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RavenBlack

Lurker
Dec 7, 2025
33
643
Halberg Red Label (Mac Baren) in a Stanwell churchwarden (with its short stem.)

And... it didn't taste like anything - not even like tobacco. I looked up some reviews, and one reviewer (2013) had the same experience.

The only thing I get - and it's very, very faint - is a whisper of the floral note that's so present in Rattray's Exotic Passion.

Couldn't even get a scent of anything from the embers that were still burning and smoking when I dumped out the bowl. Zero room note.

This was a gift and I'm sure it's from some time ago. Although the foil package was sealed, the tobacco did feel a bit dry. I've jarred it, and put in a humidifying disk, and will check it over the next couple of days. We'll see if it can be resuscitated.

I do get a mild scent of cherry or berries and/or whiskey in the jar... but once, lit... nothing. Has anyone else tried this?

Snapseed 66.jpeg
 

JoeW

Lifer
Apr 1, 2024
1,387
12,726
Upper Peninsula, Michigan, USA
HU Nebari in a Falcon snifter

IMG_2505.jpeg

I should be smoking those seasonal blends some friends have sent me, but after yesterday's delicious bowl of Nebari, I wanted to try again to see whether I was dreaming it. First Bowl Effect can play tricks on the mind and memory. But today's bowl is equally delicious and fragrant: very pleasant!

It's been a long year, but as of 5PM today, I'm officially on vacation for the rest of 2025. Work anniversary was last Friday, annual review was positive, minimal raise, and I managed to meet my last deadline at 4:30 today; all the Christmas cards and gifts have been bought, sent, and received, all preparations are done, and I'm looking forward to a nice, quiet, relaxing time off. Who knows? Maybe it'll even happen!
 

RavenBlack

Lurker
Dec 7, 2025
33
643
Halberg Red Label (Mac Baren) in a Stanwell churchwarden (with its short stem.)

And... it didn't taste like anything - not even like tobacco. I looked up some reviews, and one reviewer (2013) had the same experience.

The only thing I get - and it's very, very faint - is a whisper of the floral note that's so present in Rattray's Exotic Passion.

Couldn't even get a scent of anything from the embers that were still burning and smoking when I dumped out the bowl. Zero room note.

This was a gift and I'm sure it's from some time ago. Although the foil package was sealed, the tobacco did feel a bit dry. I've jarred it, and put in a humidifying disk, and will check it over the next couple of days. We'll see if it can be resuscitated.

I do get a mild scent of cherry or berries and/or whiskey in the jar... but once, lit... nothing. Has anyone else tried this?

View attachment 440307
Feeling rather let down from the Halberg experience, I packed half a bowl of seven-year-old Dunhill Standard Mixture to try. Tin says "Virginia and Turkish." I was a little wary of the tin (now jar) scent, but the flavor was not as wild as I expected. Got gentle notes of Russian Orthodox church incense on the retrohale. Interesting. Not something I would have tried on my own, so - again - grateful for my friend's gift so that I could experience it.
 

JimInks

Sultan of Smoke
Aug 31, 2012
70,451
810,479
Relaxing after a wonderful salad, haddock and sugar snap peas dinner with strawberries for dessert. I'm a quarter of the way through this bowl of first production Seattle Pipe Club Hogshead in a well appreciated medium bend, smooth brown 1950s Peterson 999 Dublin chubby Rhodesian with a tapered black vulcanite p-lip stem. Community Coffee, neat, is my drink. Fed all the cats, and the ferals went outside afterward.
Peterson_999_Rhodesian-Dublin.jpg