Orlik Tobacco Company A/S Golden Sliced (Red Tin)

The hay has been noted - and is to be expected with Virginias - as has the sweetness. It is a sweet, grassy smoke, but what sells it to me is something citrusy. I've read orange, and that may be it, but I get a sour note as well; a pleasant sour, mind you. Think grapefruit and lemon.

The citrus is perhaps why I invoke St. Bruno in my similar box. It gives the pipe a very cool feeling, but be careful not to push it, it will bite and it will lose a lot if it heats up too much. I'm claiming a mild to medium for strength as it has quite a bit of body for so much Virginia. Typically I don't experience billows of smoke sipping Va, but this has a fair amount of satisfying smoke, even smoked slowly.

The smoke is silky and smooth across the tongue. Perfect body in that regard, nothing unrefined jumps out. It's a pretty fantastic tobacco, especially in the price range. The lemon from the Va doesn't mark this as an all the time smoke for me, but definitely keeps it on a "look forward to every now and again" relationship with me. It's a nighttime reading tobacco for me, not a nighttime thinking and whiskey tobacco.

I won't weigh in on the Perique question save to say it's not straight Virginia and I don't think it's a burley (well, a not Perique burley, anyway) so I believe the tin. Presuming its existence the Perique is hinted at rather than bludgeoning you. As a guy into Bayou Night, this is not that. But I love it for what it is and recommend it strongly.

The Va is lovely, so if it's alone, it's enough. Hope you give it a try, it's not a 'forget about it' blend nor a contemplative, complex smoke, but if you're up for something between the two this might be just the thing.

What can I write about this tobacco that was not already written before?

It is one of the classic evergreens that keep pipe smokers satisfied for many decades. And yes, I am one of them as I love this tobacco. I think it has the perfect hay/citrus flavor and in my opinion there is definitly a little amount of Periqus involved. it is a inherent part of my tobacco bar and a daily guarantor for pleasure and content. I prefer to rub it.

The Nobel Foundation should add a 'tobacco blender' department and put the creator of this stuff on the list of candidates!

4 stars!

Orlik Golden Sliced! Yea, I finally opened my tin, as the weather has warmed up. Yes! To end this debate: as To Perique or not To Perique? There's Perique here, just not very much at all. I've been smoking some heavy perique blends lately(I 💘 the stuff),so my palate has developed a sensor for it. I do not pick up perique in the cob, but in a briar it shows itself. Especially DGT. I do not know what Golden Sliced tasted like years and years ago. I don't pretend to be master of subjectivity. I just know that My senses are picking up the perique.

As for the review. Golden sliced is a consistent Virginia flake scented with bergamot. Which to me makes it have a Lakeland quality to it, although very light Lakeland. The room note is beautiful! My wife loves the stuff. The smell of sweet Virginia and faint bergamot, makes one think of cookies In the oven. Nicotine is just about right for those looking for mild to medium.

This is the perfect all day smoke.

I have a very sensitive tongue due to an accident when I was a child (drinking a just-boiled coffee brew) thus I cant stand hot-spicy food (being an Asian where hot-spicy food is considered a delicacy, go figure. Haha)

That being said, I do somewhat developed a keen sense of smell and tasting. Probably that what leads me to enjoy VA more and more. The subtlety of their taste, slow-burning characteristic, that freshly-baked cake aroma that coming out of your bowl just when the ember is juust right. Caramel-toffee tones as a result of the natural sugar contents. Yumm.

Of all those wonderful VA blends out there, OGS is definitely my staple tobacco

Its relatively okay on my wallet, simple VA goodness, would bite if you didn't pack carefully and puffed hard, better smoked using small-bowl pipe. Being a broken flakes means that we had greater option to experiment with fold n stuff, full rub, cube cut, etc.

Packs easily, burns well. But need to pay attention. For falcon/ronson pipe, best to rub it fully, load them into your bowl WITHOUT any tamping what so ever. (okay just a tiny bit of tamping would do).

My personal tips for smoking Orlik : dont use new pipe, especially for fresh tins. Use your go-to pipe/corn cob.

OGS needs you to dedicate yourself to it. When I first smoked it, I was saying to myself "err..where did the flavor go?" But then again, for the modest price, I assume OGS was made from relatively young VA.

After 3-4 initial bowls I started to notice how the layers of VA taste begin to appear only if you sit still, pay attention, smokes slow.

