Peter Stokkebye Irish Slices

Peter Stokkebye - Irish Slices.

This is quite a non-demanding smoke. I struggle to pick out any added flavours, to me it's a wholehearted Virginia/Kentucky blend. From beginning to end the burn's consistent, giving a medium temperature, bite-free smoke.

The room-note's not the best, and I find it a little heady on the nicotine! But, seeing as I never inhale that presents no problem.

Highly recommended.

I do not usualy smoke flakes or rough shags, (I'm a light aromatic man) finding them too strong and pungent. However,I was drawn to this tobacco by the fantastic smell it had in the jar so I baught some on impulse.

The big flat flake-cakes had a realy good moisture content and feel to them. The smell was of woodsmoke, spiced wine and a more subtle caramel. the overall impression was of fine church incense.

The flakes rubbed out easily and filled well. Had to light it a couple of times to get it burning nicely, then it stayed lit well. the taste was creamy, spicy, and oaklike finished with a slight sweetness. it burnt clean and cool to a grey ash with next to no dottle. There was no bite even when i was drawing fiercely on it to get it fired up.

I was very impressed by this tobbacco, I was expecing to be overwhelmed by taste and strength but it was a lovley medium to full bodied smoke. It goes a long way too the flakes rubbing out loosely to get a nice fill from only a small section of the cake. My only gripe is the Nicotine level is a little on the high side. Buy some you won't be disappointed.

My understanding is that (before my time) Irish Slices were blended by Murrays. Although that original blend is no longer available, Irish Slices can still be obtained from a few UK tobacconists as a bulk blend which, according to the sticker on the jar at my local B&M, is now produced by Peter Stokkebye.

I have no idea what the original blend was like so I can't draw any comparisons. I can offer my thoughts on the blend you can buy today.

Like the other Murrays flakes I sampled that were taken over by PS, the flakes of Irish Slices are very long, double the length of a Samuel Gawith flake for example. Irish Slices are dark in colour, creating the expectation of a strong smoke with plenty of fire-cured flavour.

In actual fact, I found that there is a good deal of VA tang in the smoke, which only mellows out to typical Kentucky flavours after the half-way mark. Surprisingly, there was so much tang that I actually suffered some bite and mouth irritation for the first few bowls. Although there is a slightly sweet and fruity topping present I don't think that contributed...more likely it was over zealous puffing on my part and perhaps a slight body chemistry issue. Either way, switching pipes and cube cutting the flakes helped to alleviate this problem.

Irish Slices are strong, but not as punishing as my favourite rope tobacco. They are also not quite as flavoursome as I expected, and for that reason I have to rank them accordingly.

Somewhat recommended, as although this is a decent tobacco it didn't quite live up to my expectations in terms of flavour and smoothness. I eagerly await popping the seal on my first tin of Peterson's Irish Flake, which I hope will compare favourably and perhaps deliver a similar overall experience to Irish Slices but with a bit more flavour and 'smokeability'.

By all means try this solid blend, but perhaps hold back on any large orders until you have tried it and are sure it's one for you.

This is very attractive tobacco right out of the pouch, thick, tight, large flakes beautifully dark with sparse light flecks. The pouch note is absolutely divine, the rich dark plummy dark berry scent of fine Virginia tobacco, blended with a mulled-wine undertone, which gives it the feel of a cold crisp morning with the sun peeking out occasionally from behind slight wispy clouds, whilst a warming beverage is consumed in the garden, whilst surrounded with cut grass as the birds tweet from nearby trees. In terms of smoking, it was difficult to smoke without reasonable rubbing out, it can be smoked stuffed & folded, but be prepared to relight a few times throughout the bowl. Either way, it delivers a bite-free cool smoking experience. The taste is brilliant Virginia tobacco, it has a hint of the pouch-note, and produces a moderate amount of fine smoke, slightly sweet, satisfying, and pleasant. The strength is in the medium range, possibly a little over medium, and is extraordinarily satisfying. The tobacco has very little to detract from it, with the possible exception that it doesn't smoke too well when folded & stuffed, and the casing could be foregone without detracting from the tobacco, added to this, rubbing it out is quite a chore - it doesn't come apart too easily & requires some work to get it down to a finely rubbed smoke. The amount of dottle I tend to get from this is moderate as well, and the ash is fairly salt & pepper, not the clear white it would be if the casing was lighter/not present. The room-note is pleasant, with the traditional Virginia smell underwritten by the casing. I will give this tobacco a 3-star rating as - although I like this - I am now reserving my 4-stars for tobaccos that really blow my socks off. This smoke doesn't change too much throughout the bowl, but is pleasant throughout. This is a very high 3-star tobacco, and if I could award half-stars, I would give it 3 & a half. I'll be getting some more in for sure. Highly recommended.

I tried this a while ago and remember it well.

It is said on the james barber website that this is a good alternative to condor. I will admit i made a mistake here as i kept comparing it too much to condor and should of evaluated it at its own merit. Which is what i will do here And also how it compares to condor.

