Solani - Silver Flake pipe tobacco reviews

Review

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Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Showing reviews 1 through 20 of 38 reviews of this tobacco NEXT >
umm_bacon	05/24/2010	Medium to Strong	None detected	Medium to Full	Tolerable
This is my first review and I am still new to pipe smoking. I have recently quit smoking cigarettes, and ventured into the pipe world to help placate the occasional outbursts of intermittent explosive disorder as a result of my recent reprieve from nicotine and an oral fixation. Be it scotch, cigars, wine, etc. I have never pretended to be a connoisseur. I don’t pick up hints of this or images of that. I like what I like, and I can’t always justify why. I like Silver Flake. I have smoked about a dozen or so mid to higher end blends (my dad has been gracious enough to provide many excellent samples to save me from the pitfalls of the uninitiated) and Solani Silver Flake is the one that keeps my attention the best. Silver Flake is strong enough to remind me that I pee standing up, but not too much to make the experience at all unpleasant. If you are new to pipe smoking I would strongly encourage you to get a tin of this.
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Pseudo Nim	04/19/2010	Medium	None detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
This is a nice tobacco, medium of strength with a bit of a taste to it as the red virginias come through carried on the shoulders of the burley. Were this more easily obtainable, I would be tempted to put it in rotation. But it isn't, so a pleasant treat from time to time will have to be the limit. If you like red virginia, with it's own natural sweetness, this is well woth a try.
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SteelCowboy	04/05/2010	Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
I love the tin aroma of this blend. It smells like raisins and figs. It arrives at the right moisture level and I enjoy in most in a small bowl. I find that while the strengh grows a bit, the flavor stays pretty constant without a bitter ending. As others have commented on, I have only found it in 100gm tins and it can be on the pricey side. With that said, IMHO this is a high end blend. The tin doesn't close tightly so I would suggest placing it in a jar with a tight lid if its not going to be smoked within two weeks. I am anxious to crack open a jar after a couple of years in the cellar. Highly recommended!
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Pipesrevisited	04/04/2010	Medium	None detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
Taste: Great! No whiskey found, just pure tobacco taste Packaging: Only 100 gr tin available in Holland, beautifull but hopelessly impractical... All in all I would have preferred Silver Flake to come in a Reiner Long Golden Flake tin, then it would be up there in my 'Favourites' list.
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Coskun	03/11/2010	Medium	None detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
Silver flake is high quality tobacco im sure that...However its too spicy for me...The tin also awful, its not close !!! Broken and some standart flake waiting for you...The moisture is perfect...I like smoke at the night, after dinner...There is no whisky taste but some fruits and pepper...Nicotine is good for me... I like this stuff but not too much...Its not in my five...
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31z40	02/20/2010	Medium to Strong	Mild to Medium	Medium	Tolerable
Solani Silver Flake; I have had four bowls of this tobacco in the past few days in a Radice TB Oiled Bark Rhodesians, Bulldog, Prince and Bjarne Straight Grain Brandy. When first opening the 100 gram tin The aroma was Red Virginia in a flake about 2" wide two stacks side by side, the flakes were rather long but easily to shred apart. I did not rub the flakes out just folded and packed in the bowls. The color is a rich brown with streaks of light golden tobaccos. The first light of the bowl was more than I first expected as the taste was a full rich Red Virginia with a spicy taste of darkened Kentucky and to my surprise this lasted throughout the bowl as it just got better towards the end of the bowl. This is not recommended on an empty stomach as it does have a full Virginia strength, I will keep this is my rotation as a great tobacco, although this is not the same as Orlik Dark Strong Kentucky it does have a taste of its own. The Silver Flake will leave you with a great satisfaction of well rounded Red Virginia
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flaminbill'	01/24/2010	Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
Burley is not my first choice, or even my second, for pipe tobacco. But this is an exception. It seems like the larger the bowl size, the more it shines. I have a huge Don Carlos Montana that I smoke on Sundays while watching my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers or, at this point in the season, whomever I am forced to watch.This combination of pipe and Silver Flake is awesome. I also have an old Digby that works well. I don't mind the fact that Silver Flake is pricey, but the packaging is poor. The pack inside the attractive tin, or rather would be attractive if the label was on straight,is vacuum sealed; however, I have never been able to get these pouches open without the foil pack tearing. Since I can only find 100 gr. tins, the tobacco needs transferred or enclosed in a zip-loc bag because the tin itself does not close tightly.
