Peterson University Flake

(2.99)
Peterson's University Flake features a traditional mix of Virginia and Burley tobaccos that are slowly pressed for days into cakes of tobacco and then sliced into delicate flakes. A subtle plum flavor further enhances this remarkable blend.
Notes: Originally manufactured in Ireland by Murray, it is currently blended in Denmark by Scandinavian Tobacco Group.

Details

Brand Peterson
Blended By Peterson
Manufactured By Scandinavian Tobacco Group
Blend Type Virginia/Burley
Contents Burley, Virginia
Flavoring Plum
Cut Flake
Packaging 50 grams tin
Country Denmark
Production Currently available

Profile

Strength
Medium to Strong
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild -> Overwhelming
Flavoring
Mild
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
None Detected -> Extra Strong
Room Note
Pleasant
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unnoticeable -> Overwhelming
Taste
Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild (Flat) -> Overwhelming

Average Rating

2.99 / 4
154

163

72

44

Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 10 of 433 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jul 27, 2012 Medium to Strong Very Mild Medium to Full Tolerable
Bought a tin and just rubbed out the whole lot on to a large piece of newspaper. Folded over and then left out for 24 hours. Next, into a jar and left in the dark for another full day. Third day, emptied back out on to the paper and left out again for 12 hours this time. Re-jarred her, except for a bowl's worth. Put the jar back in the dark. A bit more rubbing out and finally packed my pipe. As it's Peterson's, I decided to use my Irish Army 999. I made a fresh coffee and took myself to the shed. As the light was fading I lit a few candles and sat back in my chair. Always matches for me, light, tamp, light. Half an hour later and I'm in some kind of trance, staring at nothing, perfectly happy. A great thick 'proper' smoke with a wonderful dose of the 'N'. Which is why I came here. Another 30 minutes later and I'm still sipping away, wanting to get another drink but feeling like I am tattooed to the chair. I'm really enjoying this tobacco. A lot. Because of this brilliant site, I can make very informed choices of what I am gonna buy. I know what I like and I know what I don't. As the week goes on, I open the jar for an hour or so and then close her back up after removing what I need from it. This Flake just keeps getting better and better, rounder, fuller and slightly sweeter. I'm fully aware that our more experienced pipe smokers here don't need to be told of the wonders of allowing your 'baccy to age a little, with a few days extra curing etc., but if you're fairly new to the hobby, please give it a go. But don't use your tin, use a jar. And keep it in the dark. You will not be disappointed. Thanks for reading!!
93 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Mar 07, 2016 Mild to Medium Mild Mild to Medium Pleasant
The Virginias are earthy, woody with very light grass, floralness and bread, mild tart and tangy citrus and tangy, sugary stewed fruit, and an ever present hint of spice. They are the lead components. The burleys are earthy and nutty with a little molasses in a secondary role. They also sport a slight toasty, woody quality. You can taste both varietals in nearly every puff, with the burleys occasionally being a little more prominent at times, especially in the last third of the bowl. The toppings have a light plum essence, but I notice the taste of fruity berries more often, and they do tone down the tobaccos a bit. After the half way point, they mildly diminish, but you'll notice them all the way through. The nic-hit is closer to medium than it is to mild, and seems to gain a little strength as you smoke away. The strength and taste levels are just short of medium. The flakes are easy to manipulate as you please. Burns cool, clean and a little slow, and requires some relights, but not as many as you might expect. Won't bite even if you're a fast puffer, but I recommend a sipping pace to enhance the enjoyment the rather well balanced, fairly consistent flavors. Leaves just a little moisture in the bowl, but no dottle. Has a very pleasant, short lived after taste with a nice room note. An all day smoke that doesn't wear out its welcome during the day.

-JimInks
78 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 21, 2002 Medium to Strong Mild Full Pleasant
This weed hits you like a ton of bricks from the very first light. The flake is just flat powerful and also just flat delicious!

If you want a pleasant, laid back smoke, I urge you to look elsewhere. This one commands your attention with its relentless waves of a sort of naturally sweet and strong Virginia flavor with the nuttiness of a quality Burley in the background.

Pipestud
46 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 11, 2014 Medium to Strong Mild to Medium Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
If you've read my other reviews, you may have noticed I love flake tobaccos. And this is no exception to that rule.

