Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) Erinmore Flake

(2.95)
The leaf tobaccos for Erinmore are selected from only premium tobacco growing regions of the world. The blend consists of mature Virginia, mellow burley and sweet dark air-cured tobaccos. It is pressed into cakes, aged and cut into slices providing a mellow and cool smoke with flowery and fruity note.
Notes: Formerly blended by Murray & Sons, UK, until 2005. Now produced by Scandinavian Tobacco Group (Orlik factory, Assens, Denmark).

Details

Brand Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG)
Blended By Scandinavian Tobacco Group
Manufactured By Scandinavian Tobacco Group
Blend Type Virginia/Burley
Contents Burley, Virginia
Flavoring Floral Essences, Fruit / Citrus
Cut Flake
Packaging 50 grams tin, 100 grams tin
Country Denmark
Production Currently available

Profile

Strength
Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild -> Overwhelming
Flavoring
Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
None Detected -> Extra Strong
Room Note
Pleasant
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unnoticeable -> Overwhelming
Taste
Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild (Flat) -> Overwhelming

Average Rating

2.95 / 4
117

170

73

32

Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 10 of 392 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 23, 2002 Medium to Strong Mild Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
Once again we have a blend that is not for those who don't yet shave. This is a flake that is stout, bold, different and an all-time classic.

When you open the tin, you will be able to tell that there is a flavoring, but Pineapple is not it, despite what you may read from some reviews above this one. That pineapple is a flavoring in this blend is a myth perpetuated by the picture of a pineapple on the lid of the tin.

The flavoring is discreet, and you will certainly get a huge blast of true tobacco taste. Mostly a virginia/burley mixture, the top coating lends itself in a way that brings out the strength of the blend. It will be difficult to smoke this all day due to its strength, and it does get a tad harsh as you get near the bottom of the bowl.
102 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Dec 01, 2013 Medium Medium Medium Tolerable
Erinmore Flake is another icon in the pipe world. Much like Dunhills Nightcap this is a tin instantly recognizable by most well versed pipers. This is truly a staple of the pipe world, and just the fact that a blend has survived for as long as it has says a lot about the quality of the blend.

This technically is an aromatic but it sure feels funny to call it that. This does not feel like your typical light and sweet aromatic. This is definitely a linebacker in the aromatic world. It is big and hearty and powerful in both the flavor and nicotine department. This is definitely not in the same class as some dessert named goopy bulk blend.

The taste is very good. I am not going to get into the great pineapple enigma, quite frankly dont know and dont care. All I know is it is a big and delicious aromatic taste. Very satisfying on a nice winter day. The taste is fruity with a nice undertone of tobacco. There is no perique in this blend but it tingles in my nose the same way most perique blends do. Very nice.

One caveat to be aware of. Erinmore has been known to leave a very stubborn ghost, so dont smoke this in your favorite virginia pipe.

Overall a good choice for a stout aromatic blend. Although I dont smoke it often, but it is always satisfying.
Pipe Used: Designer Berlin sandblasted billiard
Age When Smoked: Purchased 2008
66 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 21, 2015 Medium Medium Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
The Virginias are a little grassy, hay-like, and tart and tangy citrusy with a hint of tangy dark fruit, wood and earth as the lead component. The burleys offer a lot of nuts, earth and wood. They fight for attention, and are quite muted by the very fruity topping, and Lord knows how many different fruits were used to make it. I did get some plum, orange, lemon, and apricot, but the rest is guess work. It kind of reminded me of toned down Juicy Fruit gum. In fact, I found the toppings have less strength than the rubbed out Mixture version. They sublimate the tobaccos quite a lot. The black cavendish has a slight sugary vanilla note in a minor role. The nic-hit just past the center of mild to medium. The strength and taste levels are medium. Won’t bite or get harsh. May need a light dry time. Burns cool, clean and slow with a very consistent flavor from top to bottom. Requires some relights, and only leaves a little moisture in the bowl. The after taste and room notes pleasantly linger a little. Not an all day smoke. Will ghost a briar.

-JimInks
64 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Oct 17, 2006 Medium Medium Full Tolerable
I've been on a pipe smoking hiatus for a good six months now, for one reason or another. It's not like I ever intended this to happen, but sometimes things just get in the way. I'd still smoke my pipe occassionaly, though once every few weeks or so, but it wasn't until recently that I began reading the familiar newsgroups again on a regular basis. There's something about these outfits that just draws you in. I'm not sure what it is.

