Rattray Wallace Flake

Beautiful dark flake mottled with lighter elements.

Tin note: plum, but not overly so. May be a casing. If a topping done very lightly.

A flake more in the English tradition (think Capstan, Four Square, perhaps) than in the Danish.

Flavorful, enjoyable, bordering on the stout, it rubs out well, burns slowly and well, providing a good medium (noticeable) dose of nicotine.

No big surprises in flavor. The plum is attractive, not overwhelming, but present. This is a good combination of burley nuttiness and the complexity offered by a balanced blend of Virginias with qualities including depth, sweetness and a touch of tanginess. It doesn't bite.

While it is a very serviceable smoke and a head above many flakes out there, it will probably remain an occasional smoke for this smoker, a welcome change of pace. Nice to see a new flake of this quality appear!

A solid smoke , refreshing and satisfying, this virginia/burley flake is sure to win a following! It's a fine addition to the flakes currently on the market.

Recommended!

Mostly dark flakes in a nifty presentation flat tin, said flakes being infinitely foldable, which is how I preferred it. Tin nose of rich tobacco with the topping being very noticeable. This is said to be Peterson's University Flake with a different blender. I always thought UF had a blueberry topping but this claims to be plum. Whatever... figuring out artificial flavorings is hardly a talent of mine.

Some interesting differences between this and UF. First of all, the flakes are purtier here whereas the UF flakes were pretty ragged. Second, this one seems to have less burley and more Virginia whereas UF was burleyburleyburley... and oh yeah, a little Virginia. Taste wise this was smoother but seemed to carry the plum flavoring longer thru the bowl. In other words, this is more heavily flavored. Which is ok, because I think the plum sauce is this one's selling point. You can find unflavored VaBurs all over but how many plum flavored ones are there? This was a sweet flake due to the apparent higher VA concentration as well as the more robust flavoring, which stayed with me thru the entire bowl. But it also had a nice underlying richness, if not as potent in the nicotine department as UF. As happens often, if this is supposed to be a match, another visit to the drawing board is in order. But on its own, it's a sweet flavored mostly VA flake that will appeal to those who like flavoring but prefer a choicer batch of leaf than the average goopy aromatic. A nice once in awhile smoke for me, and I would imagine a tin would last me a year! But well worth a shot if the thought of blueberry tobacco doesn't make you cringe.

Being a newbie returnee to pipe smoking perhaps precludes me from giving a qualified review of this tobacco, but here's my take.

I was steered towards this when another choice was unavailable. Its my first experience of a flake, but pleasing in the ease with which it rubbed out. I found it stronger than other tobaccos I've been using, but also very dependant on the pipe used. Some suggest filling the pipe by folding the flakes in a "Z" and pushing them down in the bowl - that method gave me the strongest smoke, no doubt the preference of some?

I found the nicotine hit a bit full on with an unfiltered small bowl pipe, but much more to my liking with a 9mm filter in my large bowl Zettervig, which smoothed the (to me) rough edge and, and enabled me to discern a mild though pleasing background note of plum.

I would perhaps revisit it but at present wouldn't hurry back in preference to say a black cavendish. To me this one isn't so much for newbies as seasoned smokers who like a bigger hitting flake. For that reason I won't allow my inexperience to get in the way of giving it a "fair" 3 out of 4.

Nice to find a new-ish flake out there. Tin note is hay like and very minute sweetness. The flakes are dense, moist and very dark. I find that the "plum cake" is very faint. This stuff smokes nice and cool in a small chambered pipe. Ash is pale grey. It is mellow and easily French inhaled and is subtle in its sweetness. A beautiful flake definitely worth a try.

This is a comparison of Wallace Flake (produced by K&K) and University Flake (formerly K&K, then Mac Baren and now produced by STG).

After my first tin of University Flake diddn't last very long, I hopped on my road bike and made a neat little journey to Peter Heinrichs Chateau Henri to stock up on it. I bought UF when I was looking for blends in the style of Peterson's 3Ps (Perfect Plug), and was very pleased by University Flake. Somehow they were run out of University Flake and deep inside myself I felt happy, because I wanted to compare UF to Wallace Flake anyways, kinda like fate. So I grabbed a tin of Wallace Flake and rode home, excited for what would await me.

