Tobaccos Brigham - Klondike Gold (Legend)

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	JimInks (3025)	2014-06-03		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

The flakes are easy to break apart if you're not a "fold and stuff" smoker, and provides a perfectly smooth, cool and clean even burn with no bite or harshness. The lack of topping means this is less sweeter than many straight Virginia flakes. The various Virginias offer some tart and tangy citrus, slight grass/hay, sugar, floralness, light acidity, wood, bread, and earth along with a hint of tangy dark fruit, spice and honey. Some of those flavors will be more prominent than others on occasion, but this is essentially a well balanced medium flake designed for all day smoking. What it lacks in complexity and nicotine (which is just past the mild mark), it makes up for in a pure Virginia smoke. the strength is a couple of steps past the mild level, while the taste is a slot short of medium. Won't bite or get harsh, but has a few small rough moments. Burns clean and mostly cool. Leaves little moisture in the bowl, and it does requires some relights. Has a very pleasant, lightly lingering after taste and room note.

-JimInks

12 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	doc'spipe (241)	2013-12-13		Mild	None Detected	Mild	Pleasant

A very nice offering from Brigham. Very similar in appearance, thickness of cut (thin), and tin aroma to Wessex Brown Virginia Flake. No detectable aroma from the tin, just good, fresh Virginia and not hay-like at all, which I find preferable in a Va over those with a predominant hay-like aroma. Loaded and lit very nicely. A beautiful, if not one of the best, Virginia smoking experiences I've had. I ordered 2 tins since it has been having its "hard to get" moments, and receiving it today, found only one tin in the box. A quick call to P&C only to find it is back ordered! A good, solid, no nonsense VA. It was a little less expensive than Wessex Brown Flake, so when I'm in the mood for this type of flavor profile in a VA, I can save a few dollars and go with Klondike. I believe they are both blended by RL Will and put together by Kohlhase &Kopp, hence the similarities, so you can't go wrong there! If you want an unadulterated VA, you would be hard pressed to find too many others better than this one.

Pipe Used: Stanwell Vario Billiard

Age When Smoked: Fresh

Purchased From: Pipes and Cigars

Similar Blends: Wessex Brown Virginia Flake.

11 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Pipestud (1829)	2015-03-14		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Very Pleasant

Klondike Gold had a really wonderful taste that was similar to Will offerings if this type. Not as heady as Gold Bar, but certainly in the same class. If you appreciate a lighter (but still with punch) Virginia flake that is naturally sweet rather than grassy, Klondike Gold would be a good choice. And, no matter how hard you puff, this Virginia will not bite.

Pipestud

10 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	NEWMAN (305)	2013-06-27		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

These nicely prepared flakes of VA have a perfect moisture content and are quite pliable to permit easy packing without rub out. Initial light is easy and few relights are required The tin aroma is inviting but not as apparent in the smoke that is still enjoyable. Smokes cool and dry without any bite in all bowl sizes. A nice, lite smoke that is ideal for this hot weather. If you like straight Va's, give it a try.

10 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Gentleman Zombie (729)	2016-09-15		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant

A fairly strong citrus note with a milder note of earthy hay. Mildly sweet with a bit of spice. A very nice relaxing smoke that fully satisfies. The citrus is orange-like and may be more akin to tangerines. Been too long since I had a tangerine so it's hard for me to tell. This is an excellent Virginia flake.

Medium in body and taste. No added flavoring detected. Burns very well.

Pipe Used: MM Little Devil Cutty, Little Devil Acorn, Marcus

Age When Smoked: fresh

Purchased From: smokingpipes.com

8 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	StevieB (2076)	2016-10-23		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant

Brigham Enterprises Inc. - Klondike Gold.

Bizarre, I fancied using the fold and stuff method on my first bowl of this, but I couldn't remove a flake in its entirety without it breaking apart; although the flakes weren't too wet, they'd all stuck together. Never mind, no problem, I filled with it rubbed!

The first few puffs seem a bit insipid, apart from some hay and earth there's not really much else. But after a few minutes it wakes up, and some citrus-zest comes to the forefront. This citrus taste continues to strengthen throughout the first quarter, until it fits the description 'lively' to perfection. The burn's good, and the smoke's medium in temperature. I find the nicotine fairly mild, and the room-note quite pleasant. It can give me a nip if I'm not too cautious. Klondike Gold is a much more enjoyable smoke in a longer stemmed pipe. This isn't due to the flavour, but the mechanics; smoke a bowl from a nose-warmer and you'll understand what I mean when the smoke drifts into your eyes!

This is a high quality smoke, a very lively Virginia Flake.

Highly recommended.