You'll open up this tin and find a relatively dark tobacco with smatterings of beige to light brown specs. And you may even take notice of a berry (guess it's actually plum) undertone. The flakes are cut very cleanly similar to Solani's ABF tin presentation (in relation to the cut).

Like most flakes they retain moisture very well so it would be a good idea to let this dry out for at least 20 minutes if not more. Now, I see both sides of the argument/preference. And that is; Do I do a roll and stuff my flake? Or rub out my flake? I've come to realize for my smoking tastes I usually keep it to a case by case (or flake by flake basis). Maybe it's the flavoring that has been added but I find this does not burn as well when rolled and stuffed. If you do decide to do that be careful not to tamp too often because it might pack too tightly and become difficult to tamp further. So for this flake I typically rub it out, which also helps with drying it out.

Now, Tobacco strength really is a relative concept. Some may consider this weak (and rightfully so when compared to so many other KO blends, and others may be floored by the vitamin N in this) so I think Medium to Strong is the best option for this. If you've found this website, you probably know your limits so choose accordingly. Now for the person who is getting coming from Aromatic style blends, this can be very strong. Not necessarily as strong as the Irish Flake, but competent in its own right. I think it would be smart to eat something before you smoke this as the vitamin N is not lacking. I would also recommend having a drink handy for two reasons, 1. The nicotine might make knock you back a little and 2. The burleys in this blend can be quite strong. It definitely has that typically "Burley kick" that you hear about and the drink may help ease the feeling in your mouth/throat.

I really enjoyed the flavoring in this. It's not always present in every puff but when it does come into play, it works very well with the Burley and VA dichotomy. I think the plum (I think it's closes to a blueberry but tomato tomato 😉 also helps the room note as it's nice than a typical VaBur stink haha.

I really enjoyed this tobacco and will usually keep some tins of this readily at hand. The Vitamin N doesn't bother me but I don't think I could make this an all day smoke because of said burley kick. I typically smoke this in my Peterson Donegal Rocky with the p-lip because I feel it helps alleviate some of the bite/irritation. If you're looking to test the waters of stronger tobaccos with a nice flavor, I think this would be a good starting point.

Pipe Used: Typically my Peterson Donegal 107(p-lip)
45 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 21, 2014 Mild to Medium Mild Mild Pleasant
Finally tried this. I've been putting it off. But, after getting hit REALLY hard by Irish Flake lately I wanted to try what is billed as a lighter version. Lighter is right. You'll be disappointed if you are looking for deep tobacco with lots of variations. This is standard and traditional VA and Burley with a light casing of Plum just as the ingredients/marketing and reviews state.

With that said. I found this blend really tasty and a great add to my rotation. It does have a good does of Nicotine by the time I got to the bottom I was feeling it, but it's much lighter than Irish Flake. It's sweet and tasty, light and refreshing, smooth slow burning smoke. No dottle at the end, burned clean. Taste like it smells in the tin.

I let a flake dry about 4 hours and did a fold and stuff in my thick walled 309 Peterson Standard. The Va Burley combo works great together and you get the traditional tobacco taste and the fruity casing comes in and out but stays with you throughout. It also has a very pleasant aroma as the Plum revels itself there are well. Great blend. I have no complaints. I would buy this again. Great standard blend for a everyday smoke if desired. Recommended.
Pipe Used: 1942 309 Peterson standard
PurchasedFrom: JR Cigars
Age When Smoked: fresh from tin. 4 hour pre- air dry.
38 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 21, 2017 Medium Mild to Medium Medium Pleasant
Peterson - University Flake.

This was one of the first blends I reviewed, but when I re-read my review I didn't find it particularly 'helpful'. Having been smoking this as a very regular go-to I wanted to re-post. I'll also add it's been in my favourites list for ages and I can't see it going anywhere!

Of all the tins I've had I can't recollect any having an issue with being too wet or dry. A tin holds two rows of fairly thin, dark brown, flakes. I normally rub my flakes, but because of the thinner build U.F. would smoke easily if folded and stuffed.

