Rattray Marlin Flake

Thought I would give this one a whirl at ‘the club’. Nice sweet VA aroma with medium-dark flakes 1”x 2”. This was in a round 50g tin packaged with square flakes. One of my pet peeves. What? Square tins no longer popular or is it just easier to package them all in the same cheap generic gold colored round tins with some cheesy paper label? Pause. This was surprisingly pretty moist in the tin and I did something I rarely do. I rubbed this out and let it dry a little bit. Most of the time I fold and stuff but due to the moisture content I thought it might be a bear to keep lit. I had one bowl of this yesterday and decided this Labor Day morning to have some of this with my morning coffee. Starts out sweet and about a third way down I believe I detected some of the perique kicking in but hard to say. I have read some of the other reviews and to me the Perique is really lame in this one if even existent. I thought about trying some of this in a cob instead of my Meerschaum but was too lazy. Besides I am trying to get my favorite Meer some color to it which it has but not enough. Mild, pleasant with virtually no bite but just a little to smooth for me. You could very easily make this one an all-day smoke. I always wonder about the name of some of these blends and I think of the fish Marlin but maybe someone’s last name? I gave some to a fellow club member and he liked it so much he bought their last tin. I told him he could have more of mine but I guess he wanted a tin for his own. Hey, I actually made a sale!

NOTE: This review is based on a tin that was six years old with the beige colored label under my old handle & also the most recent offering. When a 2005 version was purchased back in 2011, it immediately became one of my favorites, so, I read some good reviews on Marlin Flake from Rattray and gave it a try one warm autumn day, It possessed that typical musty, fermented aroma, dark flake strips clumped thereover, waiting patiently to serve an accomodating smoker, Like wee bacon slices packed within that precious and desirous, little round tin, anxious to be transformed into disappearing ghostly clouds of the hereafter, OK... I'll begin.

It burns & bites as much as Haddo's "Undelight." I dried a few grams over my computer vent, before stoking ol' Pete, consigned to VA/Per blends, After a relight I exhaled that VA/Per so sweet, Initially a wee bite on me tongue, but a bit later made its retreat, And mellowed out to render elation... a milder, subdued, nirvanic sensation, A change in character as it slowly morphed, facilitating contentment coming forth, beyond that realm so reminiscent, Obviously, quality leaf to some, so, enjoy another bowl, so numb you may become,

It had a satisfactory Vitamin N content, and offered up a fairly pleasant scent, willfully submitting to this revelation it became a mainstay in my regular rotation. Greedily garnishing the remnants of that lovely, little round tin tucked away therein my modest cellar bin. Sadly, there's a small congregation who woefully submit their resounding condemnation, Although rating one star is totally unfair and seems in extreme of critical observation for this 15 year tin just beyond compare, Overall, I'm very pleased with Marlin Flake, and Old Gowrie and his pal, Hal cellared for future intake, For a Cav/VA/Per blend, it's really good stuff, that will take the edge off when you're feeling a little rough,

As some may be aware, Perique has a Chameleon like effect & in Marlin Flake right straight away I could detect that this blend had the peppery type affect, Depending on how it's mixed & what it's mixed with & how much is used, sometimes a fruity type flavor might tend to taste infused, Whatever the case, it's always a solid condiment & lends itself to be a fine compliment, Nowadays in all pipe blends I must confess, Acadian is mostly used as St. James nearly ran out of business, And there was simply not enough to meet the demand of blenders of the leaf using Perique to prevent a taste too bland, One thing I'll never understand & I'm not a discriminating young fellow & needless to say it wasn't my choice to change from the colored beige so mellow to that blinding, taxi cab yellow... they could have put a sign on top... the TAXI noun, with black & white checkered squares all around, so one would know to signal for a stop,

Also, I must contend that much of the sweetness of flavor that once had been, seemed at the same time to have followed that trend, I've coughed up my two cents in this ongoing debate to impart my thoughts on this very fine flake, I might downgrade to three stars at a later date but for now, a solid four stars I deem it should rate! The mixture in the newer tins with the yellow labels feels a bit more sticky as it's being rubbed out & seems to have a little more bite & a little less sweetness. Fortunately, however, at about mid bowl the harshness and/or the peppery taste seems to subside somewhat. I think Rattray should alter this mix to tone the pepper down considerably & bring a little more VA & Cavendish sweetness back into the blend.

