Thoughts On STG

[elvishrunes]

Would you mind expounding on your "limited success"? I live on a small farm and have given thought to someday growing small amounts of tobacco for personal use.

As someone who’s gardened for over 30 yrs and worked on farms at times, currently I just grow houseplants, bonsai, and veg in my backyard…. The easiest part would be growing the tobacco, drying, curing, processing, pressing, casing, to get a modern style blend would be near impossible. Let alone smoking it like Latakia. Might be able to get something smokable, you enjoy, but certainly a big learning cure. Good idea to get some seeds though, as backup. If you can grow tomatoes, you can grow tobacco,

To the OP; I like Orlik, Nightcap, STG blends, smoke about 1/3 them, 1/3 C/D, 1/3 Gawith in my rooster…

 

[HeavyLeadBelly]

@blackpowderpiper : By limited success I was growing in an area of the U.K called Essex which is I suppose in the South of East of Britain. Whilst the summers were wet and warm the weather was totally unpredictable. I could get the plants grow which I usually did in a triangle formation so that I could tie the tops together for stability. I would cut the flowers off so that the energy went into the leaves and not producing seeds. The problems I ran into was the curing process which was a bit hit or miss in the U.K.

From what I’ve read over the years is that it’s pretty easy to grow tobacco. The curing process is what trips people up and why I wouldn’t personally grow tobacco.

 

[sardonicus87]

I planned eventually to grow some tobacco in my front yard, but it's going to be ornamental. Right now, I'm just trying to get my brugmansia to be established and hardy. If I can get it nice and big, the plan is to plant some datura around the base of it, then further out from there maybe one T. alata on either side.

 

[Puffaluffaguss]

Profitable up to a point, when the consumer switches to a different vice entirely and People Collective No. 1 is left holding its colossal shrinking dick in its hand. We're pretty close to that now.

With alot of us stocking up ever since the shutter of Mcclelland, I'm hoping most of us only buy what we really want these days (minus the new guys). Most of us could put up a pretty good boycott towards STG. We have C&D for now but they may be gone in the near future, we never know. With that said all we can do Is expect the worse from STG and never buy a product of theirs again. I know I do enjoy some Peter Stokebey and a couple others they provide but quality will diminish over time. If worse comes to worse I have an acre of land and can grow a d prosses my own.

 

[sablebrush52]

With alot of us stocking up ever since the shutter of Mcclelland, I'm hoping most of us only buy what we really want these days (minus the new guys). Most of us could put up a pretty good boycott towards STG. We have C&D for now but they may be gone in the near future, we never know. With that said all we can do Is expect the worse from STG and never buy a product of theirs again. I know I do enjoy some Peter Stokebey and a couple others they provide but quality will diminish over time. If worse comes to worse I have an acre of land and can grow a d prosses my own.

Basically, I'm set. Don't need to buy another tin. I learned the hard way that blends will disappear with little to no warning. And nowadays, blends will get substitutions without warning. So I stocked up on blends that I really enjoy.

I don't think C&D is going away any time soon. They're the last man standing. Of course, STG could always make an offer that's too good to refuse and that's that...

At some point thousands of cellars are going to become available as a generation of owners croak out, provided that their owners made provision to have them sold in the aftermarket. Otherwise, tons of high quality bends are going in the dumpster.

 

[Sobrbiker]

@condorlover1 - don't forget Victory Tobacco, on rationed sale this side of Oceania, on Airstrip One. Exactly the same stuff as in the former USA, but franchised by IngSoc, and with a Union Jack on the tin instead. It'll be a shag, cut too fine for a pipe and too coarse for a hand-rolled cigarette. But I'll be doing my best to join the Inner Party, where - so it is rumoured - you can get Perique to enliven the 10% generic domestic pseudo-Virginia and 90% domestic herbal additives.

