Peter Stokkebye Luxury Twist Flake (No. 402)

As with the Navy Flake, since I already posted a detailed review of the PS Luxury Bullseye Flake, I’ll limit myself here again to a side by side comparison with the LNF & LBF.

The PS LTF is a stunningly beautiful med-sized twist flake. Whereas the base of the LBF seems to be predominantly bright virginas mixed with a generous dose of perique, and the LNF seems to be virginias that have been matured and flue cured to enhance their natural sweetness (plus a little perique for balance), the base here seems to be a blend of virginias that were pressed, twisted, and run through the cavendish process. Although not officially listed, I believe a modest caramel topping was added as well, which brings us into the shallow end of aromatic territory.

For me, this is a 3 star tobacco whose smoking experience didn’t quite measure up to its visual beauty. The why behind that needs some explanation, so bear with me.

Although the modest aromatic topping makes this flake smell sweeter than the LNF, the cavendish process they used seems to have robbed this tobacco of some of its oomph. While it brought out and partially transformed some of the sweetness present, and gave it some subtle hints of vanilla and butterscotch, it also over-mellowed it. Combined with the lack of perique (which adds both spice, complexity and duration), the result is a somewhat short finish that leaves the sweetness unsupported, fails to balance the natural alkalai present {read: slight tongue bite}, and leaves the caramel topping looking like a half-hearted corrective tweak. It’s still a very good flake that many aro fans clearly enjoy, but for me "good" falls well short of "great", and the result is a pleasantly sweet, if unspectacular, smoke that doesn’t make me fight the urge to puff faster and order more.

Personally, I might have taken this flake in a slightly different direction. The easy choice would have been to add some perique to round out and prolong the finish, but that would be redundant with the LBF and LNF in the PS lineup. Instead, I would have lessened the caramel and perhaps tried adding a little Turkish leaf, for a hint of spicy complexity, a whisper of smoke, and a much longer finish. In fact, I’ll probably blend the remainder of my 1 oz sample with some Samsun, to test that out.

3 stars, less 1/2 star for a short unbalanced finish, leaves 2 1/2 stars. Add the half star back if you like aromatics.

After transferring from the bulk bag to a mason with 30 days untouched, the "tin" note is wonderful. Minute wisps of sweetness with very subtle notes of dried fruit, raisins maybe. Lovely flakes of zig zagging streaks strewn with speckles of pale straw colored bits.

I find hand rubbing into the long ribbons then light stuffing to be the easiest means to light and smoke. The flavour is mild and rather monotone to be honest. Not a "wow" flake by any means. But still an enjoyable smoke nonetheless. French inhaling is yet another means to taste this flake. I am hopeful that aging will help this flake grow in flavor.

Another of the bombing gifts.

The look of the flake is actually pretty cool. All swirly with different colors. It smells sweet by itself. I wasn't sure how a fold and stuff would work with this bc of the twists in it so I rubbed it out each time. It's a bit moist, so I suggest leaving it out to dry a bit. Not too much though or you'll lose some of the flavor.

It burns ok, a few relights were needed to finish each bowl. The flavor is a bit artificial in nature to me. It burns a bit hot if you try to puff away at it to keep it going. Maybe I need to work on this blend a bit more, but I've run out now. Otherwise, it's ok. Sweet, creamy and you can tell the tobacco is in there. It does remind me of macbaren mixture flake somewhat. It doesn't burn the tongue so much though, so that's a plus.

Give it a try if you get the chance. Not sure it's going to end up in the cellar for too many people though. Good smoke for a sweet tooth, might go well with a sweeter cocktail or as an after dinner smoke. 2 1/2 stars

Only recently branching out into straight Virginia blends (previously being more inclined to English/Balkan blends), I have to say that LTF was somewhat disappointing...

The Good - this is a gorgeous flake in appearance... truly beautiful. It breaks up easily enough. It behaved wonderfully and smoked nicely. Completely inoffensive, exhibiting some fine qualities of VA leaf.

The Bad - as feared from the mere smell of this tobacco in its sample bag, it is heavily cased with a rather generic, cloyingly sweet flavoring (I'd hazard a guess to include vanilla, maybe honey, baked goods). This casing mutes the natural qualities of the leaf drastically and flattens the entire smoke. Sure, it makes for a lovely aroma, but a rather boring and unsatisfying smoke in my opinion.

This is not to say that it is a bad tobacco, just very much not to my liking. And given my experiences with Gawith's Best Brown Flake, McClelland's Brindle Flake and Pease's Union Square, this tobacco strikes me as more of an aromatic than a proper VA flake.

I've smoked the sample I got and will not be smoking any more. However, to new pipe smokers, Luxury Twist might be an excellent tobacco to start with.

With 180 reviews prior to this one, I won't bother you with comments on toppings, flavorings et al...... You already know that you don't want to read my opinions on that!

However, I do enjoy this tobacco and recommend it if you're into Virginias. Try it anyway and you'll get into Virginias! It's easy to smoke. No muss, No fuss. Easy to light, burns continuously and gives you a nice, enjoyable Stokkebye experience.

This is a nice smoke for when your favorite baseball team is getting beat 6-0 in the bottom of the 2nd inning and you need to find some way to enjoy the rest of the game. Definitely takes the edge off.

*** Upon further review, I downgraded this on because, as I still like it occasionally, it just hasn’t been something that I gravitate towards. Maybe it’s just a little too sweet or lacking punch? I guess I like PS Luxury Navy Flake so much that this seems a bit boring in comparison. Anyway, still a decent tobacco. But, I wouldn’t be found extolling it’s virtues to a complete stranger should the subject of pipe tobacco arise.

I can hardly taste anything when I smoke this tobacco. It seems to produce a cool smoke, and is quite smooth. It also has a medium level of nicotine.

This would be good as an all-day smoke, as you can smoke a lot of it without any ill effects, but it does lack a certain depth.

This is a pretty good bulk Virginian blend although I prefer my Virginian’s with little to no casing. I have only a year of age on this and it could definitely benefit from some more age.

The tin note presents sweet, sugar, slight tang, bread, raisins, hay and a touch of earth. The sweet top note from the casing dominates.

I break all the flakes up at once jar them up. The moisture level was just fine as is. Be careful with the charring light because it starts out hot, a tad harsh and it will bite. It took a while to get the tobacco lit properly and to settled down and stop biting.

For me the middle of the bowl is where all the action is and when I started to enjoy myself as the tobacco presented nice sweet forward grassy, bready and toasty flavors. The aftertaste is pleasant.

I think PS Navy Flake is far superior to this blend.

Not bad, but not something that's all that amazing either. There's nothing gross about this, but it's just not my thing. If you're looking for a very mild Virginia that has a nice unoffensive (non cigarette-like) room note and can be purchased in bulk, this is your ticket. The bag/jar note implies a more flavorful smoke than what it actually delivers, as the light casing seems to burn off pretty quick, for better or for worse.

I smoked an ounce of this before reviewing. I don't find myself being really excited about smoking this particular blend, but apparently others do. I've got 4 more ounces jarred in my closet that I'll probably revisit in a year.

This is a beautiful looking tobacco. The flakes are solid, yet easily broken up. I don't detect fruit topping on this one, but do get a relatively strong impression of honey in both aroma and flavor. I do enjoy the flavor here. Grassy and sweet with that honey floating through it. That being said, I will not be buying more of it. This one bit me badly. No matter the dry time, packing method, or smoking cadence. It just doesn't jive with my chemistry. As always, these things are subjective. It is inexpensive enough to try it for yourself. It is good, just not for me.