Mac Baren Original Flake

If one could set a piece of soap afire and smoke it, this is exactly how it would taste. The soap flavor is so strong that I could not taste any tobacco behind it. I persevered through two bowls hoping that the flavor would recede and let me enjoy the tobacco with no luck.

Stay away from this junk.

Notes: This is a sample of the readily available British flake, which after a period of unavailability is again being manufactured by the British tobacco conglomerate, Imperial. Not available at all in the USA, it should not be confused with the American drugstore blend by Middleton, also named Walnut, but being an entirely different blend. I smoked this in a few pipes and it seemed rather the same in all of them. I enjoyed it most in a Size 4 patent Dunhill with a large bore shank.

Appearance: A firmly pressed four-inch flake of light to dark brown with some deep reddish strands here and there. The individual strands are fairly thin and the tobacco rubs out very easily. It gives the appearance of being a fairly solid block or plug, having some density.

Aroma: The first thing I thought of was the old red leather booths at the diner in the town where I grew up. Ripe black cherries, milk chocolate, damp autumn leaves after raking, river stones drying in the sun, the embers of the campfire in the morning, Jamaican cigars, tree bark.

Taste: Walnuts. Walnut shells. Walnut oil. The flavor was a big surprise, as the aroma did not suggest it. The first thing I thought was: Ugh! I won?t be able to finish this! My mouth was expecting something similar to St. Bruno based on the smell and appearance, but instead it tasted like I had just eaten a big mouthful of stale cigar butts and campfire ashes. After disconnecting my mind from my expectations, however, I could taste the tobacco on its own terms. Not at all sweet. Undertones of cigar leaf and iodine. Somehow capturing every aspect of walnuts: dry shells, slightly bitter oils, and rich savory nut meats. It burns quickly if you rub it out fully. It is rich and satisfying to the palate. It has some nicotine in it, but is not at all overwhelming.

Comparisons: This is like St. Bruno?s in its burning characteristics but not in the flavor, which is far more austere and not at all sweet -- less of that sweet cherry topping that gives St. Bruno its Virginia sweetness enhancement,d espite its being a burley-heavy blend. It reminds me of the Dunhill blend, Mr. Alfred?s Own, with it?s stale seaweed-y cigar leaf flavor.

Bottom Line: A nice traditional British burley-Virginia pressed flake. If you found St. Bruno and Condor too sweet and strong, this is a possibility. If you have a love for the now long-gone cigar leaf blends, like Dunhill?s Mr. Alfred?s Own or Cuba, this is definitely a blend you ought to try as it really evokes that flavor in some ways. As for me, stiff upper lip, I?ll get by without somehow.

As previously mentioned, this flake is almost a mirror image of St Bruno, excepting a different additive. Unlike others, I did not find this smoke bite-free, but it is wonderfully rich and stout and does not seem to lurk in my pipes with the same tenacity as its clerical brother. A pity it isn't available in North America, but then again, Walnut Flake may be responsible for a disturbing lack of interest in much else besides pipes on my part, were it so. Well worth a go if you can procur it.

This I must admit is as close to perfection as one can find in any tobacco. The tobacco comes presented in a plastic foil covered tray. Once the top comes off you are enveloped in the wonderful aroma of what that perfect tobacco should emit.

Easily rubbed out, easy to fill the pipe and easy to light.

The experience of smoking this ice cool tobacco is a once in a lifetime experience. The flavour is woody, and the nicotine content is just right if you like a full smoke.

If you like a good, low cased tobacco of the highest quality, then this must be the one.

Five stars and beyond with this one!

It would be difficult to add much to Stan's above review. He touched all the bases and perfectly described this blend. If you have smoked and enjoyed Esoterica's Stonehaven, or, Samuel Gawith's 1792 Flake, then you will probably like Walnut Flake. It is stronger in taste than Stonehaven and does not have Tonquin flavoring added as does 1792 Flake. Like both, this blend has been stoved repeatedly and will not bite no matter how hard you puff.

I thought Walnut Flake was fantastic tasting for regular enjoyment. It reminded me of Boy Scouts and campfires at the match. It will flat knock your socks off if you inhale. Not for all day consumption either; this tobacco will leave your palate satisfied for several hours after just one bowl.

Finally, this tobacco is not available in the USA. I purchased a pouch with a recent tobacco order from James Barber Tobacconists in the UK. You can order this and other non-imports by going to www.smoke.co.uk.

On opening the pouch I found this tobacco quite dry and with a very strong aroma, in the same vein of Erinmore. The nicotine uppercut is worsened by a topping that could be a fruit liquor but it really doesn't matter because you would never identify it behind the soap taste. And it tastes exactly like soap, not the way the aroma and taste we indulgently call "soapy" when it comes to english matured pressed virginias but, literally and I am not exaggerating, like biting a piece of soap.

At the third puff it makes you feel sick, and that is *NOT* because of the nicotine content, this I guarantee as it causes dizzines to anyone that stays in your vecinity.

The aftertaste is bitter from the first to the last puff, which is absulutely strange as I loaded my pipe with 2/3 of a light virginia first and 1/3 of Walnut ontop. The returning smoke you puffed is lightly bitter like any virginia but uninteresting, with no aroma, just bitter smoke. The room note bears a strong resemblance to those cheap incence sticks made of paper paste which have been impregnated with common cologne instead of aromatic incence oils; this said by my wife, and I agree.

I met stronger tobaccos, which puts this Walnut within the "smokable" cathegory, but it is not a pleasant smoke. Apt for smokers at the end of their given lifetime, for whom nothing would be strong or tasty or smelly enough.

Dreadful. It packed easily enough into the pipe, bit I found the taste aromoa and room note to be simply too much - far too strong for my taste. When it burned it smelt a bit like the smell one gets when you gather up leaves during the autumn and burn them - a nice smell from a distance but not in my pipe! I would not recommend this tobacco to anyone.