Mac Baren Original Flake

Walnut is, in many ways, similar to St. Bruno. It contains VA, Burley and fire cured leaf (read: Kentucky), and it has this typical oily texture and feel, as found only in UK.

Whereas St. Bruno is rather soapy with rose, geranium, and perhaps tonquin oils, Walnut is only ever so lightly flavoured.

Walnut is strong, and I recommend sipping it. It also behaves best in a pipe with a small chamber and thick walls.

Taste and smell when lit is pungent, semi-sweet, cigar-like - a bit like Old Holborn rolling tobacco, should you ever have committed the "sin" of enjoying a home rolled cigarette.

I like it very much on outdoor occasions, when the weather is crisp and cool (it's often like that in Denmark), because it seems that I only truly appreciate Kentucky in the open.

Quality leaf, indeed. Monochromatic. Masculine.

Highly recommended for Bruno-fans who seek something less soapy.

***** Jakob Kiilerich, Denmark *****

This is a tobacco worth trying at least once in your life. And for me, once was enough.

Upon opening the unique pouch, I was hit with the pungent smell of a cold campfire. The pressed flakes were almost black and appeared to have been stoved for an extended period of time. More dry that moist, the flakes rubbed out easily and an even pack job was simple.

At the match, the campfire smell turned into a campfire flavor (smokey and somewhat ashey) that did not overwhelm me with delight. This blend has some punch (which, I enjoyed) but the flavor was unrefined and became really harsh the farther down the bowl I progressed.

I tried Walnut Flake in a variety of small pipes but never found a compatible briar for this weed. Once half the pouch was suitably consumed, I took the rest to one of my pipe club meetings. While it didn't strike out with the group, it didn't get past first base either.

I have returned to Pipe Smoking after a hiatus of about 10 years and decided on treating myself to a new Ben Wade Woodsman Dublin Zulu. I wanted to use a bold fuller flavoured flake (nice and cool) to break it in. I would have chosen Redbreast Flake if it was still available but sadly it has long since gone the way of the Dodo. St Bruno is good but not my favorite and it can impart a taste of its own. I had smoked Walnut flake in the dim distant past and remembered that Ogdens had at the time of withdrawing Redbreast recommended Walnut as the closest replacement. Fast forward to the present day and Mac Baren now make Original (aka Walnut) flake and the Ogdens factory is gone. I ordered 50g of the latest production from Mysmokingshop.com and loved every puff of it from the get go. It burns the coolest of any tobacco I have ever smoked and lights easily and stays lit and burns down to a light grey ash. It has a stout leathery earthy honest tobacco pouch note with no soapyness. It tastes amazingly good with citrus notes aplenty and a solid background of Burley nuttyness. Nicotine is medium to strong and perfectly manageable. The room note is one of the best I personally have experienced, being "proper" tobacco aromas and not artificial.casings and toppings. The blend was introduced in 1905 and it and its Stable Mate St Bruno flake are as close to time travel as we can come. The aroma reminds me of pipe smokers that I knew 50 years ago working in a garden potting shed with my father. Just that real honest sweet tobacco smell. In summation, I have found my ideal tobacco and it has become my daily smoke. It is great as it arrives with perfect moisture but jarring it is a must, as the packing is not air tight once opened and I have found that the flavours benefit from the time in a jar. If you are looking for a true English Heritage Flake then look no further than Original (Walnut).This is it !

Update.

This tobacco is exceptionally cool burning and is perfect for those prone to tongue bite. It is at its absolute best in a Falcon System Pipe.

I cant express how much I like this blend . It's rich , burns perfect & has plenty of nicotine . It's a finely cut flake that has , imo , what smells like a little bit of Tonka/tonquin bean added to it . I dont get the Lakeland soap thing goin on nor do I get a berry flavor at all . I do taste a rich fermented tobacco flavor . It burns cool and dry as can be . It starts med and tends towards full at the finish . It's a ' back in the day ' blend that , if I could get it all the time , I'd smoke the daylight out of it !

finally got around to trying this. glad i did!

pouch note is virginia-kentucky, a mix of fermented leaf and smokiness. a littele flavouring, not as much as there probably is in st. bruno.

easy to pack and light, and initial impression is first of all mature, sweet fruity/berryish tasting virginia - but it is immediately clear that this is potent tobacco. slowly the taste deepens, and the kentucky becomes more dominant. burns well all the way to the ash.

i believe it has a little less kentucky (and perhaps even less flavouring) than does st. bruno, but they're otherwise very similar. a splendid tobacco!

