Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) Indian Summer

What, in the name of all that's holy, is an Indian cut ??? Will Mac Baren next come out with a Mild Vanilla Cavendish Navy Mango Tomahawk-Schnitt ??

Notwithstanding the Americana tin, the doo-da about the Amish, and the implications above, this is a typical Dutch cavendish offering, originating in Germany, but marketed, in some parts, (but not in Germany?are you following this?) by a British-based multinational.

If you are into tin collecting, this is one of the loveliest (American prairie + Virginia cornfield postcard, as dreamt by a German Rockwellian Heimat illustrator...)

A lightweight, quality aromatic, Indian Summer is a pleasant, refreshing, sweet thing. No less, no more.

Try it in a Danish corn cob, why don't you.

The nutty, earthy, woody, mildly molasses sweet, sharp, toasty, bitter burley is the lead component. The grassy, tart citrusy Virginia also sports a hint of earth, wood and tangy dark fruit in a support role. The lighter Virginia is a tad floral, with a hint of spice and some tart citrus and grass in the background. The toppings include sweet wine, fruit and citrus, a little spice and honey, and a drop or two of licorice. They sublimate the tobaccos to a nearly moderate extent, though they lose some potency in the last third of the experience. The strength is a step past the mild level, which the taste is closer to medium than it is to mild. The nic-hit is mild. May bite a moderate puffer, so I recommend a slow cadence. Has a light harsh note at times. Burns warm and fast with a little inconsistency in the sweet and lightly sour, bitter flavor that translates to the short lived after taste. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, and requires few relights. An all day smoke with too many drawbacks to recommend.

-JimInks

How can I top the review below? I can't. All I can do is ask the same question about Indian cut, concur that the tin is beautiful and agree that this is not a bad smoke for those seeking lighter fare. My tin came with a group of tins I purchased from Dan Tobacco about six years ago. If aging did something for Indian Summer, it wasn't much.

Life is an experience, including both the good and the bad ones. This tobacco is in the second category. Is the kind of tobacco I like to try from free samples, or because someone else gives it to me. Too sweet, and light. The fruity taste is too much for me, but to be fair, I'm not into summer tobaccos. keep it in a well-sealed container, or the ants will find it.

"And what, pray tell, is an indian cut?"

Coarse, rough, harsh. Those are the adjectives that spring to mind when smoking Indian Summer. The overall feeling is that of an old-fashioned (not in a good way), undeveloped and unfinished tobacco product with considerable tongue-bite. By the general bitterness and coarseness of the taste, I would even like to wager that there's a fair bit of Rustica in it - hey wait, could that actually be the cause for the "Indian" connection here?

Probably not buying this again, although it did leave me with a weird feeling that maybe I'm not quite finished with this brand yet.

EDIT: Update as the following day I found the remains of the pouch I'd been keeping in order to write this review. I'll be damned if 'tobacco cultivated by Amish people' isn't just codespeak for 'Rustica, or something so little removed from it as to be practically the same'. The acidic tongue-bite and throat-burn are just way too reminiscent. (Even the pouch artwork shows tobacco plants with suspiciously small-looking leaves, and in flower to boot, which everyone who's ever dabbled with tobacco growing knows is the equivalent of a fouled anchor in naval artwork.) I'm not saying the idea is bad per se but they should have either gone way easier with it, or really tried to find a better blend of tobaccos where it would have complemented the others in making at least an... interesting, if not all-day smoke. It seems that the varieties they used here were too light for the purpose, with the 'behind-the-corner' sticking out like a sore thumb.

Consistency uniform light brown, cut fairly coarse; pouch note of sweet raisins is promising, but disappoints.

EDIT2: And yes, will definitely not be buying this again.

Its a while ago since I last smoked this one but I recall having a Latakia ghost in my pipe at the first smoke. I was so positively surprised about the first third of the bowl until I realized that there was no Latakia in this blend. Quick research confirmed that and so I gave it another try in a cob.

