Former Private Flake

(2.69)
Notes: Different Virginias [as well as burley], USA, Zimbabwe, Zaire, and India. The casing consists of several extracts like fig-tree-fruit, tamarind, nut, truffle, apple syrup finally rounded with Irish top flavor.

Details

Brand Former
Blended By  
Manufactured By  
Blend Type Aromatic
Contents Burley, Virginia
Flavoring Apple, Fruit / Citrus, Irish Mist, Nuts / Beans, Other / Misc
Cut Ribbon
Packaging 100 grams tin
Country Germany
Production Currently available

Profile

Strength
Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild -> Overwhelming
Flavoring
Mild to Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
None Detected -> Extra Strong
Room Note
Pleasant
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unnoticeable -> Overwhelming
Taste
Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild (Flat) -> Overwhelming

Average Rating

2.69 / 4
4

6

3

3

Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 10 of 16 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Mar 18, 2016 Medium Very Mild Medium to Full Pleasant
One of the all-time great tobaccos of its type in my opinion. Stout Virginia leaf combined with exotic Burley trim from South Africa, and then a fig like topping mixed in to provide a strong but deeply flavorful blend that is sure to please.
5 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jun 15, 2017 Medium Mild to Medium Medium to Full Pleasant
Former - Private Flake.

Whenever I read fruit/citrus in a description it often fills me with dread. It leads me to expect an over sharp, lemony, caustic flavour. But that isn't the case here!

The moisture and build of the flakes mean a bowl can be loaded in seconds, all they require is a light touch to turn them to ribbons. The colour's medium brown, and the tin smells aromatic, but there's no sharp fruit.

The smoke has a deeper, richer style of aromatic flavour, rather than sprightly and sharp. At the start the strongest flavour is easily the figs. And then we have the nuts, playing perfectly with the Burley, and equalling the figs after halfway. The Irish Mist gives notable flavour: creamy and slightly piquant, but much stronger for the beginning of a bowl. There's a sweetness present, but it doesn't have any idiosyncratic traits to suggest it's from the apple syrup; I'd say it's simply any old syrup! The burn's good, albeit a touch quick.

The nicotine's medium, and I like the room-note.

I'll happily highly recommend Former Private Flake:

Four stars.
Pipe Used: Meerschaum
PurchasedFrom: Smokingpipes.com
Age When Smoked: Two months
4 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 17, 2016 Medium Mild to Medium Medium Pleasant
My positive experience with Private Flake from Former could be the result of receiving a well-aged tin. The underlying flakes appear to be of high quality and the tin note offered up some manually added fruitiness as well as the scent that often comes from well-aged Virginias. Out of the more than eight or nine hundred different blends that I have smoked, Mixture 79 is by far my most hated blend. Thankfully, I didn’t taste the comparison that others have mentioned. The flakes only required a few minutes under a desk lamp to become pipe ready. I prefer to fold and stuff this flake with a little bit rubbed out to get things going. It is slow burning and I didn’t get a bite, but it will burn warm if pushed. I didn’t pull out all of the toppings as for me it was mainly just fruity with some nutty (not from the Burley) flavor in the background. Given the aromatic quality to this blend, I was a bit surprised by the amount of nicotine that this smoke offered. Considering the large number of pipe tobaccos that are out there today, there are plenty of blends that are much stronger, but this one is no wimp. The Burley also provides some back bone to this blend too. I can easily see how this blend isn’t going to be a hit for a lot of folks, but, at least well-aged, I rather enjoyed it.
Age When Smoked: 10+ years
3 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 08, 2019 Medium Very Mild Medium Pleasant
a simply classic great semi aromatic virginia flake. The very highest quality virginia, stoved, and then given a complex flavoring. Reminds me of erinmore flake only sort of more elegantly rendered. Medium strength and nic hit. Go get some...if you can find any.
PurchasedFrom: cup o joes
2 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 12, 2016 Mild to Medium Mild to Medium Medium Pleasant
I really like the flavors here, both natural and added. The natural flavors are fruity and tangy and have a nice depth to them. The added are mostly fig and a touch of nut. I find the overall flavor very pleasant, It comes at the proper moisture from the tin for an immediate smoke, just a touch on the dry side. I have to deduct a star for a slight ph bite. I get a bit of a tingle to my tongue and lips that mildly lessens the pleasure of smoking this fine flake. It burns perfectly and remains a cool smoke even when pushed a bit. Since ph bite is a personal thing you may not experience it here. Worth trying.

