Kibo On Pouches/OTCS

I've decided to start this review thread partly to share my opinions and experiences with these "drugstore"/OTC blends that I've tried in pouch form, and also to help document for my own benefit, as my memory can be 'touch and go'. As with any review, I admit, there has to be some bias and the ever-present variable of palate. Without further ado...
Let's begin with Captain Black White (CBW)... I've had this in pouch and tin forms, and they have not yielded the same result. The pouch gave a stronger aroma than the tin, and when fresh-packed, it gave a 'runny' smoke, goop in the bottom and the threat of bite at anything beyond a soft sip. After letting it breathe for 20 minutes prior to the second smoke, a lot of that wetness and bitey behavior went away, and it was closer to the sweet 'storebought vanilla cake' and wisp of ...is it spearmint? So far in the background, I swear, every time I smoke CBW, there's that distant tease of a weak almost-mint. The room note is pleasant (isn't it always?), but the flavor is akin to chewing cheap spearmint gum, taking a swig out of a bottle of vanilla extract and smoking a cheap cigar, not horrible, but almost not worth the effort. The aftertaste (to me) is always a haze of almost sick-sweet gas. If not for the aftertaste, this tobacco would stay higher with me...but as is, if the world of pipe tobacco were an art gallery, this would be "Dogs Playing Poker"...frequently seen, good in its own way, but surely no Sistine Chapel.
Next up, Half and Half aka Burley and Bright. I've heard so much malice toward this blend, and I understand it has changed ownership (and perhaps recipes?) a few times over the years. Well, I have a very specific place for this one, and it is for breaking in my new pipes(cobs especially). I find that it burns well, nice and even, and it must be coaxed into running hot. The anise and faint cherry make me think of Christmas baking (I've been a baker since I was a child, learning family recipes and styles)...like pizelles and cherry-nut rolls. The flavor of smoking differs slightly, but not unpleasantly...the cherry note is almost non-existent to me, but the nuttiness and anise flavors are present and welcome. This is a repeat purchase, but never found in abundance for me...going back to the art gallery, this is the velvet rope, where it all starts, important and appropriately elegant, but largely overlooked and easily forgotten once you're moved past it.
I had the pleasure of trying Skandinavik Full Aroma, as it was recommended to me a couple of times, and I am pleased with this "Now and then" blend...Opening the pouch, I thought "Mmm, fruit cake and licorice"..but that licorice scent seemed to disappear after a couple of openings. Once lit, however, I was amused by the rapid assertion of the tobacco as a primary flavor, with the fruitiness taking a quieter backseat. That is not to say there is no flavor...although mild, the tobacco flavor is what I notice first, with an aftertaste akin to a candied fruit salad...cherry and citrusy sweetness round out the natural tobacco taste, and it holds up all through the smoke, with the fruity flavor easing away the further the smoke goes. Again to the gallery; this is the oil painting of a newer artist: very well done, probably unnoticed by most people, appreciated by the ones who take their time with it.
To Be Continued, with Erin Go Bragh, Sail Green, Troost, and C'est La Vie.

Thanks Fnord for the encouragement! Dottiewarden I dont mean to slam aros, but I must admit that the best qualities of the Half and Half and (especially) SFA are the tobacco flavors. I firmly believe a great pipe tobacco, aro or not, must have quality tobacco, and there's a myriad of cheap aros that support this, as well as beauts like Snow Drift and a number of the Stokkebyes. I think for these OTC aros, they need to let the tobacco through and make a "soft" aromatic...which brings us into this section of reviews.
I promised Erin Go Bragh would have its turn, and here it is. Can I just say that I was underwhelmed when I opened the pouch? I've read many reviews and spoken to folks in person who adore this tobacco...and I'm over here, going "Where's the greatness?" Much as 'looks aren't everything', pouch smell isn't either. I sat down to my first bowl of EGB, lit, lit again, then a third time...for the life of me, I can't understand precisely why this tobacco would not stay lit that first time. Maybe it came from all the relights somehow throwing the flavor off-kilter, maybe I unconsciously packed too tightly. Once lit, however, the underwhelming continued...I got a flavor of greatly watered down Irish whiskey. I had high expectations, and the first bowl let them all down thoroughly. Round two happened when I blindly grabbed a pouch and went outside, ready to try a new pouch, only to find I had somehow grabbed EGB. Did I go back in the house and up the stairs to my pouch drawer? Heck no, that'd take more effort than giving EGB a second try. Here's where its funny: the pouch was open for a couple of days, it was able to breathe a slight bit out of the pouch but was in a ziplock bag by itself...and it tasted markedly different. The whiskey flavor was more noticeable, and in a good way. By somehow 'rebreathing' in the bag, this tobacco pumped itself up into being a fuller flavored aro. Probably a good thing, because the VaBur flavor that could round out the experience was never there to begin with, for me...Shall we stay at the art gallery? Let us think of EGB as a Cubist painting; some get it and love it, some get it and don't care, and it must just go over some peoples heads, who "like" it but can't tell you why.
