Sutliff Tobacco Company Cringle Flake (2022)

The twenty year old stoved red Virginias provide a lot of very tart and tangy citrus, tangy ripe dark fruit, grass, earth, wood, bread, floralness, some sugar, vegetation, mild sour lemon, light spice, and vinegar as the lead components. The nineteen year old perique offers plenty of fermented stewed fruity (raisins, dates, figs, and plums), earth, wood, spice, and light sugar as an important supporting player. The strength, nic-hit and taste levels just reach the medium mark. There’s no chance of bite or harshness. The rough edges are very minor. The mildly moist flakes break apart easily. My usual custom is not to dry blends when I review, but I did try it a couple of times. When I did, the citrus and floralness were a little more pronounced. Some dry time may create an easier burn rate, but there’s a risk of altering the delicate balance of fruit flavors if you do much of it. The flakes burn cool, clean, and slow with a very consistent, subtly fermented fruity sweet, moderately peppery, floral, and light sour flavor that extends to the mildly lingering, pleasant after taste. The room note is pleasant to tolerable. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, and requires some relights. Can be an all day smoke for many smokers. Four stars out of four.

It started in 2019 with a straight Virginia and since 2020 it’s been a VaPer, so again a variation on a theme really, and yet for my taste buds at least Sutliff has again one upped themselves!!!

Again the basis is American grown Red Virginias that are then treated to the Cavendish Process, basically a method of stoving or heat processing tobacco. It’s not the same as many “Cavendish” tobacco’s that are often burley and very often sweetened and/or flavored. No added sugar or flavor needed here!!! The Virginia is a tad less sweet this time but seems to have more depth.  Most of the classic flavors of a quality aged Virginias are there and a bit more tangy citrus, grass, hay, a touch of sour, a hint of vinegar and herbal or botanical and a bit of bread and this time the dark fresh fruity taste I love is more noticeable. So a very solid foundation. 

Again the seasoning for this blend is the amazing 2003 batch of Perique cooked up by Mark Ryan, now 19 years old.  Sometimes I have a problem with VaPer’s telling what particular taste is coming from the Virginia or Perique but all the matters is the result and the results are delicious.  Just a nice dash of pepper and spice that in some other blends can be a bit to harsh for me is paired with a lot of the plummy, raisiny, figgy, dark cherry and just lovely deep fruity taste I do love with a bit of an almost truffles earthy umami note that just balances the blend into a delightful smoke!!!!

Strength is about middle ground and it smokes cool overall unless pushed but doesn’t bite at all and it’s smooth. It smokes fine from the tin and this time needs little or no drying time to shine.  Drying a bit does seem to brings the brighter citrus flavor forward.  It’s a slightly thick flake pressed up of whole leaves of superb quality, not hard to rub out or pull apart but not a crumble cake. For a few bowls I used a trick I picked up years ago, cutting across the flakes with sharp shears into cubes.  Then get a good light of the bowl and let it warm a bit then let it go out and get cool for an hour or more. Then relight and enjoy, believe me it’s worth a try as like drying it changes the flavor profile and balance and may suit you.  For me the deeper and more nuanced dark fruit flavors come out and the complexity increases.  I do suggest, as always, to try and light with as little heat as possible as gently toasting tobacco to light and smoking slow enough to keep the temps down always make tobacco taste better. I also tried it in several pipes of different shapes and find a taller narrower bowl seems to bring it out best.

I got this one free at a b&m because I bought two pipes that day. Nice lady who runs the counter there.

The tins is cool looking, definitely festive Christmas design. In the tin is a small pile of beautiful flakes. Very well made flakes, more like European than normal American ones. Smells heavenly if you like Virginia perique blends.

I rubbed these out mostly on the first pipe, and fully on the second. It lights and smokes well with excellent smoke volume and burns readily. It did very well straight from the can in fact. The Virginia is sweet and has a lemony flavor to me, with undertones of fresh bread goodness. It is very va forward. The perique is fantastic given its age, and I can really appreciate that. It still retains some of the spice I like, but is more dark sweet and pungent.

