Hearth & Home Old Companion

Now here is an American smoke. There is much debate about classification. Is an English that which has Latakia, but less oriental. Or is an English simply an 'unflavored' smoke? (My favorite English flakes have a casing, no doubt.)

Must an American blend be sopped in cherry? Ha! I tell you, here is a fine American blend. It is not exactly my kind of smoke, but that's ok. I'm not my kind of smoke either.

The Virginias here, of which I am the world's expert, are nice. They are very much, as the blurb says, toasty. Not toasted in a McClelland tangly sort of way, but just just enough to get the unsweetened bitters out. Very much a C&D flavor profile here, but with the legendary Mr Ouellette's skills at work. ( C&D is also of deserved legend.)

But, I progress; I do believe I am a child of the steam cooked, slightly (or more) sweetened, and stronger flavored English products. By this I mean not "English" with Buttloads of Latakia, but tobacco as the English people like them-

Nothing wrong with this American blend, I just proffer different.

I am a fan of many of Russ's blends but for the most part they always taste a little green to me so I always age them for six months prior to smoking them. This one was no different. It comes in a large tin size for the quantity of the tobacco as it is very loose and does come in the perfect moisture content to smoke right out of the tin. It is stated on the tin that it is an old fashioned style blend reminding us of the foil pouches tobaccos of times past. While I am of an age to have smoked many of those blends, I can't say it reminded me of any of them, but it is a good straight forward non aromatic blend that I did enjoy.

The tin note upon opening is slightly musty but fresh and sweet. It is very loose and loads easily into the pipe. The colors of the rough ribbon cut tobaccos run the full range of browns from light to dark. It lights very easily and produces a very pleasant, sweet favorable smoke that is great in a cob as well as a briar. It smokes down evenly with maybe a relight or two, and produces a steely grey ash and very little moisture or dottle in the bottom of the pipe. The room note does take me back to the aromas of pipes of my youth, and it is full enough because of the burly base to smoke slowly and sweet enough because of the Virginias to satisfy the palette. I enjoyed this blend a lot and am glad I bought several tins of it. If smoked too fast it does have a touch of tongue bite, but more than a lot of the old OTC blends did.

Overall, this is a very nice blend by Russ O and one I will visit often. I do recommend trying.

Man, as soon as I opened this bag of Old Companion, it took me back to my teen years. Back to the mid 70’s when I was sneaking around smoking my pipe filled with Prince Albert. If you had a family member back years ago that smoked Prince Albert or Sir Walter, you too will have that sense of nostalgia.

I’m not so certain that this will be any sort of main stay in my rotation, but I can see having a little now and again. It's kind of a "comfort" smoke because of the memories.

I did find it to be a tad rough on my throat. I may try some different pipes and see if I experience the same.

(2nd update) I'll take it as is and love it. I don't know what took me so long to come around to this conclusion. I think personally, that it was my foray into drugstore blends such as Prince Albert and Half and Half and Carter Hall that made me come back to this and say, well it really blows all those away and has similar flavor notes actually. Although there may be some slight casing that imparts a cinnamony taste almost, I can taste Burleys mostly coming out of this. Of course, I'm not otherwise familiar with steam-toasted VAs so it might be those. I really just left this in a plastic bag, abandoned for months at a time. It's gotten pretty dang dry, but it smokes really well that's for sure. And tastes better than before, I think, unless that's just my palate playing catch up. So that's my three takes on this one. How completely confusing and probably worthless to anyone reading this. But such is my experience.

(update) Well, I'm not completely sure, but after giving it a break for a couple of months, and coming back to this, I kind of like it now enough to increase its rating. I've also lately been mixing it with more Virginias such as McClelland's 2035 and 5100. But, I've learned basically that burley's not a bad thing, I don't think. Most of the blends I like I've noticed have some component of Burley in there, so there's definitely something nice in there, still sort of sussing it out here... thanks for your patience...

(old review) Well I suppose I shouldn't be reviewing this one, but I am because it is one of the tobaccos that I really have not enjoyed particularly. This may have something to do with my general aversion to Burleys, which I thought would be balanced out by the Virginias. The problem here is that it leaves a bitter aftertaste. I think I might have to toss the rest of my two ounces out, as I can't seem to bring myself to try it again after giving it several go's and even trying it as a blender. Ah well to each his own.

I am working my way through 8oz of this tobacco, and this is my initial review. I will likely edit this review and adjust my rating as the months go by as I have done with most of my other reviews.

This is a very good regular old tobacco type blend. It is described as an "all-day" smoke, and it could be such. This is why I got this tobacco as well. I have many high powered super tobaks, but a person needs a go-to blend if you want a smoke and you aren't ready for a super-blend.

This is an easy smoking tobacco, with just enough flavor to keep your interest, but not so much to overwhelm or hurt your mouth.

It's good, and for a bulk mostly burley blend, its exceptional. I may upgrade this to highly recommended after I have spent a bit more time with it, but for now, I'd say get a 4oz bag to try if you are making an order with Pipes and Cigars and try it for yourself. You probably won't dislike this tobacco. It does seem to be a good go-to smoke. Perfect for casual puffing as a break between scorching straight virginias and smokey latakia nukes.