Mac Baren Virginia Flake

Like the other Mac Baren flakes, Virginia flake comes packed in a very nice little metal tin, in a slightly eccentric yellow this time. The flakes are wrapped in a nice golden coloured wrapper. Undoing this reveals a very nice, hay- to golden brown neatly cut densly packed stack of flakes of perfect size to roll and stuff in a corn cob. Tin aroma is a light, sweet grassy hayey smell with decided lemon peel notes. Smoking reveals a very sweet flavour with notes of hay and lemon, and when correctly treated and allowed to burn cool, almost of lemonade. Room note is surprisingly smokey and dry, with notes of oak, and not altogether easy to accept by non- smokers in the room. While this is a fairly mild tobacco, calling it cigarette tobacco is more than unfair. While it can get a bit ashy and harsh when smoked too hot, as well as towards the end of the bowl, the quality of this tobacco should be undisputed. Careful smoking does bring out very nice, unique bright and summery flavours, but as with many Mac Baren offerings, you just wish that they were more present. A recommended hot weather tobacco.

this is my first review. i've been trolling this site for a few months now getting great tips from smokers so i thought it time to leave some comments of my own.

and i seem to have picked a tobacco that only comes 'somewhat recommended' but i'm going to leave it a higher mark than that. as soon as i saw this tobacco and smelled it in the tin, i had a good feeling. right from the tin i got hints of honey, grass and licorice. i pulled out a couple of flakes, let them rest and dry for about 10 minutes, then folded them into my pipe, topped it with a bit of broken flake and struck a match. i sipped at it as i've heard there might be some tongue bite but like vinnie799 found none. just a pleasant smoking tobacco with an attractive natural sweetness. it burned very well. and i never got tired of the taste from start to finish. and even now as i write this (about 20 minutes since finished the bowl) i am still left with the pleasant flavours.

my guess that lovers of big, bold VF won't enjoy this and likely find it too mild but i thought this to be a quality tobacco, with a natural sweetness that burns very well.

i will be keeping this VF in my rotation and recommend it to smokers looking for a clean, naturally sweet VF.

I bought my Virginia Flake in the 1lb offering. The presentation of this flake is down right beautiful. It's a one pound hunk of long thinly sliced Virginia right off the ol' chopping block! It has such a sweet grassy smell to it that transfers to the taste nicely. As I said the flakes are thin and quite long as well. At first I thought I would need to cut one in half to smoke in my favorite flake pipe, but due to the thin slice one flake folded in half and gently twisted fit right in. It's very pliable and a good moisture level as well. The charring light got things going nicely and I tamped down the tobacco and lit again and didn't have to mess with after that. It does light easily which is a major plus with any flake. As far as taste goes it does have a nice light taste and mild strength. It's got the typical grassy, hay like, taste and none of the cigarette taste normally associated with VA's. I think it's a good choice for a nice light, sweet and mild VA available in bulk.

It is what it is. It has very straightforward elements of a Virginia, but I detect hints of the burley and cavendish MB uses in Navy Flake. It does remind me of a RYO cigarette tobacco and the room note is reminiscent of those Stokkyebye RYO baccys I no longer partake. It is no SG Full Virginia Flake, which I tried first, but it's a decent smoke. I would recommend it to someone who has yet to venture into Virginia flakes. I actually took a flake and mixed it with Captain Black White as a last ditch effort to keep from throwing the CB away. It's not bad. Tones that sickeningly sweet CB down nicely.

This is my favorite Virginia Flake and a regular is my rotation.

When I want something a little bit aromatic, a little bit creamy and sweet with true Virginia flavor, but not too heavy Aromatic or too complex Virginia flavor, then only Mac Baren Virginia Flake will do.

This need Definitely some drying time then fold it and pack it as it is, with preference in a horn shape pipe and with the "air pocket" packing method, the flavor is close to Mac Baren Navy Flake, the burley provides the "creamy" body and reduces bite, the taste is sweetm mild creamy and fruity, the sweetness comes from the natural sweet Virginia leaf rather than from added sweetener.

This is not the same Virginia as with Virginia No1, Virginia Flake is a bit sweeter with more body and without the hay flavor of VA #1

* Bad blend ** Good blend *** Excellent blend **** Exceptional blend

this blend goes side by side with the erinmore flake but its a lighter version,,nicely burned easy on the mouth. burns in to white ash, straight virginia with no misleading flavors to wounder about. an all day smoke blend if you dont really care for people complements (aroma wise).

I drove to the vets to pick up the dogs, smoking Mac Barens Virginia flake and thinking about cornfields casing my boyhood in green shucks and yellow silk, railroad tracks under my bike wheels a jack of diamonds in the spokes, baseball mitt around the spoiler.

Another season turns, Hot coffee and wet gloves, the bite of the morning and thick boots, dark til noon then dark again, blue light coming off the snow, cold as blue, a blue knuckle the blue of the settling Swedes eyes.

Dylan Thomas had his heron priested shores, James Joyce his emerald Island, I had corn fields and tundra and sometimes at night the big sky would let loose a rock or two and light up the elms, the doomed elms with rot in their sap.

I think to write to a pipe forum; Mac Barens Virginia flake is a nostalgic blend; first notes of corn fields and bike grease, mitt leather and pick up games or pickle in a vacant lot, by mid bowl hints of coffee and ice and blue, with a strong finish aged forty years, a girl with a pony tail and dripping wax down a wine bottle. I recommend this blend to infirms with memory loss, journalists who feel they?ve sacrificed some heart for their craft and old men with the time to daydream and walk through ghost fields green and golden or blue and white. I know it?s a catalyst and not the thing itself; tobacco doesn?t make you sweet and sticky, people do, unemployment does, the holidays, death, love and other things we?ve given names to reference but have no inkling of their nature.

I enjoy many of Mac Baren`s products, Scottish Mixture and Navy Flake in particular. Some, like Vanilla Flake and Stockton, do not please in the same way. Virginia Flake is beautifully crafted, a pleasure to handle and carry about, and when one is sated with heavier flavours a delightful change of pace. The added flavouring is not obtrusive and does not mask the mild taste of the tobacco. This is no substitute for Light Flake or Long Flake or Old Gowrie, let alone the cooked virginias. But when one is in the mood for a light cool consomme rather than a French onion soup, so to speak, this meets the requirement.

If you enjoy Virginia Flakes and are o.k. with some added flavoring this is quite enjoyable. A bit too much flavor and scent when first opened and the first few puffs were too much for my tastes. It did settle into a nice smoke after about the first one quarter of the bowl. A good first smoke of the day for the V.F. fan. Similar qualties as McB's Navy Flake.