Cobblestone Hiking

Made by K and K in Germany, these flakes are imported by Sutliff and packed stateside. Hiking is typical of very lightly cased burley coming out of the EU. Under the “screw you, you’ll smoke it” Sutliff packaging are 15 1.75 by 2.5 inch flakes. They are tightly pressed together, making getting a single flake off in one piece impossible. The broad flakes are light brown, gold, and mahogany. A red brown appearance becomes evident when the flakes are rubbed out to ribbons.

Cracking the tin gives a sweet raisin and wood aroma. A chocolate smell becomes dominant after the tobacco is given some air. Some kind of cocoa liquor may have been conservatively used as a casing, but I detect no topping.

When this is good, it delivers notes of earth, bitter cocoa, and coffee. When it’s bad, it is really bad. It smokes wet, is a little stemmy. No matter the prep, this gurgled reliably. Hiking can get a little nippy if one’s cadence speeds unintendedly. The smoke had a tendency towards getting acrid, and I found this seemed to happen more regularly when smoked in a small bowl. My best smokes were achieved by half rubbing and gravity filling a wide bowled pipe.

Tastes much better paired with coffee.