My wife said the tin note was of dirty socks lol.

Overall, I’m sure a lot of people will like this. I wanted to like it more than I do. Unfortunately, the lemon Virginia is too sour for me, and I have a strong lingering sourness on my tongue even after I ate dinner hours later. I’m not big on sour. I think this would have worked better for me with more perique or maybe a dash of unsweetened cavendish.

Tin note of pungent fermentation, spices, and tart sour fruitiness. The mostly dark brown flakes are a little on the thick side, moisture level is a little high and may benefit from some drying out. Rubs out with some effort. Burns slow with many relights. The strength is mild to medium and nic is mild. No flavoring detected. Taste is medium and consistent, with notes of tangy fruit, tart lemon grass, rich earth, spices, wood, very bready, very spicy, floral, musty hay, a tart sour stewed plum background note, and a moderately peppery retro. Virginias is leading with perique supporting. Room note is pleasant to tolerable, and aftertaste is great.

I'll start by saying that this is a pleasant smoke. Very nice. But there are qualifiers. It's no Christmas cheer substitute(IMHO) for those who say it is. But we're in the vague ballpark.

Presentation: with the tin closed. Nice. Very festive Christmas/Holiday appeal. Inside the tin...fail. It's as if they weighed it. Wadded it up. Wrapped paper around it and wadded it again. Stuffed it in the tin and said a prayer that it would seal shut w/ vacuum. Not. So. Appealing.

Tin note: Nice. Not overly complex per say. But still inviting to the virginia smoker. Notes of hay(of course), mild sweetness, raisins/figs, slight chocolate, sour(bites the nose), warmth. Pleasant overall.

Smoking: Not for the puffer. If you like plumes of smoke(which it will give you) get ready to be disappointed in flavor. If you want something to crank on, this becomes pretty linear(maybe unilateral is a slight way of defining). You'll only catch part of the flavors this can offer. Which is true of most tobaccos i suppose. And, certainly isnt the most pleasant part. When sipped w/ slow cadence this becomes a different story. Sweet, almost perfumy, cedar, hay, dark fruits, chocolate, more complex. Flavors mature with time and when paced well. I'd say this reached it best point 2/3 of the way into the bowl. I sort of lost track of time and really was only thinking about the smoke at this point. Which is the goal I think. Light white but dense/chewy smoke at this point as well. Spicy in the retro all throughout. No tongue bite. Burnt to the bottom of the bowl. Plenty of relights, I will say. No biggie there. But, as w/ most virginias relight well even through the ash. Surely recommended overall.

Would recommend for any one who likes a good VaPer. Fits the bill well.

Barely medium nic hit. Flavors are average in strength. Maybe a little above. Pleasant VaPer taste overall. Not gonna be loved by non-smokers...

The tin is attractive enough, but what lies inside was a bit horrifying. This was hands down the weirdest and sloppiest packaging job I have ever seen. When I cracked the tin, the paper doily was messily folded in on itself. As I peeled back several folds I saw some black material surrounded by tobacco. I initially thought that maybe this was a cool packaging gimmick, possibly a whole unprocessed leaf. Nope. Instead of the usual circular white cardstock placed inside the doily, Sutliff decided to use a flimsy black piece of paper, which in my case was folded in on itself several times and covering only a portion of the enclosed tobacco.

My gripes end there. These thick cut flakes have a strong vinegar tin note that becomes lightly fruity with air. They are loaded with sugar crystals. Unlike most other Sutliff tobaccos I have tried, this did not have any of the tobacco dust that seems so prevalent in their products. This tobacco has a light mouthfeel and will not bite unless abused. There are delicious notes of tangy, sour, and sweet fruit. There is some earthiness, and an unusual note of fairly neutral charcoal. I cannot think of any better way of explaining it. I use the term neutral as there is no real smokiness to speak of. There are bitter chocolate and coffee bean notes on the low end.

