Watch City Cigar Flake #558

I pretty much concur with Steelcowboy's review, which will spare you a lot of redundant reading. I was surprised to see such thick, crumbly flakes -- a unique presentation in my experience. It is a crumble cake sliced into thick flakes. Slow burning and satisfying with a good whole mouth feel, great body, and a pleasing combination of bready Va flavors and fruit-like Perique. Nothing sharp nor grassy, nor peppery here. It has a sweet woody edge, as if there was some nut-like Burley in the mix. Top notch!

Customer service needs a wee bit more attention. In a recent (2017) online purchase one of two bags arrived without any label, and the shipment was packaged without an invoice. No reflection on the quality of the tobacco, however.

Very nice choice in the category of sweeter and milder VaPer. I’m a big fan of St James Flake, and I would say this is fairly similar, but a notch sweeter, milder in perique, and, IMO easier to pack and smoke, with few relights needed. There is some tanginess to the perique, but as the bowl progresses the flavour develops into a very well integrated, smooth and sweet smoke. And the smooth quality definitely stands out here.

Taste: What strikes me is how well integrated the flavour is. It starts a bit more on the perique-side, but soon you get at farily consistent brown sugar type of sweetness with an earthy body with almost a bit of (very) dark chocolate note (a bit like burley). Nothing tart or harsch here, just mellow and smooth. To be honest, I don't think it is the complexity of nuances that characterizes the flavour profile. In no way is it flat, but the flavour is more integrated than it is complex. I would say it's just perfectly integrated in the way that you want your VaPer to be. The flavour is just mild sweetness and well balanced amount of perique that provide a little robust backbone and spice.

So, for those looking for a sweeter VaPer that is easy to handle and smokes smoothly, this is a good choice. The only thing I reacted to was the tin note, for some reason it did not smell very nice, but that is something I could not care less about, as long as the smoke is good. It is just funny sometimes how the smell of the tobacco has nothing to do with the taste when smoked. So don’t be fooled all you aromatic sniffers, in the world of pipe tobacco something can smell like shit but smoke deliciously good in the pipe. : )

Smoking now:

The jar note is as close to a fig newton as I’ve smelled. That sweet bread cookie smell and the fig fruit filling. The cake crumbles apart perfectly and uniformly with its moisture being perfect. Another outstanding crumble flake cake from WCC.

The taste on this is different. It’s not as sweet or fruity as it smells. It’s an earthier tone. Dark. Fermented. Spice but not tickle your nose white pepper spice but more like black pepper. The figs and fruit are there in the foreground. A little hay, but no grassy bright Virginia flavors. Very dark, mature, dare I say, elegant. There’s bursts of tangy citrus fruit here and there as the bowl progresses. There’s a deep dark sweetness to this that I get from time to time. It’s makes for a pipe that I needed to concentrate on when smoking. Definitely a blend to smoke when you’re not doing anything else. Not overly heavy on the mouth feel, the nic hit is certainly noticeable. Stayed lit fine, below average relights. Most certainly not an all day smoke for me. Struggled to finish it in a large bowl as I’m a nic hit light weight but the flavor was consistent to the end.

I’m glad I got a pound of this. Spicy, earthy, mildly sweet and fruity. Not usually what I go for in Virginias but it’s damn good.

*there is no kentucky or smokey flavors to this at all because it contains none*

I am not a regular reviewer since I restarted pipe enjoyment about 5 months ago and feel my palette and experience are of limited tenure. I lean to Vapers and a YTPC member pointed me to Watch City and recommended Flake 558. It is an amazing blend offering some sweetness and a fain sour note that play very well together. No bite and each bowl is total enjoyment. Well worth a try at a reasonable price with great service.

Watch City Flake #558: The Penzance of VaPers.

Okay – so it’s not a VaPer – 558 has Kentucky in it. But 558 nearly looks and crumbles exactly like Penzance, and it certainly smokes and tastes like something from the realm of Penzance -- so talk about a Luxury Blend – Damn, this stuff is good! And I mean 558 is fantastically, indescribably good. The 13 people who’ve reviewed before me have done a wonderful job of summing up/describing 558, so all I can say is this: 558 is some really high quality, first-rate smoke.

