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To Flake or Not to Flake? - That is the Question...
FatherBriar
Enthusiast
in Tobacco Talk
Looking for advice. Never smoked flake tobacco before. So what are the pros and cons? How do you do it? And for a guy that prefers aromatics what would be a good first recommendation?
Comments
FatherBriar, I've always thought of flake tobacco as best suited for an experienced pipe smoker. Originally, flake tobacco was pressed into flake form, in order to be able to fit more of it into a ships cargo hold. The end result, was a very flavorful tobacco in most cases, that held a higher moisture content. It can be easier to get steam bite from flake tobaccos, if they are not dried properly. Just as with rope and plug tobaccos, your prep time will be an investment, but IMO the time invested is worth what you get back.
I would recommend Orlik Golden sliced, as well as MacBaren Navy Flake for a first time flake smoker. They are pressed a little less tightly than the Sam Gawith flakes, making them easier to dry and easier to keep lit.
I always recommend experimenting with prepping your tobaccos differently for a different experience. You could try just the basic fold and stuff method, or grind it into a fine preparation using a coffee grinder. There are other prepping methods in between those two extremes, which will usually result in slightly different notes coming from the tobacco.
Also, flake tobacco seems to work best in a small bowled pipe. If you try smoking it in a deep bowled pipe, you can end up with too much moisture buildup, making it difficult to keep lit and smoke completely. If you try to smoke flakes in the wrong pipe, it can lead to a bad case of steam bite, as I mentioned earlier.
Includes a variety of methods for bowl packing
http://pipesmagazine.com/python/pipe-smoking/flake-pipe-tobacco-preparation/
I would also suggest a couple of other flakes that I have come to love. (Granted they are more coins than flakes but they are essentially the same) Dunhill Navy Rolls, and also Peter Stokkebye Luxury Bullseye Flake.
These are two delicious flakes and are great to begin your journey into flakes with.
I smoke almost exclusively flake tobaccos, if you have any more questions.
I've really learned to love my flakes!
Since you've already ordered a blend or two, here's a few of my suggestions. If you have one, smoke the flake in a dublin shaped pipe. The cone shaped bowl of a dublin works well with flake tobacco. If you don't have a dublin, a tall billiard works fine as well. For preparing the tobacco, the fold and stuff method works well. Personally, I'll take a flake and rub it out until it's in loose leaf form. The nice part about going that route is usually I'll have some left over. Just stick it back in the tin, and eventually you'll have enough to fill a bowl with the loose tobacco.
Myself, I fold the flake in half lengthwise and then roll it into a tight cylinder which I push into the bowl. This leaves a little space at the top that I pack with some rubbed out bits of the flake to make lighting easier.
First, I am an aromatic smoker.
I received a sample of Newminster No.400 Superior Navy Flake on an order from SmokingPipes.com (before the silly fed regs), it was surprisingly good. I am going to order some "replacement" soon, as I am almost out. Another surprisingly good pressed tobacco (coins) in this instance is Samuel Gawiths Cabbie's Mixture. I think I picked it up when there was a review/recommendation on SmokingPipes.com and I love it. I think the first flake I purchased and smoked was Villiger Stokkebye Luxury Twist Flake. The tin note was great, but the first smoke on a fresh tin was brutal, I hated it and thought I would never like it. However, after about 3-4 years cellared in a Mason jar I decided to try it again. It was much more mello and sweeter, a decent smoke, not as "cigarette tobacco like" when I first smoked it. Orlik Golden Sliced was another tobacco I disliked on it's "maiden" smoke. Again, after putting it aside for a few years and revisiting it, it had mellowed and sweetened as well. Interesting note, I "think" I remember both, the Orlik and Stokkebye tobaccos being a very light straw color when I first opened them. Now, they are both much darker than I remember with just a few straw colored pieces strew in. I have been reading about Virginia tobaccos aging well, I believe I am experiencing that phenomenon first hand.
Both seem to work just fine.
I personally prefer my tobacco on the drier side and tend to rub it out and let it dry for a while.
