G. L. Pease Stonehenge Flake

This is a fantastic flake. Huges hints of chocolate in the tin note. Gentle smoke. Sipped it for an hour. No tongue bite. Started strong and sweet and mellowed as I pushed into the mid part of the bowl, which was my favorite part of the smoke. Finished to a light ash.

GL Pease Stonehenge Flake - Virginia, Perique and Burley blend with added Cocoa and Lakeland Essence! Tangy dark fruit . Hay and citrus . A little nuttiness and a little spice . The Cocoa is is always there but the Lakeland is light and flashes off fairly quick usually . It is an aromatic of course . It is similar to Louisiana Flake but w/ more chocolate and the Virginias are darker tasting and less grassy . Similar to brown flake scented also but different flavorings and Perique. I like all 3 and will smoke them all with great pleasure . This blend is a great introduction to lakelands I think and usually available Great Flake made in England by Gawith Hoggarth. Thanks to GL Pease for the collaboration. Long live the Lakeland tradition ! This should suffice if you run out of Louisiana flake and it’s sold out . 4 stars

Preparation & Burn: 6/10 A bit moist. The flakes are fairly pliable though. Burns fairly cool, not much bite. A few more re-lights than I prefer.

Taste: 12/20 This is a decent blend, although a bit strong in taste. Has a floral essence. Nothing amazing compared to all the G&H Lakelands.

Mildness: 7/10 My idea of a good smoke is a relaxing, low nicotine session. Therefore, the milder the better. Not much nicotine.

Total: 25/40

Got some of the re-release and it did have the new to me Lakeland essence. But not much to my taste. Decided to let the balance of the tins age. At that time, a couple few years back it was a four star, as good as it gets blend gets for me. I ordered some more in 2020, and cracked a new tin. To my surprise, zero Lakeland. Fine by me, and even better tasting. Will order a few more tins to stash away. Either way, This is a fantastic blend for me. If you are in pursuit of greatness, my opinion, try it. You may agree with my assessment.

The tin note: Raisinetes, on account of the cocoa and perique.

I get flavors of cocoa, raisins, spice, some other kind of fruit (lemon maybe, but not much), and a kind of dark, earthy note which gives it a deep flavor. A little bit of Lakeland shows up occasionally, which is a nice surprise when I notice it.

The first time I tried this was a couple years ago. I prepared it by rubbing it out into fine strands, as I've typically done with flakes. While I liked it OK, I found it to be a little temperamental in terms of consistency and staying lit. I had expected more, and was a bit disappointed.

Recently I decided to give it another try, but this time I didn't rub it out as much. I wish I had thought of that sooner, because after preparing it that way it behaved and tasted much, much better. Outstanding, in fact.

I'm glad I held off on doing a review until the 2nd tin.

This is my initial review after smoking my first bowl. So starting off I was unsure which direction my palate would go with this blend. I am VA, VA/Per smoker. I tend to turn my nose up at anything with latakia in it, and I typically un-enjoy any type of added flavoring or toping that is added with any intention other than to help enhance a particular characteristic of a component tobacco.

Upon opening the tin it was met with the smell of baked bread and coco powder, almost a creamy-ness to the tin note. If I tried really hard I think I could detect the lakeland essence, but never having experienced this added component prior I wasn't sure what all was going on there. All and all I was a bit concerned with the coco-powder sent occupying my olfactory glands.

Flakes were well presented a medium thickness slightly moist flake. Soft to the touch and easily rubbed out. I gave it some extra time for drying as I enjoy my tobaccos and the drier side of dry, and my climate requires some extra dry time in and of its self.

Tobacco packs easily , took to the flame as expected and stayed lit quite well. A few relights towards the bottom of the bowl but again that is expected. On the the meat and potatoes of this reviews. So the lakeland essence is there, I noticed it almost immediately after charring light was completed and I was "off to the races" sort of say. It hit me as old lady's perfume. Its no obnoxious or even offensive. Id go as far as to say it was done tastefully? I can understand why some hate it, and if the lakeland essence had been added anymore than what is there, I could see myself being quite turned off by it. But all and all it made the smoke quite interesting. I found myself the entire time trying to tease out those red virginia's. I felt the coco-powder flavoring muted the reds. Able to sense the natural sweetness beneath the added flavorings, but I don't feel I was able to enjoy the sweet natural tobaccos unmolested until the last 1/4 of the bowl and even that was just for a moment. The chocolate/ coco flavoring is there neck and neck with the lakeland I feel. I also found this creamy "mutedness" to the smoke. Caused by the coco taming the sour/sweet smoke coming from the virginia, All and all I need more time to throughly investigate this blend as Ive only enjoyed 1 bowl of it so far. As of now it is not a everyday smoke, but I could see myself reaching for it on a certain occasion where I have a craving for something just a little different than what's my usual.

