This flake will disappoint a smoker looking for a heavier, more complex blend. The ingredients work very well together in a mild to medium way and is well balanced. This is sort of light in strength, but makes a good all day smoke if you're looking for one. A good, honest, unaffected mixture.

As a previous reviewer, DK mentioned, it performed best at a very narrow moisture range, slightly drier than normal. Once I got that right everything fell together and I've really enjoyed it.

After aging for two years in the tin all the components are discernible, but it plays more like a 3 piece rock band when everybody's jamming together rather than featuring one particular flavor. It's spicier and has more body than you would get from a typical flake with only Virginia and perique. I attribute both qualities to the Kentucky. The closest blend I would compare it to in flavor and cut would be Solani 660 Silver Flake sans the perique. The perique (and the far superior tin) gives the edge to Folded Flake for my money.

Update (06/12/2010): Once it's dried properly it performs so well it deserves a 4 star rating. A real sleeper...highly recommended!

Not too much moisture content with my fresh 50 gram tin, and it doesn't need much relighting once started. No problems packing, and it smokes well down to the bottom of the pipe.

The taste is pure, mild VA, with a hint of spice. I expected more of a "spicey" taste, but there's nothing too complex here. I don't plan to buy another tin of this, as I prefer Samuel Gawith's Full Virginia Flake for a fuller, sweeter smoke, but this is a decent smoke if FVF is not available.

At this level, the virginia sweetness was toned down and the spiciness of the dark-fired Kentucky took over with just a whisper of perique showing through. In some blends lightly spotted with perique, this leaf shows through here and there and disappears. With this blend, I tasted a smidge of perique in every puff. Nice! It burned well and needed few if any relights.

Folded Flake is a decent VaBurPer and is recommended but it's also one of those that is so mondimensional (surprising, considering the ingredients) that it doesn't rise up and demand to be in my regular rotation. There just isn't enough happening. Still, it's a good tasting smoke.

A VaPer-Bu (which sounds kind of endearing) with a pretty negligible Perique content (at least to this puffer), the blend is dominated by the flavors and aromas of the Virginias. And therein lies the issue. The Virginias in my tin have all the characteristics of leaves that simply need more time to mature. There is a green grassiness to this blend that verges on unpleasant and whatever else the tobacco might have to say is silenced by the whining and wailing and biting of this immature leaf.

I had pretty much the same to say about Stokkebye's Luxury Bullseye Flake, I seem to remember. Then again, I found that green characteristic more forgivable in a cheap and cheerful bulk offering. But Folded Flake comes in at top shelf prices which create high expectations.

Along comes Folded Flake; a va/per with a bit of kentucky thrown in. The kentucky seems to really smooth out the perique, allowing it to come through in full flavor without its characteristic whang. And the va. is nice and naturally sweet.

The presentation in the tin looks a bit of a mess, as these are long flakes folded over, then stuffed into the tin. I've yet to figure out how to actually get a flake from the tin, so just prefer to grab a big pinch direct and stuff it in my pipe. And this stuff is not picky about how you load it. Gravity feed it; stuff it; hell, use a ramrod even. It is a very forgiving tobacco. It also exhibits only minor tendency to bite, but the pepperiness of the perique may fool some into thinking it's a bitey blend.

Folded flake behaves every bit as well as Scottish Cake and Flake. It lights fairly easily, stays lit, and burns well all the way to the bottom of the bowl. You will be dumping gray ashes out of your bowl without ever having to relight but maybe once. Okay, twice if you smoke it in a tall stack or chimney.

A nice natural flake. Similar in composition to Paul Olson's 111 flake, but instead of typical bacon strips it is a single long-wide strip folded over several times into a tin compactly (like Marlin Flake in a can or Long Golden Flake, but more compressed). The extra folding and the aging have allowed the above three tobaccos to meld well.

It brakes apart easy into a thick shag which I just fold into a medium pipe. It burns well and on the quick side for a coolish flake.

It is also similar to P. Stokkebye's Luxury Navy Flake but the burley added to Folded Flake gives it more heft. The perique is light and hardly noticeable. But the combination of the three tobaccos puts it midway between Navy Flake and 111.

The natural sweetness of the virginia base is ever present but toned down a bit due to apparent brown leaf employed and the burley. The burley also leans it to the cool side -- good. It is, nevertheless, on the spicy side as advertised (not bite) with a little more weight than a straight virginia blend.

The room note is light, sort of hit and run I am told. The flavor is past medium in my opinion, but still not as stout as some brown flakes (G&H) or as 111. So if you like 111, here is a slightly milder variation but still flavorful and somewhat spicy.

It is dry (I used one pipe cleaner). Stays lit well. Not hot. Easy to pack. Interesting complex of natural flavors well blended together. I recommend this for the straight virginia smoker wanting more heft and a little spice but nothing real stout. No scenting here that I can sense. I liked my full tin (about 20 medium bowls worth, more in one Connoisseur pipe than in a Bjarne for comparison with several) and have several more tins in storage.