So, this is all Burley? SWR is basically the comfortable old slippers of pipe tobacco.Certainly it is not a complex smoke or taste, and as prior reviewers have noted, it has changed since its introduction in 1884 by the J.G. I did detect an off smell when first opening the pouch that went away after a day or two. On this second occasion I am accused of espionage, which may or may not be truth. Cube-ish cut packs easy and lights perfectly. Smokes cool, mild , but it's decent drug store burley. Nothing complex here, just comfortable like an old pair of moccasins.I find this one really dull and somewhat bitter as I work my way through a bowl. I bought this SWR a year ago along with a couple other codger blends (Prince Albert & Carter Hall). Get SWR and enjoy!OK - not my ususal - it's got a topping and is little moist.
:) Pipe Used: Grabows, Kaywoodies, and Custom-BiltsOriginal review: This is the current stop on my trip down OTC lane. It's flat and tasteless through the first half of the bowl, and then it becomes a perfect example of the dreaded Burley curse, becoming sour and bitter to the end. tub of this, that I have had for over a year, and after about 6 months it became flavorless, truly flavorless, yet it is not really dry.I'm not a fan of burly, but this is one I can smoke every once in awhile, If you’re looking for an OTC blend that can be had almost anywhere, you’d be much better off with Captain Black or Half & Half. Where ERR is chocolate-like in aroma, with perhaps a touch of the rum that is added, upon opening SWR you get the smell of slightly fermented apples. The strength, taste and nic-hit levels are mild. SWR is what it is, a old school codger burley and has all the underpinnings thereof. I started smoking SWR in 1960 along with a few pouches of Prince Albert. No bite - just hard to like.Surprisingly Sir Walter Raleigh got me excited. In trying Sir Walter Raleigh I am forced to reevaluate my bias and conclude that some drug store blends are just darn good.Sir Walter is a dark brown, cubed burley that packs as easily as any pouch of "drug store" tobacco on the market today. It doesn't try to be anything more than that, nor was it made to be anything more. Again, I honestly thought that in order to smoke a pipe I had to settle with having my tongue feel like I'd been licking batteries all day. Best out of a cob or a clay pipe. The availability of pipe tobacco was meager to say the least. It's not a nicotine or flavor blast and it's quite simple from beginning to end but I truely am admiring simplicity both in life and pipe tobacco. Glad I bought the tub instead of a pouch because I will smoke this one on a regular basisOne of my favorite all day smokes. A decent daily smoker id you prefer burly. Its almost like the pipe you are using has been used to smoke licorice blends for years. A light soapy flavor appeared but like like all the flavors except the milk chocolate they remained in the background. It burns slow, cool and has little bite unless you pull on it like a freight train. There's really nothing to this tobacco that I like;it's bottom-of-the-barrel stuff. Notes: This blend is currently produced by Scandinavian Tobacco Group Lane, LTD.
I've smoked the Aromatic version in the past and found it decent.This was a surprise to me. It lights easily and is tolerable for the first half of the bowl....I just dump the rest. This continued until about half way through the bowl when the chocolate was replaced by a lite cocoa flavor. "Comes meus fuit illo miserrimo tempo"... Or in my native English "It was my companion at that most miserable time." What a wonderful surprise I had when smoking it on a day trip after a few weeks of New Mexico heat had effectively stoved this burley blend!
From what I gather, folks either love it or hate it. Being thrifty I got the idea to head by the nearby tobacco stop and see if they had any pipe tobacco at all. So I left the tin open for a few days, till the tobacco felt about right. Very well behaved in the pipe, as one would expect.I’ve been smoking pipes for about 40 years.
Now it seems to be almost the same as Prince Albert. and thought ... Why not !I was pleasantly surprised by SWR. 'Twas a good blade, indeed. Sir walter lists anisette as a flavoring but to me it is just a nice sweet flavor on top of the rich tobacco. Unlike PA, H&H or any of the other drugstore pouch burleys, this one never really hit that awesome nutty "burley groove" for me. Sir Walter Raleigh is boring by comparison. Just softly puff when lighting, then sip on it the rest of the time. Pipe Used: GBD. This is a great tobacco, and comes with a long history and a great price. The first few bowls were okay, but after smoking this blend for nearly a week, I began to appreciate it much more. For my part, this could be the only tobacco left and I'd be perfectly content.I did not expect a sweet, pleasant smoke to come out of this blend - but it does, and in copious amounts. This quickly fades into the background and I'm left with the flavor of good Burley. I am guided to the city square where many hath gathered to watch the Great Sir Walter Raleigh be executed. I immediately opened the SWR and after performing the sniff test I loaded up a pipe for the first smoke. Two stars for the tobacco with one more added on for dad. A good but not great Burley, but lots of extra points for how good it is for what it is.Well when I got this tobacco I wasn't expecting much. It'll bite if you push it.The taste is very smooth. It is very plain, but it burns well and dry all the way down. A little bitter as one approaches mid bowl. Smokes nicely down with rarely a relight and so far, never a bite. And I don't mean THAT grass. Aside from that it's a pretty simple one-dimensional Burley flake.Good: The taste. Mostly you get a pleasant nutty flavor, with a hint of sweetness that comes and goes. It burned fairly fast and even though this is a pretty large pipe I was done in about 40 to 45 minutes. But actually, I really like this. I love the Prince and Carter Hall, I have a real soft spot for Half and Half (the brand my father up to my great grandfather solely smoked) and I find myself dabbling in a can of Granger from time to time but Sir Walter seems to be more satisfying, burn better and have more flavour and Lady N than the brands mentioned earlier and quite frankly ill take SWR over all of them these days.