All right! So, I must admit that, although I'm preferential towards powerhouse tobaccos, and oftentimes mix them together for a great boost, once in a while I like to settle in with a milder body to take a break from the nicotine. This is where the OTC blends come in. Prince Albert and Sir Walter Raleigh are also in line for a review sometime this coming week, but for right now, it's Half & Half.
A time-honored blend. Some (most?) might say it's the pinnacle of a 50/50 mix straight off the shelf. That pouch note is something to behold. Admittedly, this is the first tobacco I smoked this year outside of some cigars, but the very first pipe tobacco I've ever had. (A small note here: I did smoke a pipe in the navy, but the blend was W.O. Larsen's Black Diamond, which had a nice tin note but bit my tongue so hard that I quit later that day. So it is technically Black diamond that is the first pipe blend I ever tried, but it was such a bad experience that I now cannot recall the tin note.)
A sweet, friendly aroma meets the nostrils upon opening, and what a wonderful scent too! It, to me, smells of fruits, maybe? Raisins? Some kind of dried fruit essence comes through which I cannot pinpoint exactly, but that's what made me happy that this was my first, REAL notice into what pipe tobacco was all about. I loaded my huge meerschaum churchwarden with gravity, a slight press and then topped it off. I [now] sometimes like to take a few test draws to see if it tastes or smells a little different when retrohaled, and I got more of the same, but a bit subdued. (still very pleasant).
I took lighter in hand and proceeded to attempt a char light, which ultimately turned into the true light. A pleasure. But now I'm using a Missouri Meerschaum Legend for this particular review. Same thing happens every time I use a char lighting-- it always goes straight into true light. There's a body of burley, and a sweetness, to which I attribute to the bright Virginia. Plenty of smoke if puffed, but it does have a tendency to bite when stressed like that. When sipped upon, it's very mellow on the tongue, and a whole lot less smoky, but much of the flavor remains when used in this manner.
So, after the entirety of the bowl, just as any other time I have Half & Half, it left a nice ash (not powdery, but still tiny bits of black), and when I dumped the bowl, there was no moisture of which to speak. No gurgling (but it's a corn cob pipe, and you all know how it tends to wick moisture away from just about everything under the sun).
If this is a classic tobacco which has endured years of presence on shelves, it is not without reason. I love this blend right in the morning or any time I'm not chugging away for a nicotine rush (which is usually my bedtime ritual, but I like to alter this from time to time). A very good blend with which to relax outside with a light breeze, perhaps better in a screened gazebo where one might enjoy the room note (which is pleasant as well). I don't have such a gazebo, but if I had one, I would spend many hours sitting within it, observing the twilight of the sunset fade into a dusk and, finally, into a peaceful darkness.
A time-honored blend. Some (most?) might say it's the pinnacle of a 50/50 mix straight off the shelf. That pouch note is something to behold. Admittedly, this is the first tobacco I smoked this year outside of some cigars, but the very first pipe tobacco I've ever had. (A small note here: I did smoke a pipe in the navy, but the blend was W.O. Larsen's Black Diamond, which had a nice tin note but bit my tongue so hard that I quit later that day. So it is technically Black diamond that is the first pipe blend I ever tried, but it was such a bad experience that I now cannot recall the tin note.)
A sweet, friendly aroma meets the nostrils upon opening, and what a wonderful scent too! It, to me, smells of fruits, maybe? Raisins? Some kind of dried fruit essence comes through which I cannot pinpoint exactly, but that's what made me happy that this was my first, REAL notice into what pipe tobacco was all about. I loaded my huge meerschaum churchwarden with gravity, a slight press and then topped it off. I [now] sometimes like to take a few test draws to see if it tastes or smells a little different when retrohaled, and I got more of the same, but a bit subdued. (still very pleasant).
I took lighter in hand and proceeded to attempt a char light, which ultimately turned into the true light. A pleasure. But now I'm using a Missouri Meerschaum Legend for this particular review. Same thing happens every time I use a char lighting-- it always goes straight into true light. There's a body of burley, and a sweetness, to which I attribute to the bright Virginia. Plenty of smoke if puffed, but it does have a tendency to bite when stressed like that. When sipped upon, it's very mellow on the tongue, and a whole lot less smoky, but much of the flavor remains when used in this manner.
So, after the entirety of the bowl, just as any other time I have Half & Half, it left a nice ash (not powdery, but still tiny bits of black), and when I dumped the bowl, there was no moisture of which to speak. No gurgling (but it's a corn cob pipe, and you all know how it tends to wick moisture away from just about everything under the sun).
If this is a classic tobacco which has endured years of presence on shelves, it is not without reason. I love this blend right in the morning or any time I'm not chugging away for a nicotine rush (which is usually my bedtime ritual, but I like to alter this from time to time). A very good blend with which to relax outside with a light breeze, perhaps better in a screened gazebo where one might enjoy the room note (which is pleasant as well). I don't have such a gazebo, but if I had one, I would spend many hours sitting within it, observing the twilight of the sunset fade into a dusk and, finally, into a peaceful darkness.