Seattle Pipe Club Plum Pudding Special Reserve Flake

(3.80)
Notes: From smokingpipes.com: an elevated version, enhancing the original recipe with rare, matured sun-cured tobaccos and other specially selected leaf for additional nuance and peppery spice — pressed and sliced into delicate flakes for easy preparation and greater aging potential.

Details

Brand Seattle Pipe Club
Blended By Joe Lankford
Manufactured By Sutliff Tobacco Company
Blend Type Balkan
Contents Black Cavendish, Latakia, Oriental/Turkish, Perique, Virginia
Flavoring
Cut Flake
Packaging 2 ounce Tin
Country United States
Production Currently available

Profile

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

Average Rating

3.80 / 4
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1

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Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 13, 2021 Medium None Detected Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
The smoky, woody, earthy, floral, leathery, musty sweet Cyprian Latakia is the lead component. The sun cured Orientals provide a lot of earth, wood, buttery sweetness and dry sourness, herbs, vegetation, some floralness, smoke, spice, and a slight salt note. They are important supporting players. The fermented black and stoved Virginias offer a burst of stewed and tangy ripe dark fruit, earth, wood, bread, and some sugar, along with mild tart and tangy citrus, grass, and barbecue. They are right on the heels of the Orientals in terms of effect. The earthy, woody, fruity (plums, raisins, and figs), mildly spicy perique continually and noticeably underscores the experience. The spice is a rung more obvious than the other aspects of the perique. The condimental, creamy, sugary black cavendish helps tame potential rough edges, which barely exist in this manufacture. The strength and taste levels are medium. The nic-hit is a step behind them. There’s no chance of bite or harshness. The flakes are moderately moist, but need no dry time, and easily break apart. Exceptionally well balanced, complex and nuanced, it burns cool, clean and a tad slow with a very consistent, deeply rich, creamy tangy, fruity barbecue sweet, smoky, woody, savory flavor all the way to the finish. Leaves little dampness in the bowl. The number of relights depends on how you prepare the flakes, but expect some anyway. The very pleasant after taste lingers a little. The room note is a notch stronger. Can be an all day smoke for the veteran, and easily repeatable for the less experienced. Four stars out of four.

-JimInks
21 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 17, 2021 Medium None Detected Medium to Full Tolerable
A variation on a theme, but a great theme and a worthy variation for sure! Plum Pudding has been around awhile and is a great English/Balkan blend in its own right. More recently Plum Pudding Special Reserve was brought out, which is like the original in most ways but even better with the aged premium Orientals in place of the more generic ones in the original. And now Plum Pudding Special Reserve Flake! Very much like the Special Reserve in all ways and yet slightly different in presentation and to me flavor as well. The presentation difference is easy to describe. Unlike the Special Reserve this is being packed only in 2 ounce tins instead of the 4 ounce size. Also as indicated by the name it’s a flake, a thick 3/16-1/4 inch flake cut from a fairly firmly compressed cake. The flakes do seem to be cut from a slightly denser cake than I remember Special Reserve being...might be my memory lol!!! I do know it’s pressed for 30 days before being sliced and tined. Remember that 30 days...

FYI I have realized and found out that one change is this use if some whole leaf tobacco in the pressing to make a firmer flake. That and the slightly different process may explain much of the subtle difference that comes across as maturity.

The Cyprian Latakia takes the lead as always in these blends, smoky, somewhat musty and earthy like some smoked Portabella mushrooms I had once. The aged special sun cured Orientals are right there in support with a very herby dry sourness, but I sense a slight sweetness too and a touch of spice maybe but maybe that’s the Perique. They are broader in flavor and fuller than many Orientals I have tasted and shoulder the Latakia wonderfully. The darker Virginia’s and stoved ones add a nice subtle sweetness and might be part of the dark fruity flavor of plums I get but again that might be the Perique. A touch of bread maybe from them as well as a touch of vinegar and barbecue sauce flavor that is I am sure aided by the smoke from the Latakia...smell your fingers after you rub it out and you can smell it most then and your fingers will taste of smoke! The aforementioned Perique has that figgy, raisiny, dark plum taste is there for sure as is a bit of spice. The black cavendish is there but I can’t say what it’s doing other than maybe a touch of sweetness and a balancing of the other leaves, I’ve learned that a little can take edges off and even a blend out and I get the feeling that’s what’s happening here.

