Dunhill Light Flake

Based on a "non - Orlik" tin, if I may.

Fairly tasty for light coloured VAs. A good kick. But the room note, because of its composition, is close to that of a cigarette.

This would be a sound choice for someone who wishes to quit cigarettes and make the transition to pipes.

Dunhill Light Flake was my first attempt at Virginia tobacco. The packaging was first class & the tin aroma was a nice dried fruit smell. I tried this tobacco lightly rubbed out, fully rubbed & in a "MacBaren" roll but it never really did much for me. I won?t pretend to have liked the experience of smoking this tobacco; it was not good & I was disappointed to have spent the money it cost to try it. In spite of what some reviewers seem to believe an old established name or high price doesn?t guarantee a good smoke. The taste & aroma were the same to me as the cigarettes smoked by my Canadian relatives. That is to say harsh & tarry. I never did attain the sweet or citrus flavors noted by other reviewers, only the flavor of tar & later in the pipe an ashy-ness. The aroma was so bad my wife complained of the odor even though I was smoking out in the yard w/ the house closed up. I have to give credit to Dunhill that Light Flake was not bitey & didn?t leave sticky glop in the pipes I tried it in. Other than that there was nothing going on for this tobacco. MacBaren?s HH Mature Virginia is a much better experience in Virginia tobacco. Has Light Flake been discontinued? I never would have noticed & won?t miss it a bit.

This is my favourit of the pure Virginias I have so far tried. Its a wonderfully prepared tobacco, neat, regular flakes that rub out easily, pack just fine, and light and stay lit with no trouble at all. The moisture content is perfect, and if smoked with a bit of care, burns slow, cool and without drip.

The tin aroma is a spicy, raisiny sort of smell, very fruity, and this sort of smell is present in the room aroma.

The flavour is fresh, naturaly sweet but not too sweet, and mild, although not bland in any way like some other similar tobaccos. Craftsman flake for example. Towards the end of the bowl the flavour can progress from dried fruityness on to an almost nutty taste, making it a very interesting smoke, one which can be enjoyed for a long time without either becoming boring or becoming too strong.

The nicotine content is noticable, but not strong, so this would be a good choice of flake for a beginner (it was my first try of a Virginia flake, and I enjoyed it a lot)

Another good reason to keep some of this around is that it is a really multi purpose smoke. Indoors it burns slow and does not offend non smokers, while being more interesting than some aromatics. Out of doors its a good tobacco, particularly on a cold day, as this makes it very difficult to make it burn hot. On a very windy day, the flakes can just be rolled, folded or twisted a little, shoved into the pipe and set fire to. They will burn really slow, even in a strong wind, and do not go out as some other flakes do.

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Due to new Legal silliness perpetrated by our insane government, here in Britain this tobacco is now called "Flake". Calling it Light would apparently imply that it is less likely to kill us than other tobaccos. I hope this at least will put an end to quibbling as to whether this really is a "light" flake.

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UPDATE

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Recently this tobacco has changed somewhat, either that or my tastes have- I now detect a noticable topping of some kind, rather like that of Erinmore but applied less heavy handedly. I suspect that it has always been used, it smells familiar, but I dont recall this note being so strong. Maybe its because my last tins were open longer, and one of them had matured a while (That one had the most proinently raisiny smell). In any case, I still really enjoy it, its very rewarding, tasty and smells good.

For me, DLF proved to be a very mild, one-dimensional VA flake that is short on taste and, consequently, failed to satisfy me. It has a subdued citrus flavor as well as an underlying and subtle soapy/floral taste, the latter of which I did not care for. I just like a tobacco with a little more ?punch? and taste than DLF offered. On the positive side, it did not bark, growl or bite and it has good burning qualities. Regarding all Dunhill blends, there are some pipesters who feel that Dunhill blends just ain?t what they used to be.

A cigarette is to be smoked. A cigar is to be enjoyed. A pipe is to be savored.

I rate this tobacco 4.8 out of 10.

Dunhill Flake: Tin note of spices, mild ketchup and honey. Tobacco is a reddish dark brown Flake with tan specks. Moisture content is good, some may want to dry it out a bit. Flakes rub out easily. Burns slow with few relights. The strength is mild to medium and nic is mild. No flavoring is listed but I can detect a mild to medium note of sweet honey. Taste is mild to medium and moderately consistent, with notes of bready, sweet grass, rich earth, citrus peel/zest, acidic/spicy, mild wood, spices, mildly savory, mildly floral, a sweet, dried hay background note, and a peppery retro. Room note is pleasant, and aftertaste is good.

I remember the grassy and hay-like tin note and also similar smoke from this one. It was the first time I have tried the straight Virginia. It was alright, but I am looking for something more tasty in this territory. Hope, I'll find it!

I was going to add this revision in the section dedicated to “Flake -Peterson-“ when I discovered that there was a separate section for the Dunhill version. It has surprised me a lot because it is the only Dunhill tobacco of those reproduced by Peterson that can be highlighted here, in its own section as Dunhill. But I guess there's some good reason for that, which I don't know about.

In its tin some dark flakes appear that give off a quite remarkable smell of wine, and in that it reminds me of the aroma of Dark Flake, also from Dunhill. Once the pipe is lit it is fruitier and less spicy than I remembered in the Peterson version, but this may be due to the aging of the tin I am smoking, since in my opinion the passing of the years tends to increase the fruity aromas/flavors. I could define it as a combination between McClelland's fruity virginias in his milder versions and Samuel Gawith's well-known herbaceous and sweet hay virginias. It has a perfect balance between smooth and tasty. It burns nice and even. A very fine and high quality tobacco.

This review, as most of them are, is from my notes back when I first joined, then rejoined Tobacco Reviews... again. I purchased two vintage, ten year old tins of Dunhill LF from eBay back in 2011 for 60 dollars. Vintage tins are full of mottled light to medium brown flakes with a slight lemony, fruity aroma. Maybe sort an aged fruitcake-like aroma. The flakes are very tender and almost fall apart if not delicately handled. They are fragile & easily break apart into an almost shag-like consistency that readily takes to flame & burns great. I knew how I'd be rating this after the first puff. Another superb offering from Dunhill.

The flavoring was certainly to my liking and this is the best tasting Virginia flake I've ever smoked at the time. Very sweet, mild & flavorful smoke with a mild to medium strength... closer to the mild spectrum, however. How could one not like this VA blend? There's nothing there not to like unless you might want something with a little more kick. Doesn't bite, provided sweet matured Virginia flavor, smoked mild, etc. Just an excellent concoction for a Virginia Blend.

Unfortunately, I overcooked one of these tins in the microwave for a quick dry time & spoiled it by oversetting the timer. Oh well, I still had one tin to review. The only thing I didn't like about the aged Dunhill Light Flakes was the lack of Vitamin N. I always prefer something fairly strong since I don't inhale. I never tried the Orlik or Mac Baren versions because this blend didn't take me where I wanted to go but the taste/flavor was very good to excellent.

Well this one surprised me. I've never smoked this blend before and a friend gave me a ten year old tin of this stuff. Being named Light Flake plus having ten years of age on it, I expected a really mellow smoke. This was not the case at all. The tobacco was rich, strong, and spicy. The flavor was like toast sprinkled with a generous portion of black pepper. I found the nic content to be rather strong. Overall this was a nice smoke but again, it was nothing like I thought it would be. I have a tin of the newer Dunhill Flake and look forward to comparing it with this ten year old Light Flake.

Soli Deo gloria!