Thick flat dark flakes interspersed with flecks of lighter tobacco. I would say this is a dark and stoved virginia flake with added burley to carry the flavours. Rubbing out is quite easy it can take a little more effort but not too much. Filling and lighting the pipe is easy enough. Lighting up you are greeted by a slightly boozy fruity flavour with a little floral for goodmeasure. This tobacco can be a little troublesome it can go out a littke too much for my liking but a little drying soon cures this. All in all in its own merit it is a solid tobacco with nice flavours and once the relight issues have been addressed it is a nice smoke and too me a good old fashioned style tobacco which should suit anyone to the aromatics fan for the casing too the flake enthusiast.

Now its comparisons to condor i can see why it is compared to condor as its flavour is a milder less in your face version of condor. It is very similar although not bang on the head the same. I would say if you are interested in trying condor try this first if you get away with this then condor should pose no issues.

Side by side with condor it is a good match but it just doesnt have that uniqueness that condor has.

Dont get me wrong its a good solid tobacco and very enjoyable, some people may try it and find it better than condor and thats okay we all have our own oppinion, its just that i feel that this should be judged on its own merit.

Irish slices is a good solid dependable baccy with very nice flavours and good burning with a little drying and should be tried at least once if you can. On its own merit its a solid three stars from me

This is another spot on blend in the field of old fashioned tobacco, which I tend to like. Its so honest and pure. The taste and room notes are fine and robust and remind me of old times, my grandfather and so on.

However I cant ignore the pain its causing my nose when I exhale from it. It´s such a shame, otherwise I would smoke this often.

Stokkebye’s Irish Slices, arrives a long, wide (1.25in) strip. It is dark brown and “leathery” in appearance. It offers a little bit of the medicinal scent that I associate with Peterson’s Irish Flake, which is a blend that I am not fond of anymore. I have rubbed it out and smoked it in small pieces. I prefer the latter. In the pipe, I really enjoyed this much more than Peterson’s. For me the Virginia’s lead the way with the Burley in smaller role. The topping is much lighter than I expected. It is a fairly sweet flake and not overpowering in strength with, for me, only coming in at about medium or very slightly above. It also offers some earthy flavor too, but again, for me, the star of the show is the Virginia's. There is no bite at all, even when I push it. The taste is straightforward, but delicious. I think this would be fantastic to cellar. I seem to be on a very pleasant streak of four star blends of late and Irish Slices is no exception. Sadly, this blend has now been discontinued by Stokkebye. One has to wonder if Stokkebye had offered this outside of the UK market if there would have been enough demand to keep this blend alive? It's a shame.

I had gone to buy the last tin of McBarens Bold Kentucky, I'd just got a couple of pipes off the bay and even after salt treatment, still had a ghost in them and while picking up a tin of Mick McQuaid's square cut, he had no plug, I had my arm twisted to try this, very unsure, as Kevin who once had a great range of Sam Gawith, has gone over to the dark side, and his shelves are stocked with G&H and as he produced the tobacco from the back end of that range, I got worried, I just don't like G&H, with all due respect, they have an excellent range and devoted followers. Unfortunately for me, I just do not like "florals" and having no idea that this was infact made by Peter Stockebye, I was shown a long wide leathery strip of tobacco, "Smell this" said Kevin proudly, Irish slices. "I already have some Irish Flake" I said, hoping to put him off, not an easy thing to do with Kevin, "Try 25g then" he said, and I agreed. I wanted something strong when I got home and so tore a small piece off and rubbed it out, and as mentioned by others, this was a little more difficult than your usual flake, this was then loaded into a small German clay pipe, just in case it was loaded with the dreaded florals, at least I wouldn't ruin a good briar. Both the burley and the Virginia could be detected at once, I didn't detect any topping or flavouring and if it's there, it's minuscule, a fairly but not overpowering robust down to earth tobacco taste with each component complimenting the other, I knew from the first puff I was going to like this, and I did, I like a good straightforward no nonsense tobacco and that's exactly what I got. Would definately come into my top 5 of the heavy hitters, in third place to Warrior Plug, then Mac Barens ODF neither of which require the use of cigar leaf to ramp up the flavour. We're I to ask for more ? It would be in the flavour department and a bit more vitamin N wouldn't hurt either, yes it does go out from time to time but mine seems to burn down to grey ash if dried a little and not once did it bite. Although not quite worthy of 4 stars, there's not enough "cons" to call for a 3 and besides its a good smoke for anytime of day, its biggest plus for me ? It's walking distance to Kevin's.

This is the yoeman of tobaccos. It's sturdy, reliable. It's the same from top to bottom. It can be smoked morning, noon and night. Virginia sweet and yet robust. There's salt and pepper. And simple spicey niceness. It's makes no claim to be haut cuisine, it's rather the sausages from the local butcher for your English breakfast.