Over all what I have said would pretty much describe all the Plum Puddings but the Special Reserve with the aged varietal Orientals just is a solid step better as is this. Now I will say that to me this flake version just seems more mature in a way than even the Special Reserve I’ve had. It’s as if the pressing or something has made what I know is a fresh tin seem like it’s got a year or two of aging on it! It’s a very well developed and broad blend, balanced well, rich and full and a good mouth feel of creamy smoke. Depending on how much you break it up and if you dry it, not required but maybe try it to find this blends sweet spot...30 minutes worked for me...and you will get subtle changes throughout the bowl. Always mellow and balanced but sometimes more smoke and barbecue and other more spice and then more fruit. A very rich broad and enjoyable blend for sure. I smoked three bowls in one day so I would say for a someone who is used to smoking a pipe it could be an all day smoke, for me I would have a bowl every day or two likely after dinner but it does go good with coffee or strong tea in the morning as well. 4 out of 4 for me and now the original Plum Pudding is a 3.5 out of 4 for me!

Burns cool and well, some relighting is required but varies on the pipe and how your prep the flake. Won’t bite! Room note, well smoky is all I can say as I live alone and it’s what I smell.

Again a variation on a theme but a variation that stands on its own legs!!! Get some soon as it’s once and done run of tins!!!
Pipe Used: Ser Jacopo Author, BC Rhody, Chacom Paris CW
Age When Smoked: Fresh
11 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 26, 2022 Mild to Medium None Detected Full Unnoticeable
First the $64,000 dollar question. Where does the width of a flake end and the width of a slice of crumble cake begin? The reason I ask this is that when I see the word flake on a tin, I envision a hard flake with the width and length of a stick of gum. I have also experienced this with tins that say flake and I open it up and see broken flake. Anyway, I digress. This comes in a thick slice that is easily rubbed out. I bought this and a few others because I fell victim to another sale and if I spend X amount of dollars, I get free shipping. After 20 years I have over 300 tins, jars, pouches, etc. Not bragging whatsoever but beating myself up for hoarding more. Yes, my friends, tobacco hoarding is a facetious, obsessive, compulsive disease of which there is no cure. This has an outstanding Latakia tin note, for most of you English Smokers I am not going to go into all of the adjectives such as leather, cedar, smoke, creosote, etc. This smokes deep, rich, flavorful and is an excellent English. While smoking this it put out thunderous clouds of white smoke and the taste was consistent from start to finish. It has been a very long time since I have had Plum Pudding but I believe this iteration is not quite as sweet. Surprised there is only a handful of reviews. I concur with the rest of the reviewers and give this a solid 4-star.
Age When Smoked: New
6 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Sep 29, 2021 Medium None Detected Full Tolerable to Strong
The way I see it, there may be some English mix that smells just as good in its tin as this one, but not better. Instead of a flake cut what I found was a crumble cake, a little too wet, so it worked better when the tin had been open for a couple of weeks. Already in the pipe it is very tasty, robust, and produces a creamy smoke, with a sufficient dose of complexity for the most seasoned smokers. I have really enjoyed the first tin, with the peace of mind that I have spare parts for it in my cellar. Four steadfast stars.
Age When Smoked: 1 year
6 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jun 21, 2021 Medium None Detected Medium to Full Pleasant
Seattle Pipe Club - Plum Pudding Special Reserve Flake.

The tin smells a mite raisin-esc, with a bit of wood, etc; as you'd expect! I was expecting flakes but the blend appears more like slices of kake; LOADS thicker than your standard flake, yet still easy to rub and load. The moisture suits me, yes it's damp but not 'wet'.

