Bjarne Flake de Luxe

I am one of those guys who likes a bit of discreet flavoring in his Virginia leaf. I found some good stuff here! Bjarne's de Lux flake came to me in a recent pipe board tobacco box pass. I chose to smoke my first bowl in an Ercole Bogni that I am still somewhat breaking in. Bogni is one of the outstanding Italian pipe artisans who does not have a following outside his own country because he has no distributor. I can see why he is in demand, his pipe was terrific from bowl one.

Oops, forgot this was a tobacco, not pipe review. Sorry. This Bjarne Virginia Flake does indeed have a secret ingredient that adds to the flavor -- which otherwise -- is very light. No bite and cool. Soft rather than loud, you may need to check your pipe a few times while smoking just to make sure the tobacco is really lit.

An all day smoke, but I'll reserve it for times when I crave a light smoke. This is light with a capial L...but, it is smooth and tasty too.

The bright and gold Virginias offer plenty of grass/hay, tart and tangy citrus, bread, some sugar, mild earth, wood, floralness, vegetation, sour lemon. small pinch of spice, and a touch of bitter acidity. The honey topping, which reminds me of honeydew, mildly sublimates the tobaccos. The strength and nic-hit are a couple of steps past the mild mark. The taste level is a notch past that, just falling short of the center of mild to medium. Won’t bite or get harsh, but I do recommend a sipping pace while you puff. Has a few small rough notes along with a minute essence of cream and bitterness. Burns clean and slightly warm at a slow rate, which is typical of mildly moist broken flake products. The sweet and sour, fruity, sugary, honey, floral flavor is very one dimensional and consistent to the finish. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, and requires some relights. Has a lightly lingering after taste, and a pleasant room note. Can be an all day smoke.

-JimInks

Bought 2 tins 12 years ago. Really liked it then and have just worked through half of a 12 year tin. It has aged well. The smell is slightly fig sweet with stringy medium colored brown flakes packed in a mound of tobacco. Perfect moisture level for immediate smoking. The burn was excellent, a mild strength with a very flavorful taste. A great change of pace from the heavier Virginias I've been smoking lately. A solid 3.5 stars.

I am a Latakia Lover by nature, but this just blew me away! I do have my favorite flakes and this combined the best qualities of all of them. It is a combination of Dunhill light Flake, Peterson University Flake, SG Chocolate Flake, and Stonehaven all rolled into one! A mild, cool burning, lightly topped flake that will give you an hour of pleasure in a medium bowl. No bite, no Nicotine wallop, and no heat. This was wonderful! 4 of 4 stars!

01-26-2005

Appearance and Tin Aroma: Beautiful golden flakes neatly stacked and folded. Smells wonderful, fortified hay and sweet notes abound. This has a "honeydew" topping.

Packing and Lighting: Very easy with moisture perfect out of the tin. 2-3 lights max.

Initial Flavor: Sweet, bright VA.

Mid-bowl: Mellows somewhat, but can get a little bitey if you are not careful. The sweetnote is felt more than tasted at this point.

Bottom of Bowl: A delicate spiciness develops and before you know it, you are done with only a fine grey ash left over.

Overall: This blend appears to be made by Dan and to my nose and palate is the same CAO Patriot flake. That is not to say that this is bad, but this flake is not as good as Marlin Flake, Blackwoods Flake, or Gawith's Curly Cut Deluxe IMHO. This blend can be nippy if one is not careful, probably due to the topping added. I prefer this to Orlick Golden Sliced though, but with so many other excellent Flakes out there, I doubt I will buy another tin.

Rating: 3 out of 5 points.

Probably the best introduction to straight Virginias I have ever tried. This is a velvety smooth, natural tasting and slightly sweet smelling flake, very mild yet flavoursome, tangy, with no tongue bite whatsoever. Elegant, fresh, polite, it has all the elements of a high quality Virginia, perfectly pressed and exquisite in its overall structure.

I have been smoking this in a Dublin Brebbia, in a semi bent Stanwell and in a Savinelli Oscar, with excellent results all the time. It is very mild, but it has enough spiciness to make it enjoyable. In the tin the tobacco comes tightly pressed and it has an aroma not unlike Duinhill´s Three Year Matured, and similar to G. Smith?s Old London 100% Virginia: sugary, very much like molasses and dried raisins. The aroma, however, does not carry onto the flavour, nor the pipe. The flakes are easy to rub out and pack, and it lights easily.

On the palate the smoke is clean and fresh. It has that peculiar zest that I also find in Virginias likes Rattray?s Marlin Flake and Dunhill´s Light Flake. In fact, Flake de Luxe is as good and savoury as these tobaccos, simply in a milder form. The flavour remains constant throughout the bowl. It is quite cool for a straight Virginia, and as an early morning smoke it is unsurpassable. If you want to turn anyone into real pipe smoking, this is the tobacco to do it with. Even for a seasoned palate, this Virginia is an excellent choice. Highly recommended.

Nice enough mild virginia tobacco, but lacking any real character, taste or unusual attribute over and above anything else on the market at the moment.

There is nothing wrong with this blend, it's just so bland all round.

Even the tin is bland and uninspired. Plain white label with 'bjarne flake de luxe' printed on it. It would fit right in with the other pipe tobaccos available in this country in looks and taste (or lack of).

