Robert McConnell - Scottish Cake pipe tobacco reviews

Review

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Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
< PREVIOUS Showing reviews 61 through 73 of 73 reviews of this tobacco
gnossos	05/25/2006	Medium to Strong	Extremely Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
This just about knocked my socks off. It was the first tobacco I tasted that cemented me in pipe smoking. It's fruity, sweet, toasty, and goes perfect outdoors with a campfire. I think a nice glass of Laphroaig complements it quite well. If you're choosing between this and Scottish Flake, go with this. EDIT: this just gets better with time. I have a good amount of blends laying around but when I have a tin of this it disappears fast. I need to find somewhere reliable to buy this in bulk. Will ask the pipe store next time I'm there.
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JazzSmoke	04/21/2006	Mild	Extremely Mild	Medium	Very Pleasant
I love the fruit-like smell of an English Va/Perique mixture, and it always reminds me of Sobranie's version of it (Scottish No. 3, or something). It's here but in a softer and more subtle blend. This version is VERY mild and soft on the palate. If you need lots of nicotine and judge blends based on that, you probably will not care for it. It is not as strong as Elizabethan Mixture, Dorchester or Irish Oak (not even close!). However it has all the character of a classic old Virginia /Perique with heat and heaviness toned down to the point where there is very little bite, and a smooth softness on the palate. Of course any tobacco will bite if drawn too hard or fast. If you like 1792, Irish Oak, strong or sharp blends then stay away from this one. Naturally sweet but mild matured virginia, a tame but nice winey flavor and aroma from the perique. Lovely room note, I think. Soft on the palate, not heavy in nicotine. One of my current favorites in the style.
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Cactus John	11/28/2005	Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Pleasant
This is one of my favorite tobaccos. I would recommend this one for the beginner to Virginias to try. There is a little flavoring in it but hardly noticeable. I think there is a little cherry flavor in it from the tin aroma. This could very easily be an all day smoke tobacco. I'm anxious to see what it's like with a few years of age on it.
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Spike	11/09/2005	Medium	Very Mild	Medium	Tolerable
I had very high hopes for this tin. So far it has been less than anticipated. I will update this review if the airing-out smooths this one out. (6/14/05) It has been about 5 months since my initial review. I smoked a couple of bowls today without any other tobaccos and was very pleased. A very tasty medium Virginia ready rubbed flake. The tin suggests this is a Va./Per. I didn't taste any Perique though.
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mythdoc	01/31/2005	Mild to Medium	None detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
I like this blend very, very much. There seems to be some confusion as to the makeup of this blend. On this site burley is mentioned; elsewhere I see it described as a VA/Perique blend. The latter seems more accurate to me. Scottish Cake to my taste is a perky little blend that makes a wonderful second course to a burley or English first course. (But not to itself: two bowls in a row, as another reviewer stated, don't work so well.) It wakes up and refreshes the palate. This is a tobacco made to taste through the nose. Though, as other reviewers have pointed out, the taste does not change much from beginning to end (it intensifies,) that is not a drawback for me. I am not looking for a drama in three acts. But Scottish Cake is pure and lovely like a sonnet. I will buy more to age. (The tin I am just finishing has significant aging, so that should be taken into account.) Also, Scottish Cake leaves a pleasant understated aroma behind which is not likely to bother the missus. A very nice tobacco.
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Brendhain	01/14/2005	Mild to Medium	None detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
It is quite a wet tobacco when the tin is first opened. It definately benefits from a few days (closed but seal broken) drying before smoking. The aroma of the unsmoked tobacco is excellent. It has a clean smell of tobacco, if perhaps with a mild sweetness. The sweetness is not at all fruity but rich akin to molassos, though certainly not that sugary. The taste of the smoke is mild at first. It tends to burn a bit on the wet side but I would never call it a "wet smoker." This wetness tends to diminish towards the end of the bowl as the mildness of the smoke turns richer and moves into a medium strength range. This initial mildness makes it a good follow-up bowl after a bowl of pure virginia. That said, I find that I never enjoy an additional bowl of the Scottish Cake because the second bowl tastes bland.
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Mr. Dottle	05/05/2004	Mild	None detected	Mild	Pleasant to Tolerable
This is a nice, mild smoke. Upon the initial lighting of a VA blend, the stronger blends can be a bit harsh and ?knock me back? in my chair, others that are milder, like Scottish Cake, are much kinder. This is a pleasant, gentle, sweet smoke all the way to the bottom of the bowl. Highly recommended to the smoker who wants to try a Virginia blend for the first time.
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Briarabbit	09/01/2003	Mild	None detected	Mild	Very Pleasant
Naturaly sweet high grade Red Virginias from the eastern belt of the Carolinas, which are laced with just a little, and I do mean a small ammount of Kentucky/Tennessee white burley. When making this wonderful pipe tobacco the maker must really press the juice out of the leaves and then let it sit in the juice while it hardens. This would account for the really sweet uniformity of the leaf all the way down the bowl. The cake is broken up, and packing it one may leave it chunky or fully rub it out. I prefer to fully rub it out. It lights well, and stays lit. The flavour is sweet red virginias with a subtle burley playing way back that makes this such a wonderful smoke. I'll purchase more of this to put away in the cellar, though it needs no aging.
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Paddy	06/12/2003	Medium	None detected	Medium	Pleasant
As described, a dark brown, rubbed out flake with few bits of lighter leaf. The tobacco in this tin is exceptionally moist, and the paper cover is damp. The smell of the tobacco tells me a sweetener has been added, a sort of faint,raisiny note. I let the tobacco dry for about fifteen minutes. It is still a bit moist, very pliable and packs easily. The smoke is a dark, mild, honeydew Virginia flavor with no bite. I do not taste the Kentucky although it may be adding some subtle roundness. This is a good smoke. It is mild but the flavor of Virginia is distinct. As I guessed it would, this smokes a bit wet and requires a pipe cleaner half way through, but the tobacco burns very well without relights or tending. This compares to Marlin Flake, perhaps a little sweeter and a little less robust. It is not in the Best Brown or Full Virginia Flake category. All in all a very tasty smoke. Highly recommended to the lover of Virginia flake tobacco. Paddy.
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Mr. Ubiquity	03/25/2003	Mild to Medium	None detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
I find myself once again compelled to review a tobacco that I happened to grab on a whim. The tobacconist mentioned that he liked this blend and so I gave it a go. I personally really like this tobacco. It's not a hugely complex tobacco, although I find it more so than dark star or 5115. Scottish cake has a nice, even burn, which leaves the pipe clean and dry. It is moist in the tin, but I find I really have to huff on it to get any mouth heat. Frankly, this tobacco is really nice in that it isn't a constantly changing melange of flavor. That is nice sometimes, but at othe times an even, well balanced smoke is just the thing. It is slightly sweet with real tobacco flavor and typical VA flavors, though on the deep side (rather than bright.)The flavor stays consistent all the way down. This will be a regular in my rotation.
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kcook	02/02/2003	Strong	None detected	Very Full	Tolerable

