Mac Baren St. Bruno Flake

This darkly stoved virginia has a fragrant top dressing which is hard to describe. Kind of spicy yet fruity. It tastes rich, but can be slightly bitter at times after relights. All in a all a very full bodied and flavorful smoke.

I got this in a 50g pouch from a tobacconist when holidaying in Melbourne. When you open the pouch your greeted by a picture of a dog, a St. Bernhard in fact. Underneath it says 'a pipes best friend'. When I first took a whiff of this I was shocked by the intensity of the smell, and the darkness of the tobacco. It was obviously darkly stoved virginia with some very fragrant topping which is hard to describe as its somewhat fruity and somewhat spicy at the same time. It is well rubbed out flake, and packing and lighting was easy. It tastes rich, but not sweet, though slightly bitter at times. The flavouring comes through mildly in the smoke and does not ruin or interefere with the tobacco. It tastes particularly good in Meershcaum, but i recommend smoking it in a smaller pipe as, to me, it gets a bit boring after an hour of puffing.

St Bruno Ready Rubbed.March 2005. I use to smoke St Bruno Flake regularly,then sadly it became unavailable to Australia.But,the good new's is it's once again available here in Aus as Ready Rubbed in the pouch. Lighting this is a breeze,requiring one charring light,then a second after about five min's. It's every bit as delicious as the flake form,burning cool and slow to the very bottom of the bowl.At the end of the bowl your left with a mid grey ash,and no goop. St Bruno offer's a consistancy right through to the end of each bowl,which you don't find in that many tobacco's of today. Many tobacco's available now don't even taste like real tobacco of year's ago,but thank goodness St Bruno doe's,and I love every little bit of it. I even tried puffing hard and fast with one bowl,and there was no sign of a bite what so ever! Highly,highly,recommended by this pipe smoking lady.

Mmm, this is a good smoke. Not that I thought that the first time I tried it! When I had been smoking pipe for a few months, I got some of this, happily broke up the flake, and innocently stuffed a huge fistful into my largest bowled, short stemmed clay. I cheerfully applied fire, took a few large puffs, and was pleasantly surprised at the rich flavour. About 4o mins later my head was spinning, and the faeries and goblins were dancing around me singing raucous drinking songs!

Now, after a few years of hard training, I enjoy it in a large billiard, it smokes cool and slow, with a tremendously smooth, woody sort of taste. It is very distinctive, I can think of no other tobaccos loke it.

This does however have a really strong smell, which very few non smokers have any liking for. Its one of the favourite tobaccos here in merry England, and has done a lot to give the pipe a bad name among non smokers. Being an antisocial bastard I dont care, and take great pleasure in fumigating the smoking room of my favourite coffee shop! Which reminds me, if you can handle strong coffee as well as this potent pipeweed, you will be pleasantly rewarded by a dark chocolate flavour that the combination produces.

To anybody who finds it overwhelming, I reccomend that you keep the stuff, and try it in a smaller pipe. Its well worth cultivating a friendship with the noble St Bruno!

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Update

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Avoid, if at all possible, the ready rubbed. Its rubbed too much, and all too easily starts to burn rather warm. Also, it starts to gurgle, which, in my experience, the flake never does. Apart from that, its the same as the flake, but with a bit of the fun removed (I enjoy rubbing flakes).

Tin Aroma: Many people might disagree with me here, but I detected a slight berry/cherry aroma very similar to (although not as fruity as) Peterson's University Flake. I actually compared the two flakes directly with a friend who had smoked mainly St. Bruno for forty odd years and he agreed. Very pleasant but no fruity flavours were detected when actually smoking it.

Room Note: No aromatic fruitiness here; just a pleasant generic virginia pipe tobacco aroma with perhaps a little classic soapiness.

Packing: Because the flakes were quite small and thin, rubbing out was a little fiddly although worth the effort. Upon rubbing the flake right out, the strands were thin and reminiscent of cigarette hand rolling tobacco. Packing was therefore a little fiddly as well. Moisture content was near perfect but perhaps a little on the dry side. It took three flakes to fill my medium sized bowl.

Lighting: The mixture took the flame well and it only took one light tamper after the charring light and a subsequent re-light to keep the tobacco smouldering well with very little maintenance. Initially it seemed to make tons of smoke; I must have looked as though I was physically on fire! Beautiful great plumes of white smoke is indeed a pleasure to behold.