The Perique lends a little pepper towards the last third of the bowl. It also seems to lend a little spice to the room note, though I may not be the best judge of that. Tastes sweeter and a little more plummy in a churchwarden. This is a solid VAPer.

Not subtle! From the garish tin art to the smell that permeated the room when I cracked it open (I've heard gym socks but it immediately brought to mind stinky feet), this one is in your face.

Requires a ton of drying time, but if you have patience the story improves. Taste is immediately tart and sweet. Citrusy and overripe fruits. Nice spicy, faint cinnamon undertone combined with tanginess on retrohale. Towards the bottom half of the bowl an earthiness appears, with some mild chocolate and gingerbread notes appearing. It's a flavor bomb and a fun, edgy experience.

Sutliff - Cringle Flake 2022.

The tin holds very thick flakes, they're more like slices of kake than standard flakes. This tin has good moisture, so I didn't have to let any dry out prior to smoking. It crumbles and loads just like a kake, so on with the smoke.

It's a very smooth VaPer. The sweet red Virginia Cavendish is very rich, and tones the smoke down from one where the Perique takes over. The well-aged Perique seems to have had it's toughness ''muted'' somewhat. Although there is a spiciness, pepper, it offers heaps of dark fruit, it's rather succulent. The burn is outstanding, giving quite a cool, bite-free, smoke. A negative point, the only one, is the room note. It's a touch heavy, not my thing.

Nicotine: medium. Room-note: as I said, not good.

Cringle 2022? Sure, the room-note isn't nice, but the smoke tastes remarkable! Highly recommended:

Four stars.

The tin note is tangy, vinegar, with an earthy quality. Upon lighting the red Virginia's lead with a sugary, dark fruit quality. The aged Perique adds additional exotic, slightly spicy, dark fruit. It's less peppery, and more dates, figs & plums. Both aged tobaccos meld very well together, in a smooth, pleasant, almost red wine like smoke.

Even with long dry times, I did have trouble getting the initial light going, and overall it needed more relights than normal. Didn't bite though, and never got too hot. It's a bit expensive for a 1.5 oz tin.

Enjoyable and recommended; just not highly.

Pairing: Coffee w/ French vanilla cream

Conditions: Light with matches and use of a balsa filter (Savinelli 6mm) on a covered porch during rain with ambient temperature at 37 F and humidity at 95%.

Tin Note: A number of reviewers reported detecting vinegar. I do not. I smell stinkbait and manure. When I opened the tin, the lid twisted off easily without the normal prying typically required for opening a new tin. The paper inside the tin was stained with large brown tar-like spots. The inside of the tin itself also had sticky blobs and crystalization. The seal material itself was browning. It appears the contents matured inside the tin. The label was likely added recently after two decades of fermentation and maturation. The flake is thick and moist. Obvious large spots of crystallization visible on the flakes. Moisture content is similar to Sam Gawith flakes.

Flavor: In the first half, sweet, mild, smooth, soft, chocolate (natural, not a topping). Retrohale is surprisingly silky, easy and repeatable. Perique is barely detectable, and much more sweet/fruity than spicy.

In the second half, flavors became more complex: fermented dark fruit, more perique with raisins leading, and minimal spice. Reminiscent of sweet aromatic cavendish. Some flavors were detected that were an entirely new experience to my palate and as such are difficult to describe.

Comparisons: Perique much more sweet/mild and subdued than St James Flake or Escudo.

Charring Light: Minimal Springback

Relights: The entire bowl required 5 relights.

Finish: More than average moisture level in the bottom of the bowl. More relights approaching bottom of the bowl.

Bite: None

Room note: Pleasant to tolerable.

Smoke characteristics: Initially smoke was white and creamy, but approaching the bottom of the bowl, became thinner with two separate levels detectable--a bluish layer followed by an amber layer. This is a novel observation (specifically the amber layer) during pipe smoking.

Result: I am pleasantly surprised how sweet, complex and sublime this flake smoked. Highly recommended.