Doesn't look very special; chocolate brown loose cut that smells like liquor and nuts. No tobacco notes in the cold smell.

Packs well, takes flames easily and burns a bit fast slow sipping is required here. The smoke is full of liquorish tastes and hints of vanilla behind that. Very hard to tell which tobacco dominates as I hardly detect any tobacco. The aromas are a bit overwhelming for my taste. In the second half everything is moving into a bad direction as the flavors getting less and less. There's some sweetness maby caused by Burley and some spicy components which I can't define if coming from the leaf or added flavor. Unlike many I can't detect fruit or citrus in the smoke.

Not my taste at all; too much of that whisky liquor flavoring too less of the VA/B/BC components sadly. The adding of some pure Latakia's probably a way to spice the whole thing up a bit...it's worth a try.

Please Note: I am trying to work off my back log of tobaccos i have tried years and years ago. In most cases i have no clue anymore when. Or who produced it back in the day. Also my memories are faded by time and those reviews are based mostly on my notes but sometimes i have a current tin for comparison as well:

This is one of the tobaccos that seemed to be tossed around from producer to producer and has been changed substantially during the process. Initially it was produced by Murray's, then it went over to Planta and now is produced by Stanwell. The Murray's version may have been unflavoured, i have never had that version. But the Planta version already had some wine and fruit aroma to it. In the tin as well as in the smoke. This flavouring got even stronger in the Stanwell version and some spice was added maybe like that of hot wine punch.

So the current version seems to be rather heavily flavoured.

Smoking properties are good and even. The taste is as mentioned before of some undefined sweet, wine, fruit note with some underlined spices. I cannot make out alot of the tobaccos in this blend, which is a shame after all the fuzz they made about the origin of said tobaccos.

The room note is nice and on the lingering side.

Do i recommend this blend? Yes, if you are curious about it and / or nothing else is available then go for it, its not a bad tobacco but in my opinion nothing special either. Since i have nothing bad to say about it, but its not something i would ever buy again i think a 3 star rating is fair if you like aromatics.

Yep I'm pretty much in the same territory as the other reviewers.

I suspect all the cobblers about Amish/Indian cut is just to make this blend stand out from the rest of the competition. And my word, isn't there a lot of it ?

Don't get me wrong I love aromatics like this, but there are so many around that they just seem to blend into one another and this one is no different.

It's a almondy sweet and syrupy Danish which, whilst pleasant enough, has no single redeeming feature, other than, of course, it's price. I know I always moan about price here in the UK and as usual I am getting on my soapbox (yet again) but this isn't available in the UK but until Brexit buggers everything up you get it for 9.35 euros from my favourite tobacco shop on the continent.

The sweet taste stays for about 2/3rds of the bowl and then disappears, so it's time to regroup and fill another bowl. But that's the thing ; with most aromatics of this ilk I can't smoke 'em day in day out. It would just get sickening. Fortunately this one stays quite moist in the pouch (don't know anything about a tin) and retains it fragrance, so you can cellar it a while if you want.

This blend is a cut above the REALLY cheap German tobaccos like My Mixture, but really not by much. Think a lower end Larsens or Stanwells mix and you'd be about right.

A friend of mine donated me a small 10 gr pack of this blend.it's smell was very intense including sweet notes( honey) ,sweet fruits and some alcohol notes.has a decent amount of burleys mixed with bright virginias and brown cavendish.the moisture level was very low.packs and lights decent,some relights are needed.while burning now the flavours are very strong containing honey notes,sweet fruits,nuts ,some spice notes and citruses.burns fast and warm and leaves some dumbness and moisture at the end of the bowl.the nicotine level is almost medium.the room note is pleasant.no tongue bite for me.if you are a fan of strong aromatics i recommend it.for me it is not a unique aromatic because i prefer milder flavouring.

I tend to find the previous reviews rather negative about that blend. Nice liquorice aroma in the pouch. Rather nice smoke. Much improved in a large bowl. May bite the tongue a little if smoked too quickly. An interesting blend, worth to be tried.