From our friends at http://www.smokingpipes.com
History Of Flake Tobacco -- May 31, 2019 by Chuck Stanion
Flake tobacco was developed for life at sea hundreds of years ago and became so popular that we continue to enjoy it today, though more for its flavor than its traveling convenience. But 300 years ago, when seamen spent months and sometimes years at sea, flake tobacco became essential for enjoying the comfort of a pipe while navigating perilous oceans, unknown lands, and precarious futures. Whether following a routine day, or multiple sleepless nights of masterful seamanship outrunning a hurricane, a pipe helped unjangle worries and was a companion for sharing precious intervals of peace. But not until the advent of flake tobaccos were sailors able to maintain smokable tobacco.
The pipe has become an archetype of life at sea, probably because in the early days, sailors were the first and most enthusiastic practitioners of pipesmoking. They brought it to Europe from the New World, after all, and for hundreds of years, most trade vessels carried tobacco in one direction or another. Novels, films and advertising have all conditioned us to think of grizzled, gray-bearded seamen with weather-beaten pipes when we think of life at sea, as well as young, able-bodied sailors with pristine pipes perched in their teeth. The great American novel Moby Dick is rife with pipesmoking, making it easy to identify Ahab as the villain, because he deliberately throws his pipe overboard, the swine.
Look, too, at all of the pipe tobacco blends that have been named for symbols of the sea. On tobaccoreviews.com, there are 50 tobaccos currently listed with "Navy Cut" in their titles, and that omits the majority of Navy Cut tobaccos that don't include the designation in their names.
Then there are the tobacco blends that include imagery of the sea: Pirate Cake, Pilot Flake, Captain Black (with its famous ship logo), Sail, Flying Dutchman, and Royal Yacht, to name a handful. Whether "Old Chum" should be included depends on interpretation. "Chum" may carry a meaning of "friend," or "pal." Or, in contrast, it may refer to the fish guts and blood used by fishermen and teenage horror movie characters to — and I'll never understand this — lure sharks to come after them. While more ruggedly outdoorsy, it's unlikely that fishbait-style chum would have made a refreshing tobacco topnote, so omission from the list is recommended.
Chum considerations aside, it's no wonder we associate pipe tobacco with the sea. And flake tobacco made it possible.
The problem was that tobacco tended to dry out on long sea voyages, over time becoming little more than dust. Sailors tried wrapping it tightly in canvas and sealing it with tar, but we all know how quickly tobacco picks up odors, so you may imagine the result. Replenishing its humidity level with water did not alleviate the problem, as the tobacco still broke down over time.
A strategy that did help was the use of sugar water or rum. The tobacco was soaked in a sugar solution and tended to keep longer that way. This method also helped with the space that tobacco monopolized; when damp with sugar water or rum, it could be compressed by hand into tighter, less bulky packages, an essential characteristic for the tight quarters endured by sailors.
Tobacco pressed in this manner dried out less quickly because less surface area was exposed.
Tobacco companies took notice and began pressing blocks of tobacco. We can only speculate about how much experimentation that process required, and different tobacco companies follow their own protocols, but eventually tobacco was available in pressed block form. Men at sea now had tobacco that maintained smokability over time. It wasn't pre-sliced at first, though. Sailors would carefully slice flakes from the tobacco block for smoking.
Flake tobaccos start out as any tobacco blend up until just before pressing, when sugar water is added for some duration and then dried until excess liquid unabsorbed by the tobacco evaporates. The tobacco is then steamed and placed into molds for a hydraulic press to apply pressure. These blocks vary in size depending on the tobacco company, but are typically around an inch and a half thick. They are stacked and placed into another press, and many tons of pressure is applied for 8-24 hours. Then the blocks are stored for the flavors to marry, usually about a month, all while maintaining pressure.
The blocks are then trimmed of their edges, which tend to be loose and frayed, and each neatly geometric block is cut into thin flakes, which are hand packed into tins that those sailors of 300 years ago would doubtless have found enormously convenient.
When our pipesmoking forebears were sailing the oceans with tobacco that wouldn't maintain smokability, they developed a solution, and that solution catalyzed and became a new cut of tobacco, one enjoyed today by countless pipe enthusiasts around the world. Flake tobaccos represent a unique way to enjoy the history, tradition and innovation of pipe tobacco, and to connect, however tenuously, with those seamen of yore who toiled in extreme conditions with little to sustain them but the comfort of a friendly pipe.