Working my way back into the routine, I decided to drop by for a visit at my favored tobacconist, in pursuit of a can of Odyssey. I was nearly heartbroken to find out that the place had been sold. All the pipes for sale had been taken down, and the regulars it seemed had moved away for some other location. The place was entirely empty. It was very depressing.

Well, they didn't have any Odyssey, and I found myself needing compromise. I considered a tin of London Mixture, Old Hollywood, and any other in a wide range. I was feeling adventurous, to tell you the truth. As I browsed slowly and methodically, the new owners whispered to each other, and finally one announced, "Are you going to buy those?" Looking at the tins in my hand, I could have shot back a sarcastic remark, or simply walked out. But I kept my mouth shut and told them to give me a bit more time.

And that's when I spotted Erinmore, still wrapped in plastic behind a display of the Peterson line. Now that I hear production has ceased, I figured it might be time to see what it's all about, before the supply dries up. In the past, I've read the reviews for this blend with amusement, and it reminded me very much of the common passions surrounding such peers as 1792 and Royal Yacht. I had always meant to try the blend, and had put it off considering what great competition remains out there.

So I picked up a tin, thanked the new owners, and headed for the door. Without a pipe handy, I decided to crack open the lid anyway, to see what I'd gotten myself into. Immediately I found myself reminded of apricots, and really, what a wonderful scent came from the tobacco, set in small, squarish flakes. I had visited some other tobacconist a year or so ago. He made it a habit to chew up a bit of tobacco upon opening a new tin. This sounded like an interesting experiment, and I came to do the same. To my mind, it even tasted like apricots--a sweet, fruity flavor that made me wonder why this stuff didn't come in a can of snuff or the chewing variety.

When I returned home a good few hours later, I loaded up an old billiard estate. I had cracked it a year earlier, right through the bowl, and having not been smoked for a number of months, the crack widened nearing the thickness of a quarter. But I fired her up anyway. I don't mind smoking crummy pipes.

That apricot note I remembered transfered well to the taste. I didn't find an overbearing strength or strongly cased blend, but a smooth, full flavored tobacco that burned cool and reminded me why I had taken up the pipe. A great reintroduction, in my estimation, and a pleasant surprise. The pineapple on that tin cover probably sends the wrong message.

Sorry for the long winded review. I suppose I've had a lot on my mind.

Four of Four
55 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Mar 28, 2014 Mild to Medium Mild Medium to Full Pleasant
I smoked this tobacco for the first time about 30+ years ago. At that stage it contained a fresh, fruity taste in every tin. It has changed quite a bit with time but I still adore it. It's sweet but not in an aromatic way. The biggest change is consistency. Whereas previously every tin's contents tasted the same, this does not hold true anymore. I received a batch of 6 tins and only 2 of them held the tobacco I was used to. But, never the less, it remains one of my favourites. I love the smell it sets free while burning, no tongue bite (NO TONGUE BITE!) remains lit very easily and the nic hit is, for me, just right. This is one great tobacco in the real sense of the word and I would not like to be without it, ever.
Pipe Used: Parker Russet
PurchasedFrom: 4noggins
Age When Smoked: Unknown
31 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Mar 06, 2002 Medium to Strong Mild Full Strong
An old codger at the club offered me some of this. He had seen me put down my pipe things on the bar, and order an Old Bushmill's, neat. Since I had a small corncob with me, (I often smoke corncobs at the club: my own little statement against arrivistes with huge, enormous freehands) I accepted.

The first thing I remarked is that all Murray Sons & Co, Ltd flakes look alike: whether it be their proprietary Erinmore, or the farmed-out Dunhill "Light" Flake, or Peterson's University Flake, the size, look, and disposition of the 50 g étui is exactly the same; in fact, the smell, colour and cut of the flakes are all alike. I could hardly smell the Erinmore smell; either I am getting old, or they have moderated their topping, or the old codger had put this tin under an electric fan. Peterson University Flake's very light cherry topping smelt much more noticeable to me than this. (Then again, U.F. has in it Burley, the slut of the tobacco bar; it sucks everything in sight sans peur et sans chagrin!)

At first light, I immediately remarked, once again, how wonderful a Virginia flake this is: strong, round, with the big Virginia flavour filling my mouth: this is how it is supposed to be!

I was then shocked into realising that I didn't really taste The Taste hardly at all: a very occasional sweet tartness bringing to mind, perhaps, mint; no more. The dominant flavour here is the fine, superb Virginia.