Anyway, I just feel this mixture was altered about the same time the label color changed. I know it's still a popular blend but I think it was much better way back then... around 15 years it's been. I'm going to alter this stuff a tad but will have to experiment a bit on that approach. My first trial will be to add a little more red Virginia in hopes of going back in time, as it were.

Addendum: I added & mixed about one third of Brunello Flake to this blend & toned it down considerably. It didn't bite so bad afterwards, smoked normally, tasted excellent, no more harshness/bite & not as much pepper from the perique. There's no need to have to age a tin of tobacco for three to five years & then have to be careful & only sip it to keep from getting bit. You buy a tin, it should be ready to smoke right then without all the nonsense involved... something akin to Solani's 660: Silver Flake. Now, that's a quality blend right out of the tin... only requires a little drying time.

Four stars for the older versions of MF & I honestly feel that for the reasons explained above, MF in these times only merits three stars tops until Rattray gets it right again... something has gone awry that should be dealt with by Kohlhase & Kopp. I know they could do better if they tried.

About as close to the best perique experience as you can get. Has a molasses element (mostly in the nose) to the dark virginias playing on the cavendish, which in turn mutes the pepper out of the perique, leaving a gentle fermented fruit note which weaves in and out of the virginia.

Why more blenders don't get perique this right is a colossal mystery.

The best thing about the flavors in this blend is that they taste natural, though there is a very light licorice, not anise, topping which smooths this flake to perfection. Some very light sugar is detectable in the background which adds to the aroma more than anything, likely what gives the slight molasses note.

Definitely a 4 star blend, and one of the best flakes money can buy.

Licorice sweetness combined with molasses scent, hard to differentiate these two from each other. Smoked too fast, then the taste is sharp, grassy, and lively. Pace yourself; you'll start noticing fermented fruits. Imagine all kinds of dried fruits (raisins, figs, prunes, apricots, mulberries) thrown into that licorice molasses mixture mentioned above pressed into these sweet & sour fruit paste sheets called Marlin Flake. And probably its distinctive scent/flavor profile leed the majority of smokers here to describe it like sheets of natural fruit candy rather than pipe tobacco. However, it is pipe tobacco and one of those best!

Marlin Flake gave me quite a surprise when I first popped the 3.5 ounce tin. I expected a similar ready rubbed ribbony broken flake as Hal o the Wynd and Old Gowrie...instead, in that big ole soda can sized tin were exactly four long and wide intact flakes, neatly folded over each other. I get a pleasant somewhat fruity tin note. My kids usually like to give me their impressions of tin note when I open a new one, but they weren't being very cooperative tonight - my son said, "I dunno, it just smells like all your other pipe stuff." LOL.

Tonight, I arbitrarily chose the Lorenzo churchwarden for the review. I rubbed the flake out until it was about the consistency of HotW and OG, and gave it 20 minutes on the paper plate to dry a bit.

Initial flavors are mild Virginia. Perique comes into play soon after. Supposedly, there's some black cavendish in here, but I don't really get it. The Virginia is pleasant enough. The perique seems disproportionate. I like perique, and I don't mind a hefty dose of it.....but I prefer a blend to have something else to carry it, some structure and backbone. To me, too much perique in a blend that is too light and fluffy is like dousing marshmallows with habañero sauce. My tongue and mouth are slightly uncomfortable smoking this blend....I've experienced this before with one or two other blends, so I'm sure this is just me, and not the fault of the baccy itself.

It took several matches to get it started, but once lit, it burned great straight to the bottom of the bowl.

Not my cup of tea. This is only my third bowl, so I may give it a couple more tries, but I'm thinking I won't be able to finish the tin.

UPDATE: I'm revisiting MF approximately one year later. And I'm wondering now if I was somehow brain damaged the last time I smoked it LOL. I really don't think my perceptions of the flavors would change this much in this period of time, but something is different. Maybe my pipe was heavily ghosted with perique (I kinda doubt this - I don't recall precisely, but I ordinarily give a blend a few chances in a few different pipes before typing up a review). Maybe a year of age has improved it (I doubt this too, as the change is so drastic). I think the most likely scenario is that there was some additive, flavoring, or humectant that didn't agree with me...something that has evaporated off after a year in a mason jar. Something that caused that spicy/peppery sensation that I thought was heavy perique. MF seems to me to now to be mostly a straight Virginia flake containing only the barest whisper of perique. I still don't notice cavendish per se. Still not my cup of tea....but only because of my preferences, not through any fault of the tobacco on its own. I still think there's better stuff out there in this genre, but MF isn't so bad after all.

