Orlik Tobacco Company A/S Bull's Eye

As this is Stokkebye's Luxury Bullseye Flake, I'm repeating that review here. The Virginias are a little more grassy than they are earthy, which makes for a nice contrast. They also have some tart and tangy citrus, a touch of honey and minor tangy dark fruitiness, in addition to a mild rough edge, which I attribute to the youth of the tobacco. The perique is spicy with raisin, plum, and fig sweetness as an important second lead. The lightly vanilla black cavendish in the center is small, so its smoothing effect isn’t a consistent one no matter how you prepare the coins. The strength and nic-hit are in the center of mild to medium, while the taste just reaches the medium mark. The coin is easily rubbed out, and burns clean at a slightly slow pace, rather cool with a fairly consistent flavor, except for when you hit a spot where the black cav is. Doesn’t require many relights, and easily burns to ash. Leaves very little moisture in the bowl. Has a short lived, pleasant after taste, and room note. Can almost be an all day smoke.

-JimInks

Some four years ago I bought a couple of tins of this as I've always been smitten with Davidoff's Flake Medallions, and all the talk about a cavendished center in Bull's Eye Flake made me suspect that it would be the same blend in another tin (I don't know, maybe that's why it took me so long to get around to it).

Anyway, this wasn't the case. To the eye they are similar and they're packed into the tin much the same way, in that playful little spiral that we know from the Dunhill and Davidoff offerings, but tin note is different for starters - it seems more muted to me; less of the winy perique intensity that the Davidoff has, to a bit less sweet and more mellow VA thing with some fig, cherry and faint earthy notes. The OBEF coins also seems to be a bit more "ragged" than their supposed counterparts. Not a big deal of course, but goes to show that somewhere along the line more work gets put down into the "high-end" branded tins, I suppose. These coins are also all but impossible to smoke folded, since they crumble so easily. This is not really a big deal for me, but perhaps worth mentioning nevertheless.

On first light I found it to be a bit sharp on occasion, but soon settling into a pretty mild, sweet and only barely reminiscent of perique-spice smoke. It strikes me as mostly a VA affair at first, but the perique does show itself eventually. I found it to become a bit more obvious the more my pipe got seasoned with this particular blend, however. There's a bit of that cherry in the aftertaste as well mixed in with a bready and sweet general flavour profile. It's an easy going blend with a pretty nice balance between strength, sweetness and body, not at all bad, but in the end I can't help but to compare it to Flake Medallions and Dunhill's DNR, and it can't quite compete in that contest. Even if I prefer the former coin cuts I'm not surprised this blend had its fair share of fans, as there's alot to like here. It's a pity it got discontinued, but at least there are other options out there - and I suppose that reflected in the sales when it came to the bottom line. Being advertised as a replacement for a blend that made a comeback, well...

On a closing note - it wasn't the cheap knock off of Davidoff that I first thought, neither is it a replica of any kind that I am aware of (definitely not of Dunhill's Deluxe Navy Rolls), but a blend that stood on its own merits and held up pretty well all things considered. Pick up a tin if you see one floating around out there, especially if you think DNR is too strong and Flake Medallions is more your thing but you wished it was a little milder and sweeter.

My first VaPer - watched a welsh guy reviewing this on utube and decided to give it a go. I smoked this in a small pipe, outside on a gentle February morning. Rubbed out two discs and made sure the black eye was evenly distributed. The tin contents had slight aroma - not over powering gentle like moist fruit cake. The pipe packed well and took tree matches to scorch and light - no issues there. The welsh fellow talked of a taste and mouth sensation like chilli chocolate - could not agree more. I thought the tingle was the begginings of Bite so was slightly disappointed but how wrong I was. The tingle was just a lovely enhancement. The pipe smoked well although as I enjoyed it I puffed at it a bit hard. I do not have a nicotine habit and so sometime suffer with a kick from the N drug - this baccy give me a gentle nudge in that direction and therefore stopped me puffing too hard on it. No bite, nice taste - not the ultimate pipe baccy I am looking for but definately very good. There was a gurgle in the pipe so I have rubbed out two more discs to dry out slightly and I am going to have a bowlful tonight with a dark ale. Give it a go.

This is my third VAPER tobacco I try, the first two being the St James' and Louisiana Flakes (SG and GH).

