This tobacco, otherwise quite attractive, is ruined by the European habit of dousing their tobaccos in liquorice, a sweet herb that is toxic in high doses.

Some sources say that the purpose of liquorice is to dilate the bronchial tubes and increase the amount of smoke that gets into the lungs, increasing the nicotine dose and thus the addiction to nicotine.

But it is also one of the sweetest substances in nature, and a very popular way of sweetening tobacco and increasing the appeal of otherwise inferior leaf. It is especially popular at Kohlhase & Kopp, where this stuff is made.

Do yourself a favor and choose a blend without the liquorice. If you want to pickle your liver, why waste it on this stuff? A pipefull of Escudo and a tall glass of Scotch: that's the ticket!

Well I guess I have to keep on alternating them untill I know :)

update: 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.

update nov 2010 Coming back after having tried a lot of other tobaccoes like Synjeco's Flowers of Ireland, Holker and Oxenfisl twist and my now favourite S.G. Best Brown, I'm knocking of 2 stars...

Given that my experience is not the norm, I'm going to let this age until next winter and try again. As it stands right now, it's nearly unsmokable.

Reiner's Long Golden Flake has the perfect packaging and the perfect presentation. The air-tight tin, the extra-long flakes packed in a spiral, the beautiful brown color and perfect texture make for an almost perfect experience, even before getting the tobacco into your pipe. The moisture content is almost perfect, requiring little or no drying out of the tin.

The flavor of the Virginias is super. It is almost a perfect tobacco. But it will not make my favorites list, or even my regular rotation.

The only strike against this is the casing/topping. More than one flavor is present, putting this tobacco in the aromatic or light aromatic category for me. The anise or licorice flavor, which imparts a strong medicinal odor to the tin, can be tasted throughout the bowl. The medicinal flavor does not dissipate, and it dominates the flavor of the pipe from beginning to end. It is just as strong nine months after opening. It makes me ask if the blender is trying to cover up some shortcoming in the tobacco. But it is probably intentional. I suppose some folks prefer this flavor.

I long for a Long Golden Flake that is more 'natural,' without the licorice or other added flavors.

Update: 2 August 2010 After spending a few more months with this tobacco, I am marking it down to two stars. It is monotonous, dull, and dominated by the anise or licorice casing. There are so many Virginias out there that are so much better than LGF. It's not bad stuff really, but I always finish wishing I had chosen a different Virginia for my pipe, like a Rattray's or Solani VaPer, made in the same factory.

Update: 5 September 2010 I took LGF on a camping trip, smoking it daily for a while. The medicinal licorice flavoring drove me nuts. I've given up on this tobacco. This emperor has no clothes! One star only!

Update: 14 December 2010 Finally threw out the remainder of my LGF. There are too many good tobaccos out there to waste any more pipes on this one.

Sweet and tangy, with a real tobacco taste. The perique is introduced with incredible subtlety and effectiveness. This is probably the best melding of perique with Virginia and Burley that I've yet tasted. I must own up to the fact that my experience with Virginias is relatively limited; I'm more of an English/Balkan smoker. But by any standard, this is really, really fine tobacco blended to render a rich complexity from the bright Virginia.

You can fill it in the pipe by folding the flake or rubbing it - it works either way and the fill method would depend solely on your preference. I use it to break in a new pipes, and even in a new pipe the relights were few, as it burns smooth and steady. A benchmark baccy experience for me.

Moreover I have smoked few flakes with such good burning capabilities, whether you rub it or fold it, it more often than not end up being a one-match deal. Tastewise I detect no significant difference, so the method of packing is left to your preference.

Despite that I would have liked to see less (or none at all) of the burley and perhaps more perique, it's hard to find any major faults with LGF, so highly recommended it is. I've enjoyed a bowl of it daily for the last couple of months.

I believe that this can safely be bought by beginners and pros alike.

The tin is also an example I wished more manufacturers would adhere to. It's not only attractive, but practical as well.

Till the half of the bowl the virginias are dominating with their tasty flavor but the perique doesn't leave them to be very sweet. After the first half burley takes the action and the whole mixture aheads to a strong finish.

A real tobacco taste. Even it is not a cheap product I'll try to have as many tins as I can in my stock.

Smokes beautifully in briars, meerschaums, clays and cobs. Very complex if you sit and contemplate the smoke, simple if you don't. Not a perfect tobacco but close. This is going into my regular rotation and I'm also going to buy some extra to age in my cellar. GREAT tobacco - destined to become a classic if it isn't there already.

The perique is spicy and strong throughout. The VA becomes dominant and very pleasant during the second half. However, I've had better luck with Luxury Twist and Bullseye Flake, Escudo, Kingfisher, Haddo's, St. James, and Dunbar, etc.. I'll keep experimenting.

11/24/09 update. After consuming half of the tin with the same result..."it tastes like burning" to borrow from Ralph Wiggum...I put the tin away. Now, nine months later, in a small bent acorn with thick walls this Blend 71 is behaving. Early on in the conical bowl that "cinnamon sort of sweet spiciness" that laufenstoc identified dominates. A cinnamony rush of perique, I suppose, not bitey or hot, but fairly intense. Further down it settles into a mellow VA-burley treat. Very nice. Recommended!

What makes Long Golden Flake a truly glorious tobacco is its ability to be unobtrusive one moment and complex the next; it behaves in exactly the way its smoker desires. If the smoker of Long Golden Flake wants a mellow blend which he can puff away at in an absent-minded manner all day, that is what he gets. Paradoxically, if the same smoker decides he wants a complex and nuanced smoke Long Golden Flake will deliver that too.

My personal experience with this tobacco has involved smoking three one-hundred gram tins over the course of one and-a-half weeks. This is an unusual level of consumption for me. I will normally smoke about one-hundred grams of tobacco each week and this amount is usually made up of two or three different blends. I have smoked Long Golden Flake in three pipes: a Dunhill group four billiard, a Dunhill group four prince, and a medium-sized bent meerschaum. A further endorsement for this tobacco is the fact that I am primarily a smoker of English-style blends. These three pipes are the only ones I use to smoke Virginia tobaccos. Up until now I would only smoke a Virginia blend once or twice in a week. Someone was evidently looking out for me when I made the decision to buy that meerschaum recently; if it had not been on hand to puff on I would have certainly fouled those two lovely Dunhills with the amount of smoking I've been doing. This tobacco smokes well in all three pipes and I suspect that it smokes well in any size and shape of bowl. The various tobaccos meld well. Virginia sweetness, Perique spiciness, and burley mellowness all make themselves known at various points during the smoke. Long Golden Flake requires very little tamping or manipulation to keep it burning and it burns cleanly, if a little moistly, down to a grey and black ash. It almost never leaves dottle at the bottom of a pipe.

In summary, this is a great tobacco. It can serve as a mellow all-day companion. However, if the smoker sits down and devotes his full attention to it he will be rewarded with a complex and sublime smoking experience. My compliments to R.L. Will. He has made a devoted Virginia smoker out of me. Now all that remains is saving up my pennies for a few more quality pipes to smoke this blend in.