Creamy, smoky, and sweet! The Latakia gives a smokiness but doesn't take things over. There's still plenty of room for the other varietals. I find plenty of ripeness from the Virginias, quite succulent; these are easy to taste! Then, the Orientals dry things, somewhat, but are still floral tasting. Throughout a bowl a spiciness is present, albeit the Perique is always a little subdued and never seems too piquant of 'harsh'. The black Cavendish is creamy-sweet; for me the flavour from this is the 'cherry on top'! How does it burn? PERFECTLY! Also, I can't see the cool temperature smoke biting anybody.

Nicotine: noticeable. Room-note: I quite like it!

SPC Plum Pudding SRF? Without a doubt, it deserves four stars:

Highly recommended.
Pipe Used: Peterson Spigot #302
PurchasedFrom: Smokingpipes.com
Age When Smoked: One month
4 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Sep 21, 2022 Medium None Detected Very Full Tolerable
A great smoke with a slight variation on the original. The Latakia is still lead with orientals close behind. This one tastes.. sweeter than the original though. Definitely a good thing in my book. I’ll be reaching for this over the original.
3 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Nov 02, 2023 Medium None Detected Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
I’m going to allow myself 10 as the number of the best Balkans currently available. This is in that elite group.

Others would be Balkan Sasieni, Arango’s Balkan Supreme, GLP’s Odyssey, C&D’s Sunset Harbor, and the Seattle Plum Pudding Bourbon.

Edging around 11 would be Abingdon. For the sake of differentiation I am putting Tashkent into the Orientals category otherwise it’s in the top 5.

One can arely do better than this excellent blend. A deserved reputation! Highly recommended.
2 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 24, 2023 Medium Medium Medium to Full Very Pleasant
What a treat!!!!!!! Opening the tin, you are met with that wonderful 'plum pudding' aroma, but there is this.....almost rancid smoked butter smell. Its not off putting in any way, just really unexpected, but it was interesting in the best way possible. Basically everything like the original plum pudding, but a little more rich in flavor. Spicy but oddly smooth, tangy, sweet creamy smoke. I very much love everything about this, right down to the flakes and how well you can just rub them out, or lightly crumble them between your fingers and call it good. 30 minutes of dry time gave me my char light and a few tamps. Nothing else. Basically smoked itself.
Pipe Used: Peterson 999
2 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 29, 2023 Medium None Detected Medium to Full Tolerable to Strong
Tin note of sweet smoky, mildly sharp sour and spices. Tobacco is a Flake of marbled dark brown, black, brown and a little tan. Moisture content is great. Flakes rub out with little effort. Burns slow with a few extra relights. The strength is medium and nic is mild. No flavoring detected. Taste is medium to full and mostly consistent, with notes of smoky incense, floral, tart and tangy zesty citrus, spice, toast, sour herbal hay, bitter orange peel, sugar, wood, musty vegetation, spicy, buttery savory, mild dark fruit, a lemon grass background note, and a peppery retro. Latakia is leading with Cavendish, Oriental/Turkish, Perique, Virginia supporting. Room note is tolerable to strong, and aftertaste is great.
Pipe Used: James Upshall Smooth Acorn (4) (P) (FH)
PurchasedFrom: TobaccoPipes.com
Age When Smoked: 2 years
1 person found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 16, 2023 Medium None Detected Medium Tolerable
I cracked my tin open with great expectations in January and smoked a pair of bowls: almost no taste; then I jarred it for one month and re-tried: again no taste. Finally I let it in its tin for another month and voila it revealed itself, delivering a nice taste with predominant dark notes. So at last in my opinion it's a good (but not exceptional) English, but here around there's a lot of English/Balkans better than this and good from the first smoke... (By the way, I payed 48 $ for this at Barclay-Rex in New York City and understand that it's a little overpriced even online...)
PurchasedFrom: Barclay-Rex New York City
1 person found this review helpful.
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