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Tantric	01/08/2003	Medium	None detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
I originally tried this blend about ten years ago. At the time, taken as I was by English style mixtures and not very familiar with straight Vas., I found it rather dull and mild. A change of taste over the years has allowed me to appreciate the subtler Virginia flavours, and I must say I now find this blend a very nice and intriguing change of pace. Blended with the same care and quality that Kohlhase, Kopp & Co seem to put in their Rattray?s and Astley?s renderings, Scottish Cake is a very smooth smoke, slightly tangy, providing a simple and direct tobacco flavour. IMO the Kentucky here is barely noticeable, but it does seem to give a certain roundness to the overall flavour. I don?t think this tobacco is cased or topped (at least I could not detect any particular flavour other than natural tobacco leaf). It comes in a broken flake form, a medium to light shade of brown, very easy to further rub out if you wish so. It packs easily and it has excellent burning characteristics. Though I do enjoy it and smoke it gladly, there is really nothing remarkable or extraordinary about SC to make it an outstanding Virginia. Lets say that it is not a tobacco you would miss terribly if it went off the market, but if you have it in hand, well, it is a very good quality smoke, somewhat muted, yet very civil and traditional. If your thing is straight Virginias give it a try.
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Sykes Wilford	10/09/2001	Medium	None detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
This rubbed out/broken flake is one of my favorites from the Robert McConnell line of pipe tobaccos. Various light, red and brown Virginias make up this pleasant medium to full bodied blend. It is an attractive tobacco in the tin, sporting various colors. The cut falls somewhere between broken flake and rubbed out-- not quite fully rubbed out, but moreso than most broken flakes. Darker reds and browns predominate in this mostly Virginia blend. The Burleys that are supposed to be there are in rather small quantities it seems given the proportions of different colors. It smokes clenly to a fluffy greyish white ash and smoke remarkably cool for a Virginia blend. There is a slight sweetness to the Virginias but it is not a particularly overriding flavor. I can also detect a slight nuttiness from time to time (probably from the small quantities of Burley). On the whole, it is a very decent blend; there is nothing spectacularly complex or fascinating, but the flavor is pleasant and the smoking properties good. Definitely worth a look for the lover of straight Virginia blends.
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