McClelland - Blackwoods Flake pipe tobacco reviews

Review

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Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Showing reviews 1 through 20 of 120 reviews of this tobacco NEXT >
SakamotoFan	08/21/2010	Mild to Medium	Medium	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
Yes, Blackwoods Flake does smell like ketchup but it tastes like vinegar. At first, I thought the smoke was unique but as time went by I started to realize that this "unique" taste was similar to the smell of heated vinegar. Now it's a tolerable smoke, and it's not horrible but once I started to notice this vinegar taste I dumped the bowl. No thanks.
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Claudius Stradivarius	07/25/2010	Mild to Medium	Very Mild	Medium	Pleasant
McClelland are the reference amonbg the American manufacturers for their Va flakes. This is one of the best flakes I have had the pleasure to smoke. The taste combines pure VA with something close to clove or nutmeg, which makes it delicious. It just lacks a bit on the nicotine side.
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MAarcher	06/06/2010	Medium to Strong	Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
I'm an infrequent/novice pipe smoker but I have tried many of the tobaccos recommended on this site over the past couple of years. To date, Blackwoods Flake is my favorite when I'm looking for taste. The tin looks regal, open it up and the aroma is wonderful, rich and sweet. Light it up and it tastes delicious. The only downfall is that it can require frequent relights. I really enjoy this tobacco, rocking on my back porch, siping on a Maker's & Coke and watching the smoke drift off.
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Dr. Scott	05/28/2010	Medium to Strong	Extremely Mild	Medium	Pleasant
Ketchup is the dominant scent in the tin. But not as strong as in St. James Woods. My tin had a lot of stems and a couple of longish (3-4 inches) black hairs in the tobacco. I'm sure they were human hairs that just fell in during the processing, proof that it is a handcrafted product. Rub out or fold and pack, it is a cool and slow-burning tobacco, never hot. Nicotine content is moderate. Strong, unchanging, somewhat monotonous Virginia flavors. I don't know if it is cased with ketchup, or if the leaves are cooked or fermented with vinegar, but the ketchup taste is evident in every puff to the bottom of the bowl. A month or more after opening, and 10-12 hours with the lid off to dry, and the flavor is more of a pure and sweet Virginia flavor. Stronger, more full than Full Virginia Flake. Not for the mild or aromatic lovers. For McClelland, it's pretty good stuff. Update, 7 July 2010: I have received complements from the ladies on how great this stuff smells: very pleasant if a little strong, and my wife has declared it a favorite for the room note. So I guess I will be buying more...
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Bierstadt	05/25/2010	Medium to Strong	None detected	Full	Tolerable
This is a beautiful, sweet, and tangy baccy that all Va. lovers should try. It is deep and dark and very enjoyable. Blackwoods main focus is on natural sweetness with a spicy tang. There are heavy notes of dried fruit as well which are just wonderful. While not as buttery,creamy, or grassy as FVF, it is in some ways comparable although obviously different. This baccy needs to be rubbed out fully and dried to achieve maximum flavor and the most efficient burn. If you get everything right (packing, drying, rubbing out, cadence) Blackwoods will deliver an EPIC smoke. Blackwoods is a classic and deserves the praise it gets. It is certainly included in my top 10 favorite blends. Personal rating: 9 out of 10 Tobacco reviews rating: 4 out of 4
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Michael	05/20/2010	Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Extremely Mild (Flat)	Pleasant
Here's another dissenting opinion. Expecting a tangy and tasty smoke from the lavish tin description and laudatory reviews, I instead received a vapid rendition of a Virginia flake that was nearly impossible to keep lit. I was actually hoping to extract some bite from this to confirm that there was something simmering in my bowl. Perhaps I am an English/Balkan cretin and I'm pressing the point a bit, but the subtlety of this and similar "aged Virginias" is lost on me. Now I do enjoy McClelland's Navy Cav on occasion, but there will be no more flakes for this lad -- unless they are aged and pressed by Esoterica into the form of Penzance.
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Coltrane	05/02/2010	Medium to Strong	Strong	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
I have smoked this on and off for the past 2-years. It's am interesting tobacco that has a very refined character to it. Unlike Mac Baren HH Mature Virginia this one won't bite like a rabbid dog. It has a very smooth approach to it. When I first opened the tin I was like "Oh..." but then one of my co-workers told me I could smoke it with it's flake form or rub the flakes out. He showed me how to rub the flakes out without detroying the tobacco and we let it dry for about 30-minutes and bingo, perfection; thanks Jesse. I find two different flavors with this tobacco... Often times I will simply smoke the flakes as they are in my pipe. When you smoke it in it's flake form you get a very full bodied, strong smoke that is not undesirable but may be too spicy and peppery for some. I smoked full bodied cigars for 10-years so I don't have a problem with strong spicy tobaccos. The flakes pack well, light well and stay lit without any bite. Sometimes I will rub out the flakes and enjoy it that way. When you smoke it in it's fully rubbed form you get a smoother, naturally sweeter full bodied smoke that has a very nice, classically spicy aroma. The red and black virginias have a very refined mixture that allows you to have a very relaxing smoke that is full bodied and creamy with sweet spices. The fully rubbed tobacco packs well, lights well, stays lit and again does not bite. Some complain about the "Casing" being to bland or light for them to enjoy this tobacco...well "Duh!" it's not an aeromatic! The label mentions no hint of a casing what so ever! With that said I higly recommend this tobacco for new and seasoned smokers looking for a Natural, UNCASED tobacco of pure refinement...this will not disappoint.
