Mac Baren Original Flake

There's a lightly subdued natural Virginia dark fruit sweetness and earth mixed in with the mild earthy nuttiness of the smoky, lightly woody Kentucky burley, which also has a little molasses and brown sugar sweetness. The spice from the Kentucky is very mild. The burley is the lesser component in terms of composition, but there's a healthy amount of it present. A few detect a little Lakeland essence, but I do not. It is not here at all. The topping reminds me of treacle, but I'm not certain that is what it is, and I think it's more fruit-like. Has a mild nic-hit. Won't bite or get harsh. Burns cool and clean at a moderate pace with a very consistent flavor. Leaves very little moisture in the bowl, requires an average number of relights, and has a nice after taste. Can be an all day smoke.

-JimInks

This was a generous gift from a friend. The flakes are dense and dark. There is a wonderful smell of slightly smokey and rich tobacco in the "tin" note.

I have rubbed mine out, and found the smoking experience to be similar to St. Bruno. It had a depth and smokey, slightly spicy quality from the Kentucky. The topping is very mild and may be a berry of some kind. The flavor profile is a little more Virginia forward than St. Bruno. It all works very well.

When puffed, you get more of the topping and the Kentucky. Sipped, it is a slightly sweet Virginia with Kentucky and mild berry notes. The strength is a little overrated in some of the reviews, and I find it to be milder in vitamin N than Old Dark Fired. I liked it and found it nicely balanced.

if this was all I had to smoke, I would be happy with Ogden's Walnut. It is not easily or affordably availible in the US, and that is a pity.

Retyped on 25/08/20.

Mac Baren - Original Flake (formerly 'Walnut Flake).

What a fantastic smoke! I didn't feel my review did it justice so am redoing it! Just opening the tray from the pouch makes my mouth water. Dark flakes, of which there are two rows, they have a slightly leather-like aroma, and a fabulous level of hydration.

The smoke? WOW! It has a slightly leathery touch, as per the tin-note, a strong flavour of nutty Burley, and is underscored by a fire-cured character. These flavours all coalesce together perfectly, resulting in a smoke that's good enough to eat! Ironically, the smoke is almost chewy in its thickness! It burns without a hitch, distributing a cool, bite-free, smoke.

Nicotine: healthy. Room-note: quite nice.

Original Flake? One of those blends where every bowl seems more enjoyable than the last; IMO. Four stars:

Highly recommended.

Children love walnuts, which is evident every time you go to the shops and witness those hordes of little boys and girls nagging and pulling their poor mothers to the nut and dried-fruit section of the supermarket. So Walnut Flake must now be called 'Original Flake', because the original name encouraged too many children to take up pipe smoking. Is this the logic of our nanny state?

Ranting aside, 'Original Flake' is indeed a tasty and nutty blend of burley and Virginia - along the lines of St Bruno, though with far less added aroma, and Peterson's Irish Flake, but with less nicotine. I've always found it a touch less smooth than those two blends, but it's still a very enjoyable tobacco and you should definitely give it a try if you like flake tobacco of this genre and tradition.

Sometimes, I think it is the circumstance as much as the tobacco. This evening, one and a half flakes of this in a smallish group 3 Dunhill ring grain gave me nearly two hours of a much needed respite from 10h of meetings in a stuffy conference room. That, and a cup of tea.

My first thought was, "Irish Flake!", but I soon noticed a sweet component on top of it that I rather like. Walnut flake maintains its cheerfulness much further down the bowl than Irish Flake, which tends to get into a bit of a slump near the bottom.

Very cool, tasty without requiring much exploring. Just what I needed tonight! It did need a relight about 2/3 down, but that was probably me relaxing so much that I let it go. I had prepared it with half a flake crumbled up in the bottom and a folded flake vertically on top of that, then some bits on top of that.

Suggestion: There should be two room note entries. To me, it was pleasant. to my wife it was, "... oh, one of the strong ones you got from England?".

I was fortunate to make a trade with s UK brother, and this fine blend was one he sent me. I have been wanting to try for some time now. This is one mild blend, tame as a little kitten, could not make it bite or scratch. But plenty of great flavor. It is semi sweet in taste, the aromatic aspect is on the subtle side, nothing as flavored in the Highland tradition like a St Bruno or a Condor, but there in the background. It has no soapy taste at all, just a nice sweet mild blend that burned very well in my pipe all the way down, with no moisture and just a little dottle left. The ash in the bottom is a dark grey and very fine, and powdered out of my pipe when tapping it out. The packaging is interesting, comes in a platic tray with a foil cover and then inside a pouch. Only problem is, you can't reseal the container. It is composed of thinly sliced flakes of a dark coffee brown color with some light, almost Khaki colored pieced mingled in. I let mine dry just a little and it was perfect. This is another of the fine UK tobaccos I have come to really enjoy and were it available to me in the US, I would make it part of my rotation. Highly recommended.

Walnut is a very pleasant flake of the very most British tradition, something of the same league of St. Bruno.

High density firm flakes, medium-dark brown with lighter specs. A "regular" tobacco smell from the sealed plastic ashtray. Stoved Virginias, Burley & Kentucky, this is going to reveal as a manly smoke. Something similar to Peterson's Irish Flake, IMHO.

A medium-small bowled Sasieni, prince shape, one of my best axes, was used for the purpose of this review. One flake and half were partially rubbed into three small balls. Lighting needs quite a bit of commitment and patience... but then the whole surface went in fire and I'm in the game.

