Peter Heinrichs Dark Strong Flake

Wonderful aroma in the jar - figgy plum-like with a touch of molasses. Folded flakes in the bowl of a medium-sized cob. Easy light and it takes off. Once settled in notes of licorice, molasses and citrus predominant a woodsy stable base. The middle of the bowl "sings" with excellent depth of a cherrywood flavor. Retrohale is an extremely pleasant spicy pepper note. Great when accompanied by french roast iced coffee with an added squirt of Black Cherry MIO.

...wow...saw some great reviews and they lived up to it....I've been searching for a great Va/bur or Virginia for that matter for quiet some time...although I love English blends I wanted to get that ripe fruit, plum and figue tast and sweetness that could last ,till the end of the bowl...I don't have the experience of many of the pipe smokers out there but I'm most certainly an epicurean and for that matter the aroma and tast has to deliver not just suggest or fade away .....I love the rich smell from the tin that translates into a beautiful round and at times lightly spicy sweetness.......beautiful roundness, cool smoke, plump chewy fruit notes.....finally some Virginia and burley I'll always be craving for....well done Peter

This is an exceptional tobacco. The Virginias are bright and the flake is constructed with contrasting layers of that and the dark Kentucky. The smoke is tangy. There's a spice - not a pepper but a baking spice like cinnamon or cloves - an earthiness and complex dark fruit sweetness with plum or prune, cherry and raisin notes. I particularly enjoy the retrohale, where I really get those fruits. Good body. Stronger in flavor than in nicotine. Dried a bit, it smokes well with minimal relighting and no tongue bite. Pairs well with tea or rum. Or just put the rum in the tea, it's all good.

Its hard to know what rating to give this. However, it is a high quality product. But its not for everyone. And that's not bad. Some blends are good, but have a generic feel (St Bruno flake for instance. Great taste, but somehow lacks distinction IMHO). PH's DSF is very similar to Orlik DK. I prefer this overall and it would be a clear 4 star favorite if the nic hit were higher. Its not exactly mild, but somewhere between mild and medium. The kentucky is the primary flavor...and hence its surprising it lacks nic. Virginias are way in the back. The casing is mild-ish, mostly molasses and a bit, maybe, of liquorice. Its a bit moist out of the tin so a tad drying time is needed, but not too much. Dried out it loses all character. Its a good tobacco, just not a great one. I wish it were. But it does have some unique qualities and like the Orlik and maybe old dark fired by Macbaren, it is something that might grow on you. I also suspect aging will help.

---- update......I am coming to like this tobacco a bit more. So..for what its worth, say 3 and a half stars. Its not a classic, but the more Ive smoked it the more i seem to taste the Virginia. And the taste is very full in fact. A bit past medium. I smoke it in the morning pretty regularly I have to admit.

I scored a 200gm tin on EBay last week and wasted no time in trying it out. There was only a year on this tin so I’d call this pretty fresh tobacco.

I found this to be a nice change of pace from my regular rotation of English, Oriental, MV and VaPer. The tin aroma is a nice and strong with a fig or raisin fruit smell mixed with the sweet Virginia. I just let it sit on my desk for a while and enjoyed the fragrance while selecting a pipe.

I have tried the flake as a flake and rubbed and found that it required several lights either way but less relights when rubbed. The charring light and first 2/3 of the bowl are very pleasant with many flavors. The bottom 1/3 of the bowl had a unique tangy sensation that at first was not pleasant but not unpleasant … just unexpected. I will need to try this blend in several size pipes to find the right combination.

I will use this tobacco as one of my change ups and I think I’d consider buying more someday, but it will take me a while to get through 200gm.

2 out of 4

Peter Heinrichs
Dark Strong Flake

Blend notes: “New description: A spicy, danish cake-mixture from Virginia and Kentucky, that'll also appeal to Latakia-smokers. Aged cakes of red Virginia and fire-cured dark Kentucky tobaccos give this full- bodied, flavorful flake an unusually rich and naturally spicy taste. Not for neophytes, this one satisfies with old-fashioned deep taste. Good outdoors.”