Truth be told, 40-ounces of Watch City product appeared at my door yesterday: 8-ounces each of Flake #558, Watch City Slices, Deep Elem, Nor’Easter and Deluxe Crumb. As soon as I opened the box and saw what had actually arrived, I was completely mesmerized, absolutely absorbed, entirely entranced and altogether enthralled by what lay inside: 5 bags, each one full of stunningly beautiful tobacco, all of it in shades of dark, beaver brown – chestnut, cocoa, chocolate – all of it smelling fantastic, all of it beautifully presented, exquisitely supple and pleasing to the touch. There were no “slices” or “flakes” – it was all crumble in the form of slices and flakes (except for the Deluxe Crumble, which was already course-cut, but that’s for another review, another day). Of the dozen or so people who have discovered/reviewed the aforementioned Watch City blends, 90% of them are the same folks. Quite frankly, I really struggled with whether I wanted to post this review or not, because if Watch City ever catches on, these blends will all but disappear from the face of the Earth (only to be found on ebay, at a 400% markup). I can't believe I missed the #556 -- I will be unapologetically hoarding this stuff -- and I simply cannot wait to try the other four Watch City blends that came to my door. Don’t say nobody ever told you so about Watch City Flake #558 – if you miss this stuff, shame on you. Abundantly recommended. 4-stars.

I bought this from Watch City over the weekend. It is an outstanding weed. Not really a pure VAPER in that it contains Kentucky, but no less tasty than the best out there IMHO. The smell in the pouch is very pungent: a sharp vinegar over moldering hay. It reminds me a little of the bark mulch laid in your flower beds in the spring, weird as that sounds. An interesting aspect of this stuff, for me, is the crumble cake/flake hybrid texture of the blend. It rubs out easily, and packs perfectly. It can be difficult to light, but once you get it going it requires minimum relights. It burns very cleanly all the way to ash. Perfect. With regard to taste, I have a little different take than some of the other reviewers here. I do not taste the perique as a fig or plum flavor-think Escudo, but I taste the spice as a sort of a tingle on the tongue. No bite, and no harshness, just a tingle. I can taste considerable citrus, I find it fairly tart with a base "woodiness" presumably from the Kentucky. It is well balanced, very smooth with hay and earth undertones and a slight Virginia sweetness that gets stronger as you smoke down the bowl. I bet it ages well, and I will certainly buy more.

Well, after reading all the glowing reviews of this tobacco, I ordered 8 oz. of it. I like and smoke mostly Virginia, Vaper and some Burley blends. First off, this blend is very mellow, no sharp notes, no bite, and alas, very little nicotine to me anyway. Construction wise, I would not really call this a traditional flake. I understand Watch City makes their own blends and "flakes". Now, traditionally a "flake" tobacco is made up of a blend of whole tobacco leaves placed in a press and pressed together to form a very dense plug, which is then sliced into flakes. The pressing allows the tobaccos to marry and often intensifies the flavor. I do not believe this is made from whole-leaf tobaccos, rather I think it is made from pre-cut tobaccos so in effect this is a crumble cake that happens to be sliced. Very thick slides that fall apart when handled. They fall apart into parts that are not unlike the cut of tobaccos like Granger or Prince Albert, not ribbons, which one would expect from traditional flake tobaccos made from whole leaf. If you are OK with this really being a crumble-cake that can't be exactly treated like a traditional flake, then this may be for you. The flavor is nice, no really high notes, like I said, mellow.

Fat, juicy, meaty, sweet BBQ excellence!!! Please read all the other reviews here for the nuances if you must... otherwise, just order yourself a couple of pounds and smoke and cellar your treasure.

When I opened the bag, I smelled a pair of stinky socks that could stand up. The wide, tidy appearance gave me the courage to crumble them into my terracotta bowl (a must for tobaccos testing). The flavor was rich, sweet, spicy, salty, but with all due respect, my lady went into action after the tobacco was lit, patrolling the neighborhood garbage bags and dog kennels. I know some people love blue cheese, but I don't, and thankfully I only have a 2-ounce sample and won't be buying any more.