A steadily dry and thick smoke, good volume. It's mainly a nutty/woody/earthy aroma, secondarily musty/sweet. The fire-cured leaf has been used with a perfect balance. No trace of soap into this... and whichever the imposed flavouring is, it's just over the "none detected". Strength starts medium and develops to the strong side, so my rating is the average. The body is firmly in the medium-to-strong territory.

Walnut Flake earns my highest rating. This is one I would have in my regular rotation.

I have been all round the houses, if you care to search my reviews, to esoteric blends and flakes and mixtures from various companies but in general my enjoyment was not sustained and I could not find a tobacco with consistent manufacturing qualities so I went back to basics. My Dad smoked Walnut Flake so did my Uncle Joe. He smoked it all his smoking life, and why? Well it is simple. It is good, consistent, available almost anywhere and reasonably priced. Who am I trying to kid with all these fancy tobaccos? Those that my Dad used to refer to as sweepings up or squaw tobacco. Well my old Dad died some years ago but he knew best alright.

If you are fed up with not been able to get hold of fancy brands because the company has no idea how to market their product and you are looking for an even mannered slow burning all day smoke that will not offend company which light easily and does not leave sludge in the bowl. Look no further. I honestly can recommend this tobacco of the highest order.

I just noticed the reviewer below state that Walnut Flake is no longer available in the Uk. What absolute balderdash. It is widely available and also stocked in supermarkets.

I like this blend so bear with me as I unfold its history, at least as I learned it.

I first heard of it several years ago while reading a back issue of The Pipe Smoker's Ephermeris (Spring-Summer 1997), p. 70. There a Simon Shepard of England boldly reviewed some 70 exotic blends, in terms of strength, aroma, coolness, etc., and scored each from 0 to 10. At the top of the list, his "king of all tobaccos" was Walnut Flake, with a perfect 10 score! Condor Long Cut, a fine scented flake, was next with a 6.

Walnut Flake was described by him as having superb flavor, cool, slow burings, satisfying, tranquilizing, rich, not too strong so it can be smoked all day, good quality, never boring, etc. He wrote an inquiry to the manufacturer, Imperial, and received a reply on 9/26/96, reprinted on p. 19 of the Winter 1998 Ephemeris. Imperial was pretty secretive, but did say the blend was introduced in 1905 but that they did not know why it was called that other than it tasted as sweet as a nut(I guess also indicating a nut flavoring was not involved). They described the blend process as involving leaf from four continents, large blending units, flavoring, moistening, standing, caking, pressure storing, and cutting into flakes.

I had to try this!

After some time in looking, I found Walnut Flake a www.davidsweets.com in Wakefield UK. (About $10.00 a 50 gm. pouch with mailing. Stuff came in one week from England. Good service and a sample too boot. Thanks David.) I ordered three pouches, and have spent a week smoking 11 bowls in a 25 year old, unsmoked algerian briar pipe from the former Garfinkle, of Wash., D.C., a small squat bulldog; and about 7 bowls in a nearly new Nording high grade (#14). I had to smoke several bowls of this new tobacco to smoke some McB Navy Flake out of the then new Nording that I had broken it in with, but the olde Garfinkle broke in after just a few pipefuls. They don't make briar much like that anymore.

The tray in the pouch has some 30, 1" by 3" flakes, mostly brownish leaf, with some black (about 1/3) and a few flashes of blond leaf. It smells coffee like in the pouch. A right level of moisture too.

I am told by relatives that the buring aroma is earthy, foresty (more bark like than just woody). No artificial scent was noted.

I found that twisting a flake and pushing it in the pipe chamber worked fine. It was steady burning after the initial lites. It does burn slowly. It's medium/medium strong, with a mostly natural flavor. It is heavier than F&T cut virginia plug, and similar in flavor to but not quite as full as G&H's Brown Flake (unscented). It does not have a sweet scented flavor but has a relatively deep, dark flavor (but not nearly so as a true all dark flake). It is cool and relatively dry, but it does have some burley and fire cured leaf in it. So some smokers may call it just plain strong, but I've tasted stronger. Aging, beyond what it is already, is not needed.

Well, I don't know that I could call it the king, but it certainly should be knighted. I plan on smoking the other two pouches to see if my opinion stands or changes. I hope to be able to order more. But I did give it a fair test with smoking 50 grams in now dedicated pipes. If you like flakes on the fuller side without being too stout flavored, try some.

New pouch presentation for me as this came in a plastic tray sealed with a foil top within a traditional OTC type pouch. The flakes were moist but not wet and certainly ready for smoking. Twenty four 1 inch by 3 inch flakes were present, brownish/black in appearance with minimal light leaf visible and thinly sliced ala Mac Baren style. Seems more than what you get with Peterson's University /Irish Flake for 50 gms! There was no pouch aroma at all. Loading and lighting was quite easy, after which I had an enjoyable smoke. At first there was no taste whatsoever, but after a few minutes there was a nice, subtle berry note, and overall sweeter (but not cloying) as compared to Peterson's University Flake; which for me is the most similar tobacco to Original Flake. For me, OF tops UF. Also similar to St Bruno Flake minus the mild Lakeland toppings.The sweetness was brown sugar like and the slightest bit nutty. Unlike UF, there never was any harshness present nor did this smoke hot or with a bite. It smoked clean and dry to the heal. There is the slightest soap-like presence with the after taste (very slight and not always present). There is a moderate nic hit if you tend to smoke too quickly but not over the top. No Lakeland presence that I could detect either. The cost of ordering from the UK for USA delivery is the only negative to prevent this from becoming a regular smoke ($25.93 plus around $10 for shipping for 50 gms). Overall a very nice smoking experience.