I don't realy know what essence they have added in this but this mild addition made a great combination with virginia-burley strength. SG used again a very fine recipe for preparing this true pipe tobacco.

Must be dried for easy lighting and full taste. I dried it to crispy and one light was enough for the whole bowl. The strength is not overhelming but it makes me to be saturated.

Virginia blend lovers, please do not miss this one!

Too wet in the tin but dry fast...Burns slowly and nicotine level is very good for me...If you like nicotine and creamy taste use this stuff...Now best SG for me...I ll smoke everyday one bowl...

EDIT: A few days into this pound of Kendel Cream and I have discovered something very strange. Some of you may even think that I am off my rocker. But, this blend has a 'whisky' taste a few days in. It reminds me of the 'drug store' tobacco that gramps used to smoke. Much more refined and full, but that tone of whiskey is present for me.

I have never been overly fond of Burley, but Kendal Cream could make a convert of me yet.

It rubs out, sort of. I don't dry it because it lights up and burns dry and cool. It clings to the bowl when burned, but that maybe related to the blend that preceded it. It is smooth, though I am not sure I would call it creamy. It is sturdy, and the nicotine rings in my ears a little. It starts with subtle sweetness and floral essence, and becomes earthy, leathery, and woody as it progresses. The Lakeland essence does not disappear, but persists mildly in its floral and tonquin qualities.

I think the Warrior Plug comparison made by hagen is on target. It is similar, too, to the Yachtsman Plug, though not as sweet. The Burley/VA ratio is weighted more to the Burley here, and then there is the Lakeland essence.

Folks who may be wary of the essence may find this one acceptable. This is foremost a great VA/Burley blend.

07/27/09 UPDATE: I am revising some of my reviews. I have given out more 4 star ratings than anything else. That practice is probably not helping. So, I am reducing KCF to 3 stars, not because I like it less than I did before, but because I am limiting 4 stars to fewer than 25% of all my reviews. One day I may use the 4 star rating to designate my top five.

IMHO Kendle Cream is superior to that Lame Lane Limited offering.

It's good to know that a company like SG will probably be offering quality tobacco long after my last pipe as gone out.

This blend really shines around mid bowl, and as with most burly blends it taste better in a $10.00 cob than a $300.00 briar.

Fresh... very annoying tin aroma, kind of a soapy floral smell (Lakeland... duh!) but with a hint of something like licorice, like they put in the Pall Mall cigarettes. At the match, I got a pretty good snootful of this aroma, and the taste was a carbon copy of the aroma. Reminded me of Erinmore Flake, which I haven't smoked in decades, and that I don't miss. The flavor became bland as the top note burned off. Very one-dimensional, which was an improvement over that cloying original taste.

Dried out... the tin aroma was less pronounced and finally the actual burley taste won out over the flowers and soap. Much better! I didn't actually *taste* the virginia (I suspect it's of the stoved variety) but I think it toned down the burley... which I felt was a positive. Still a fairly one dimensional smoke and it is bettered IMHO by Stonehaven and a couple of Solani blends and I would have liked a little more virginia flavor to help the blend develop, but this is certainly a decent enough smoke if it's what you're wanting. No glaring faults but not much to recommend it, either.

tin aroma: mmmm. absolutely delicious, with a pronounced smell of well aged virginia; the flavouring subdued, and the burley only just recognizable.

rather moist, though not, perhaps, as much as other gawith tin flakes. lights allright without drying, but is easier after a couple hours drying in the pipe.

taste: the burley and the flavouring become a lot more pronounced than in the tin aroma, but are still tied together by the exquisite virginia. there's a slight sweetness, a little tartness, and first of all it's earthy and slightly floral/vanilly (in a tonquin-like way.

this is somewhat similar to "warrior plug" in the over all flavour profile, with perhaps a bit less virginia taste, a more pronounced burley, and a little less "chewy" mouthfeel. though it packs quite a punch, it's very smooth.

a fine blend!

Once I realized what I was smoking it was way too sweet, floral and weirdly soapy for my taste buds. I say "once I realized" because it was hard for my senses to parse this tobacco. Indeed, my first few bowls of it I felt an odd disconnect between the flavor and the tobacco, that they were out of sync in some way: I was clearly smoking a quality tobacco, but tobacco doesn't taste like this: it was smooth and creamy and filled the mouth nicely, but where's that strange flavor coming from? Oh, is that the tobacco?! It actually took me a couple of bowls to realize that yes, that is the tobacco. (Though I disagree with the strength of the insult, I think BriarLaw is not incorrect when he likens it to a "mix" of "stoved VA/Burley flake with Glade air-freshener".)

