As other have noted, this is a classic English/British flake, that has stood the test of time...I am reviewing this based on the original manufacturer and not Orlik...

This is a blended flake and not 100% Virginia...rather "other fine leaf" added to a base of Virginia...Quality leaf, consistentcy, and midly flavored, are characteristics of this flake, and an easy flake to prepare and smoke.

Best in a medimum or smaller pipe and can serve as an all day smoke...

With the history of this flake, I highly recommend it, as it is one of my top 15 tobaccos and has been for many years...

...a pipe is to be savored...

It's a very "basic" Virginia blend, in that it has no pretentions and is pretty undemanding. A reliable, smooth, medium strength non-aromatic tobacco that really tastes of tobacco, doesn't bite, blends well with plugs and twists and you can smoke it all day, every day. If it was a drink it would be a decent large-scale mass-production 10-year old blended Scotch intended to appeal to the masses, not a heavily peated 35 year old single-malt only enjoyable by a few determined "experts".

Which is pretty much what it was always intended to be.

If you want to know what the tobaccos smoked in the glory days of mass English working-class pipe smoking were like, forget Latakia-heavy blends and orientals, this is one of the three big hitters along with Condor and Gold Block. I used to smoke it 30 years ago, and while it's not my number one "go to" choice nowadays it still has a place in my heart and I smoke it once in a while. The world would certainly be a sadder place without it.

Every smoker should try it at least once, and if you're an aromatic smoker tempted to try a first flake or "real" tobacco, you could do far worse than St Bruno.

Pouch aroma golden rich stewed juicy fruits with sourness.

Appearance;bark coloured moist flakes with golden streaks,fairly flakey consistancy but uniform and well packed and presented(if you care about presentation).

To fit in my storage kilner jar i cut the flake piles into 3 equal squares dividing the length where it becomes a broken flake (i tried my best)and for an easy preparation size for my smallish falcon bulldog bowl which i have dedicated to this flake.

As soon as i sniffed the contents i had high hopes that this was going to be the quintessential juicy fruit golden nectar i have been seeking.

Drawing through my as yet unlit pipe for a few clues before ignition,i get the fruit stew(think plums,apricots,peaches,apples,pears) with a bit of soap(the soap may well be a ghost of whatever this estate pipe had smoked previously, but it was reamed and cleaned by me for this. Being already familiar with st bruno ready rubbed i didn't think it would impede the taste,and it was likely that this being purchased in the UK would of probably been smoking st bruno or simular in its past life).

Fairly simular to the ready rubbed except earthier,richer and definately more aromatic. More burley forward and cooler than the already cool(but wet) ready rubbed..Both are cool smokes anyway but do produce wetness in the moisture trap,but its handleable and because it tastes so good strait out of the pouch i don't bother pre-drying.

This i feel is the one i have been looking for,for a long time, and produces a very rich distinct pleasant fruit nectar aroma which i remember as a kid.

Walking or playing in the woods this thick rich smoke would linger wherever a pipe smoking dog walker had been previously. You wouldn't see the walker but you could smell that they had been around.Its like a tobacco equivalent of juicy fruit bubble gum and is for me the quintessential pipe aroma. Before i knew about flakes i always thought this was st bruno,but when i smoked st bruno ready rubbed,although pleasant, it didn't quite produce the results i was seeking and so my quest was still open. I thought maybe it was a forgotten discontinued brand,or that maybe the original recipe had changed over the years,or that my young nose in the 70s smelt things differently. Its not as if i really knew for certain that it was st bruno,its possibly an instinct picked up by hearing or reading what i saw around me or watching what people pulled out of their pockets(yes i was that annoying kid who stared at pipers having their private smoking moments).

Anyway i nearly wrote off my search until i found st bruno flake and read on here that it was different to the ready rubbed;it is different for sure.

This produces as near as dammit to that memory aroma. Being the smoker and not the passing pedestrian, its not as easy for me to tell because i am tasting as well(same as other baccies that i cannot smell as easy when i am the one doing the smoking).

(I have also recently discovered 'condor long cut' flake which is different to the 'condor ready rubbed' version in a simular way to st bruno which made me question my memories to make sure i was correct;they are both rich fruit smokes and do simular jobs(i could try a 50/50 mix).

Anyway this for me is a totally 4 star baccy and its an OTC. Fruity buttery and not quite as soapy as the ready rubbed version.No bite either.

I expect i will always have some of this on hand as long as it is still made.

I can't find anything in the flavour of St Bruno flake to recommend it. Not only is there nothing distinctive about it, but this flake has a muddy flavour to it. It's like listening to the clumsy ramblings of a befuddled man, and when his monologue is finished and analysed you realize that he had nothing interesting to say anyway. It's not offensive, just dull and leaden.

Offering a somewhat limited mitigation: It's when you decant the flakes from their tub you start to understand their raison d'être. Take an Irish flake tin and empty the tub into it. Because the flakes are very thin and loose they fill the tin a lot more than the same mass of Irish flake. You do get a lot of flakes for your money. It also means that a single folded and stuffed flake is a pretty quick smoke. It's suitable for a break time, which also means you don't really have time to get too bored with it.

Buy Condor long cut instead.

Update November 2011 Found myself craving this after my last pack was finished . It leaves a delicious full and toasty taste on the palate. Updating to 3 stars

Some one at work said to me he was thinking of having a go with a pipe and I recommended St Bruno,its likely that if you don't like that the hobby may not be for you.

