Hearth & Home Old Companion

This is my favorite from Pipes and Cigars. It is a tasty burley/virginia mix that I always go back to after experimenting with something else. It is not fancy and is not likely to impress your friends, but sometimes you are not trying to impress anyone and just want a great smoke.

It has some sweet from the Virginia and the nutty burley in a very satisfying and balanced blend. There is no topping that I can discern, and there is enough flavor that I don't puff too fast. It is always a slow, cool smoke for me that doesn't require a lot of attention. My wife likes the room note enough to mention it.

Edit: I was looking trough some of my reviews to see if I needed to adjust any of them. I am puzzled by some of the bad reviews of Old Companion, but I guess we all have different taste buds. This is hands down my "goto" smoke, and I have gone though a lot of it. I checked my P&C order history, and I have smoked 15+ lbs of OC. If it were possible to rate this higher than 4, I would do it.

Edit 8/18/18: It seems this is NLA. I really enjoyed this, but the price point moved up, and there was no longer the advantage in buying bulk-vs-tin. I have some 8 oz tins left, but I have found myself smoking the Low Country VaBur and Pegasus when I would have been smoking Old Companion before.

The nutty, lightly molasses and cocoa sweet burleys lead the slightly tangy, dark fruit red Virginia, which also sports an earth note. The Virginia is a supporting player at best. It can burn slightly warm if you don't sip it, but it doesn't bite or get harsh. Has a mild nic-hit. Burns a little fast unless hydrated, which I recommend. Has a clean, consistent flavor, but it does lack some depth. Leaves little dampness in the bowl and requires few relights. It sports a pleasant after taste and room note. An all day, easy going smoke. Two and a half stars.

-JimInks

Comforting. It reminds me of smells from my grandfather and uncles. The flavors are subtle yet pervasive. This and a favorite book or a few hours in my shop make for a wonderful afternoon. The Va's sweet smoothed-out perfectly by the nutty burly that builds nicely throughout the bowl is just right. I like that it is a bit dry, keeps me humble, like this blend. Something I do not plan to smoke every day, nor do I plan to do without. Namaste' Robert

Picked this up in a trade and was intrigued. The first thing I noticed is the size of the tin - very large for a 50 gram tin. I expected a "fluffy" tobacco and that's what I got. That always makes for an interesting load! And interestingly, my first snoot of the tin note presented a McClellands-like silage tang and I thought "Oh goodness, the McClellands Ketchup Brigade is going to have a field day with this one!". However, this smell went away literally seconds after the air hit it. I'm now not sure it was ever there. As it turns out, I got a tin of McC's Sophisticate in the same trade and I may have subconsciously thought I was going to open that one instead. This gives me some insight into how the old "ketchup" thing has perpetuated! 🙂

The taste was a source of consternation. For the first few bowls, it took almost 2/3 before I got much flavor of any kind except an initial Granger-like plasticity. Unless cardboard is a flavor. The bottom 1/3 produced some nutty and mildly sweet tones. I tried hydrating it a little which was even more disastrous so I dried it out a little more. This helped the flavor develop somewhat but it never got terribly interesting. And there was a tongue singe just waiting to happen that I had to constantly fight off by puffing overly slowly. Then again, slow is the ticket if you want any flavor from this one. Slow and dry but not too dry. It does have an "old timey" taste and may have nailed the profile of some of those old, long gone OTC's. It did taste a bit like Carter Hall but didn't have CH's odd casing.

Not a bad blend but not something I'll likely smoke again. Try it as a sidebar to blends like GLP Cumberland or C&D's Burley Straight. Interesting but a bit perplexing.

SopwithCamel nailed my thoughts exactly. Ready to smoke right out of the pouch. A nice smoke, sip it and enjoy the cruise. This blend leaves the palate clean & ready for any follow up or a repeat bowl. Another for the cellar.

I love Burley/Virginia blends, and this is about as nice as they get. This arrived at the perfect moisture level. The short ribbons and granulated flakes pack like a dream. I can usually light this with one match. The flavor of this is sweet, almost maple sweet, but never cloying. There may be a bit of licorice as well.

The low humidity and fine cut make it *essential* to sip this blend gently to get the most out of it. It can burn hot, but sipped deliberately and gently, this is a very satisfying smoke. The tobacco used is top quality. It leaves a clean, sweet taste on my palette. The blend turns sweeter at the bottom of the bowl, and the pipe heel is clean and dry. The room note is pure pipe tobacco goodness. This would make a great blending tobac, and is excellent on its own.

This blend has enough Virginia in it, where if you don't smoke gently and slowly, you will pay for your impatience. You just can't pull on this like you are smoking black Cavendish! However, it is this same Virginia that gives you the exquisite, roasted, toasted, non -syrupy sweetness of the blend. You can't rush this one.

There are a lot of good burley blends on the market, which makes for a lot of choices for a burley lover like me. Old Companion has two characteristics that I find very appealing. It has a wonderful toasted nutty taste that delights my palate and it burns very cool. Even with over-enthusiastic puffing, it's hard to overheat the pipe. O/C has a good burn that needs a minimum of relights and burns down to a light gray ash. This one will leave you craving another bowl and would make a good all day smoke. One other good point is its' price; credit should go to pipes and cigars for keeping it at a reasonable level. Great flavor, cool burn, and good pricing all add up to four stars. Good job, Russ!

Old Companion was a monster hit with the majority of my fellow pipe club members when we had H&H night at the tobacco bar. This one does indeed bring back memories of days gone by. Nice quality Burly provided the backbone of straight forward tobacco flavor with some punch, and the ripe red Virginia added the flavor that red leaf is famous for. I compare this one favorably to the old original Half & Half, except where Half & Half wore blue jeans and a plaid shirt, Old Companion shows up in a tuxedo.

Pretty mild in flavor, but has a decent balance between the two components. The Burley is a little more dominant in a cob as opposed to a briar. The bad news is that it can be a bit harsh even when puffing carefully. There are much better VaBurs out there that are more worthy of your time and money and for that reason I can't recommend this one.

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.