Kleinlagel Maiway

Kleinlagel Maiway is a ready rubbed pure Virginia flake with a mild topping of sweet woodruff and vanilla. The tin note is bright VA with a hint of vanilla and something reminiscent of fruit candy underneath. Very pleasant and it doesn’t feel overly cased at all. I had the same impression when smoking it. I prefer the Frank Method, ready rubbed as it is, and after one or two extra lights I had a good and even burn every time.

It tastes and feels like Orlik Golden Sliced, smoked in a pipe that was ghosted by a fruit/vanilla aromatic. Very delicately cased with toasty, tangy Virginias leading the way at all times. Therefore Maiway doesn’t bite worse than any pure bright VA, which I appreciate a lot. It is so smooth and tasty that I never wanted to try using a filter.

Of the five aromatics the Kleinagel series presently has to offer, I like Maiway and Cherritz best. Well done. Recommended to those who like OGS or Larsen No. 32 a bit more cased, SVHD with far less casing and not so sweet.

Well this is a funny old tobacco from Dan Pipe and co.

It comes in one of those cardboard 'pots' that the Germans are so good at and you pop off the plastic lid then pierce/pull back the foil membrane over the tobacco. Nice I like that. Still got no idea if this keep the tobacco fresh or not mainly because I smoke it all before I can find out.

The tin opening smell you get is kind of like a soured almond if there is such a thing, yet I was transported back over 50 years to Primary school to when we used to use a white glue for paper & card (unsuccessfully I might add). This smells just like it.

Not a great start really. The tobacco inside the tin is a fairly dark brown with a broken flake look about it. It's also appears rather dry and rough to the touch.

No chance of stuffing this one into your pipe. No its got to be broken up in manageable pinched for loading which is my preferred method for most tobacco's anyway.

This bizarre aroma only faintly comes through in the smoke and only initially. It taints the tobacco rather than covers it and leads to a not unsatisfying experience. But here's the rub (great album by Wishbone Ash) it takes millions of relights to get going and the smoke itself is very short-lived. This could be because of the way in which I load the tobacco into the bowl of course but it's still my favoured method.

The ash produced after the somewhat limited smoke looks a lot like cigarette ash in my view and I just wonder what the heck is in this. Woodruff says the description. I'm still little the wiser what that is even after looking it up. The smoke is rather harsh at first, but mellows out into a largely tasteless smoke with just a hint of this woodruff in the background. No aftertaste. No room note. This just about teeters on the crevice of tasteless.

I found it has the capacity to burn your tongue if pushed in a smaller bowl so this is better enjoyed in the biggest pipe you've got particularly - as I mentioned earlier - because it burns down so quickly.

Not a purchase I'd make again but worth trying if you want something slightly different and you have a lot of patience.