Fribourg & Treyer Special Brown Flake

The presentation is nice and typical of Kohlhase & Kopp manufacturing. No complaints. The moisture was okay. 15 minutes of drying would do it some good, but you can smoke it straight from the tin and be okay, if you don't mind relights. The tin note is typical of many Virginia blends. There is a tangy fruit note, but that might be from pectin more than rum, which is the stated topping. That tangy note recedes as time passes in the tin. It becomes grassy and hay-like and earthy.

A note on rum toppings: take this information loosely. The world of rums is a diverse one, probably one of the most diverse spirits. I learned that you usually will not taste rum itself in the blend. What I look for is what rum can do to the tobacco. Oftentimes it makes the blend sweeter, and sometimes more tangy, as it does with this blend. Drying this out seems to reduce the tangy nature of the topping, but it helps the combustion temperature.

The blend starts bright, grassy, and there are fruit notes, like dates, sultanas, and honey. The flavor does get darker as you smoke down the bowl, and you get some pastry notes, cereal, malt, toasty wood, salty cocoa, floral notes, cinnamon bread, earthy leather-like notes, figs, spicy notes, cloves. It's very tasty if you sip it and let it develop with a nice sweet, bready and nutty, toasty aroma. Pushing it will make it burn hot.

If you like straight Virginia blends, you can't go wrong with this one. To me, it's a darker Virginia. The rum will trick you into thinking there's more bright leaf than there really is. It's sweetened with the rum, and if you like a little enhancement to your Virginias, you'll enjoy this. It's tangy, and sweet, bready, malt-forward with some earth. Four stars, and age only deepens this blend.

It's mild in strength to start, but definitely builds in strength. You may or may not notice the nicotine. I'd say it's medium.

I have bought more tins after my first. It is a solid straight Virginia, and I love straight Virginia flakes. It's got every dimension one can get from just Virginia. It is both sweet and earthy with plenty of intrigue to suit me.

My issue with this blend is the availability. You can try Capstan Original Navy Cut, and you won't be far off with the flavor profile, but I think Capstan is maybe richer and more complex with a different topping (also sweeter). Capstan is more readily-available, but more expensive. Special Brown Flake is sold at a more favorable price.

If I can get more of this flake, I generally do.

A

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Matey. This here Old Tobey harkened back to the pirate days of yore. Fantastic, let me dare say amazing pressed Virginia flake. Ever so delightfully topped with what 37.66 years of experience tells me is an effluvial ester ridden grog that would make her majesty Queen Elizabeth sit straight up in her throne and pass wind. Not a loud one mind you, just a satisfied one cheek sneak of a squeegee.

Ahhhhh. What was I saying. This stink weed is so amazing I digressed into an intellectual coma. Amazing flake. I know. I have tons of experience rubbing one out. A bowl of flake that is.

And to all you ninnys who insist on flake being smoked out of a small bowled pipe, I say balderdash and drink from the spittoon of Biezelbub. I smoked this is any damn size pipes I could find. Amazing

This flake is so damn fine it makes you want to slap your granny.

Now this is a good flake.. very lovely raisin like tin note.. lovely sweet/sour fermenting going on.. seems mature.. smokes very well.. cool.. and it tastes amazing.. very high grade leaf.. the rum is very subtle. Almost undetectable.. this is a rich and flavorful virginia.. not too hay or citrus.. nice middle of the spectrum notes.. the raisin really comes through.. bravo

F&T Special Brown Flake - This is a top notch brown Virginia to my taste . The Rum is very mildly applied here . There is a very mild casing of something sweet that doesn’t intrude on the lovely Virginia tobaccos . A little hay and grass and bread . Dark fruit and a little molasses and vinegar . I could smoke this all day . Similar to BBF but not as sweet . A little sweeter than Wessex brown flake . I will buy more and cellar . Highly recommend. 4 rating