Pipe Used: Morgan Pot Blackjack

Age When Smoked: 4 months

Purchased From: Smokingpipes.cm

6 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	RhettButler (1)	2016-04-07		Very Mild	Very Mild	Mild	Pleasant to Tolerable

My initial impression was much like Darby's: a mild Va. flake with a pleasant, tart tangerine flavor that lightly ghosted a fresh cob. In a second tin I was able to detect the indeterminate beebleberry note mentioned in the description. A third tin, the victim of some dreadful industrial accident, had been blasted with topping which was readily identifiable as strawberry! I didn't care for it and wondered if the Hare Krishnas had captured the Brigham factory. However, after the top two flakes the remainder of the tin was fine. The flakes are loosely pressed and seem quite thin. I was surprised to find that they are the same thickness as Dunhill Flake. The strength is similar to Capstan Gold, but the flavor is less sweet. The flakes have been rather dry. They were most enjoyable when sipped in a small billiard or a cob. Other than the anomaly mentioned above, the berry note is subtle, interesting, and leaves a clean, fresh taste on the palate. It is well complemented by a cup of black tea.

Pipe Used: cob, Edward's Algerian poker, Bewlay billiard

Age When Smoked: fresh from retailer

Purchased From: smokingpipes.com

Similar Blends: Mac Baren - Capstan Gold Navy Cut.

6 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2014-07-02		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

This flake took some getting used to as it is completely uncased. These are the thinnest flakes you will ever encounter. It is a blend of light and brown Virginias of excellent quality. There is very little natural sweetness and the taste is mostly mid-range. Very satisfying and flavorful. There is a slight earthiness and the nicotine is moderate. I rub it out completely and find that it burns cool and dry. R.L Will has created an excellent mixture in Klondike Gold.

Purchased From: Smokingpipes

Similar Blends: Wessex Brown Flake.

4 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Darby (15)	2014-05-02		Mild	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

Klondike presents as an attractive thin-cut medium brown flake with light highlights. Tin aroma was surprisingly mild - just a good clean mildly toasty and sweet tobacco aroma, with no perceptible toppings. Moisture level in my tin was on the high side - I cross cut and rubbed out the entire tin, spread it out thinly on my countertop, and let it dry for six hours before repackaged it into a glass jar. Since the flakes were thin-cut, the resulting ready rub was a fine broken filigree.

Skipping ahead to mid-bowl, I picked up a pleasing grassy note, along with a bright tangy hit of sweet citrus (to me, it came across as tangerine & rose hips). I love those qualities in straight Virginias, but sometimes it’s possible to have too much of a good thing. Here, the sweet citrus notes, while pleasant, seemed a little over-strong, and actually ghosted my pipe slightly with a note best described as “Tang Instant Breakfast Drink”. Even with proper moisture balance, and slow sipping, the sweetness and thinness of the cut caused the tobacco to smoke slightly hot. I also picked up a slightly tannic note in the finish, which some extra cellar time should soften.

Despite the minor nits, this is still a high quality, and very interesting tobacco - something I look forward to blending (I’ll probably cut the sweetness with some burley, and stretch the finish with some perique). I’m confident that some extra cellar time will soften and mellow this into something really special, but straight out of a new tin this smoked a little tart, youthful and edgy, like a spirited young horse that hasn’t been broken to saddle yet.

A very solid 3 star smoke for me. Recommended.

Pipe Used: Grabow Royalton

Age When Smoked: Unknown (tin not vintage dated)

Purchased From: PipesandCigars.com

4 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	SmokeQuest (20)	2014-04-04		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

Great tobacco folks, it smokes like aged tobacco fresh out of the tin, no rough edges, no bite, smooth, and cool smoking, I just wish it was a little sweeter. If you are a Virginia smoker, get some, you won’t be disappointed.

Age When Smoked: Fresh

4 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2015-08-15		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Unnoticeable

I really like this virginia. The tin I smoke has been open a year and then left in the drawer without any attempt at cellaring. It has improved with the age. On opening the tin, I wasn't particularly impressed and just ignored it, but she has matured into a quite comely lass. While I often fold and stuff flakes, this one is best rubbed out and loaded into a pipe as long, crumbled strands, IMHO. Easy to keep lit, once it's dry enough. I smoke outside, so room note should be ignored, but this site requires a room note or the review won't be saved.

Age When Smoked: 1 year, left open in tin. Not cellared

Purchased From: Local B&M

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Vanislepiper (3)	4 days ago		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

=New Smoker= First flake and full virginia blend tried. Long folded flake "belt" easily rubbed out, found a bit difficult to fold and stuff due to the long wide flake but still doable. Sweet tangy notes of citrus and hay easily picked up. Long and even burn, dry smoke leaving little moisture after, Bit a bit with the first bowl but quickly picked up a slower cadence making each bowl after better and better. Readily available in Canada, Very pleasant experience.

Pipe Used: Brigham 322, 347, 036

Age When Smoked: Fresh tin

Purchased From: Local shop

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	hawky454 (107)	2017-06-19		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant

This stuff is gold, indeed! These dark little flakes are pretty much perfect for my tastes when I want a nice, light VA Flake, this is what I reach for... well, until my stash runs out. Unfortunately and much to my chagrin they stopped selling this one in the States (insert frowny face here). Rumor has it that this stuff is aged to a minimum of two years before it's released. I don't know if this is actually true but it tastes like it's true. It's a very nice fermented Flake that covers most all the flavor spectrums you would expect of a Virginia. It's basically a refined version of Dunhill Flake. It's got amazing yeasty, bready notes with a brilliant citrus flavor coming only from the natural tobaccos as this in not topped like a lot of other flakes on the market. The nicotine is on the mild/medium side so it is perfect for an "all day" smoke. It's my "dumb reach" blend, meaning no matter what mood I'm in or the time of day, this one always hits the spot. It's still in production (as far as I know) just not available to us Americans. If you can source it for a fair price this one comes highly recommended.

