Former Cross Grain Flake

This is delicious. Naturally sweet, decent nicotine hit, the flakes broke up easily, the moisture content was perfect and it burned to a clean, dry ash right down to the bottom of the bowl.

The Virginia took top billing with the Perique deep in the background (almost hidden.)

Just a bit more power and I would have given this four stars.

The lighter Virginia is the dominant component, providing some citrus, grass and hay, with a touch of bread and honey. The tangy, dark fruity, earthy, woody darker Virginia is a tad beyond being a condiment. The spicy, raisiny, figgy perique is a small addition, but lightly noticeable in every puff. The taste is in the center of mild to medium, while the strength level is a step closer to medium. The nic-hit just passes the mild mark. Won’t bite or get harsh, but does have a slight rough edge. Burns fairly cool, very clean, and slightly slow as flake blends tend to do. The flavor is consistent from start to finish. Leaves little moisture in the bowl, and requires a few relights. Has a pleasant after taste, and is an all day smoke. Reminds me of OGS with no fruit/citrus topping, a little less grass/hay, and couple more pinches of perique.

-JimInks

This hand blended flake presents nicely prepared golden VA with lesser adds of red and brown. Tin moisture content, packing and lighting are fine and result in an even burning smoke in various bowl sizes. The room aroma is less objectionable than most other VA/Perique blends but this is problably due to the small contribution from the Perique that I really didn't even taste. Initially, in most pipes, I found the initial 1/4 rather harsh. However, with unusually slow puffing (for me), this blend smoothed out and a sweet VA tang resulted. Since Imperial yanked the plug on Capstans in the US and I never smoked them, I can't compare this blend to them. However, in my view, there are more enjoyable VA/Periques available that I would choose before this one.

Excellent. A real surprise. Must now try the other Former tobaccos. This is high quality virginia with a touch of perique. The Perique is strictly background but its there nonetheless. This is as good a mild VaPer has one can find these days. Reminds me a bit of solani 633...but i like this one better. The virginias have more character for one thing.

This is a milder iteration of Straight Grain flake in the same line up from Former. But its a very smooth and highly recommended blend.

Although this is one of about a million VA Perique blends available, I must admit that I find myself reaching for and enjoying this more than many others in my collection. It seems to have a richer, fuller flavor (although it is certainly not heavy in the taste or strength department) with the perique forward a bit, and the burn characteristics are very nice. One caveat is that my tin was already about 8 years old when I bought it and it is now more than 11 years. This is one that I have purchased multiples of to cellar, and it is recommended. I would put this with Escudo and Flake Medallions as one of my favorite VAPERS.

The tin is filled with mottled rough flakes of rich red virginias mottled with darker strands of perique. It dries out very easily, and I usually rub it out and let it sit for about ten minutes prior to smoking. Smoking directly from the tin will produce less flavor, a hotter smoke, and more tongue bite.

The mixture burns readily after a charring light, and starts out spicy. This mellows into a wonderful sweet medium bodied VA flavor peppered with spice and a little smokiness, clearly from the perique. It is very cohesive and not grassy in the least. The smoke is rich, creamy, and when smoked moderately the mouth feel is very pleasant. Like all VA's the faster and stronger you puff the hotter it gets, so sip this one and it will not reward you. I tamp as a I go down the bowl, and it burns evenly and the flavor is very consistent. If anything it gets a little sweeter and less spicy as you go, which is very nice indeed. There is very little nicotine here which I am fine with, there are many other stronger blends to smoke if that is what you require, this is about sweetness and spice, not strength.

Overall this is a sweet, spicy, rich VAPER which offers more flavor and pleasant smoking characteristics than average. This is highly recommended for a lover of VAPERS, and if you are looking to try a first one, this is a good start, although you need to dry it out and smoke slowly to get all of the sweetness and flavor that it has to offer. Delicious.

Very nice flavors. A bit of hay and citrus with hints of darker fruit. Has a fair amount of spice and sweetness. My only complaint with this flake is that it's just a little lacking in roundness. Needs a little more of the dark fruit to round it out better. Still a very nice smoke though.