I did read a lot of reviews about University vs. Wallace Flake in forehand and most people seemed to agree that Wallace is a tad sweeter and less nutty-earthy than University. Opening the (compared to UFs tin design) rather boring, yet classy designed tin (which is now round) of Wallace I was pleasantly surprised:

Wallace Flake looks exactly the same as University Flake. Just as UF the neat flake slices are sticking to eachother and are hard to separate. "Must be exactly the same weed" I thought, before I dipped my nose into the tin and noticed that Wallace Flake has a slightly different and more natural flavoring to it than UF.

Whilst UF flavoring is reminding me exactly of condoms (sounds very odd, I know, but its smells very plesant!) we have here in Germany and is rather artificially (yet pleasantly) somewhat plum-ish, Wallace Flakes flavoring actually smells of plums. It seems as if K&K has tweaked or changed the flavoring a bit - for good as I think! Wallace wins the "tin-note/flavoring battle".

Already on first light I noticed that Wallace Flake is more on the citrusy-sweet, Virginia-forward side, whilst University is more full-bodied, nutty-earthy and Burley-forward. Wallace Flake offers the said citrusy-sweet, grassy and hay-ish Virginia aromas and is underscored by the mildly nutty and molasses Burley. With UF it's just the opposite. I perceive Wallace's flavoring as more mild than the one of University. It offers sweet plums and some other (blue-?)berries, whilst UFs flavoring is more "dark" in character. Yet the flavoring is a bit more present in Walllace than in University. The "taste-battle" is clearly a draw to me. Both offer a very delightful smoke, Wallace being more "bright" and University more "dark" in character.

Wallace Flakes strenght is rather medium, almost close to mild, unlike University Flakes strenght, which I settled for as "medium to strong" (medium for experienced smoker, strong for new pipe smokers and/or pipe smokers who prefer mild blends.

I was hoping to identify one of the two as "much better", so I wouldn't have to keep a stock of both at hand - but after having smoked both I'm setting up two jars (which I only do for blends that I always keep in stock for my daily rotation), one for University and one for Wallace Flake, because personally I wouldn't wanna miss out on one of them. UF is more full-bodied, strong in Burley. WF is a tad more mellow-sweet, dominated by Virginias. Both are top-notch "old english style" blends, that are (besides Erinmore & 3Ps) unlike anything else on the market and I rank them very high in my "go-to" blends stash.

3-stars, as I prefer the University Flake incarnation!

Considered on its own, this is a very serviceable dark VaBur, with a topping that's between 'very mild' and 'mild', really just enough to make it interesting. The flakes are well-made and easy to tear into strips and fold (my preferred method when possible). Compared to University Flake, this tin at least was easier to light and seemed a bit sweeter without the topping being any more noticeable (at least to me) and a touch less N (but still a solid medium).

This is in fact Peterson's University Flake under a new label. Rattrays produce a lot of Peterson stuff now according to (hopefully) the old recipes. I sincerely hope it's not gonna be "new masters, new rules" like what has happened so many blends in the past.

This tastes very much like MacB's Mixture Flake. It certainly looks, smells and feels exactly the same. And that's good (but confusing for this aged brain). To my mind, a VaBur smoker's aromatic (being very non-aromatic save for the room note which is pure tobacco with Fabreze). I very much enjoy all of its characteristics (moisture, lighting, ease of maintenance, flavor, etc.). Just note that it's very light in nicotine. That's fine by me alternatively. Go dark burley one bowl, this the next and you'll be good.

Flakes come in a nice tin and are very similar to University Flake. Dark-Medium brown flakes with flecks of yellow and black here and there. Smells like sweet hay with a hint of plum right out of the tin. The flakes were the perfect moisture in my opinion and were easy to fold and load into my pipe.

Lighting took a few tries, but nothing extreme. Very pleasant smell and flavor. Rich virginia sweetness balanced with a bit of nutty/spicy burley flavors. The plum topping adds a slight fruit accent to the flavors and smoke, but not overdone in the least. I would say this is a perfect lightly aromatic smoke that is elegant and satisfying.