Essential

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Seanv (35)	2019-07-21		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

I just finished my first tin of this and I think I am in love. Thin brown flakes with some golden blemishes. Tin notes of sweet hay and grass. Some citrus notes for those with good noses. The flakes fold and stuff wonderfully. I usually pack a flake and smoke it in a day or two later. Lights easier than most and burns great. Normal amount of relights are required. The initial flavors are malty bread like Virginia's with some hay and grass. I start to get the citrus about a third of the way in. The citrus doesn't stand out for me. The bready Virginia's are the main player for me. The nic hit approaches medium and there is a chance of bite so take your time. This could be an all day Virginia but I feel like it requires too much care to smoke it all day. Overall this is one of my top five belnds.

Pipe Used: briars,cobs,Meers

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	goochmon (2)	2018-08-24		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant

Really clean taste and I could imagine smoking this in the Klondike. Medium body, medium taste, and crisp citrus notes in the high medium range and an high base note of Woody earth. Well behaved and not complex.

Pipe Used: Lumberman

Age When Smoked: Aged

Purchased From: Sample

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Virginia lover (218)	2018-02-18		Mild	Mild	Mild	Pleasant

A tin that was aged for a couple of years that smells of sweet and tart dry figs. I folded and stuffed with this one as the flakes are medium/thin.

The flavor profile is very straightforward, sweet, tangy, hay and the omnipresent dark fruit topping that is there to the end. By midway, it becomes slightly earthy with more topping sweetness/tartness. I somehow get bored even though the pipe tobacco smoke is mellow, creamy, doesn't bite and burns slowly.

The aftertaste is not that pleasant as the topping lingers with a slightly bitter and ashy taste. I give it 2.5 stars.

Virginia lover

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Mesh (51)	2016-04-05		Mild	None Detected	Medium	Tolerable

A pleasant, solid 3-star blend for me. If it were a bit sweeter, I might enjoy it more, but then it wouldn't be the blend that it is. (Since we neither need nor want a pipe tobacco market filled with virtually identical products, it's always nice to come across something that has its own character while remaining true to its genre.)

Although it lacks sweetness and is on the mild side nicotine-wise, I don't think it particularly lacks body. There are nice citrus notes in the smoke, but there are also some of the darker, bready elements that I always look for in a Virginia. The latter seem to gather pace as you go down the bowl, especially in a larger pipe.

All in all, an enjoyable experience, and I'll be looking to add a tin or two of KG to future tobacco orders.

Age When Smoked: Newly purchased

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	point9 (114)	2015-10-21		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant

The first thing catch my attention is the golden tin art. The flake is easy to rub out. Dark color straight virginia, reminds me of full virginia flake. Although the flavor is tangy, the nicotine level is surprisingly lower than I thought without harshness and tongue bite. After several bowls, I put away the rest to age as I figure this will age quite nicely.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Reviewer (25)	2021-10-24		Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

This a great tobacco. The tin I bought was almost perfect moisture. This wasn't in small flake strips it was one long piece folded up a bunch of times. More like a strap. Broke off a piece and rubbed out, let air dry for about 10min. Nice tin note of plum and raisin and fresh tobacco. Took perfect light to a match and didn't need a second one at the start. Burns cool and slow. Very enjoyable sweet smoke. Light smoke and light after taste of tobacco. No harsh spots while smoking. Burned to ashes all the way to the bottom of the bowl. I liked the sweetness of it the most. Will be buying more to jar up and cellar for a few years and to smoke right away as well. Part of the regular rotation now.

Pipe Used: Brigham 284

Age When Smoked: New

Purchased From: Walper Tobacco

Nobody has rated this review yet.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	ElMog (36)	2020-05-20		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Extremely Mild (Flat)	Pleasant to Tolerable

Well well, the more I read glowing reviews here, the more I grow convinced there must have been something wrong with my tin. In my experience, Klondike gold is the most cigarette-ish straight VA flake I've smoked. In the tin, the smell is dominated by something strangely sour, acetic, which mixes with the usual virginia aroma. As for the taste, well, it is mostly flat, acrid, dry, though sometimes some Va sweetness manages to pull through. The room note is as cigarette-ish as the taste. But as I've said, my experience seems to differ from the other reviews here, and I can love me a good Va blend, so... I suppose something is off with my tin. But i shant buy another one. Do yourself a favour and go buy some Dunhill Flake instead ! oh ! wait ! Some Peterson Flake... oh... wait...

Pipe Used: Orlik Sandblasted canadian

Nobody has rated this review yet.