Far too many times in the past few years I’ve found myself wishing:

 

[woodsroad]

I just learned from the pipesmagazine podcast that Scandinavian Tobacco Group is behind Orlik, Peterson, Dunhill, and many others (coming soon: Mac Baren/Sutliff). On top of this, they own Pipe Tobacco - Tobacco Pipes - Smoking Accessories | CupOJoes.com - https://cupojoes.com/ and Tobacco Pipes, Smoking Tobacco and Pipe Accessories (Huge Selection, Best Prices) - https://www.tobaccopipes.com/ , which is a shocker.

They are all about sales and less about tobacco. They buy the competition and eliminate most of their blends in order to gain shelf space. I know this business model well and know how quality takes a back seat when you are buying other brands just for market share.

Does anyone intentionally buy blends from other, more reputable companies that are more aligned with quality tobacco? Are there any fans of STG? I had some STG blends on my list but will be trying C&D equivalents.

Pardon my skepticism, but what rock have you been hiding under? This isn't news, by any stretch. STG bought Orlik in 2008, and has been producing the old Dunhill line (rebranded since 2019 as "Peterson's") for about 20 years.

FWIW, EVERY company that survives more than a year is all about profit. Other pipe tobacco companies may put on a nice facade about "community" and other such bullshit, but if they aren't turning a healthy profit, you get no tobacco.

 

[OverMountain]

Profitable up to a point, when the consumer switches to a different vice entirely and People Collective No. 1 is left holding its colossal shrinking dick in its hand. We're pretty close to that now.

Well said. STG has ruined SWR (how hard is it to just keep doing the same thing that’s worked for 90+ years) so my hopes are not high. The bean counters are in charge, not the consumer, nor aficionados that know what the people want working within the organization most likely.

 

[mr_future]

Pardon my skepticism, but what rock have you been hiding under? This isn't news, by any stretch. STG bought Orlik in 2008, and has been producing the old Dunhill line (rebranded since 2019 as "Peterson's") for about 20 years.

FWIW, EVERY company that survives more than a year is all about profit. Other pipe tobacco companies may put on a nice facade about "community" and other such bullshit, but if they aren't turning a healthy profit, you get no tobacco.

I just started smoking a pipe so this is all new to me. If I could do this thread all over again I would have asked everyone what they thought about the podcaster’s views and spared myself all the sarcasm and condescension.

Edit: although I earned it by making assertions about stuff I know very little about

 

[fireground_piper]

I just started smoking a pipe so this is all new to me. If I could do this thread all over again I would have asked everyone what they thought about the podcaster’s views and spared myself all the sarcasm and condescension.

Edit: although I earned it by making assertions about stuff I know very little about

You'll find quite the concentration of grumps here. I haven't seen this much commotion since the Deeming Regs were going to cancel all tobacco blends.

 

[woodsroad]

I just started smoking a pipe so this is all new to me. If I could do this thread all over again I would have asked everyone what they thought about the podcaster’s views and spared myself all the sarcasm and condescension.

Edit: although I earned it by making assertions about stuff I know very little about

My apologies, sir.

 

[Puffaluffaguss]

I just started smoking a pipe so this is all new to me. If I could do this thread all over again I would have asked everyone what they thought about the podcaster’s views and spared myself all the sarcasm and condescension.

Edit: although I earned it by making assertions about stuff I know very little about

Looks like your in the same boat as I was. When I first started pipe back in the beginning of 2017, I was just getting my feet wet and hearing of "The Best" blending house in the US was going under. It's a scary thing when you find something you love and it seems like it's dying right in front of your eyes just as soon as your diving in. Believe me I was kinda sad I couldn't try all of Mcclelands blends. But over the years I have acquired a lot of there blends. I did pay more for them, was it worth it? Maybe some of the blends St James Woods, Nordings beagle, the yendiji blends were all great but nothing to extremely different that what is out there. Believe me when I say you will have plenty to smoke even if STG screws the pooch

 

[kg.legat0]

If C&D went away and somehow the Stokkebye line of flakes /and/ OGS disappeared ...I'd probably just freakin' quit, man. I love Mac Baren blends, too - I hope the 'classics' are safe for now; it'd be odd if those were cut imo.

