I like the long flakes, just reach in and pinch off perfect pack-able pieces, I don’t need to pull out a whole flake - stop playing with it and shove it in.

Lighting up brings warm cookies, pancakes, sweet grains, delicious chewy Virginia. Like Hal O’ The Wynd this one is complex, but the flavors are more married, quieter, more subtle. The tobacco blend is older here and the Virginia is oilier and juicier. More nicotine, a little more tartness, cool comparatively - but it will still bite if hurried.

Update 7/2011: key to this flake is "dry-time" almost as much as other MC blends, at least 2-12hrs and this stuff ROCKS everytime...just have to find the Sweet spot on dry time...others like Dunhill flake and Peterson UF only need 15-30minutes (much longer and try go dull) others like MF, MC blends, etc need at least 2hrs (I just take of enough for day or two and it is golden sweet dreams of flavor and no bite.....slow down and enjoy flavors...no bacci esp. straight Virginians or Vapers will take to intense puff'in but will rather return a Crack'in bite u won't forget :-) it is all about the sugars and overhea'in them) but get them to correct temp and it is pure heaven....takes time and experience but after awhile you will get it...took me 6-months to learn it...plan on spending the rest of my days daydream'in while sip'in sweet Vs

First, it needs some age. The 100g tin I'm smoking from now is over 10 years old. Marlin Flake doesn't need a full 10 years, but 2 or 3 years seem to be a minimum in my experience. Next, the beautiful long rolls of flake need to dry without losing the top-note that is added (anise or licorice perhaps). I do that by leaving it in the open 100g tin with the plastic top on for months. In this case about 4 months. Don't let it get too dry (i.e. crunchy). Once you've done this everything seems to fall into place pretty well.

It can be rubbed out or just stuffed in the pipe as is. Of course like any Virginia it still needs to be smoked slowly. Once you have a really great experience with Marlin Flake, you'll want to experience it again. That's just when you can get into trouble trying to rush one of the 2 steps listed above. If you're the patient type (many pipe smokers are), I highly recommend Marlin Flake for its moderate sweetness, dark fruit flavors and a touch of licorice. Marlin Flake can hit "the zone" almost immediately after lighting and stay there for the duration of the bowl. All of a sudden you'll realize that the bowl is finished with no ashy taste near the end and no dottle whatsoever.

for some reason I wish I'd just gotten germain's brown or something instead of insisting on a Va/Per, because I'm somewhat disappointed.

it smells great from the tin, it looks great and it feels great in my hands and so I was expecting it to smoke accordingly. it's REALLY moist, so my first mistake was to smoke it out of the tin. the next time I air-dried it for about an hour. it still doesn't really give me what I expected. I guess I should've taken hal o the wynd instead. I was expecting deep, rich, somewhat spicy virginia, not candy-sweet-like. it's still not a bad tobacco, it's just not what I wanted to spend 18 euros on. I'm also missing that perique tang and spice.

I'd probably not buy this again, I'd get one of the other 'holy trinity' tobaccos or another tin of the delicious navy rolls. or maybe st. james flake. whatever.

I'll still smoke this tin, and I also have some of it in mason jars, so maybe it'll be better in a year or two.

Packing & Burning: The strip was difficult to unfold, so pieces were pulled off and stuffed into the pipe without much rubbing out. Though the tobacco was moist, no drying time was used. A pipefull lasts a long time.

Taste & Aroma: Starting off, sweet, bready and mellow, with a fruity note. Towards the bottom, I can understand the fresh-cut hay and chocolate qualities that others have noted.

Nicotine: Medium

Room Note: Pleasant. About the best it gets.

Overall: More mellow and pleasant than HOTW, but the tastes and aromas of MF are more pronounced. The sweetness levels off, after the tin has been unsealed for a few days. The fact that it was still moist after unsealing the tin for three weeks speaks on the use of humectants, which is a big negative and keeps MF out of the 4 star range.

MF is a tobacco to be smoked at leisure; you won’t enjoy it if you rush it or if you’re too distracted to concentrate on the nuances of flavour. It has a deep, distinctive taste with lots of shades and subtleties that play in and out as your bowlful progresses. Dry it a bit (it comes a little moist in the tin), fold and stuff, and take it slowly: it will reward you with a cool and satisfying smoke that retains its quality all the way down. In nicotine terms it’s strongish, but not unbearably strong. SWMBO and the others don’t mind the room note, either – and that’s a big plus point. I find that smoking it in a big billiard bowl allows the tobacco time to settle down and give of its best.

I think I prefer Old Gowrie to MF. There isn’t all that much difference, as far as I can tell; but OG has just that little extra touch of Perique. MF is a quite outstanding flake tobacco, however, if you like your tobacco uncased and as nature intended. The only negative is that it’s relatively expensive. Worth it, though: highly recommended.

NOTE: If perique is actually present in this flake, it is in such microscopic amounts that it's virtually undetectable; I'm extremely sensitive to perique (and not in a good way), but I couldn't determine whether it was here or not. Also, any cavendish present in the flake was handled with a very light hand. I'm not saying that perique and cavendish aren't here; I'm just saying that they are used (if at all) in such small quantities that they manage to enrich the Virginias without ever calling attention to themselves.

This is a truly rewarding smoke.

The tin aroma is similar to port. I enjoyed this tin very much and will rebuy.

The flake was a joy to break up, and I reveled in the smell of the stuff on my fingers and getting my hands "dirty" with the 'baccy.

Upon light up, I was skeptical with the first bowl as I am used to english blends and was afraid this would be like smoking pure oxygen over taste. The first puffs fortified this fear, however, soon it was erased. What I ended up getting was a very natural sweet taste with a well-rounded creamy body that was a sheer delight. I've read this is the sweetest of the trinity (Hal and Old Gowrie being the other two in the "Holy Three"), but time will tell. I had difficulty discerning any peppery perique notes, but there was some saltiness, which could have been a dab of the stuff. . .

I have not put this stuff down and crave it over most my other tobaccos, which is a very good sign. Whether it earns another star will take trying a few more top-quality VA's. My guess is, if you love VA's with a little perique, pick this up.

UPDATE:

After trying several VA blends, this one remains a favorite. I now highly recommend it.

Tin aroma reminds me of a dark rich Christmas pudding with a very faint hint of liquorice. Some of this translates into the smoke as well. Lovely crumbly dark brown leathery flakes ooze quality.

Smokes very well, though needs drying time as it's quite moist from the tin. Very flavourful blend that is now possibly vying for most favourite VA of mine alongside FVF..

Only HOTW has disappointed me out of the 'Cream Tin Three' (HOTW,OG,MF)..

That said I do like HOTW, just not as much as MF and OG..

Wonderful stuff...