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stream25	04/25/2010	Mild to Medium	Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
Don't get me wrong, this is a quality tobacco. I just find it one-dimensional. Good, but not great. I don't like shy aromatics where the scent does not translate completely into flavor. I want for the sweetness and/or spiciness to shine through along with the tobacco. I don't get that with Blackwoods. For me, the casing is just too subtle.
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Sir Walter Smiley	04/22/2010	Medium	None detected	Medium	Pleasant
Some great virginia are hard to master. Not so with this baby. It is the best and unlike most blend descriptions, the tin description is spot on; no exaggerations. It comes as a broken flake on the moist side. I rub it out and dry for only 15 min., perfection.
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David	03/31/2010	Medium	Very Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant
My first ever tin. After my initiation into the wonderful world of pipe tobacco with this nearly 3 years ago, I have found myself coming back time and again to enjoy this spicy blend. Although a bit wet at first, a few weeks of drying in the tin leaves you with a unique flavor that you will not find in many Virginia flakes. Dark and rich, yet not overpowering, this remains my favorite Virginia blend.
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Fellow traveler	03/27/2010	Medium	None detected	Full	Tolerable to Strong
You may enjoy this for what it is - a smooth sweet medium red combined with a spicy stronger black stoved virginia. And spicy it is, way to much for me. After a few puffs all I taste and feel is pepper, and derive no further pleasure from the smoke. Tried different pipes, drying etc., same problem. Must be a chemistry thing. I personally prefer a hint of latakia for my spice with a mellower softer smoke with more sweetness and less pronounced tobacco aftertaste (SL). Another fine McClelland product, just not on my restock list.
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Requiem	03/26/2010	Medium	Very Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
A tasty, complex, somewhat smooth and contemplative virginia. One of those which will taste as good during summer as on a cold December night. However, I found it's burning caractheristics to be not ideal, demanding several relights and always being difficult to reduce it to fine ash.
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MaSuAnime	03/09/2010	Medium to Strong	None detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
Now I may have just started smoking pipe, but there is one thing I know, this is a very high quality smoke. Its like a good stiff double of scotch for your lungs. Its spicy, and quite heady, but man is it enjoyable. This one gets a 8 out of 10 in my books.
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Mr. Mac	03/05/2010	Medium	None detected	Mild to Medium	Tolerable
I usually like Blackwoods Flake, but my last tin was so green as to be unsmokable: dull, sour, and badly in need of at least 6 more months on the shelf. When I shell out the money for a premium tin of "double aged" tobacco, I don't expect to have to treat it like I just picked it myself. UPDATE: I suppose I should temper the irritation of this review by stating the real reason I'm so annoyed: Blackwoods flake is so good that I don't want to wait. McClelland blends already take a lot of work to get them ready to smoke: I have to wait a month or two for a freshly opened tin to breathe, they don't rub out easily, they smoke hot if they're too dry or if I rub them out too much, etc. On a good day, BWF and Dark Star especially are well worth the effort--there are no finer stoved virginia blends on the market. But if I get a green tin, or a really wet tin, it tips the scales too far in the direction of "pain in the neck." I'm upgrading this to four stars because it's a superb blend and I've been in love with it for years. However, preparing it and smoking it is less like a romance and more like a marriage--a battle in the midst of a war.
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wandererfromtx	03/02/2010	Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
This is my first review on tobaccoreviews.com and I just stared smoking a pipe about a one year ago. I tried Blackwoods Flake after perusing though the 4 star tobaccos. I really enjoy Blackwoods Flake, It smells excellent when burning both full and flavorful. I haven't found the ketchup / BBQ smell, but again I just started with the pipe, It just smell a grassy sweetness. I would recommend Blackwoods Flake to anyone just starting with pipe smoking.
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Dubinthedam	02/27/2010	Medium to Strong	Extremely Mild	Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
A nice blend, still a little too much vinegar for me, but way better than Dark Star, and way more user friendly too.
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gildervoigts	02/16/2010	Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
I like this stuff. I cut it up in to little cubes about 1/4 of an inch and let it sit out for about 1 hour. I put enough in a bag for a couple days of smoking. When I go to smoke this, I put my pipe in the bag and fill it up and just tap the side of the pipe to settle the tobacco in. I do the false light, and then the true light and it stays lit and smokes well. When it goes out, I relight and smoke it until it goes out again. I keep doing this until the pipe just won't stay lit. I then lightly tamp it and repeat the process until the end of the pipe. Using this method I find that it smokes cool, and provides a great flavor that is sweet, spicy, and very tasty all the way around. This is a favorite in my rotation, and I smoke about 3 pipes of it a day.
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Pseudo Nim	02/14/2010	Very Mild	Extremely Mild	Very Mild	Pleasant to Tolerable
I was looking forward to a strong robust red virginia, instead I get an insipid mouthfull of warm air with only a hint of tobacco. Having now stored the contents of the tin for just over a year of aging, all I find is that some things never change. If you are looking for a mild inoffensive smoke with a hint of sweetnes, this coul be it. Perhaps I was spoiled by the comparative powerhouse of 5100 Red Cake.
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Virginia lover	02/11/2010	Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium to Full	Tolerable
Ketchup smell is pungent for this one. Nevertheless, quality flake, very pleasant to smoke. Gets better with time.
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yugolover	02/04/2010	Mild to Medium	None detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
This is a great smoke! I smoke it all day at work and have yet to receive a complaint. This reminds me I need to go buy more.
Showing reviews 1 through 20 of 120 reviews of this tobacco NEXT >