"Look", he says, "lifes greatest joy - must be contentness to a man." This, in free translation, thinks County School Teacher Lämpel leaning back in his easy chair, taking a puff from his churchwarden in Wilhelm Buschs "Max & Moritz" (1865) forth play. Max and Moritz have substituted Teacher Lämpels favorite tobacco - which I am convinced was a Va/Pe Flake much like Marlin Flake - for gun powder, yielding desastrous results.

The story can be found here - in german, but with lovely pictures.

http://germanstories.vcu.edu/mm/mm4.html

But on to the tobacco:

Just opening a fresh can of Marlin Flake to me is one of lifes simple pleasures. The tin note of figs, vinegar and tobacco is nothing short of invigorating. The coils I cut into length of about 2,5 inches and store in a seperate tin (round 50 g) lined with baking paper for smoking. This I refill from the main tin as needed. The practice takes full care of any excessive moistness and obliviates a need for nuke-dryinging this treasure.

The tobacco flakes stored in this fashion rub out nicely and fill the pipe with ease. A tall standup poker can give me up to 2 hours smoking pleasure with out any buzz and fuss.

Reccommended. Much to be prefered to Gunpowder, says Teacher Lämpel.

There is nothing special about the tin note; it just smells like vinegar. This is coil tobacco, which is a nice feature that pleases me. The flakes seem to be easy to crumble and pack in your pipe. The moist content is ridiculously high, so be advised. I cannot detect any toppings, and the cavendish tobacco content, which seems to be steamed pressed but not cased, adds character and body to this mixture. As for the perique content, it seems to be more and more apparent the more you progress with your bowl. I guess the sweetness of the cavendish is more or less subdued by this. The virginia's mostly in the background adding a base for this tug of war in between the perique and the cavendish to happen. I am not overtly impressed by this tobacco, but I don't see any faults in it either. This is all based on my first impressions though, so my opinion might change in the near future as most pipe tobacco tends to get better and better after you open the tin and time passes by.

Edit1: After going through most of my 100 grams tin, I'd say this is quite a remarkable tobacco. The balance in between the cavendish and virginia tobaccos has been achieved quite well, whereas the kentucky leaf adds a little bit of a punch to it. The problem with this tobacco is you need to air the amount you want to smoke the night before + it demands to be smoked at a very low pace. I am changing this to 4 stars now.

I have smoked Rattray's Tobaccos for quite a number of years now. My favourite being Old Gowrie, but occasionally also adding a tin of Marlin Flake to the rotation. So far, I have regarded Marlin Flake to be a very nice alternative to Old Gowrie - to my tastebuds they seemed similar, but of course MF had the addition of the Cavendish, it is somewhat fuller in taste and room note. Always pleasant. BUT, I recently bought a tin of MF from Germany, which I have done so many times before. What a disappointment !!!! What went wrong here? Did I get a bad tin? Marlin Flake in that tin seems to be heavily flavoured with some sort of alcohol (whiskey, cognac??) The flakes are significantly darker than usual. And overall, I find it quite unsmokable - not the delicious Marlin Flake I've grown used to. They even changed the label. Although the label now seems more informative with regards to contents, strenght etc., I really liked the old label better. It even says: 'For Gentlemen Only' - I will not bother with that, and will buy it regardless. But, if this tin is an indication of what Marlin Flake will be in the future, I will certainly look at alternatives. Thus Marlin Flake will join the army of many tobaccos, that have changed for the worse.

First of all in my opinion there is no perique in this mixture and even if there is a hint it is uninfluential. The taste is of Virginia and above all Black Cavendish. If we want to classify in a correct way this blend we have to admit that this is an aromatic mixture. But it is not a natural aromatic mixture: it is without any doubt a flavored blend. There is casing and there is top dressing and you can continuously perceive the flavoring on your tongue and nose. I don’t know if it is a natural flavoring or a chemical (artificial) flavoring. Anyway the result is awful and in my opinion this mixture is unsmokable. If you are looking for something natural this is not for you. In my personal system rating (from 1 to 10) my score is 1 and only a star.