I like to rotate a few different tobaccos but I have nearly always got some of this to hand.

Its basically a Virginia mixture no problems with heat or bite, it doesn't foul you're pipe or burn youre mouth.

Its still available, surprisingly enough, in flake form as well as ready rubbed, I have a slight tendency for the flake. You used to be able to get it in plug form and various other forms, including a stronger version, but these are no longer available.Its been a long time since I have seen it in tins, or loose for that matter.

Very easy to pack and light and smokes nice and dry, its a very well manufactured product. There is a hint of something slightly spicy in the background, maybe a slight floral note. This why it sometimes gets called a Lakeland style tobacco, it may be a Lakeland style but last time I looked St Bruno was mass produced in a factory in Liverpool, some way from the Lake District.

However do not be put off by the Floral references, it is no where near as pronounced as some of the SG or GH floral's

Highly recommended.

The packaging is a little curious for me; the pouch contains a tiny plastic tub sealed with tinfoil, containing the tobacco. For the 50g pouch, that means two rows of slices, very thinly cut and still a bit on the moist side. The tub note is somewhat alcoholic and floral, with citrus notes.

The tobacco is not pressed as tightly as I would expect from the size of the slices; it is more in the range of the classic fold-and-sink 'baccies, so I take two slices and fold/twist/sink in my usual flake pipes -- narrow and tall. Lighting is no problem even fresh from the pouch, and the floral note is present in the taste -- I can understand those complaining of a soapy taste, though I think it is kept well in check by the sweetness, nuttiness and a hint of spice. I think there may be some Burley in there, btw.

The room note is a bit on the floral side, but also sugar-ish (raw cane sugar, that is) and fragrant; not too objectionable. Maintenance is easy for a flake; the occasional tamp-down will do it, the burn is cool, and in the end, there is some fine, grey ash left over with little moisture.

Overall, I can understand why this blend is regarded as a fall-back blend by many (not only in this forum). In its characteristics, it is a bit like MacBaren Navy Flake -- a handy, affordable blend to have around that provides a satisfying smoke while not causing one to be expelled from the premises -- though not 100 % perfect. It's stronger than the MB offering, though, and so I would recommend a little experience in pipe smoking before making friends with this one.

The Flake is cut into extremely thin layers - rubbing these out causes them to form into a springy, very easily handled mass that's easy to put in the pipe and pack with the right pressure. I usually use a large-bore bowl so for me it's 1.5 to 2 flakes per bowl. However this tobacco is perhaps best enjoyed with a narrow, small bowl, in which case 1 flake rubbed-out will fill it. I only use a larger bowl because I prefer my smoking sessions to last longer.

The downside of rubbing out the Flake is the accumulation of debris - small particles of tobacco that gather near the bottom of your tin. When you reach the end, you will need to slightly rehydrate those particles before putting them in the pipe.

The Flake is simply superior to the Ready Rubbed version in every way except the 'convenience' factor of a shorter preparation time. I have found that the Flake cures very well over longer periods of time, stored in a jar. The flavour improves and is not lost with a bit of drying out. Which brings me to the point, that the Flake needs a bit of drying time when removed from the packet. In my opinion this is necessary. Otherwise, a few relights will be necessary and there will be some gurgling.

The room note of this tobacco is pleasant to smokers and non-smokers alike, and is noticeable even when you are the one smoking it. However, if you're in the mood to try out this tobacco for the first time you should bear in mind that it will completely change the character of your pipe. Frequent and thorough cleaning of the pipe will be necessary, even if you smoke nothing but St Bruno in it. It's not just a 'ghost' - it's an overpowering smell it leaves in the wood so it's a courtesy to others to clean your pipe well to remove as much of this smell (which isn't reminiscent of the tobacco when it's burning) as possible.

Overall it's a great smelling and tasting traditional tobacco that isn't fussy about being left in storage or being smoked slightly dry. These isn't (much) bite, you can make it burn hotter or smoke it slowly and keep it cool, and the only negative is the smell it leaves in the pipe. It's predictable so you can also experiment with adding a casing or a bit of latakia.

Both Condor and St Bruno would be hugely missed if they were to dissappear from our supermarket and local tobacconists. St Bruno Flake in particular provides the smoker with terrific value for money and in all honesty stands up there on merit with the finest of the more 'elitist' flakes on offer. No longer available in tins, its now presented as super cleanly thin cut flakes in two neat stacks sitting in a plastic foil covered tray which is inside a plastic pouch. The tobacco itself visually is dark and speckled with the lighter VA portion. The aroma immediately is that of plums, almost christmas puddingish. Not unpleasant to the nose. The flakes at first seem to be of a rather flimsy thin nature, I thought I'd only taken one flake from the tin when in fact there were two. So easy to crumble and pack I doubt if a flake could be any friendlier to the smoker. What a well behaved flake, it gets better even. When packed, the tobacco takes to the flame as you have always imagined a good pipe should. A long smooth smoke with no bite whatsoever, a much undervalued tobacco. StBF is a tobacco of such substance and quality that it rightly deserves a place in any good rotation, even if its so you know its there when you need it. If this fine flake does have a weak underbelly, its that it may just be a little too one dimensional for an all day smoke in this age of such diverse available tobaccos. A fine example of the tastes and values of days long gone. Highly recommended.