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dk-piper	01/16/2010	Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Tolerable
What a wonderful Virginia-Kentucky-blend! Smooth as silk and gentle on my palate. Tastes very natural. Natural Sweetness, Natural Nuttiness/Tastiness. It seems like the Solani blends are beginning to grow on me. First Aged Burley Flake and now Silver Flake. Mr. Will is a "madman"
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Alguhan	12/09/2009	Medium	None detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
Solani Silver Flake has a great true tobacco taste with a nice, subtle pure Virginia sweetness. The spicy note of the smoke is light and adds an excellent pleasure. The colorful flakes pack and light easily. Offers a cool and long lasting smoke. The only disadvantage of the 100 gr tin is that it isn't vacuum sealed. So the aging of the this tobacco might be a problem. Do not miss this fine blend. I will regularly keep a tin on the top shelf.
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kg0mz	09/12/2009	Medium to Strong	None detected	Full	Pleasant
I don't taste the whisky in this blend that others do. I don't smell whisky in the tin, and I don't find mention of whisky on the tin or on any other online sites. The official description says no flavoring added. Anacol! In the bag it looks like a VA flake. In the pipe, initially, it tastes like a straight VA flake, but the Kentucky quickly springs forward and becomes pretty darn spicy from mid-bowl on, but the VA sweetness persists. Sweet and powerful, one of my favorite combinations. SF and Aged Burley Flake certainly share quality as a characteristic, but there are differences. The VAs in SF are mature, sweet and tasty, and the Kentucky is spicy. I love ABF and smoke it often. Both are cool and slow burning blends of mature tobaccos. ABF is all burley, and it doesn't have the VA depth and sweetness. I think I could smoke SF all day without bite or throat irritation. Worth the money? To me, yes. I think it is all natural, but I could be wrong.
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DK	07/12/2009	Medium	None detected	Medium	Pleasant
Interesting tin description... says "no flavoring has been added" and also says it's flavored with whiskey. I didn't taste any - perhaps it's in the room note? This is one for my steady rotation. As I'm discovering more burley blends, I've found myself smoking fewer Vapers, and this one bridges that gap. The fire-cured Kentucky gives a subtle "perique-like" spiciness to this mildly sweet red virginia blend. I've smoked this in several manners - fresh out of the tin, aged about a year, slow sipping, more rigorous puffing, and in pipes of various sizes, shapes, makes and substances. This one never fails to deliver whatever I desire. If I want a slow, contemplative smoke to dissect the nuances and depth, I can do that. If I want to spice it up a little, I just puff a little more vigorously (it doesn't bite - unless you insist on it!) and the burley spice and body comes through. If I want to "set it and forget it", I can puff this wonder while working in the yard in a Lepeltier clay, cob, old beat up meerschaum and crappy briar and the flavor never fails. For those of you who want to try the more vigorous puffing trial, note that using that method does give you some harshness near the end of the bowl. There are certain classic tobaccos everyone should try at least once... Balkan Sobranie (good luck!), Escudo, Edgeworth Slices, Hal O' The Wynd, Long Golden Flake etc, regardless of which blend style you prefer. This needs to be added to the list of "must trys". One year of age does this a lot of good, but it's great right out of the tin. I've no doubt that it will age further like the masterpiece it is. Rudiger Will is a blender to be reckoned with!
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wildebeest	05/21/2009	Medium to Strong	Extremely Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
I have only one complaint about this finely crafted tobacco blend, and that involves its packaging. For some reason, this is the only Solani tobacco that is only available in the United States in 100g tins that are not air-tight. Even Solani 633, which also comes in this type of 100g tin, is additionally available in 50g tins that can be easily cellared. I hope that Solani will remedy this discrepancy soon, as this is one of my very favorite tobaccos and I would like to cellar a great deal of it. That issue aside, it would be difficult for me to praise Silver Flake more highly. R. L. Will has concocted a red-VA based blend with singular appeal. His combination of red Virginias and earthy dark-fired Kentucky is inspired. It's effect upon the palate is surprising and staggering. Perhaps it is the sweetness from the whiskey that marries these elements so harmoniously, but one way or another, this tobacco is undeniably delicious. Most puffs are dominated by the richness of the red VAs combined with the sweetness of whiskey, but the clincher is how the dark-fired burleys waft in with strong wisps of dank soil. Those who like red VAs would do themselves a disservice by not trying Silver Flake. Also, those who are fond of how orientals can add spice and complexity to a blend of rich Virginias may find that with Silver Flake, R. L. Will has achieved something quite similar, but in a very different way. Silver Flake has the depth and spice of a good VA/oriental mixture, but it also adds very earthy notes to that equation. Furthermore, those who have never tried dark-fired burley may find this a good place to start. Many other blends featuring this delectable ingredient may be too strong for the uninitiated.