CAKES, SLICES, AND RIBBONS part one
Centuries ago, sailors would experiment various ways to preserve tobacco as long as possible. One of these methods consisted in steeping the tobacco in a sugar-based syrup, making a ball or else putting it into a rough mould, and subsequently pressing the tobacco tightly by hand. This do-it-yourself method has been abandoned, of course, to be replaced by increasingly industrialised processes adopted by the blenders, which we mentioned in the previous article as being more challenging.
Before using the press, it is essential to moisten the tobacco so that it becomes more elastic and thus facilitates pressing, whereas drier tobacco would crumble to dust.
Plug and Flake – This type of cut is produced by using stripped leaves that are pressed into a mould: sometimes a specific order is followed on the basis of the various types of tobacco bases present, or else all the components are simply combined together. The press that is used is quite powerful, as initially the mass of tobacco is a metre high, which is then reduced under high pressure to a slab that is about four centimetres thick. The first pressing is almost instant, whereas the second takes much longer, involving a substantial number of overlapping slabs. The whole mass is reduced to a much lesser extent, but constant pressure, carried out in controlled conditions of temperature and humidity, can last for several weeks. It is during this stage that the various components combine perfectly together, while the process of fermentation refines the quality of the product. In the end, the consistency of the slab resembles that of wood. The edges, which are ruined by the pressure, are trimmed and the slab is cut into a certain number of smaller blocks or “plugs”. These can be sold as they are, and it is up to the smoker to slice off the thickness required for his pipe. Otherwise, the manufacturer will slice the tobacco into thin, flat flakes.
Cake – Unlike the previous process, the cake is produced with tobacco that has already been cut, so that the different varieties can blend much better together. The remaining process is similar to that described for the plug, except for the fact that the moulds are smaller and round, there is only one pressing and honey is added. Once the tobacco is pressed, it is left to rest under controlled conditions for a long time, which contributes to its fermentation. Like the plug, the cake may be sold whole, cut into small pieces or slices.
Spun or Roll Cut – Cut tobacco is inserted into a metal tube and then put under high pressure with a piston that runs inside the tube. After a period of rest and fermentation the rod is removed from the tube and wrapped with the leaves of other types of tobacco. The rod is then cut into round-shaped slices called “coins”, characterised by the fact that the dense, central part of the coin is distinguishable from the outer layer wrapped around. The sailors used a similar technique in that they would fill a canvas tube which was then twisted tightly to resemble the pressing process.
Rope or Twist tobacco – This is a rope made of tobacco, in which the stripped leaves are spun and twisted in order to obtain fibres that are then braided together to form a rope. The rope is then wrapped in other leaves to provide an outer cover similar to that of cigars. In the past, the process was undertaken by two people, who worked in a small assembly line, in which one person would be in charge of the rope, while the other would be responsible for the outer cover, gradually extending the rope. Nowadays, everything is done with machines. Once the rope is finished, it is coiled and inserted into a steam press in which the rope is “cooked” for two or three hours. While still in the press, the tobacco is left to cool down for seven or eight hours and fermentation occurs. The rope is then cut into pieces or sliced finely into circles, curly cut or bird’s eye, in which the centre is distinguishable from the outer layer, similar to the coin. In the past, this was one of the most common ways to trade tobacco. It is thought that one of the first to create a tobacco rope was the sailors, who were experts in the art of rope making. The rope tobacco was high in nicotine, being used in pipes, as snuff or else chewed. Today it is rather difficult to obtain.
At this point, all that remains is to package the tobacco, after having mixed it well for one last time (if necessary). A long time has elapsed since the sailors packed the tobacco in empty rum barrels (thus flavouring the tobacco) or in fragile ceramic or porcelain containers, or else in tarred canvas, so that the tobacco would then smell unpleasantly of tar. Nowadays, apart from the special cases of plug, cake, spun and rope tobacco, there are two options: a plastic pouch, or else a tin. In the various types of packaging, chosen by the smoker, the tobacco offers a wide array of cuts, which contribute to the smoker’s choice. Smoking one product or another can prove to be quite different, whether for aesthetic or emotional reasons, or for the practical question of packing, lighting and smoking.