The flake itself is almost remarkable for one thing and that is the stodgy mess that you find when you open the tin. None of your neat little soldiers of pressed flake or even the choppiness of SG's Golden glow. No, it's just a shapeless blob of tobacco, which, if you didn't know otherwise could be a lump of plug. I guess this isn't a criticism, because lets face it, this blend breaks up like any other, once you've twigged that this cannot be broken one-handedly. Oh, yes it's smells nice, but then so do loads of other virginia tobaccos.

It's an absolute swine to light and to keep lit. I don't know why, because the moisture level seems about right out of the can.

So, this isn't a totally pointless blend - you could certainly use it to smoke out that ghost in that briar you've just never got around to doing and you couldn't be arsed to get out the salt n' alcohol. Or you could use this as a base for blending your own mix, or even spray it with those old sprays you inherited from a fit of pique when you did a tobacconist's order back in 2001.

Ok the last is silly, but this is worth having - especially at the price I got it from Dan Pipe.

Using the brilliant Capstan blends as the benchmark this falls well short of the mark, but equally there just isn't anything unpleasant or particularly memorable about this particular blend. Here's to backs of pipe smokers cabinets everywhere, with the lid screwed on tight.

Flake de Luxe is a very mild flake hovering somewhere in the Danish spectrum of things. Quite frankly, and in my own opinion of course, much like Bjarne's line of pipes, there isn't alot to cheer for here.

In the tin it smells intensively sweet. It's a very bright (golden va) flake with grass and citrus notes and a sugary topping of some sort. If there's any oriental in here, as has been suggested, it's hidden very well.

I've tried packing this in any odd number of ways, and it doesn't seem to make much of a difference whether you fold it or rub it. Burning characteristics are good, it doesn't require any special method or nursing, provided you're somewhat experienced with (VA) flakes. For the beginner there is always the danger of tonguebite with VA, and Flake de Luxe is no exception.

As far as smoking it goes I wouldn't call it outstanding, certainly not worthy of a luxus moniker. It is quite sweet and honey-like in its flavour, but it is also severly lacking in body and nicotine (even for something explicitly labeled as "mild"). Overall it is a quite pleasant no-brainer of a blend that requires little effort, but also doesn't deliver very much in terms of complexity or depth. There is an element of spice when you start to get close to the bottom of the bowl, but nothing that profoundly adds to the finish. Aftertaste is non descript.

Personally I'd rather smoke some of Orlik's Golden Sliced than this when I want a mild flake. Overall I think that this is a pretty bland and much too mild flake to be able to hold any interest for very long. I do have a tin from 2006 cellared away, and I might open that one of these days and see if it has changed for the better, but somehow I doubt it.

Somewhat recommended in the end though, it's not the worst flake I've ever tried, but not the best either, and my "meh" might come out as "aah" from you, so give it a go if you find yourself in need of a mild all-day smoke.

Flake de Luxe is a winner - pure and simple. Classic VA aroma and taste with a light top dressing for extra flavor. The flavoring is the best rendering I have ever experienced of that ubiquitous "Danish-Style" casing that so many brands and blenders have attempted to use through the years - often without success.

Here the topping comes through as a citrus-apricot-tangy-creaminess that merges seamlessly with the natural VA flavor that possesses a similar flavor profile. The marriage of natural VA grassy-creamy-tanginess with the topping works wonderfully, complimenting the tobacco, not masking it.

Rubs out easy with a scent almost identical to fresh cut hay sun-curing in the field.

Pack this one medium to lightly, it gets hot and wet in a hurry if packed too tight.

Light on nicotine, but that's OK for the majority of my smoking moods. I suspect that this is a result of the VA being young. Such young, light blond VAs have never been to my liking before, but this time they shine.

This is the best flavored VA flake I have tried thus far. I will be buying more of this for sure.

EDIT UPDATE : I bought 10 tins of this after posting this review. That should show what I think of the blend 🙂

Update: This is superb, particularly in whole form, dried some. Now four full stars.

This is to me an example of Danish-style scented flake, quite delicate in the scented aspect and a touch spicy or tangy due to its maturity/fermentation. No where as scented as some of G&H blends (not much is).

Overall a mild-to medium flavor leaving a nice aftertaste, provided you have puffed gently. There is a lot of residual sugar to burn hot if allowed to, and maybe a bit of added glucose, fructose, sucrose, whatever. There is enough flavor in this flake to allow for the slow smolder. Expect a dry bowl when finished after a steady, even and clean-tasting pipeful.

Noteworthy is how this behaves in a meerschaum distinct from a briar pipe. Bright and lilting in a silicate, and FdL wanders in flavor more and is still substantial. In briar, deeper, more musty overtones come out and the sparkling high-lights just barely come through. Both pipes were impeccably clean for the comparison.

If you found Briar Fox too sooty, Golden Sliced flavor-challenged, Dunhill's Light Flake funky and non-descript, Brown Clunee and Old Gowerie too subtle, Flake de Luxe is a worthy peer to other fine tobaccos of this sort. Though, I do think the Samuel Gawith's Best Brown Flake is the place to start for beginners and one might never leave such beginnings.