Would i recommend it. Absolutely, if you've never tried a lakeland blend. Id say start with this one and see where you go from there. I can say I will choose not to venture any further into that territory, but again I quite enjoyed the experience. All and all an Interesting smoking that is definitely worth investigating further.

1 caveat Id like to add to consider while enjoying this blend. Pairing this blend with the proper beverage is paramount to its full enjoyment. Shy away from things such as black coffees with a floral note to them (ie. Petes holiday blend). I was pairing these 2 together this morning and found myself overwhelmed with all the floral notes from the lakeland and the coffee. I felt as something darker and smokey-er would have been more appropriate. Something bitter to break up the blends lakeland essence. Perhaps a Pellegrino, or simply a more stout dark roast. Or perhaps some tea if you're into that kind of thing.

I had never tried the original release, so my experience is based on a 2018 tin. Well, it's much more Gawith & Hoggarth than Pease in style, which is fine for me since I absolutely adore Greg's Latakia mixtures but I have never warmed up too much (with a couple of notable exceptions) to his Virginia/VaPer blends.

This one comes a bit moist when the tin is opened, and really benefits from some drying to show its flavours (otherwise it may taste a bit weak and watery). Overall, it's a typical very dense English flake with the typical darkish Virginia base (not exceedingly sweet) and a healthy dose of Perique sourness, plus the right amount of Burley earthiness. I don't find the Lakeland flavouring intrusive at all: here it's very much on the light side, which again is the way I like it.

Overall, it's a robust but not knock-your-socks-off strong blend. I like to rub out the flakes a bit, otherwise it may be a bit hard to keep lit. Plenty of flavour, a bit mouth drying, but very creamy and satisfying. A small to medium bowl is IMHO better than a large one, it keeps the flavours ore concentrated.

While there are other VaPer flakes that I like even better, this is very fine tobacco indeed.

This review is based on a tin from the June 2017 release. The Virginia tobacco from the tobacco review notes are from Zimbabwe and other African countries. The Perique is superb and adds the right amount of spice. The Burley is just there. Add chocolate, steam, press, and cut into ribbons and one ends up a flake tobacco like this. The red and other Virginia's are well aged, and lay a fine foundation. Generally I am not a big chocolate fan, but the mellow and playful nature of its presence is quite satisfying. The sonorous nature of the blend flavor-wise, is something akin to a large church pipe organ when all of its ranks and pipes are in use. The flavor combinations are delightful, leaving one completely in awe of the wonderful cornucopia they convey to the smoker. To my palate, it is like eating ribs that have both Cajun and Kansas city sauces, with a light chocolate flavor, all the while featuring a perfect combination of sweet, spicy, meaty, and dare I say, dessert flavors. This blend is a masterwork, with a superb room note and a deeply satisfying smoke that is perfect for retiring to one's study after a fine meal, solely to complemplate life's wonders. Bravo!! I would give 10 stars if I could, I guess I will have to settle for four.

Stonehenge Flake is a very interesting take on a VA/Per. I am all over the map with the addition of "essence" to my tobacco's, and any flavoring for that matter. Let's just call it highly discriminating. It took me awhile to weigh in on this one. The tin note is, well, Cocoa Puffs (US chocolate kids breakfast cereal). I do get some grass and hay notes but once my memory rung cocoa puff's that is all I can smell. I like it, but it is odd from a mason jar bull of loosely packed flakes of tobacco. This tobacco needs some drying time and I have experimented with damp to dry (not cripy), and dry seems to be the best for me. I also find that it is best with an air pocket pack but does well with the 3 pinch method if I use the breath method of smoking. It can get hot and tend to bite if you puff too fast. For a VA/Per blend this is a bit light on Perique for me or maybe the added essence masks the flavors for me, even the trademark sting on the retrohale is barely noticeable. The flavor profile is very interesting. There is always the hint of chocolate, but almost barely noticeable. I found coffee to be the best beverage with this and it helps me taste the bready and slightly grassy Virginia's. Toasty burley comes out in this (and I have a hard time tasting burley in general in a blend). There is a citrusy flavor, subtle, that goes from lemony to grapefruit and back again. I also get a leathery, earthy flavor that is hard to pin down but I like very much. Due to the temperamental nature of the blend and my desire for more perique, I give it 2.5 stars, but I could see this ranked higher by others. A very enjoyable smoke.