. I do about 50/50, which amounts to a homemade Half and Half. The 5100 augments taste and the Skand seems to keep the fire burning.

This coarse-cut tobac has that "Danish" (honey?) taste and aroma I can only take in small doses. Otherwise for a tobacco found in many discount venues it is quite good.

Much like its predecessor Amphora, this is no longer readily available where I live. It was an excellent choice for a plain, reliable, smoke.

The quality is worlds away better than most drug store Burleys. The price is nice too. It has a mild, nutty flavor, and doesn't turn bitter as some of the other OTC burley blends do. It never bit me.

The Full Aroma version is a competent blend: raisiny and sweet to my palate. It's a little too sweet for me, so I prefer the brown pouch to the red. Alas, I can only find either one online...

Peter Stokkebye's knockoff of the old Douwe Egberts Amphora Regular (Brown pouch/tin)that is no longer available in the the USA since the Imperial Tobacco Group, PLC acquisition. Although they've done a good job, this blend matches the old Amphora that I always felt was rather flat and bland. Also with this blend comes a somewhat bitter aftertaste and < desirable room aroma. The partially broken but thick tobacco burns slowly and cool but I never did and still don't enjoy the flavor.

Bag note is floral and sweet. The ribbon cut packs easily and the moisture level is fine. Needs no drying time. The floral flavors are not like Lakeland (not soapy) This blend is a bit on the harsh side and needs to be smoked with a very lite cadence. It's quite similar to Reiner professional but of a lower quality. Sweet floral flavors are the main players. I suspect this will not get any better with age. It has a mild nic hit could be an all day smoke for a lite smoke. Its not bad but really not good. its just a floral smoke so if you were only able to obtain this its smokable but not of much note. 2 stars

It's ok. I have a 4 1/2 ounce tin I got cheap on Ebay (when one could still sell sealed tins there) ten years ago or so, and recently opened it out of curiosity. If one reads the tin carefully, it is actually an Orlik blend, blended for Peter Stokkebye, branded as Skandinavik. Yes; a very convoluted genealogy! I have enjoyed Stokkebye flakes like Bullseye, Luxury Twist, and Navy, as well as Orlik Golden Slices and Dark Strong Kentucky, but this seems like tobacco they had which was not bad, but not good enough to be put in a tin by Orlik, or used in the Luxury Flake line by Stokkebye. It tastes bland, or if I get any taste, almost chemical, though I'm pretty sure it's just tobacco with perhaps a very mild topping. Burns hot even if sipped, and makes my pipe too hot to hold, even though I am a seasoned pipe smoker. I'm thinking what I might do is to visit the local liquor store and buy a mini-bottle of some quality liqueur such as Frangelico (hazelnuts!) and case it up, turn it into a true aromatic, and throw it in a Mason Jar for a few years, just to give it some flavor, and make it burn slower. Just an idea...

...on reflection, towards the bottom of the bowl it gets better. That hot bland slightly chemical taste goes away, and it actually burns well and is good when I sip the dregs. It is certainly better than most "drugstore" (Danish Drugstore?) tobaccos, and if I could give it 2 1/2 stars I would, but spend a little more and get some Stokkebye or Orlik flake.

11-2-2022 Tried an interesting experiment today, one I never tried in my 15 years of pipe smoking: watched a couple YouTube videos on stoving tobacco at home, and said, what the hey...you can do this easily just in the oven. Set temperature at 200 degrees (F). With a tin, if sealed, you might open it, and even if you don't, during the process, it might open itself! The lid might blow off; it wouldn't explode like a grenade. With this 4 1/2 ounce tin, already opened, I just left the lid on semi-loosely. With mason jars, take off the lid, cover with tinfoil, and replace only the ring, loosely. I stoved along with this a larger jar of McClelland Eastern Carolina Ribbon blender, and some old Nicotiana Rustica I had, after casing it with about a teaspoon and a half of honey dissolved in a small amount of water. Leave it in the oven on 200 for 3-4 hours.

With this blend in particular (I'll update my reviews of the other two), it turned from a very light brown to a fairly dark chocolate color, and developed a more aged scent. Smoking it now, and this simple process has turned it into a three-star for me...it's like cheating on the natural aging process! Much mellower, and none of the slightly off-tastes I got with the version as it came in the tin.

Come tutti gli Skandinavik che ho provato (non molti, grazie a dio) questo tabacco è una vera fetecchia. Gli Skandinavik sono, per quanto mi riguarda, dei panettoni dolciastri brucia lingua per neofiti che molto presto cambieranno tabacco, scoprendo i veri tabacchi ed affinando così i loro gusti. Purtroppo molto reperibili, sono il classico errore da principiante.

Good smoke. Have a friend that realy likes this. He gave me some of his stash. I would buy it myself.