As we move along, we come to Sail Green. I'll preface with admitting my fondness of Latakia. It doesn't have to be in everything, and it doesn't have to be a Lat-bomb for me to appreciate it, so the little sprinkling of it here is welcome and enjoyed. When I opened the pouch, the Boss said "ugh, what is that smell? I can't place it...but...I've smelled that before." I said "Prune. It smells kind of like prune and maybe figs? Anise note." to which she said "Oh, now I know...its kind of like those damned pastries you get!" You see, my favorite local bakery sometimes makes these great Danish-esque pastries, full of prune and fig filling, and the dough is mixed with some anise oil like a pizelle...I digress. I sat down to SG after dinner, breathed in the aroma deepely, filled my Greek briar...and off to the races. The charring light was all it needed, and the flavor was immediate: that figgy kind of taste, surely of the Turk in there, and the faint spice of Lat perking it up, with a sweet prune note dancing through. As it progressed, the flavors all seemed to bolden, but not sweeten...it was like swimming; you walk in the shallows, progress into the deep and enjoy the feeling of being surrounded but free. Amazingly, after this smoke the Boss and her sister both commented on how nice the room smelled...its rare that I smoke indoors, and when I do, it is only in one room. The Sail Green room note was described as "like a good candle or the really expensive incense that doesn't smell like burning skunk". I almost forgot to mention, the deeper into the bowl, the more it gets moist...I find a short puff of air back in(not a true retrohale, mind you, but fresh air before a sip) sends it to a quick sizzle, which adds to the room note, and after the brief crackling, a shallow sip to bring it back to even smoking. This has helped me completely avoid all of the bite that I have heard SG to have. Sail Green is the Baroque-style painting of Achilles; at face value, its just another one in the gallery, but when you stop and take the time to scrutinize, you find that its so well constructed that the whole is well beyond the sum of the parts, and it is near impossible to disassemble to the original elements.
More to come!

I fear this pair of reviews will draw some heat, but I have to be honest. So here goes, down another hall of the gallery with Troost and C'est La Vie.
Troost, as I understand it, was a vastly different creature years ago, as it came tinned and pouched, with the tin being slices with vastly different(superior?) flavor. I do not have the benefit of comparison, but I do have a pouch of Troost Aromatic Cavendish, and that's the exhibit we set out to explore, yes? When I opened the pouch, I was greeted with an aroma that awakened memories of my teenage years, working as a farmhand and feeding silage. I have heard this tobacco to have such a great pouch nose, to be a 'vague chocolate/liquor/butterscotch/caramel/etc' hint over top of a 'mild tobacco' scent. I smelled dried alfalfa, hay, ground corn-sweetness, and the general smell of country air and animal feed. To me, this is not unpleasant, as I have many fond memories of my youthful farmhand days...but my grandmother, who always inspects my tobaccos, HATED this smell. Amazing, right? (I mean that my grandmother likes to smell my pipe fillings when I get them). When I sat on the porch with the first round, I noticed the cut; to pack my pipe, I stuck the shredded strips in a bundle vertically, and gently twisted them, like cooking spaghetti. This made for an easy pack, but left a few small air pockets in the pipe...a minor issue that reared its head about mid-smoke. It lit easily enough, only needed a relight halfway...but the prevailing thought was "Where the hell is the flavor?". Honestly, I got almost nothing out of this, and I pride myself on having a strong sense of taste, such that I can described the flavors of raw Bhut Jolokia and Moruga Trinidad Scorpion peppers, as well as fine soft flavors. There was no sweetness, nor bitterness...no butterscotch or caramel or chocolate or licorice or any of the myriad other flavors that Troost smokers have attested to. I felt betrayed, lied to! It were as though I were given a placebo aro! Then twenty minutes post smoke...I coughed. I noticed that there was a taste of butterscotch, like I swallowed a Werther's candy whole and it lodged in my larynx. Strange, not bad, but certainly perplexing. This somehow set me to desire more...and the second smoke failed to give the same effect. The third did not give this strange gift either, nor did the fourth...yet I kept going back! I cannot stress enough that there was nothing inherently BAD about this tobacco...but there was nothing great either. Repeated smokes had very faint sweetness, like "Oh, I ate a buttermilk caramel 6 hours ago, and had just a tiny speck stuck to a tooth while I smoked"...This tobacco perplexed me, frustrated me, disappointed me, and yet...made me want to try it again. I have taken to mixing this with Peter Stokkebye #84 Turkish, which makes for a light, sweeter short smoke. Troost by itself, however, is much like dating a beautiful woman with horrible manners and a nasally voice...she is good to you, is an excellent cook, the nights are great...but you just can't stand to converse with her for long, or sit on the couch while she picks her nose and wipes on the arm or clips her toenails. To put this in the art gallery, Troost Aromatic Cavendish is the abstract sculpture...you can't figure it out, the artist provides little detail, and every other patron sees something markedly different, and you can't bring yourself to love it or hate it.