Each time I smoked it I had to follow it soon after with a latakia heavy english blend just to get the taste out of my mouth. An odd smoke and I'm glad I tried it, but I'm sure I will never feel a need to go back to it.

Update 08/12: Never say never, eh? Years later, I felt a need to go back to it. Go figure. There's something about its unique flavor that has stayed with me all this time. So I just had to try it again. I'm not sorry I did.

It's still the quality flake I remember; but now that weird "glade air freshener" essence doesn't strike me as unpleasantly obtrusive, but kind of refreshing. I've upped it from two to three stars. KCF won't be a regular in my rotation, but it is one that I may revisit every so often.

It hasn't burned yet and I am a hot smoker. The pipe seems to get richer and more flavorful as you go deeper in the bowl. If I am smoking on an empty stomach it can give a little light headedness but no problems under normal conditions.

Again my one complaint of SG flakes is that some get so thick as to negatively effect the load and the smoke. Variety of thickness is fine until it gets too thick.

All an all a favorite.

I detect the flavoring more than anything else in this blend. It's nice, unassuming, but it is certainly not a pure tobacco experience. It has a similar feel to MacBaren navy flake, but with a bit more flavor, and that flavor is definitely there on the nose and the tongue, gently masking the burley.

This one is more "Cream" than "Kendal" and it's not so bad for it.

KCF (not to be confused with KFC) is a well made, idiosyncratic blend. The flavor is so distinctive, in fact, that reviews are not so useful: it's a real love-it-or-hate-it blend. The most useful thing I can say is that it's a quality leaf and worth trying.

In the tin it smells like a significantly milder version of Bracken Flake. In the bowl, the difference is more pronounced. The topping is indeed milder than BF, but the leaf is lighter and the burley gives a nutty sweetness (just as it should). That said, I found the topping heavier than some other reviewers. In the end, Kendal Cream is a Lakeland, that is to say, an aromatic: a VA/Burley with that distinctive Gawith "essence" (tonquin?) and a dollop of vanilla. On the bright side it is sweet, full, creamy, but never monochromatic; the added flavors never overwhelm the tobacco. On the downside it gives me a headache, and the flavor is one that I never find myself craving. Neither fish nor fowl, perhaps. Don't buy it if you are after a good Virginia/Burley. Do buy it if you want to experiment with Lakelands, or are exploring quality aromatics, or like vanilla, or just want something new and unexpected.

This tobacco is not intended for fast pipe smoke, it has been created for conscious enjoyment, it require you full attention, it is better to smoke this before bed, as your last smoke of the day, because any other blend smoked just after KCF seems to be tasteless .

It works better for me when folding and packing the flake in long narrow bowl, an extremely slow puffing is the only way to enjoy it; this is a wonderful late evening blend, contemplative smoke with your solitude, just laying down doing nothing but smoking KCF, in a relaxing and peaceful silence, wonderful experience!

It works great with sweet black tea, very good tobacco, Truly Exceptional! Highly Recommended!

The epitome of the Lakeland burley/virginia flake. Like all Lakeland flakes (at least those with little age on them), this one needs to be dried out. I popped the tin and left it in a large tupperware container with other tins for a month before smoking it. By then it needed no more drying out.

The thing with this flake is that it REALLY varies depending on the kind of pipe you smoke it in, more than any other tobacco I've experienced. Sometimes it was cloyingly sweet. This seemed to happen in significantly tappered bowls of all sizes. And in straight-sided bowls of 15/16" diameter or larger, it was very "soapy" and herbal. The best smokes were in straight-sided bowls of 13/16-7/8" diameter. In these, you get a lot more spice and that earthy, nutty burley goodness.

Also, I had a bit of an epiphany with this flake that will probably help with other Lakeland flakes (especially FVF) in the future. After about 6 weeks after popping the tin, the smoke lost its flavor, just as FVF has done to me in the past. I always thought that since these tobaccos seemed to be a good humidity that this was irreversable. But since I had a few more smokes-worth, I thought I might as well add some moisture and see what happened. Success! Even more hard-hitting burley goodness than before! Maybe it's obvious to you, but somehow that solution had evaded me before. Hope that helps others.

In the right conditions, this is wonderful; a must-try for burley and Lakeland fans. Lots of nicotene, as others have noted. Give it a try and be patient with it.