University Flake takes the flame easily, and I adore the smoke. It's primarily the tobaccos, with the nutty Burley leading. The topping is evident, albeit mild at first and I'm unsure as to what kind of dark fruit it's from: plums, currants, dates, or berries?. It seems to strengthen quite quickly, it only takes a few minutes of being smoked, and that's where it seems more certain to be a currant topping; still no more than mild to medium at the very most, but a lot clearer. The flavour seems to have the same character throughout a bowl, once the burns settled and the fruit's strengthened. Bite? I've never had so much as a peck from it!

I've always enjoyed the room-note, and the nicotine's medium.

Simple: highly recommended.
Pipe Used: All, over the years!
PurchasedFrom: Many suppliers, mainly My Smoking Shop U.K.
Age When Smoked: New and cellared
36 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
May 31, 2009 Medium Mild Medium Pleasant
This review is from a non-aged tin. I plan to buy more and age it.

University Flake was, for me, a study in "halves". The first half of each bowl showed off the berry topping. Half of the time I moderately enjoyed this flavor and half the time it was annoying. I could easily do without it.

The second half of each bowl burned away the topping and the smoke was better off for it. The burley nuttiness and the light VA sweetness took over - or maybe the sweetness was the last remnants of the flavoring. Either way, the tobacco was tasty, full-bodied and satisfying once I got past the first half of the bowl. The tobaccos used were of obviously high quality and I'm not sure why they added the berry flavoring. I'd like to try it uncased. Perhaps some aging will settle it down. Still, this is recommended.
21 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jul 21, 2014 Mild to Medium Very Mild Medium to Full Pleasant
I've been without this tobacco for quite a while, due to a shortage of all Peterson products in South Africa. I picked up a tin resently and this morning filled a smallish Old England with quite a long stem. Sipping it very gently, I experienced a delightful NEW tobacco! First half of the bowl, the sweetness of the virginias and casing were up front. Very enjoyable. The second half of the bowl brought forth the taste of the burley, nutty and almost like newly baked bread. In the past, I liked this tobacco, now I fell in love with it and will go back to our B&M for another couple of tins. If you want to smoke a burley but, like me, can't smoke it neat, get yourself a tin of UF. I promise, no one will ever regret it!
Pipe Used: Old England
PurchasedFrom: Curiosity Hut
Age When Smoked: Unknown
17 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Oct 12, 2014 Medium to Strong Mild Medium to Full Pleasant to Tolerable
This is a great VaBur flake with a mild fruit topping. The description says plum, and I will not argue with that, but it presents as "fruit" to me. This is a smooth and nicely balanced fairly "full" VaBur. The Virginias are slightly sweet and very smooth with some nutty burley to give it some depth. I don't get any Virginia citrus, but that may contribute to the plum flavor.

I did not get much complexity, but it is a solid smoke, and one I could smoke a lot of were it not for the price. At $8 for 50 g, this is about $72 a pound.

This is easy to recommend. If the description sounds appealing, you probably owe it to yourself to try a tin.

15 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Dec 05, 2012 Medium to Strong Mild to Medium Full Tolerable
Had been meaning to try this tobacco for some time and when I finally did I was a bit nonplussed to say the least. The smell on opening the tin was very promising with the grassy Virginias mixed with a deep richness of the light casing,fruity and vinous! This was a promising start. However on rubbing out and lighting (which it does quite easily) the promised rich plum flavours just were not there. The taste was not unpleasant a sturdy simple Virginia taste with some sweetness and woodiness but little or no fruit flavour. It was also quite 'wet' at the bottom of the bowl with a high proportion of waste. It further frustrated me that the flavoring must have been there as it made a rather nice aultumn fruit room-note.

I let my disappointment show to my pipe smoking friends one of whom told me that If left it to dry our for a few weeks with the lid party off then the rich flavour would develop. I was dubious to say the least as in my experience the vast majority of light casings evaporate or diminish as the tobacco dries.

I took his advice nonetheless. The result after 3 weeks is an improvement but not a startling one. There is now a faint brandy/greengage taste now but its not rich as it should be. The tobacco is now a bit brittle and dry and smokes a bit too fast though the dottle is less. Perhaps the flavour will develop more with time, if it does I fear it will be further to the detriment of the smoking qualities of the tobacco. This tobacco is not bad it just does not live up to its rather overhyped billing. I would buy it again if no other flake was about but it would not be my first choice. A good option perhaps for ‘everyday' sweet medium robust flake at best.
11 people found this review helpful.
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