Fribourg & Treyer Cut Blended Plug

This one is a bit stronger that CVP.... Neither, of course, has Perique,so the previous reviewer may want to check what he had in his pipe.

The tobacco is easy to break up fully or partially, loads easily and lights without much trouble. A bit of drying out tends to help the lighting process and produces less heat during the smoke.

I found this to have nice, easy to enjoy flavor and it was feathery in the nicotine department, so, it won't make your body tingle. It did captivate my palate and will please me again in the future as I want more of this weed!

This is an outstanding flake. Wonderful flavors. Citrus and dark fruit with some toasted bread in the second half. To go with that is a nice bit of tang, a mild spice and best of all a sweetness with some depth of flavor to it. The sweetness is sometimes caramel-like, sometimes like brown or demerara sugar. The topping seems to mostly match the natural flavors of the Virginias making them richer. My best guess is that this is a blend of Bright, Red and Stoved Virginias. Delicious.

Mild to medium in body. Medium in taste. Flavoring is very mild. Burns very well.

The red Virginias range from dark to orange with a very few strands of brighter Virginias in the mix. They offer a burst of tangy, fermented ripe dark fruit, some dried fruit, and a fair amount of tart and tangy citrus along with a lot of earth, some wood and grass, light sugar and vinegar with a pinch or two of spice and bread. There is an extremely mild sugary, creamy fruit topping, though its effect is minimal. The strength level is just past the center of mild to medium. The taste is a step or so short of the media mark. The nic-hit is rung shy the strength threshold. No chance of bite or harshness, bur there is a hint of a rough edge here and there. This flake easily breaks apart to suit your preference. The flakes are a tad moist, but don’t need any dry time. Burns cool, clean and a little slow with a mostly consistent sweet Virginia flavor from start to finish. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, and requires some relights. Has a pleasant, lightly lingering after taste and room note. Can be an all day smoke.

-JimInks

A hair darker in color than Cut Virginia Plug, with less fruit and no vanilla in the tin nose. I wasn't as taken with this one as I am CVP, but this is still a worthy blend. Some mild spice and the typical grassiness of red virginia but seemed a bit fruity to be a pure red. It leaned to the orange side of red, with very little of red's tanginess. This was earthier than CVP but still a sweet virginia. I preferred this just a bit dryer than CVP, as drying took it's fruitiness down a bit.

Not very high in nicotine and not terribly complex for the most part, it's complexity was subtle and easily missed in various bowls while it seemed more noticeable in others. The flavor had some citrus character but nothing like OGS or Dunhill Flake. But neither was it red red like F&T's Blackjack, a blend I prefer to this one. Orangey, as I mentioned. This is a very good blend that falls well short of greatness but it is definitely worth a try to any virginia lover. Just don't expect miracles right out of the tin. I have a few more tins of this that I plan to age and revisit.

Colors: Dark almost black to brown/reddish-brown and a dash of orange

Tin Aroma: Upon opening the tin, the aroma is fantastic! At first, fig newtons with a dash of pear settling down into a ripe dark fruit with light brown sugar.

First Impression: This is my first ever Fribourg & Treyer purchase. This company was unknown to me until another tobacco enthusiast mentioned it in a potential trade. I was roaming about my local B&M and happened upon a tin. Very unassuming, with a mostly blank red label with the company logo and name at the top.

Taste: Starts out with light brown sugar notes, very mellow, as the bowl progresses the Virginian’s stove, dark fruits finishing with a bit of citrus tang. If you move this along too fast, it will get peppery but didn’t seem to bite me too hard, regardless of my transgression.

Smokability: 5 stars. I could smoke this all day, and in all likelihood, I will.

Pipes: Savenilli 614, Rossi 8670

Will I buy more? I will be purchasing quite a few tins of CBP for cellaring in addition to exploring their other blends.

Thoughts: While I am sure this will taste good with some age, it was a fantastic smoke fresh. I am not going to worry about jarring this up as the tin will suffice for storage. I will be smoking this every day until it is gone. Fribourg & Treyer - Cut Blended Plug is a cellar-worthy blend that I will be ordering more of soon.