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Pipe-arazzo	03/26/2009	Medium	Very Mild	Medium	Pleasant
I really really wanted to like this one, and I did...sort of. Nice medium strength, some licorice-y notes, some citrus, very little grass. Even when straight out of the tin, it was pretty good. Maybe it was best that way. Easy to rub out, burned nice and even. And that tin is cool, aesthetically speaking. But: I always noticed some unpleasant edge to this one, sharp and bitey, no matter how wet or dry it was, or how long I let it mellow in the tin (up to 6 weeks or so). That really kind of ruined the experience for me. Understanding that this is an anomaly, particular perhaps to me, and given its obvious good qualities, I'll still give it 3 stars.
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chgo.piper	03/21/2009	Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
Not much to say. High quality kentucky with high quality red virginia playing a very flavorful role. I've smoked this after a year of age on it and it only gets better, but this is a great smoke fresh out of the tin as well.
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Eulenburg	03/14/2009	Strong	None detected	Full	Tolerable to Strong
KENTUCKY is another name for fire-cured Burley. The tobacco is hung from poles inside a barn. Slow fires of hardwood and hardwood sawdust burn on the floor of the barn until the tobacco is completely dry. If the weather is damp, this process can take up to 40 days. "Kentucky" therefore has something in common with Latakia but, whereas Latakia's smokiness is sharply pungent to the taste and smell, Kentucky's is dense and univocal, reminiscent of charcoal-filtered whisky, though not as bracing or complex as good Tennessee. I have never been a Burley lover and find Kentucky dull, though I will admit this here is high quality leaf, not so earthy as common Burley, which always tastes to me as if it had been fermented in a dusty silo. To the Kentuck has been added a toasty Red which has a much more lively wavelength. This makes the luxuriously packaged and expensive Silver Flake moderately enjoyable to me?in small amounts. Smoked in a big pipe, it might seem a bit interminable.
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webber4509	02/21/2009	Medium	None detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant

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SMOKETSES	02/16/2009	Medium	Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant
I smoked it straight after Golden Sliced Orlik Tobacco and I will probably be unjust to it. It contains pure RED Virginia and Kentucky. The Virginia in this blend provides a natural sweetness and honestly a nice and discreet scent in the room. This scent is due to the whiskey which unnoticeably perfumes this smoke. The broken flakes are vividly colored. The humidity content is perfect. To feel any tongue biting you will have to smoke very nervously. The mix comes in a non-vacuum packaging.
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haredawg	01/17/2009	Medium	None detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant
In a blind taste test I?m not sure I could tell you the difference between Silver Flake and Aged Burley flake. With eyes open, the silver flake comes in a 100 gram tin, the tobacco wrapped in foil as the tin isn?t tight. It?s a dark shaggy cut, as opposed to the neat organized light and dark flecked even flakes in the 50 gram aged burly. The tin aroma is the same, sweet and rich, and though silver flake is a Virginia and Burley mix, it tastes very much like aged burly flake, perhaps a little tangier from the Virginians, but it?s subtle, the melding of the two coming out in favor of the burley. It also burns as slow and cool as the aged burley flakes. I was all sorts of impressed by the aged burley flakes and am almost the exact same impressed by the Silver flake, though the packaging is not as, well, sophisticated. It?s a better value, by a buck or two, to get the Silver Flake, and if you?re a stalwart and stoic Virginian smoker looking for a change of pace, Silver Flake is probably less of shock, an easier transition, at least psychologically. I?m giving it four stars because it?s a great tobacco, but I?m a little disappointed that it?s not a completely different great tobacco from Aged Burly flake. Maybe I received a tin that was mix heavier on the burly side, I don?t know. I am close to duct taping the tin though; it?s hinged and not tight at all. Silver flake is pretty moist and probably won?t last around here long enough to dry out, but one shouldn?t depend on the tin to keep it moist.
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PipeSmoker45ACP	01/13/2009	Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant
I have been away from the pipe for a while and am now just getting back into it. Why I left I don't know. Orliks Dark Strong Kentucky was my favorite and now I can't seem to find it. Thanx to some of the reviews on here I saw SilverFlake was said to be similar and my tobacconist had some so I had to try it. Very glad I did. This stuff is incredible. I think Solani is sweeter where as Orliks had a little more tobacco taste. Both great tobaccos. Smoke SilverFlake slow and its sweet, cool, and creamy. This is a great website.
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bent-1	08/23/2008	Medium to Strong	None detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
This is the best VA & Burley blend I've smoked to date. It's mostly a VA, with a nice rounding of a tasty Burley. As with most VA Flakes, dry to suit & prepare to suit (I prefer to break the flakes into thin strips). The blend is tasty as a superb VA, but has the satisfying richness from the Burley. The 100g tin, from 1st bowl to last, was a consistent smoke, no matter the pipe. Also of interest, the bowl was consistent from 1st light to the bottom, no stacking up or strong concentration. Hats off to ya Mr Will & Steve M.
Showing reviews 1 through 20 of 38 reviews of this tobacco NEXT >