This is a full-tasting, reasonably strong blend primarily of dark-fired KY with some Virginias in the background. The nicotine hit is noticable. The flavor profile is somewhat monolithic — all I get is the KY.

I’m not terribly impressed and will probably pass this on to someone else.

2 out of 4 stars.

Bought this two years ago just on a whim - I do love DFK, so I thought it must be tasty - but at first I could not stand it. The flavor of the Kentucky was not strong, oily, or musky enough, the plum flavoring was way too strong, and the Virginia just muddied the overall taste. That “Dark Strong” label seemed a bit misleading. It didn’t smell any better than most non-aro blends do, and it hurt to inhale. So, it’s only good for blowing smoke, and only around other smokers? What a waste of money, I thought.

Now, maybe the time it has sat and aged plays a role in my change of opinion, or maybe the use of smoking a pipe itself has changed for me, but I’m enjoying it these days. I more often pick up my pipe just to occupy myself when I’m alone, and not necessarily to smoke for nicotine. I now find the plum flavoring agreeable, it does compliment the taste of the Kentucky. It’s something different in this profile. No, Dark Strong is not the full-bodied DFK experience mellowed out with just a touch of Virginia that you might be expecting, but I’ll smoke all the bowl I packed of it. I might smoke the whole can. Just not in a pipe I don’t want ghosted.

Based on tin descriptions and previous ordering history online I decided to get a tin of this blend, not having had any of Peter Heinrich's tobaccos before. From what I heard, this tobacco is similar to Orlik's Dark Strong Kentucky. Now when I tried that blend a while ago I remember disliking just how much topping was on the blend. To clarify, most if not all blends that I know of have some sort of topping if not an obvious one to sugar water in order to keep the leaf moist while pressing and processing. And I do like aromatics, but I do think that toppings can be applied with too liberal a hand which was my personal conclusion for Orlik's DSK.

There's not much to say about the tin design a pretty standard old timey kind of design. Though I have to say I've never come across a tobacco tin with what I would call a paint-can lid before. After prying the tin open I found some flakes that were half broken and look like Orlik's DSK. When I stick my nose in the jar I smell spicy, nutty, earthy Kentucky, sweet haylike Virginias, and a background dark fruitiness with a sweetness I can't place but different that the usual Virginia. It came too wet to smoke right out of the tin, so even a light dry time is recommended in order to get a good first light.

What I do notice right away is the Kentucky which has some tang, and spice to it. There is a nice rich character to it which comes out with the dry time. The Virginias are more bright in character and taste grassy to me, with some slight dark fruits. The tin says the topping is plum, and from smoking things like Escudo I can see how a Plum topping melds into Virginias especially. But I taste another topping on the aftertaste, and I'm pretty sure it's Anise or Licorice. The toppings don't take over in the blend if you dry it out, but smoking it straight from the tin makes them a lot stronger.

The taste is a medium, it's more smooth than bold. The strength is a medium-strong. It's nowhere near ODF or Bold Kentucky, but about the same as Orlik's DSK. Don't go in on an empty stomach necessarily but in my estimation it would have to take a really big bowl to get this blend to be strong. Burns nice and slow, and the room note is very pleasant compared to other Dark Fired blends. A very decent blend. I wouldn't stalk it for a drop online, but I wouldn't turn it down if offered either.

I bought a 200gms can upon opening give very sweet fruity syrupy smell very good flakes kinda spread some broken and most of them square with prominent looking bright yellow Virginia's and dark fired split in half. Flake came a little moist out the can but smokable as I didn't give dry out time I split the flakes leaving thick ribbons easily fills the Pipe and took couple relights. Taste is very good spiciness is there and for me a bit burning nose upon retohale which i tend to do most often while smoking but it's gone after quarter of a bowl. Virginia's plays sweeter part and that molasy syrupy sweetnesses give pleasant change from dark fired spiciness. All in all a very good enjoyable smoke.