Mild to medium in body and taste. I can't detect any added flavoring. Burns very well.

Former - Cross Grain Flake.

The flakes are a little lighter than medium brown and nicely hydrated. I thought they may be too damp at first as they'd all stuck together, but once I peeled some away they seemed fine. A bowl lights easily, giving a good burn.

I like the flavour, it's sweet but savoury, if that makes sense?! The sweetness comes from the Virginia, but the Perique has more savoury spices, as opposed to rich tangy fruit. Tongue bite can occur if I puff voraciously: nothing terrible, but whichever way I look at it, it's a bit of a biter!

I find it about medium with nicotine, get no added flavours, and like the room-note.

Even though I get a little bite, I'll happily highly recommend this.

Four stars.

Rumored to be like Capstan Medium, which I have never tried, it is still a very good entry into a bright virginia sweet tasting field.

It, nevertheless, is a darker looking flake than the usual bright or golden virginia varieties. Lots of red or brown leaf and some black perique added mostly to keep the mixture cool enough.

It breaks up into a thick shag which I try not to rub out much.

It smells citrusy in the tin. Some scenting or aromatic is added I feel. It feels dryer than most flakes out of the tin. It smokes reasonably steady and dry.

It took a few bowls to get use to, as I feared some heat or bite was ready to crop up. But no, if puffed slowly as you have to for most virginias, it stays with you to a relatively smooth beat.

I puffed about 8 bowls in a medium Ser Jacopo that I had previously smoked McClelland's Honeydew in. That's probably why I sensed some heat at first. But it smoked as sweat and decent as a good virginia flake should after that initial transition period (smoking out the last but similar type blend from the pipe). Then I turned to a new filtered Brigham 7 medium billiard. Again a couple of bowls to adjust. After about 10 more bowls in that pipe, I had finished the tin in about 10 days total. Great stuff. (Incidentally, the Brigham filter is unlike any other; it keeps the smoke dry and cool without seeming to alter or mute the flavor. A quick break in too. An unfiltered Brigham is almost as good too -- I have one. Not expensive.)

I have a couple of extra tins of Former's and will order more. It is a delicious, medium, sweet virginia flake. The perique does not affect the taste much if at all and probably is used to keep the blend friendly.

It is a little similar in the sweetness department to C&D's Briar Fox blend (a crumble cake) and Pease's Stratford (ribbon), but it needs no additional aging in my opinion to produce a surperb and deeper (not heavy) flavor. Again, it may have more scenting than those two. Dunhill's Light Flake and Germain's Medium Flake are also similar flakes, but Former's has more body then the latter and a different flavor than the former.

I highly recommend this if you are a sweet virginia lover and have experience with flakes. I started Former's straight grain flake next, a darker, heavier blend with a berry or fruity hint, but I'll see if I write about that one later.

I was given the remaining amount of a tin with about 10 years of age on it at the past Chicago Show. This worked out to be about 5 bowls. It was tasty and I did enjoy my time with it, but there was nothing about this that made me feel that I needed to buy more.

The Virginias used in this blend are what it is all about as the perique is a very minor player. So minor, in fact, that I did not realize it had any in it until I opened it up to do this review. The Virginias were sweet as one would expect for a 10 year aged Va, but honestly, not as sweet as I had hoped. The Virginias are of the grassy/citrus variety which are what I favor. In all honesty, I would have rather had a tin of fresh Dunhill Flake or Escudo than this, but it was still an enjoyable 5 bowls.

As a Virginia blend it is easily a three star blend, as a VaPer, it is probably lower since the perique is almost unnoticeable. I am leaving it at 3 and may adjust if I ever have a chance to try more.

Very good but needs airing out first. A tad too sweet and strong for my taste. If you like sweet and.a good dose of perique this blend will fit the bill. Prefer Private Flake and want to try Bird"s Eye, seeing that my palate is geared toward burley blends or Virginia, burley, oriental mixtures. I'll give this one four stars because it's very well done and does provide a great smoke.