Orlik Tobacco Company A/S Richmond Navy Cut

Here's yet another viginia flake available only in Germany, despite the British-sounding name. Originally I thought it had something to do with the Richmond cigarettes brand in the UK, but was surprised it's produced by Orlik.

There is a huge nod here to Orlik's brilliant Golden Sliced, although this isn't sliced and not as golden. My 'dose' was in a big round tin, rather than the square shown in the illustration. The flakes are arranged in a rather dry crumbly mass which needs to be broken and rubbed out. Doubtful you could smoke this without.

The tin note is typical of many other similar blends (of which there are a few) with a pure yet subtle virginia fragrance that reminds me very much of Capstan's yellow.

There's not a great deal to seperate out this blend from others of this type, but I'd say the quality here sits a little above the Dan Tobacco blends like Former's Private, Kriswill or Timms' Golden, but just below the top quality of Capstan or Sam Gawith's best.

Well worth having, especially at this price (10.5 euros), though of course you'll pay postage on top of that from Germany, yet still it proves VFM.

An all-day, simple smoke in the lower half of the top table of virginias.

First impression:

This is a very good Virginia Flake. The tin scent is very sweet, just a good, matured high-quality Virginia. Medium- blonde flakes, obviously high-quality leaf. Stuffing a Flake, I always use the fold and roll method. It works pretty good with only half of a single Flake. The tobacco is not pressed too tightly, so it is very nice to handle. Lighting it is no problem and it stays lit well down to the bottom of the bowl. Pay some attention and smoke it slow. If you really do, you will fully enjoy it. Otherwise, as many Virginias, it might get hot, but that will be no problem either. This tobacco is very easy to handle in temperature. Its taste is surprisingly not as sweet as one may expect from the tin scent. It's rather spicy and smoky, even though the natural Virginia sweetness is always preasent in the background. The taste is becoming fuller after the middle of the bowl. Its smoke is creamy and full. All in all, a very good Virginia Flake and a classic, respectively on the German market. I wouldn't recommend it, as any Flake Cut Tobacco, to beginners, though. If a good English tobacco is a 'gentleman', this one is a 'sailor'. You may image sailors smoking this in the harbour after the work is done 🙂 Rich and satisfiying. And in my opinion, better than f.ex. McBarens' VirginiaFlake. A nice change of pace for an english smoker like me. I like it.

UPDATE: This tobacco has proved very well since I cracked the tin. It's just a great smoke. It's a steady and reliable tobacco, something you can always trust. It seems to give me the same kind of silent enjoyment every time I smoke it. Earthy, slightly sweet, malty and grassy. An everyday- anytime smoke for me.

This lighy aromatised pure Virginia flake can be recommended to those who want to try this kind of cut for the first time.

The tin note of these mottled brown flakes smells of grass and hay as well as a slightly sweet of plums.

Moisture in a fresh tin is perfect, so you can easily fill your pipe using the fold and stuff methode. After the charring light I level out the ashed before the true light.

The Richmond Navy Cut develops plenty of fume. There's a sublime sweetness that goes allong well with its nutty, malty and fruity flavors, but most of all there's natural tobacco taste. It somehow resembles a Va/Per, even though there's no Perique in the blend. However, it's important not to smoke this tobacco too hot, because then the pipe will start to sputter. Towards the bottom of the bowl the smoke gets a little stronger. It usually burns down evenly to some dark grey ash.

The room note is dominated by genuine tobacco scents.

Light, sweet, a bit fruity VA flake (though I wouldn't go as far as calling it an aromatic - for obvious reasons it might be called a danish "touch"). Good flavour and very low bite tendencies. Perfect moisture straight from the tin. High quality, and one of the cheapest tinned flakes around Europe. It's a no-brainer to smoke and maintain throughout the course of the smoke.

I can't really find any problems with it, so for me it's definately a keeper.

A very nice quality flake, not exceptional, but very good all the same.

The flakes are well cut and nicely presented, allowing easy seperation, moisture content is fine and flakes can be rubbed or folded without extra drying time.

A very good medium bodied smoke, smooth and a little creamy, no bite, burns well without relights all the way down and no dottle to waste.

Now for the tragic part, I've gone through several tins of this and each time, having opened the tin (and very carefully replacing the lid) within a few days, the taste and flavour have vanished.

Was this a bad batch ? young tobacco ? I still have a couple of tins left, now with a year or so on them so I may be tempted to crack one open to see if the taste and flavour will remain a little longer.

Therefore only three stars whereas four would have been an almost certainty.

Rubbed this one out and smoked it in medium size chambers as this is my weapon of choice when it comes to VA flakes. Cold smell is decent and of raisins with wooden notes. Packs easily when rubbed out and takes flames fast then burns a bit hot if not sipped very slowly.

Offers a lot of assets a VA flake can do. Hay grass and citrus notes on top of a natural tobacco taste. Not much of added aromas detectable for me in here though the plum is a bit more present in the second half. I can not taste any Cavendish at all even though it is mentioned in the tin description.

No big ups and downs to be expected but that's no problem. Nice and easy all day VA - a summer tobacco for me it is.

I'll start by saying, first of all, if you read all the reviews on here about this tobacco (it won't be too much work as there aren't that many) you'll realize that you either try it yourself or you'll never really know what it's all about. In principle, that could already be a virtue, since it indicates that it is not too similar to many other mixtures.

Before opening the tin, I was reminded of University Flake by Peterson, Plum Cake by Germain's and Royal Yacht, formerly Dunhill and now Peterson, thinking it might look like one of them since they all have a plum topping. In the case of UF, the fact that it contains Burley already makes it different and in the case of RY, even though it doesn't have burley, it behaves as if it did (I'm talking about the Dunhill version). So it would seem that opening a Richmond Navy Cut tin was going to be a surprise either way. Well, it wasn't such a surprise. When I tried it, I realized that it was what you would expect, a flavored virginia where the plum is noticeable, as is the case in UF. As simple as that. This ingredient is well combined with virginia, without clashing, as it happens with other flavored flavors whose flavor is different from that of tobaccos naturally. It produces a sweet, simple, and relaxed smoke, although it is not exciting. The same flavor is maintained continuously throughout the smoke. It burns well and does not bite the tongue.

For better or for worse, the Richmond Navy Cut is this: tobacco virginia with a smooth plum topping, no fuss…