I have enough tobacco stored away to last me until I could learn to grow and cure my own Virginia tobacco and even get a couple years of age on it, if I felt so motivated. I've grown...other things...in the past and it worked out better than expected. I think getting a great end product with tobacco is much harder, though.

I've been familiar with the pipe tobacco world long enough now to know it's always in some weird state of upheaval - either from gov't interference or due to the ever evolving industry.

 

[mr_future]

If C&D went away and somehow the Stokkebye line of flakes /and/ OGS disappeared ...I'd probably just freakin' quit, man. I love Mac Baren blends, too - I hope the 'classics' are safe for now; it'd be odd if those were cut imo.

I have enough tobacco stored away to last me until I could learn to grow and cure my own Virginia tobacco and even get a couple years of age on it, if I felt so motivated. I've grown...other things...in the past and it worked out better than expected. I think getting a great end product with tobacco is much harder, though.

I've been familiar with the pipe tobacco world long enough now to know it's always in some weird state of upheaval - either from gov't interference or due to the ever evolving industry.

There have been a few OGS mentions in this thread. I need to try that blend if it is so essential to pipe smoking.

 

[KruegerFlap]

My thoughts on STG are 50/50. I don't like the fact that one company is buying up the tobacco world like a shop vac because that always portends a world of less variety. On the other hand they have already done a lot of good by going through the pain of buying the full rights to keep producing a good portion of the old Dunhill blends when they could have just let them die; and if what Sablebrush52 has heard about the Mac Baren family wanting out of the business is true, STG could have just let a competitor go the way of the dodo and forget about it. Instead they decided to put up the cash and will continue to produce at least some of the blends we enjoy. Will they change them? Who knows? But we could have been facing another McClelland situation where all these blends simply disappeared entirely because the owners no longer want to go on. My take away from the whole thing is buy what you like while you can, be thankful for what we got, and remember fondly what we had. And let's face the hard truth about these situations that nothing is forever and if a business decides a product isn't worth the effort of continued production then it is we the customer who are to blame because we didn't buy enough of it to show them the value. It really is a scenario of we the consumers having the power to sway the outcome. STG decided to continue production of the Dunhill blends because we bought enough to show them the profit is there. So we really can't bitch when they save another company that was going under and continue to give us what we were buying to begin with.

 

[Chasing Embers]

if it is so essential to pipe smoking.

It really isn't. It's more of a basic Virginia blend, sort of a default smoke.

 

[renfield]

I wouldn’t put OGS on a very high pedestal. It’s a reference point but not much more IMO.

 

[woodsroad]

My thoughts on STG are 50/50. I don't like the fact that one company is buying up the tobacco world like a shop vac because that always portends a world of less variety. On the other hand they have already done a lot of good by going through the pain of buying the full rights to keep producing a good portion of the old Dunhill blends when they could have just let them die; and if what Sablebrush52 has heard about the Mac Baren family wanting out of the business is true, STG could have just let a competitor go the way of the dodo and forget about it. Instead they decided to put up the cash and will continue to produce at least some of the blends we enjoy. Will they change them? Who knows? But we could have been facing another McClelland situation where all these blends simply disappeared entirely because the owners no longer want to go on. My take away from the whole thing is buy what you like while you can, be thankful for what we got, and remember fondly what we had. And let's face the hard truth about these situations that nothing is forever and if a business decides a product isn't worth the effort of continued production then it is we the customer who are to blame because we didn't buy enough of it to show them the value. It really is a scenario of we the consumers having the power to sway the outcome. STG decided to continue production of the Dunhill blends because we bought enough to show them the profit is there. So we really can't bitch when they save another company that was going under and continue to give us what we were buying to begin with.

Don't mistake any of that for altruism.

 

[ThermionicScott]

There have been a few OGS mentions in this thread. I need to try that blend if it is so essential to pipe smoking.

By all means, try it. It's not a flavor bomb, but it is really well-behaved.

 

[sablebrush52]

There have been a few OGS mentions in this thread. I need to try that blend if it is so essential to pipe smoking.

My nickname for it is Orlik Golden Showers.