Peter Stokkebye Luxury Twist Flake (No. 402)

Strong, smokey, calms down a little toward the middle of the bowl. Can be harsh at times. The virginia tasted a little tart. Perhaps some aging would do it some good. I have a feeling the reviews may vary greatly because some of this stuff may have been aged well, while other stocks are not. It's not the quality of the tobacco in question, it's the age. If your order was aged from the git-go, congrats. Otherwise throw it in the cellar for several months and we'll see what happens.

This has been my sort of go-to smoke lately. I love the weird twist flakes, which I just wad up and jam in my pipe. They light and burn great, and this tobacco has a nicely structured, tangy VA flavor to it, with a very smooth and pleasant sweetness underneath. The pouch aroma is sweet and full, earthy with a vinegary note, and I find it quite nice. As with most VA blends I have encountered, I have an urge to eat the baccy. It just smells delicious. I do find that this has to be smoked fairly gently or it bites. It can also get edgy and take on an ashy flavor. Perhaps others disagree, but I get the best flavor and the least pain when I sip it gently. There is some complexity in this smoke, but it is fairly straightforward overall. I enjoy it and find it to be a very high quality everyday VA at a great price. It is better than a number of more expensive ones, for sure. Stokkebye does it right.

Really lovely Virginia flake. My usual method of loading the pipe is to fold it in half twice and just shove it in the bowl. This provides a very slow, cool smoke all the way down. The flavor is very sweet and caramelly and nutty, with perhaps a hint of orange and vanilla that may be from a casing, but if so it is very light. Extremely pleasant all-day smoke. To smoke it effectively in a briar I need to dry it out quite a bit, but in a meerschaum it smokes well even when a bit moist. Great stuff.

I bought some of this from my local tobacco shop. I was drawn to it because it looks good and smells great in the tobacco canister. I first tried the cut into 1/4 inch squares method that I use for other flakes, but it didn't work out well as the tobacco tends to fall apart pretty easily since the flake is cut so thin, but it smoked ok. Being that the cut method didn't work as well, I tried the fold and stuff method. When I did this it smoked hot, and seemed not to produce a good flavor. The last thing I tried was a pull the flakes apart and break it into smaller pieces; that was it. It smoked well, tastes good, and remained cool. Overall it has a faint sweetness that kind of has a vanilla-ish (it seems that anything that is slightly sweet has this taste for me), caramelized nutty taste that I enjoy. Recommended.

Luxury Twist Flake has an apetisant form and smell, packs and lights easily. Offers a cool, long lasting smoke.

Unfortunately this high grade tobacco has a mild strength and taste for my tastes. It has a sweet taste which has been enriched with a casing. I can't explain the casing, maybe it is just the cavendish, although it reminds me a bit vanilla.

The mild strength and less taste can result a fast puffing cadence which ruins the smoke. I hardly recommend smoking this tobacco very slowly.

If you look for a sweet and mild strength tobacco this one can be one of your favorite.

I was extremely impressed when I opened the bag, of all the Luxury series I liked the appearance of Twist flake the best. The smell reminded me very much of fresh made baked goods of some kind.

Upon lighting I realized there is some kind of topping on it, its not a aromatic by any means but you can tell there is a sweetener, and its not an all together unpleasant topping at that. I tend to like my aromatics...well aromatic and my english/va blends to be topping free but I rather liked the subtle flavor added to this. The topping does have one unpleasant quality though. I imagine when its not doing its job flavoring tobacco it moonlights as wood stain at some pipe maker. Rubbing it out would sometimes leave a gooey substance on my hand that would stain it a golden brown.

While the first light was an amazing flavor, it only lasted about 3 puffs and began to fade. It continued to fade for about 1/3 of the bowl and then leveled out to a mild, not very sweet VA flavor. I was somewhat let down by this, especially since the bowl started out so nicely.

Oh I did find a quality with this tobacco that was somewhat a double edge sword. Unlike most VA's I found that puffing to hard would drastically alter the flavor. When I started to draw to much the flavor would quickly turn to ash in my mouth, literally, it tasted like ash and nothing like tobacco. Slowing down would correct the problem. I say double edge sword because the flavor would turn revolting long before it would bite wich if a person was learning to smoke VA's for the first time, would be a great way to learn without having your tongue bit off.

All that aside, I wouldn't mind buying this tobacco again, I wasn't hugely impressed but I had to give it respect. It was good for what it was, it just wasn't what I was looking for.

I prefer burley/Va blends. That being said, LTF is a nice and somewhat bright change of pace smoke for me. I keep it around, it fills a nice niche in my cellar. It ages well, gaining in sweetness like all Va's. The wife likes the room note, I like the obvious quality and care that went into the production of this fine twisted flake. I also appreciate the mild flavor for the change of pace it offers from my typical diet of PS Cube Cut and other burley blends that I smoke daily. This blend, like just about every Va out there has the potential to bite if provoked. So...Don't provoke it. It is meant to be smoked slowly and savored like a fine wine or liquor. If you feel your pipe getting on the hot side of warm, you are smoking it too quickly. For me, LTF prefers a medium/large diameter and somewhat deep bowl. Like most Va's it appreciates a dedicated pipe as to not muddy it's somewhat delicate nuances. It is a good blend that I enjoy at least several times a week.

Happy Puffin'

Fourth bowl same as first--very mild flavor that becomes somewhat heartier a third of the way through the bowl, where up until that point I could not have been more disappointed in what seemed to be a flatliner from the get go. The next leg of the journey reveals more of the good virginia flake qualities, but the first leg is always a let down. Re-lighting definitely knocks down the already very mild flavor and makes what should be a pleasant experience a chore. There are, however, a variety of pleasant flavor shadings and transformations half way through the bowl which continue to excite the pallet almost to the point of redemption, and for now, I'm willing to continue my exploration of this tabac.

A very pleasant Virginia flake, both in smoking qualities and presentation. The swirled layers of tobacco are pretty indeed. Produces soft, sweet smoke if enjoyed slowly. As with most Virginia's, it does have the potential to bite if puffed too fast. Twist flake is similar to Peter Stokkebye's other 'Luxury' Flakes (Navy, Bulls Eye, etc.), but is without perique.