Rattray Stirling Flake

I got a large bowl sample of this from a friend of mine at our weekly pipe club meeting. I folded and stuffed some into my Preben Holm Ben Wade and smoked about 1/5 before realizing that this could last anywhere from 30-60 minutes. As I wanted to sample other stuff, I sat this aside and brought it home where it sat in the pipe for about a week until now. This does remind me of Peterson Irish Flake, maybe a tad sweeter. Tastes similar to any of the other dark fired tobacco blends out there. I do not smoke a pipe for the nicotine effect and actually never retro hale either but I did not get much of the Nicotine bomb that I recall from Irish Flake. It is smooth, meaty, and consistent throughout. Good but I will probably just stick to Mac Baren’s Bold Kentucky. Glad I got to try it though.

Although I’ve been smoking pipes since around 2009, I’m not the most seasoned pipe smoker. There have been a few long layoffs over the years.

So I’m a newcomer to the world of Rattray’s. I acquired today’s blend, Stirling Flake, last month when I took the plunge on several of Rattray’s more popular blends when they dropped on Smokingpipes.com for the first time this year, I believe.

Based on the other two blends I’ve had thus far, Stirling is a bit of an outlier among the Rattray’s family of blends. I’ve read that its birth is essentially the result of Irish Flake’s production being moved to another facility. So it’s basically supposed to be “Irish Flake Classic,” closer to the old Irish Flake than current production Peterson’s Irish Flake.

I’ll have to take “their” word for it, as I’ve not had the pleasure of the Dunhill version’s company.

Just like Irish, it’s marketed as “for experienced smokers” and a “heavyweight.”

They ain’t lyin’.

Current production Irish may actually be a little more civilized. If memory serves, it starts out a little smoother than Stirling.

Stirling lets you know right out of the gate you’re dealing with a heavy hitter, with leathery and espresso-like notes. It’s bold and powerful, but I wouldn’t call it harsh.

As we reach the midway point, the espresso taste takes center stage, along with a hint of spice. Some dark chocolate notes step forward, only semi sweet.

This baby is primarily bass notes.

The second half of the bowl, I start getting a little more of the leather again. The notes it offers over the course of a bowl (or a flake, if you will) are all in the same ballpark: leather, espresso, dark chocolate... they’re all neighbors on the palate, and that’s where Stirling Flake resides, throughout the smoke.

It’s a one trick pony, but it does it well.

This impressive offering burns cool, isn’t inclined to bite and requires a slightly higher number of relights than normal for me.

There’s also a little burley presence throughout the smoke, the nuttiness in the background, the dryness on the palate.

I can definitely see myself buying more of this in the future, although their are other heavyweights I prefer, namely Gawith Hoggarth Brown Irish X.

For this reason, I give Stirling 3 stars. It’s a very good, worthy contender. But it’s not the heavyweight champ.