Wessex Brown Virginia Flake

Wessex Brown Virginia Flake- A straight Virginia with true tobacco taste .Toasty ,malty caramel sweetness . A little dark fruit , light citrus tang and mild spice . A little grassy and floral . Similar to BBF but not as sugary . A smooth smoke with zero bite . I find not fault with this . A little similar to marble cake in overall taste . I don’t find it boring at all . When I want a straight Virginia flake this does just fine . Nic hit is mild/medium . 4 stars Highly Recommend for Virginia lovers .

The presentation of the flakes is nice. They are uniform, and the kind of like Mac Baren's flakes, like sticks of gum. The tin note is kind of like oats, or cereal, and not very much fruit.

In terms of moisture, this flake was ready to be smoked really. It burns well, and has a simple quality to it. It is not really grassy like many straight Virginia flakes out there. It's more on the oats and warm cereal notes scale of Virginia flavor profiles. If you're in the US and you've had Raisin Bran, that cereal is a reasonable comparison for the flavor, but just the bran flakes mostly. There are some fruit notes in there, but mostly what you're going to get is cereal notes. There are some additional notes of molasses, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg, and baking spices, molasses, and tangy, savory charred wood notes towards the middle and end of the bowl.

The strength is medium. Nicotine is mild to medium. Sip this tobacco and you will be rewarded. I smoked this during the fall months in New York, USA.

If you like the darker Virginias, even Burley flakes, I think you will like this blend. If you are not a seasoned Virginia smoker, it might be easy to be underwhelmed with this blend. If you find yourself underwhelmed, I suggest smoking the entire tin to really understand it, and see if you like it. There aren't many straight Virginia flakes like this on the market. The price is also reasonable and average for 50g.

My only problem with this blend is that it is not readily available. If you want something somewhat close with the base notes, that is readily available, Capstan Original Navy Flake (blue) is a reasonable choice. Capstan has some grassy, brighter notes, but the two blends share some of their characteristics with one another.

Highly recommended due to it's uniqueness.

Well presented medium brown flake. Moisture level near perfect but a few minutes dry time worked well. Tin note is slight raisin, mild bread and very slight hay. Smokes well, cool with no bite if smoked gently. My preference for this one is rubbed out. Flavor is sweet straight Virginia. This is not a complex tobacco, but a wonderful straight Virginia with no discernible toppings or casing. I would put the nicotine hit as firmly in a medium category.

Interesting taste indeed, there is a flavoring of some sort or the virginias were stoved for prolonged period. No sharpness and the taste is almost full, bread/beans, that the first thing that comes to my palate. Smell like the sweet barbecue beans in the tin. Room note is tolerable not good but better than your regular virginia. Hard to get it to bite but if you smoke too fast it may. Burns well and the nic hit is mild to medium. 2 stars and some change, price and availability prevent it from being a 3 star.

Wessex - Brown Virginia Flake.

The second of the three Virginia flake colours Wessex do: gold, brown, and red. I posted Gold Virginia Flake yesterday, am on Brown Virginia Flake today, and will post Red Virginia in a few weeks when it's arrived!

As I found when I opened Gold yesterday, the presentation of the blend is without fault. two rows of quite thick, perfectly hydrated, slightly mottled flakes. The thing I find slightly perplexing though is the colour: despite the names, gold and brown, the 'brown' one's lighter than the gold! Like yesterdays Gold, rubbing Brown is trouble-free, in fact this is even easier: simply give it a gentle scrunch and it breaks into ribbons.

It's a simple task getting a burn initiated, and once lit it goes steady and cool, at a medium pace. Onto the taste: not sweet or fruity, and slightly, dare I say, boring. It's slightly more vibrant a-taste for the initial quarter, but this edge gets lost. It's replaced by a sort of dough-like flavour, but it's a flavour that lacks depth and just seems mundane: too savoury without much character.

Nicotine: mild to medium. Room-note: pleasant enough.

Not a fan. One star:

Not recommended.

This one just missed on me. I try to find the positives in all blends and there are a few. The VA's have a bread like sweetness, almost malty but this sweetness is very light. The taste is thin and rather one dimensional. That said, I just cannot recommend this one. When I think of what a Brown flake could be I think of SG's Best Brown and FVF to name a couple of my bench marks . This is not in the same league as these and others. No need to revisit this one for me. Your mileage my vary.

I smoke this every night in a Don Carlos Smooth billiard. Perfect nightcap.

I bought this several years ago, opened it and smoked maybe one bowl from the tin. I've kept it in a zip-lock bag with a couple of other similar blends in tins, but recently found it completely dried out and hard. I sprayed some distilled water on it, put it back in the plastic and set it aside for a couple of weeks. Tonight, I opened it and smoked a bowl from the now revived and moistened contents, and found it to be a mild to medium, and very enjoyable smoke.

I will definitely replace this tin in the near future and make it one of my favorites.

Somewhat similar to Red Virginia and Golden Virginia, but not quite as pleasant. It is rather bland compared to the other two and the flavor is somewhat "monotone". DGT does not suit it very well. I'm looking for a virgina with a little more grassy citrus flavor. The three (Red, Gold, Brown) are somewhat similar, but not as similar as the F&T line.