Appearance: An attractive flake ranging from dark to blonde leaf with perhaps a slight greyishness when compared to other similar flakes. The flakes were quite small and very thin as noted above.

Smoking: A very well balanced blend that although occaisionally descends into blandness (as I tend to find with ALL virginia flakes), also shows great depth and complexity. I detected no topping, merely a classic and subtle high quality virginia flavour with a pleasing, well rounded finish. There is no harshness here; despite the full body of the smoke it is very, very kind on the tongue, palate and throat. It is extremely cool even with rapid drawing and remains so right to the bottom of the bowl. It burns very evenly and produces a fine grey ash in a curious circular pattern in the bowl. A very relaxing, meditative smoke ideal in any weather or surroundings. A low maintenance smoke that looks after itself and smoulders in a very pleasing, almost lazy way. It soon comes to life with great clouds of delicious smoke erupting everywhere! Nicotine content is moderate and never overwhelms. A great classic of all time that I tend to go back to again and again as a wonderful, familiar and satisfying smoke. Five out of five stars; a genuine mainstay! Thoroughly recommended.

Pros: A high quality, well rounded, full-bodied virginia flake that smokes very long and cool. It never bites and always remains pleasant with no harshness or bitterness. It has a very pleasant aftertaste. An absolute classic.

Cons: Not so much a con, but as with all straight virginia blends, the taste can become a little too subtle (when compared to aromatics and English blends) and become a trifle bland. However, this is not for long as new complexities and character are constantly emerging as you smoke your way through the bowl. Wonderful.

I was excited to try St. Bruno, mainly due to my love of Va. blends, and the positive marks that this has received from others with tastes that I believe ring true to my own.

Before I delve into St. Bruno, let me say that as I continue to develop my own tobacco tastes, that I have become especially admiring of the reviewers here who seem able to appreciate a broader range of blends. I have tried, almost desperately, to appreciate the robust latakia and heavy perique blends; alas, to no avail. The more that I try, the more I find myself running back to Va.-centric blends. I guess that I am more shallow in my palate? Well, my hat is off to those of you who are blessed with this range!

St. Bruno falls in the "sweet spot", for me. The opened tin reveals aromas much like "dip" (chewing tobacco), which I really don't like. It was a little moist, so I rubbed it out and let it air for a few minutes. But, the lit tobacco is really good stuff if one can meter the combustion. Watch out for letting it get too hot...it is a little unforgiving at that point. It is better to relight than to "force the issue", I have found.

The tobacco burns to a clean ash. This might be a good tobacco with which to break in a pipe, as it seems to leave a plesant little "memory" within the bowl. I may experiment with this, but I employ Rattray Marlin Flake or Dunhill Royal Yacht for break in.

Wife did not like the room note at all (the room being the back patio before the rain arrived ...the garage thereafter 😉

Well, sorry to continually drift away from the primary review. This tobacco will be in my regular rotation, as long as I can cost-effectively keep it available to me in the States.

I recall the first time i tryed st bruno, i was 15, i took one puff and ran to the bathroom and proceded to empty the contents of my stomach, god did i feel ill !, many many years later when i took up piping again i tryed st bruno again, at first it was like smokeing old socks, but i stuck with it and after about a week my body grew to like it, no longer did my mouth feel like it had been pulled inside out, no longer did i have to hang onto the grass/trees because the world was spinning, instead i was rewarded with the unmistakeable flavour of va and other fine tobacco, the rich taste and after taste was something to behold, the room note was outstanding...now to find me some young ladys to test if it really does make em faint ;-))

Suntan lotion?? Chiterlings?? Mothballs?? overpoweringly strong?? Although I understand that taste is based on individual preferences, I can't help thinking that some of the reviewers above need to carry on sucking their lollipops and leave pipe smoking to the grown ups!!! St Bruno is a sublime tobacco in taste, strength, and aroma. A satisfying blend that enhances any situation, whether active or relaxing. The food of the gods, an enhancer of life. Wonderful in all respects.

Pure Virginia , mostly dark with some light. It tastes and smells like raisins. I wish it were more available in the US. I miss this smoke!