Its a contemplative tobacco, not the easiest VA blend to be enjoyed, but if you do, a normal bowl will give you an hour and a half baccy-relaxation-therapy. My personal record is 2 hours over a bowl, finished with well-burned ash with very little dottle.

Overall, very nice smoke indeed. Highly recommended for VA beginner to learn the curves of smoking virginia based-blends. Would aged wonderfully. I had a 3 years old Orlik which just awesome.

EDITED 18 January 15 Reading through SPC's wonderfully written tobacco blog, I notice that they had what appears to be an aged OGS stash which was mentioned several times as their staple party/event/celebratory VA blends. Nice!

As a lover of VaPers, OGS is one of my favourites. All the ingredients to make it a superb tobacco are there; good quality virginias, the right amount of perique, NO tongue bite, slow burning, heavenly sweet taste with enough spices to satify any VaPer connoisseur. What more can I say? If you do not have this one in your rotation, you are doing yourself a wrong! Get some today.

OGS has a nice grassy hay'is flavor with a little faint hint of citrus that I really like. At the end of the bowl, a weak but pleasant taste of the Perique comes forward. OGS is my personal favorite in the Va /Per mixture class.

Square flakes in a round tin, heh. Amusing presentation. Smell is very ketchupy, quite simple and not overwhelming, rather faint, actually. Moist out of the tin, but easily folded and crammed into a large Clemons freehand pickaxe. Prelight draw is all white pepper, spicy and vegetal. The prelight flavor is quite enough to resolve the Great Perique Debate for me, right away. I taste perique, immediately, and it’s the dominant bite of the cold draw; far in the background is a little grass and hay from the Virginia. I’m expecting a Virginia-forward smoke, but there’s no mistaking the perique. Not in that tobacco’s figgy aspect, but certainly in its spicy character. Along with the spice, I’m picking up wheat, hay and a constant undertone of bergamot. That’s about it. Simplicity is the order of the day with this smoke. As is mildness. Very understated flavors. I prefer more robust profiles, but not everything has to be a flavor bomb. As it is, this is pairing nicely with the glass of Basil Hayden Toast I poured. The liquor has a likewise mild character, sweet and almost timid.

As I move down the bowl, the bergamot and citrus notes become a little more pronounced. The wheat flavors get a little heavier and warmer. That’s about as far as it goes for development and complexity. This is a cousin blend to Reiner’s Long Gold Flake, which got an enthusiastic approval from me. Less complex but less fussy and cheaper and somehow heartier. I could see bouncing between those two blends, OGS for everyday smokes and LGF for special occasions, and being perfectly content. The flavors are that good.

Orlik Golden Sliced is an excellent smoke. Not flashy, not fancy, but solidly made, easy to find and perfectly satisfying. I like it quite a bit.

Idk why everyone is arguing whether there is perique in it. I'm holding a tin of 2014, and it says on the tin there is perique in it. Also on current version of it on smoking pipes website it also states this. Don't blame me. Complain to Scandinavian Tobacco group. And in the end why argue with perfection in simplicity. A cool burning, easy to fold and stuff, mildly spicy and sweet, basic yet consistent and satisfying flake. Although I'd agree it's an infinitesimal amount in there perique is in description and in spice of flavor. The description is "composed of golden Virginia tobaccos with a touch of Perique"

I recently came across some tins I had cellared several years ago. I had not smoked it in a few years.

After being cellared for several years the large folded flake in tin fell apart quite easily into broken flake. I would imagine if it’s fresher it would hold together better as a flake.

It rubs out easily to thinner bits. I packed it a little on the loose side. Easily takes light, and provides a good volume of smoke. A well behaved tobacco that burns evenly and nicely. I tend to set the pipe down for periods of time fairly often, and this tends to keep burning for a good period of time after setting the pipe down, not requiring many relights.

This is just plain old downright fabulous Virginia... there’s not a lot of nicotine, but it’s sufficient. Flavor is very good. There’s a breadlike wheaty taste, and a roasted nut with some sweetness in the background and honey notes. Doesn’t bite if pushed, but get into a cadence and you’ll benefit from what it has to offer. Leaves a pleasant after taste.

Perique was mentioned as being an ingredient in this blend, but I sure didn’t notice it. And in looking at the pile I rubbed out, I didn’t see any dark bits that would indicate that. If it is there, the amount is infinitesimally small.

Of straight Virginias, this one’s at the top of the heap. There are others that would compare, but this one is generally available, and can found at a quite reasonable cost.