Mild to medium in body. Medium in taste. I find the added flavoring to be mild to medium. Same results in briar, cob, or clay.
Pipe Used: Ropp Dublin, MM Mark Twain, MF #4
PurchasedFrom: smokingpipes.com
Age When Smoked: 2 months
2 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Mar 03, 2010 Mild Strong Mild Pleasant to Tolerable
Has a very strong taste of the flavoring used. Tastes like some talcum powder smells. Not a favorite of mine at all. I have spent hours trying to remove this very taste from estate pipe that I have bought in the past. Although some may prefer this taste, I do not and will gift the rest of this newly opened tin to someone else who prefers to sample or try other flavors from time to time.
2 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Nov 29, 2002 Medium Extra Strong Extra Full Pleasant
I found the possibility of an aromatic flake interesting enough to give this one a try even though I normally smoke VA flakes. The blend consists on nicely formed flakes of golden to light brown tobaccos. All of the many positve smoking attributes are totally overshadowed by the soapy tin aroma, taste and aftertaste. The casing is so strong that I didn't sense much of a VA/Burley flavor at all. Perhaps this is a favored taste of the Danish pipe maker, Neilsen, but it's not for me.
2 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jul 12, 2002 Mild to Medium Medium Mild to Medium Very Pleasant
Tin Aroma: This is definately a flavoured blend, and the aroma tells the story. On top of the sweet, mellow Virginia scent, there lies, thick, like fog, a soapy, syrupy smell, one that reminds me of the sour mash used in making apple cider.

Physical Characteristics: A partially rubbed-out flake. Mostly light and bright, but with a darker vein here and there. I had a good bit of trouble keeping this lit, probably due to the topping and assorted humectants. Burns somewhat evenly to a dirty grey ash.

Notes: From the first light, I was hit by a blast of artificial flavor, definately not the thing I was looking for in a Virginia flake. Consequently, this blend was restricted, during further smoking, to clays and meerschaums, less likely to retain any residue of the unnatural aroma. Unfortunately, the casing used is pervasive, and stays with the smoke all the way through, turning the last few puffs into a bitter, stinking morass.

Verdict: I was pretty dissapointed in this blend. I would rank it above Erinmore, but just barely. I might recommend this to someone, if I didn't like them.
2 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jan 29, 2020 Mild to Medium Medium Mild to Medium Unnoticeable
A couple of weeks ago I was looking for something different at the club and saw this and the price tag was also a selling point. This was a 50-gram tin with nice beautiful brown flakes. The tin was small enough that you feel like you are getting your moneys worth as the trend is to throw some flakes in a large round tin with a lot of empty space. Not even sure how long this one has been laying around. This has a really sweet tin note that several reviewers have described as fig like so I will go with that. This is another what I would call a natural aromatic in that it finishes the bottom of the bowl dry and not goopy or wet and has a more natural taste. The more I smoked this the better I enjoyed. I did notice like another reviewer that this tends to burn a little quick. A nice relaxing time this afternoon sipping coffee on the front porch after work.
Pipe Used: Meerschaum
1 person found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Mar 03, 2019 Mild Mild Medium Unnoticeable
As always with DTM tobaccos this tin tasted not as the last tin of the same stuff. What I had now was a pretty fine flake in the old irish tradition. I opened the tin and the smell was heavenly! At first a very matured virginia came to mind . So sweet, fruity and round with no artificial flavour agent to detect. Also while smoking I couldn`t say what they used to create such natural sweetnes. Only my experience with virginia flakes at all ages said there is something used and it is used very expertly. The downside to me is a little lack in nicotne how it is often the case. In summary: sweet but not cloying round and bitefree. I like it
Pipe Used: several
PurchasedFrom: Gerd Jansens Pfeifendepot
Age When Smoked: fresh
1 person found this review helpful.
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