This is my second blend that I have tried from Fribourg& Treyer. These people know Virginia.........In a Bibical way. I don't think anyone does Va. blends any better...very few do them as well. This little tin is full of pleasure. The flakes are absolutely beautiful...light brown, with some golden streaks, and a some small black specks. I have tried this rubbed out, and folded. This is the easiest flake to get a good burn without the need to rub out. The pack light, and burn are exceptional. The flavor is full, sweet, and well balanced. I find no bight even when I puff aggressively. I only wish these people would release thier blend in bulk. For now I have filled a small drawer in my cellar with tins of CBP. I have another with the sister blend Cut Va. Plug. In my book they both get * * * *

Broken flakes at perfect moisture. No need to rub, just stuff and go. Very easy lighting, very easy handling in general. Does not bite at all and never gets hot. Surprisingly full flavored for such a mild strength and nicotine tobacco - on the mild side of medium. It also produces abundant smoke and is slow burning and smooth.

Bright hay-like Virginias with juicy sweet and tangy fruitiness reminiscent of plums or figs together with a mild (Oriental I was about to write, but it does not contain) sourness and possibly a touch of molasses (or caramel as other reviewers have mentioned).

Flavours evolve throughout the bowl. As the smoke progresses it becomes headier, darker with notes of cocoa. A very easy to like tobacco.

Maybe it’s a little too sweet and repeated smoking might make it feel cloying. Otherwise, its smoothness, mildness, fullness of flavor would warrant and all-day smoke.

Anyone suggesting this as a smoke for beginners is in need of sleep. Or that Dunhill flakes are more rich. Nonsense. (but then this reviewer tasted no casing...sigh) Like Golden Mixture, this is a hugely underrated tobacco. In fact, Fribourg and Treyer are in general underrated. CBP is a nice old school flake, cased nicely and lightly with rum perhaps and maybe plum and some other fruit, and all of it is balanced and comes in a wonderful smelling flake. It is a bit lighter in color and strength, but not in flavor. Its delicious. F&T use quality tobacco, and again, i feel are for some reason undervalued. This is far better than many better known flakes....and its also extremely cool smoking. Nic hit is just barely below medium, but flavor is pretty full. Smoked slowly it will yield more taste. A contemplative medium strength full tasting high end Virginia flake. Now it IS cased...so its not really in the same category as Dunhill Flake or SG FVF, but closer perhaps to University Flake (the new Peterson version as ive not smoked the Rattray incarnation). So its not a pure Virginia flake, but something approaching aromatic, but not quite. So if you like University flake, I suspect you will like this.

Fribourg and Treyer - Cut Blended Plug.

When I opened the tin I was surprised to see only two rows of wide flakes. I expected the usual three rows but Fribourg & Treyer have been more daring by keeping their flakes fairly thick in width. I'm not exactly sure what the added flavourings are but I find a fairly strong berry like aroma. The aroma has a slightly higher touch of fruit than the smokes taste does.

The taste has without a doubt been livened up with berries and citrus, there is a zesty edge to the smoke along with a caramel type of sweetness as well. When I light up a bowl of this it burns very stable throughout, mind I expected this when I noticed the good hydration level from the tin. There isn't a great deal of nicotine in Cut Blended Plug, it's present but if you crave N you may have to take a big puff of smoke. I feel the word mild is applicable for many factors of this. I notice a subtle Virginia hay taste, not the big grassy one that can often be found. The added tastes are again soft, I can notice them but they appear delicately added. Nicotine, again, mild.

As others say, this could possibly be the quintessential blend to begin the pipe smoking hobby with and even the more experienced may enjoy it. I love it, highly recommended.

Like all F&T "plugs," this is really more like a flake, which is to say it looks, feels and rubs out like a flake. Cut plug tends to be a bit denser in my experience.

The leaf and quality of blending and processing are more than apparent, but this stuff definitely has some sort of topping. There is a slight but noticable floral scent to the flake, and the light-up produces a decidedly soapy taste. (A quick double-check of the product description above confirms this: the "natural flavoring" of which it speaks is probably floral in nature.) This flavor diminishes in the second half of the bowl, but never completely goes away. The taste of the tobacco is first-rate VA, but the Bowl-O'-Lifebuoy sensation rules it out completely for me, sad to say.