Now on to C'est La Vie...I opened this one near my sister in law...she smelled it, and lit up, saying "It smells like...okay, I'm gonna sound stupid, but you know those Christmas cherries? Not the syrup ones, the cream filled chocolate with the cherries? This smells like that cream stuff!" I have to admit, I see where she's coming from, it does remind me a bit of the creamy cordial cherries that you can only seem to get around Christmas...sadly, that is where C'est La Vie stopped being good to me. I strolled outside, bemused at this confection-scent, and eager to light this "Black Cav-Cav" and see how it would match to the pouch note. I used EIGHT matches to get a decent char...the tobacco felt dry enough, but would not take flame...annoying. After the char and tamp, I used my last three matches trying to relight...and I went to get my sister-in-law's lighter. Back outside, I managed to get it relit, took a sip...and barely had anything...three rapid sips, to play it safe...no heat, no taste, and a wisp of smoke...relight, sip, puff, and....GAG. I have heard many people complain about aros with a vicious chemical taste, being disgusting and unsmokeable, etc...NEVER have I had a tobacco so vile that I could not make it to the end. I may not have even smoked half a bowl of C'est La Vie. If I had not just recently cleaned up the pipe I used, I would have blamed the briar for going sour on me...but a return trip with SFA in said pipe gave me a satisfactory smoke, proving the pipe was innocent. I'm enjoying our art gallery trip thus far, even this has its place, on a pedestal...a small can; a conceptualist piece, mimicking Piero Manzoni's "Merda d'Artista"...and surely someone enjoys it, while some people consider it a joke...and the rest just shake their heads in open disgust or contempt. C'est La Vie proves that the world truly offers something for everyone...and this just is not for me. I gave it to my sister-in-law to use as potpourri or to freshen her cat's litterbox 'scent guard'...or whatever she wants to do with it.
I shall return here for more OTC 'pouch exhibits' in the gallery, hope you folks enjoy my little spiels!

Novicemaker, Salmonfisher, thank you guys, I'm glad you're enjoying. I'm sure aros are king of the OTC Pouch world...I cannot think of too many non aros vs the plethora of aros in pouch form. Off the top of my head, Non aros: Sir Walter Raleigh, Carter Hall, Prince Albert, Sail Natural, Sail Regular(Yellow), Five Brothers vs. Captain Black White/Gold/Royal/Dark/Cherry, Middleton Cherry, Sugar Barrel, Sail Green, Troost, Skandinavik Full Aroma, Borkum Riff Mixture/Whiskey/etc.,Half and Half.....that's just spitballing, off the top of my head, and I know I missed a ton, but its already a lopsided fight. Regardless, it's all opinion, and I know many don't care for aros at all...I don't really dislike any of these tobaccos (aside from C'est La Vie...that was just all around unpleasant.), but I'm not going to gloss over their shortcomings either. I try to adhere to the 'Golden Rule' as much as possible, ergo, if I give an honest review, hopefully it'll inspire others to do the same; and as I have read many honest reviews, I'm obliged to provide in kind. With that...