First things first: If you’re after rum from Fribourg and Treyer’s Special Brown Flake, try to buy a young tin and smoke the stuff ASAP after it’s opened. Pretty sure the (newer type, large, round) tin I bought had been sitting there for years, and the rum was quite subdued, just mildly sweet and fragrant, and not at all proof-y, as often happens with aged booze-topped blends. The tin is big for two short stacks of well-formed flakes that are mostly dark brown, with lighter brown and tan striations. I suppose this means there is some flue cured leaf and perhaps some orange in there with the featured air-cured brown VA. Tin note is light and very fragrant, something like rose and lavender over plum blossom. I think this might be Mirabel plum over fragrant, bready, slightly earthy and musty, meadow grass-y, citrus-y, hay-ish VAs. Though it burns better rubbed out I prefer the extra strength I get from keeping it more intact than that. 1 flake, broken, folded and spindled fills my VA pipe loosely. It takes a while to get it well lit like this, then it smokes all the way down with slow draws and regular, light tamping, along with some stirring at the tail end, and it’s a lengthy smoke this way. Scents and tastes follow the tin note, except combusting scents and tastes are actually better than the tin notes. IMO, SBF is far from being an aromatic, and after it’s rested it would be a stretch to call it a crossover, based on the tin I got. In any case, the lot is well-melded, tasting and smelling like healthy type pancakes. What was once rum is now more like natural cane/rum sugar, sweet with a bare trace of molasses, and I am not concerned with trying to unravel it but I just take it fairly easy and let it all come to me. After my VA pipe got “conditioned” to it I smelled and tasted something like a memory of an alpine meadow, with faint, pine-y dust. Soft, sweet, and savory, with a very mild zing to it, SBF is at once both natural and refined. Very nice. In terms of strength, it ramps up smoothly from mild to near medium, and the tastes get to medium. Room note is pleasant. Aftertaste is a drawn out, sweeter best of the smoke.

Here’s a First Class offering for experienced VA lovers that shouldn’t put off beginners. No doubt it will continue to age well. 4 stars.

When I first smoked Special Brown Flake, I was immediately smitten with its close resemblance to Capstan's Navy Flake (Blue) in terms of appearance, aroma, tobacco composition, and smoking characteristics, but at a much better price point. The rum is mildly applied and barely noticeable. The dark Virginia leaf offers a smooth and mellow smoke with slight fruity (figs) hints if sipped at a slow cadence. The bright leaf offers more undertones of grass with less citrus notes than similar leaf in blends such as Orlik Golden Slice. There is little chance of tongue bite even when puffed quickly, though you will see the subtleties in the flavor disappear.

If you prefer a more intensely flavored straight Virginia, SG FVF is a good alternative. That said, I prefer Fribourg & Treyer Special Brown Flake, because it is mmm good.

Special Brown Flake provides a very pleasant smoke that is consistently good and one I look forward to. The charring light is robust with richness. There is sweetness from the Virginia and something extra that I can’t put into words, yet it is very enjoyable.

The simple description from Fribourg & Treyer says that there is a Navy rum top note; from the tin, I cannot detect it and in the smoke, I cannot taste it unless it is the source of the enjoyable charring light.

Nevertheless, the initial pleasure gives way to a completely satisfying and somewhat sweet Virginia Tobacco smoke. There is a spiciness that begins to come forward around the 1/3 point and stays along for the ride. While F&T did not indicate the inclusion of Perique, SBF acts like a nice full and rich VaPer with no bite.

Some have written that this blend does best with some age. My tin is 4 year old is superb and now is half gone. I’m going to buy some more to age and save this last half for the days when I want to enjoy a Proven Champ.

This one gets the 4 Stars and will be missed if it ever goes away.

Friborg & Treyer - Special Brown Flake.

My flakes are a medium brown in colour with many light spots all over. They are only a little too moist, drying would be a benefit however it isn't imperative as without airing they can still be easily rubbed out if you wish to do so. The smell from the tin is stronger with rum than the flavour, the aroma is a definite rummy one but the taste just has a slight rum embellishment to it.

From start to finish Special Brown burns good, to initiate the burn it only requires a quite short touch of the flame which then becomes almost redundant due to the only necessity being the odd tamp. The temperature is fairly cool, a good feature well accompanied by zero bite. I find the nicotine quite mild, not fully mild hence why I tick mild to medium!

My initial thought upon my first puff was "four stars" and a few bowls have done nothing to assuage that feeling.

Four stars.

I agree with the previous review entirely. I too smoke Cornell and Dhiel Afterhours and the GH rum flake. The difference here is that it is less intense, better balanced, in the right quantity (the rum) and the smoke is perfect. One of the best Rum flakes, if not the best available. This is my second tin. Update: after the thrid tin, even more convinced this is a top quality, exceptionally good stuff.