The smell from the tin is reminiscent of St James flake (pot pourri and fruit purée), however it is much weaker and seems less fresh.

Rubbing this tobacco is easy and I put two coins in my pipe. The taste as expected is excellent less strong than the other VAPER flakes I tried.

The Perique content I suspect is not very high, but it is very well balanced with the Virginia taste. The Black Cavendish is unnoticeable for me, maybe it is just there to make the tobacco taste milder.

Overall, it is a very nice tobacco, but for the taste alone (and price too), I would choose St James Flake over this one any day.

If you like perique with a tiny drop of sweetness from the Cavendish and VA grassiness, then this is your kiddie. The perique is definitely there though, and in just the right quantity for me.

For those aged in their mid 30's in the UK, you may remember that you used to be able to buy red gob-stopper style sweets called 'Fireballs'

They came in packs of 3, and most corner shops near to schools would sell them at 10p a pack. The zing of perique is similar, though not quite as strong as the hit you got from those little red devils.

Nice...

I must admit that I am not a huge perique freak, but I do enjoy a dose of the spicy stuff every now and then.

This is a solid blend, no doubt. I think that Davidoff flake medallions, which are similar in style, are possibly a bit higher in perique content. That puts the Davidoff offering ahead in my book, but these little discs do shine for me when they are in the right pipe. My churchwarden seems to smoke them very well. I like to push the cavendish out of the centre then stuff the rest of the flake and crumble the cavendish on top. The cavendish takes the light, then you get a nice kick of perique a minute of two after the opening puffs.

I think that McConnell's Scottish Cake or Gawith's St James flake will probably be my VaPer blends of choice going forward, but I am pleased that I took the time to revisit this one.

I can see that this could be a big hit for some pipers and there are no problems with the all round quality. For me it doesn't quite hit the spot and there are other VaPer blends I enjoy more, but it definitely deserves a solid three stars - Recommended.

A nice coin cut Virginia and Perique, apparently made as a substitute for Deluxe Navy Rolls, but with the addition of black Cavendish cores: these may add interest or be an annoying gimmick depending on what way you look at it. Aroma in the tin is of hay and dried fruit (prunes). Two coins rubs out easily fills a medium sized pipe, they are a little raggedy compared to the Navy Rolls but presentation is OK. You have a choice of pushing out the Cavendish discs and layering them in the bowl, or rubbing the whole lot out together. I tend to layer them which seems to make for a generally richer smoke, but there's not a lot in it. I suppose if you don't like Cavendish (and I can't say I'm a big fan) you can put the Cavendish at the bottom where it will just end up as dottle.

It takes a light with moderate ease, and burns slowly and evenly. The flavour is milder than Navy Rolls, fairly sweet, and very smooth. There isn't much risk of tongue bite, and it stays cool. The flavour starts out as a mild hay and grass Virginia, with plum and dried fruit as the bowl goes on, with a hint of spice from the Perique only near the end. The last third of the bowl is the best to my tastes, and it does develop some richness as it nears the end.

Overall, a milder take on the Navy Rolls theme, but a very pleasant tobacco. I'd buy it again if it were still available.

Full marks for novelty value. Very appealing round straw-like spins of Virginia and Perique with a solid, chocolatey block of Black Cavendish in the middle. A fresh, light, zesty aroma in the tin. Fun to prepare - I prefer to squidge it all up in a ball so that the Cavendish is somewhere in the centre, slightly crumbled, so that I hit it as a nice little surprise in the middle of the smoke. One disc is quite a quick smoke and there's lots of flavours in this, as promised by the selection of tobaccos, so that it is a rewarding experience to meditate on.

There's no flavourings that I could detect, though I am probably putting most of the flavours down to the Perique, which I'm not that familiar with.

Good stuff.

Yes: I think there is a casing here and for me with prnounced citrus flavours; perique is detectable and makes repeated entrances through the smoke.

I found moisture content a little on the high side, but it rubs out easily and after the charing light, it retains its burn reasonably well.

I agree that this has the hallmarks of Escudo, not too sure about the smoking similarities with Dunhill Navy Rolls although, the cut is an equivelent. I can't help but think there are stronger influences, both smoking and cut, to W.O. Larsen Curly Cut - now blended by Orlik.

A good offering from Orlik: a good smoke and one that I will return to occasionally.