Once more in the breach, as they say. A new day, a new wing...and an old friend? In this instance, I'm talking about Captain Black Gold. This Captain never seems to let me down; from tin to pouch to bulk, it's always the same smooth sailing. The pouch, when I opened it, breathed a bit of sheer joy into me, just what I needed to perk up a lousy day. The sweet smell of vanilla rolled in caramel, whiffs of a mowed alfalfa field...I almost couldn't wait. The damp feeling tobacco packed easily into my cob, and it only took a few seconds with one stick match to get it lit. A light tamp, a few puffs, and right into that sweet flavor. CBG is richer than CBW, a bit less vanilla-y and with a hint of caramel, and an actual tobacco flavor...the zest and sweet boldness of the Virginias comes through in minor notes, deliciously rounding out the flavor. For me, CBG has always burned rather cool, and I've never been bitten by it...in fact, I still find it surprising when someone says "CBG bites". Even taking hearty puffs and gulps, CBG has been forgiving. I've heard it said that CBG gets bitter in the bottom half when smoked in briars...I've never had that experience either. Perhaps I've just been fortunate. The downfall is the bottom 1/3 or bottom 1/4 (as per my experiences); the caramel and vanilla more or less just die out, the Virginias stay mellow...leaving a somewhat hollow finish. For this reason, I'll say that in our gallery, if there ever could be Mona Lisa in a pouch, it is Captain Black Gold. It is available almost everywhere for a reason: People smoke it. Some pipe puffers smoke nothing but CBG. I even know a fellow who CHEWS CBG (often mixed with Five Brothers.). There are critics, yes, and there are indeed flaws in Captain Black Gold...but look at the Mona Lisa...it too, has 'flaws' and some critics may point out the drab color or some bilateral asymmetry to her face...but the reality is that nothing can be truly perfect and everything to everyone...as the Mona Lisa is not the be-all end-all of art, so Captain Black Gold is to OTC Pouch tobacco...but both are critical in relevance and importance, and one would be doing themselves a disservice to not experience them.
(A side note; my personal take on CBG jives with many others, it is best smoked out of a good corn cob pipe. I personally enjoy CBG in any pipe, but given a choice it'll be either the maple wood churchwarden made by a friend in Oregon, a Missouri Meerschaum General with a Walker Briarworks 4 3/4" bent Forever Stem, or a MM MacArthur with the Walker 4 3/4" straight Forever Stem.)
And of course...I shall return with more.

I know its been awhile, and I apologize....but let's get back to the gallery! Today I'll share my thoughts on Carter Hall and the new Missouri Meerschaum American Patriot(perhaps not exactly OTC, but certainly a pouch, so I decided to include it).
Carter Hall...such a classic, seen nearly everywhere, but apparently purchased by very few. I say this not to be snide, but because everywhere I go, every time I see it, the rack is full of CH. After smoking it, I'm not entirely sure WHY. Is it because its mellow and on the soft side of things? Is it because its not flavored? Is it because folks just might not be sure what it is/is supposed to be? No matter, its a staple of pipe smoking and an essential for some; there is a REASON why all these OTCs are widely available and have been around for decades upon decades. Carter Hall, to me, smells somewhat similar to a wine cork. This is not a bad thing to me, just a note. The tobacco always packs easily, always stays lit well(often just the charring light is enough for the whole bowl), and is consistently mild, bite free, and almost a little nutty if anything...I say a little because the taste is almost like licking a walnut or an almond then having a puff. Not a bad thing. This is not a love or hate tobacco...it just IS. For that reason, I feel that Carter Hall isn't so much a work of art in the gallery, but rather the adornments and decor of the gallery...this is the plain white marble floor and wall with solid burgundy plush rugs...as this tobacco is a benchmark or a baseline, it is the gallery itself; without the others, it would still be a nice place, but in the scheme of being an art gallery, it becomes something more. CH would be fine if it were the only smoke in the world...but with everything else available, CH is much more. A brief side note to mention, I spoke to an older gent not long ago who smokes ONLY ONE thing, day in and day out. It is a mixture of CH and Indonesian Tambolaka...he says the CH tames the Tambo and he leans a bit more CH if he's smoking before eating, and heavier on the Tambo if its after a big dinner or lunch, of if he just doesn't have anything to do that day. I found this to be quite intriguing and amusing, given the just-purchased CH pouch in my travel kit.