The version of Walnut Flake I've enjoyed is from Ogden's of Liverpool and comes in a plastic sealed tray inside a pouch, not a tin. The in tray aroma is that of pure natural tobacco. Easily folded, bent and stuffed or rubbed out, Walnut Flake is easy to load into the pipe and easy to light.

It is wonderfully rich and stout with natural tobacco flavor that strengthens as the bowl is smoked down with absolutely no bite. It smokes very cool and slow with a superb balance of Virginia flavor complimented with a nutty burley flavor rounding it off nicely. In short it has a very musty earthen taste all the way down the bowl.

I truly enjoyed the time I spent with Walnut Flake while visiting relatives in Scotland. However, since Ogden's is not available in the States, I have to be content savoring the great memories of time spent smoking it. As this review is being written, I'm enjoying my last bowlful and will miss this flake a lot. If the opportunity should arise to procure more of this fine flake in the future, I'll surely do so!

**150 grams later and I've decided to upgrade this to the highest rating. I now tend to agree with the sentiments in the Pipe Smoker's Ephemeris article in the review below. ***



This is somewhat like Peterson's University flake, and somewhat like St. Bruno, and can give you a gut punch of the highest order.

There's a kind of mysterious berry note which may or may not be an added flavoring. It could be a blend reversal of St. Bruno, I have no idea. In any event, the added flavorings are not as strong, and the presence of VA is further in the background, than in St. Bruno or Condor. I find it very tasty and chimerical.

If fairly moist, smoked slowly, rubbed out and packed lightly, it is only medium in body, a little soapy and fruity, and the strength stays in the background. When dried further, packed too firmly (with unrubbed chunks), smoked quickly or inhaled, it can send you to the showers.

A slightly tempermental but exciting tobacco for the lover of strong English flakes.

I finally have managed to get enough of this to say I will smoke it regularly. In the package its cut, texture, appearance and aroma is about as similar to St. Bruno Flake as it could be without being St. Bruno. And its moisture content and handling characteristics are identical. At the match you notice the difference. This does not have as strong a flavoring component. My guess is that the tobacco elements are the same as SB's, but the top dressing is slightly different. While not as pronounced as in SB, the flavoring is there aplenty. The smoke is sweet and spicy (not peppery), and it has no bite. I would also guess that this blend has a bit more burly because the tobacco flavor suggests burly without coming right out with it. This has a full, rich tobacco flavor which grows in strength as the top dressing flavor recedes. Perhaps it was named after a street somewhere or perhaps it contains some walnut extract. I smoke it in a #4 meer. After finishing a bowl, I seem to detect an aftertaste similar to the aftertaste of English walnuts; not the taste, the aftertaste. It's a great companion to SB. Highly recommend to the lover of English scented flakes, and most highly recommended to the lover of St. Bruno. Paddy.

A dark flake somewhat in the tradition of St Bruno; the flavour is similar, but the 'fruitiness' characteristic of St B is nowhere near so pronounced here. Original Flake reminds me a little bit of the long defunct Player's Digger Flake. It's a slow burning and cool smoke with a pleasant room note; like all flakes (IMO) it's better folded than rubbed out. After a fairly unexciting start, the flavour develops in fullness and richness as you go down the bowl, and I never find any messy dottle at the end.

OF is fairly strong and needs to be taken slowly, but I know several people for whom it (and its previous avatar, Walnut Flake) is an all-day smoke. It all depends on what you like, of course; but if you're an old fashioned pipe smoker for whom St Bruno is a benchmark, this'll do you nicely. I think I'd describe it as more civilized and subtle than St B., but with the same kind of old fashioned and substantial fullness.

I find that OF needs quite a few relights, but that's no big problem, and it probably wouldn't if you rubbed it out. It responds well to DGT. Like many traditional blends that have been homogenised for mass production, it isn't as good as it used to be, but it's still a good choice, and value for money. Original Flake is packaged in the same way as St Bruno Flake is now, in an inconvenient (and unresealable) little plastic carton inside a plastic pouch; so you'll need to transfer it to a leather pouch or jar. Jarring it for a while mellows it noticeably, I find.

Word on the grapevine is that Original Flake is to go out of production fairly soon; so if you like it, now would be a good time to stock up.