Stoker's Long Cut Straight Review

Photo by Stoker's

(Firecured) I am primarily a smoker: cigarettes, pipes, and cigars. But I have also been dipping, on and off, for decades. I first got interested around the time Hawken and Skoal Bandits came out, which I think was in the mid-eighties. Since then, there has always been a tin of something or the other in the house. My usage often depends on my job situation as I tend to bounce between blue and white collar locations. Smoking on a construction site isn’t much of a problem, but smoking in the office, or even near the office, is often impossible.

My go to “dip” is usually Camel Mellow Snus, it’s discrete, tidy, more or less nontoxic, and I love the flavor. However, it’s sweet, very sweet, and that can get monotonous, so I like to mix it up a little.

Recently, I bought my first can of Stoker’s, the LC Straight version. It doesn’t come in a pouch, so I only use it in my off hours. The taste was surprisingly good, having only seen it in the tub version, I thought it was a bargain product and probably short on quality. I was very wrong.

This is probably the most well balanced dip recipe I’ve ever tried. It has a strong tobacco flavor, but not too strong. There’s a sweetness, but not too sweet. There’s a little salt, but not too salty. Every single ingredient combines to make a very pleasurable experience. It definitely has that moist snuff taste, you know what I mean: Most cigars taste like cigars, most cigarettes taste like cigarettes, and most dip tastes like dip, it’s something we all expect, but also something we like to see vary, just a little.

It’s also moist. I have a dry mouth. How dry? I have never once spit, in 30 some years of using dip, ever. A lot of dip and snus products just sit in my mouth like carboard, and it’s not necessarily how moist the product is to the touch, but how much moisture it can generate. I’m not sure what to call that, so I’ll just say the Stoker’s is nice and juicy. Compare that to my experience with Copenhagen Southern Blend, a product that I had been looking forward to trying, but it didn’t do a thing for me, the chemistry literally wasn’t there. It’s not Copenhagen’s fault, it’s just me.

When I’m home smoking, the thoughts that enter my head usually involve Utz potato chips or Oreos, lately that little voice has been saying, “You know, there’s an open can of dip in the fridge.” I open the door and there sits a little box overflowing with Camel, and Off Road, and Skoal, and Copenhagen, but I always grab the Stoker’s. Great product.