Next is one of the new offerings that bear the Missouri Meerschaum label: American Patriot. The pouch is described as "An American/English blend with Cyprian Latakia and a light Bourbon top note." My gut reaction to the description when I opened the pouch? "LIIIIIIEEEEESSSSSSS." In all seriousness, I detected no bourbon. To be sure, I went to my liquor cabinet, and one by one, opened and sniffed each of my whiskeys and whiskys...bourbons,ryes,Canadians,Irish,Scotch, all of them...and sure enough, I couldn't pick up the presence of anything near them in this pouch. The loss of a top note is not a tremendous loss though, and, undaunted, I took up the MM AP pipe that accompanied the pouch (gotta love the P&C Ultimate MM sampler!) and my Carey Magic Inch that I made a rough stem for out of green bamboo (I call it 'Open Barrel' because there is no mouth piece, just a tapering of the bamboo where the last joint was) along with my recently acquired estate Medico Cavalier briar (previous owner was clearly a latakia nut, so this baby is all English/Lat blends). This blend performs nicely; an easy pack, a pleasant smell of latakia, and a fast light; in the MM AP and Medico Cavalier, the charring light was plenty, in Open Barrel I needed a tamp and light only. The early puffs and sips all generate the same rich taste of latakia and burley, not overpowering, very nicely balanced...however, the AP had a quaint sweet note. Was there a weak taste of bourbon in there after all? Whatever the soft sweetness was, it added to the rich body of flavor present in the other pipes. The first 1/3 was steady as the first puffs in all three. The second portions are where I noted major change...in the Open Barrel, it seemed a wee bit hotter, and the latakia seemed to take front stage, but the AP and Cavalier were both balanced better and on pace with the first part...it seems this blend prefers smaller diameter chambers. The final 1/3, Open Barrel was warmer but not searing...the smoke was coming easier, and still no gurgle, but the retrohale was totally out of the question by this point. The Cavalier finished without gurgle, somewhat warm, and came across as a nice lat blend start to finish, not too bold, just a little spicy and woodsy-like. The AP however...it tasted spicier and sweeter in the bottom...no hotter, no gurgling, but certainly like the tobacco pulled back the curtain for an extra bit of scenery that made it feel more like home. I am not sure how to explain it, but the cob does make a slight yet marked difference. In our gallery, Missouri Meerschaum American Patriot is a layered optical illusion painting..if you're looking at it with proper perspective it seems more intricate than if you give a passing glance or a view from any perspective but what the painter intended. No matter the view, its a nice bit of work and respectable in any measure...but some will appreciate it more than others.

It has been too long. I'm loving the positivity towards these reviews, keeps me excited to do more. So let's get to more!
I recently sat down with MM's Great Dane offering. I kept smelling cherry and caramel and it made me hungry and eager to smoke...so I grabbed a turnover and a bottle of water, had a snack, cleansed the palate and went out with two pipes. Good thing too, the new MM Great Dane pipe I got with the sampler had aflaw, a big gaping hole where the stem plugs into the bowl! With a little creativity and paper, I sealed the hole enough to smoke anyway, and it wasn't bad. The GD in pouch smells caramelly, and rich with cherry and apples...but it's an almost overripe apple smell. Not unpleasant, but that sweet smell when the apples are on the ground and turning to mush? Smells nice but not a tasty kinda thought...I digress. Packing the GD pipe with GD 'baccy, I set to it...and I could taste it through the pipe pre light. It took a char/tamp/light to get rolling and stayed lit til the bottom. It was even, consistent, unchanging through the bowl. I am not big on cherry tobaccos, but I am apparently fond of apple (re:DE Harvest on Hudson)..so I was torn at first. The caramel smell translated to a sweet honeyed taste with the cherry dominating and apple as backup. I thought it might have been the pipe, but I learned in my Marlborough 699 that the MM pipe gave very little added sweetness. This is a nice spring time smoke, nothing challenging, nothing hidden that I could detect..This pouch made me think of some of those brightly colored paintings of a fox or pheasant hunt...eye catching, well done but with minor details as the overgrown field and generic dog require little..it is a nice picture, if not overly intricate. Pleasing to most, but nothing really to obsess over.

Thanks again! Here's a rarity, a double day!
This time I might get some heat...I just sat down with some Borkum Riff Whiskey. Let me preface this a bit: I am a fan of whiskey and whisky, and all the varieties therein, be it in the glass or in the pipe. One of my in hand favorites is Peter Stokkebye 38 Highland Whisky. I am also well aware of BR's reputation. I have a personal animus against BR (due to a person who always smoked it when i was young...but that's a whole other issue for elsewhere) that I had to set aside for this review. So it is with much strife that I packed a bowl and lit. I was cautious, apprehensive about the bite factor. After a few light sips, I eased up and really started to take in the flavor...and what a full flavor it is. The taste of a potent American whiskey (Old Grandad maybe?) and a dense tobacco taste behind it, Borkum Riff managed to completely surprise me in a great way. Now for the messier details and warnings. In the pouch I have, BRW is deceptively DRY to the touch. Seriously, it was like kindling, but it was a sufficiently moist smoke in the bowl. ..which brings the next warning. BRW WILL bite the hell out of you if you are not extremely cautious. Slow SLOW soft sips are the only way to enjoy BRW without painful tongue bite. Lastly, I recommend tipping your ash periodically...seriously, if you aren't in a strong wind, kick out the burnt ash from the top. This keeps the flavor hearty and full and it is completely worth the little extra attention. In the gallery, this is a tough nut to crack..A phot realistic piece done by a renowned abstract expressionist; sure, it it similar to many other photo realistic paintings, but there is something that sets it out as unusual. It is different enough to be greatly appreciated if you take the time figure out the intricacies, and if not, it can just as easily be called 'just another piece in the gallery'.