Unlike Burley and Burley-based non-English Cavendish leaf, Virginia cannot be heavily cased. The tobacco simply does not suck up the casing sauce the way Burley does. That is why the traditional Anglo-Irish way with pressed Virginia is to TOP it, i.e., to spray a light flavouring over the TOP of the uncut cake. The inside is not sprayed at all. The result is a very much subtler redolence than the baths in casing sauce that American-type Cavendish concoctions receive. (Dutch and Danish blenders do the last as well, but much more restrainedly, and on better-quality leaf.) This distinction applies much more emphatically to Erinmore: the Plug and Flake, fine, strong tobacco lightly topped, are very different from the cased, ready-rubbed mixtures, where the flavouring is, well, repulsive. (Though not any more repulsive than a multitude of savagely cased cheap Burley than millions of people in this country smoke, day-in, day-out, without batting an eyelash.)

This delicious flake puts me in mind of smoking Murray's legendary VELVAN PLUG again. It is supposedly the Erinmore mix MINUS the Erinmore topping. Last smoked it in Bermuda...20 years ago? Can it be? Then again, when was the last time you saw it at an American tobacconist?
29 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Aug 15, 2014 Medium Medium Medium Pleasant
I find myself reaching for this tobacco more and more. I appreciate its balance, the fact that it isn't very much of any one thing: If you're looking for a nutty burley, this isn't going to do it; if you're looking for a sweet and tangy VA, then you'll be put off by the topping; if you're looking for an aromatic, then the flavoring will seem bland and unsatisfying. Erinmore Flake is all of these things, but none of them takes the fore, and this makes it a very pleasantly balanced smoke. Add a satisfying nicotine hit, and the package is a complete one for a go-to blend.

The dominant flavor, for me, is that of the interplay between Virginia and Burley tobaccos. But omnipresent is the topping that several reviewers have characterized as "tooty fruity" and I completely concur. But the topping, while impossible to ignore, doesn't overwhelm. It is a seasoning for the tobacco's flavor, not the main flavor in the set. The flakes are always neat and nicely arrayed in the tin (until one starts pulling them out) and I find that packing a small-bowled pipe requires merely a "fold and stuff" of between one and two flakes. Little preparation is needed and I never rub this blend out--the burn quality of the flakes is just right.

Smoking Erinmore Flake isn't a life-changing experience. But it's a very nice way to spend 45 minutes of one's day. I like it with a mild-flavored beverage--tea or not-too-heavy beer. And, for me, it works best in warm weather.
25 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 02, 2014 Mild to Medium Mild Mild to Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
I smoke Erinmore by breaking up the small flakes into small pieces. It smells fruity. When first lit the taste was mild and pleasant. There is a sweet note that comes out as I smoke it. The berry flavor lingers in my mouth which is something I like. I find it to be mild in strength but builds somewhat as the bowl progresses. Although I like it, it wouldn’t be in my list of regular blends, but just as a nice change of pace.
Age When Smoked: 6 years
22 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 01, 2014 Medium to Strong None Detected Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
So I took this tin out to sea with me on the last run. First bowl was pretty hot but Virginia tobacco tends to set my tounge on fire. The next bowl I packed in my cob and put it in my jacket while I sat on watch for an hour or so. As soon as I smoked this second bowl the deep sugars in tobacco came alive! I would say there is definatly a wood taste mixed with a fruity combo. Almost like visiting an old general store and the taste-smell you get when inside. My shipmates made notice of the room note saying it was pleasant and I have to admit after bowl number 12 the cob smelled wonderful sitting in my jacket before I packed it. I definatly had to smoke this a few times before I really enjoyed it.
Pipe Used: corn cob
PurchasedFrom: pipesandcigars.com
Age When Smoked: fresh tin (2013)
22 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Nov 03, 2014 Medium to Strong Mild to Medium Medium to Full Tolerable
Here's the TL;DR version - this flake is fantastic.

The extended remix goes like this:

I love this tobacco. It's bright and sweet and complicated... a lot like my wife, actually. I don't love this flake as much as I love her, but it's close. And much like my beloved wife, it is not without a certain, subtle, unbending strength.

This certainly isn't for the beginner pipe smoker - for one the mechanics of working with flake tobacco probably shouldn't be attempted until the mechanics of actually packing and smoking a pipe are mastered. On top of the purely mechanical issues presented by a flake, you have to have developed something of a palate to be able to appreciate the richness and complexity that this tobacco presents.

I've smoked this using both the fold-and-stuff method and the good, old-fashioned rub out. While I enjoyed both, rubbing it out (but stopping short of a ribbon or shag texture) produced a far superior flavor in my experience.

This is my go-to recommendation for any smoker who's read to take that next step up from ribbon cut, light aromatics and I like to keep it in my cellar at all times.
20 people found this review helpful.
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