Davidoff Flake Medallions

Every positive comment on Flake Medallions herein posted can be accepted at face value. Without doubt, one of the finest tobaccos of its type currently available.

However...at five times the price of Luxury Bullseye Flake, I can find no justification for its purchase. The quality, cut, and flavor are so similar that I doubt nine in ten smokers would be able to tell the difference in a blind test.

I'm not adverse to purchasing expensive tobaccos. In fact, virtually all of the tobaccos I do smoke are "luxury" blends.

When I purchased a tin of Flake Medallions, I expected to be blown away given all that has been said. The only thing blown away was my hard earned dollars that could have been better spent.

For those who have access to unlimited funds, add three stars.

Summary: sweet Va/Per that tames the bright Virginias.

Va/Pers take Virginia and tame it with Perique, rather than the other way around, making the clover honey, white flour, and citrus flavors of Virginia mellow out and enhance the spicy, fermented fruit, and wine-like flavors of the Perique. Davidoff "Flake Medallions" tones down the acidic nature of the bright Virginia has been toned down and pumps up the fruity tendencies of the Perique rather than the spice. The Black Cavendish makes it sweet, smooth, and creamy, sort of like eating cake while sitting on silk. All together, to me, this makes it taste like a really refined form of grape jam. I appreciate the skill that went into this, but I prefer the rougher more Burley-infused Va/Pers over the breakfast cereal sweet ones.

An interesting hint of dried figs at the opening of the tin counterbalanced, in the smoke, by a Black Cavendish which covers the natural sweetness of Virginia and the spicy of Perique. A "bitter" experience. 2,0/5 in my personal rating system.

I bought this bc it said it had perique in it, and cav which was new idea to me at the time. Also, it was the only pipe tobacco in the store that wasn't intended for rolling tubes.

I found it to be kinda flat. It had all the normal characteristics of a va/per, just not what I wanted I think. Good tin presentation, and it burned nice and mellow though. May be good for a beginner, but there is more flavorful twist va/pers out there.

Err... how should I put it? Maybe I smoked this tobacco the wrong way OR I am a bit too accustomed to latakia in all its shades, but after some tins of diverse latakia mixtures, the Flake Medallions just taste like cigarettes :/ A bit too expensive for my liking given my experience with this tobacco.

Ok, I tried to pack this a dozen times in a variety of ways. Rubbing out, whole flake, folded, etc. No way to make it smokes right. And that is the mistery of the flake. Whatever... Definetly not for beginers.

Some other down grades. One word? Expensive, even more than usual for imported tins from Davidoff. Two words? Not worthy. Nor the taste, nor the fame, nor even for the original Cavendish and Perique.

I will hold that tin for some years and taste it again in the future. I hope I change my mind about it.

I purchased these to compare to Escudo, my current favorite disk tobacco- But its more like PS Bullseye. In fact, on visual, there is no difference. Scent and taste wise, Bullseye is much sweeter and better tasting. This takes a bit of drying out of the tin. It packs well, lights well, but the taste is a bit flat, and the Black Cav center is bland. Nothing really exciting here. Go with Bullseye IMHO.

This is mechanically one of the worst blends I've had. The coins came extremely wet even when rubbed out. I checked on the moisture every 15 minutes and finally after about an hour fifteen minutes I felt it was smokable. I was wrong. Every bowl I smoked was a flavorless, hot, steamy, puff of nothing. This stuff gives Gawith blends a run for wettest tobacco on the market.

Tin Note: Figs, citrus, woody, fresh
Cut: Coins. Rubs out easily but is very fine.
Dry time: 1hr 15min, 1hr 30min, 2 hours
Packing: Because of the fine cut when rubbed out this blend will compact extremely tight no matter how loose you prep the pipe.
Nic-Hit: What nicotine?

1st bowl: It took a couple of charring lights to get it going and seemed to have a "meh" flavor once it finally did take a light. About a third of the way down the bowl I found myself asking....Where's the perique? The Virginias are mild and I would even say of low quality. The cavendish seems unsweetened but did notice it a little more in the retro hale. Toward the end of the first third of the bowl I noticed my draw getting a little tight, my pipe was getting hot and I got some of the harshest tongue bite I've experienced. The bowl became unsmokable and I tipped the pipe, aerated and eventually repacked. That did absolutely nothing. The steam was so bad I decided to call it and emptied out the pipe. The bottom third was extremely compacted and so wet I tried burning it with a torch lighter in an ashtray and it still wouldn't burn. Had to swab out the heel of the pipe.

2nd Bowl- I gave it a little more dry time and packed loose. No change. Got half way and decided to try again another day.

3rd bowl- This time I gave it even more dry time and decided to try fold and stuff. No change.

4th bowl - I gave it a rest for another month in jar to see if that would help. I tried a palm roll with a pinch to top it off. Flavorless hot steamy air. It was at this point I found it beneath me to even keep the tin. Went in the trash. $15 for a tin of trash