CAKES, SLICES, AND RIBBONS part two
LOOSE TOBACCO
The tobacco is shredded and/or fragmented, and a small amount of tobacco is taken from the tin or pouch to pack the pipe. This is the most commonly used type of tobacco cut, as the pipe is easily packed, and it burns well. Indeed, it is ideal for first-timers, but it is also appreciated by experts. There are various types of loose tobacco:
Mixture--This is a blend, but in the language of connoisseurs it is also linked to a precise type of cut: thin, short pieces and ribbons.
Wild Cut--A cut that is similar to the mixture, but more coarsely cut.
Loose Cut--Cut more coarsely than that of a mixture, the ribbons are medium to long in length, with variable width size. It is a cross between ribbon and wild cut.
Ribbon Cut--The tobacco is cut into long, narrow ribbons (a few centimetres). This cut is achieved by first cutting a plug, which is then flaked and shredded into ribbons.
Broad Cut--A ribbon cut whose strips are wider.
Shag--The process is similar to that of the ribbon cut, but the tobacco resembles long threads, being much finer. The cut is so fine that it is not recommended for beginner tobacco pipe smokers, as the tobacco burns well, but if not controlled can burn too quickly.
Cross Cut--The result of cutting a plug twice at right angles, which produces small squares.
Ready Rubbed--This is ideal for those who love cake or plug and want a ready smoke. The flakes and ribbons are cut from a cake or plug immediately prior to packaging. Ribbon cuts of various widths and cross cut are also ready rubbed.
BLOCK TOBACCO
This type of product, resulting from more complex processes, is packaged in block of various shapes, or “slices” cut from these blocks, rather than various types of loose leaf tobacco. Tobacco in blocks is less common than loose leaf, also due to the fact that it is designed for expert pipe smokers, who enjoy the ritual of packing, lighting and controlling the pace of the tobacco burning in the bowl, as well as appreciating the interesting features of plug, cake, spun, rope tobacco and their derivatives, which is a source of pride.
Plug--Those who buy a plug can act like the sailors in the past, who would cut thin flakes from the plug to smoke during the moments and places allowed by their commander. These flakes are folded in a particular manner and then packed into the bowl, or else are first rubbed into smaller pieces. Occasionally, the flake is left to rest for a few hours after being cut, which serves to reduce the moisture and thus make the tobacco light more easily.
Flake--For those who prefer to avoid having to slice the tobacco, flakes that are already cut are available in tins.
Broken flake--These are flakes that are partially broken up to facilitate further the work of the pipe smoker.
Cube Cut--Derived from a plug that has been cut into cube-shaped pieces.
Cake--This can be bought whole, with a packaging that is different from the usual pouches or tins, as well as being sold in pieces of various sizes and also in thin slices.
Crumble Cake--A cake made from ribbon cut tobacco. Its special feature is that it is easy to crumble between the fingers, without having to use a knife.
Spun--The rods can be bought whole and then sliced when required. Otherwise ready-sliced coins are available.
Navy Cut--Centuries ago on the ships tobacco was transported in the form of spun shapes (produced by filling a canvas tube with the tobacco and then twisting it tightly), or rope (the tobacco was spun and then twisted into a rope). The Navy Cut was obtained by slicing spun or rope tobacco, and later the name was also applied to the slices of plug tobacco.
Before coming to the end of this exploration of tobacco cuts, there is still one aspect to consider.
If the last lap of tobacco manufacture belongs to smokers, it cannot be ignored that some of them want more than just a smoke: they also wish to become blenders. This is a fascinating hobby, which is a source of satisfaction for those who are patient, determined and have time to spend.
Using available tobacco brands, smokers try to customise them by letting them mature in their original packaging, or else by steaming the tobacco or heating it in the oven (whether traditional or microwave). A favourite blend can be enhanced by adding other types of tobacco (even cigar tobacco), experimenting with flavourings or marinating. However, there are those who go even further by buying small presses in DIY stores or antique markets, adjusting parts, improving home methods so as to obtain in the end their own personal cake or plug.
The flip side of this method is that it is time-consuming and costly, often with negative results, which is why considerable determination is required. However, for pipe blending enthusiasts the final result is all important. Once a satisfying blend has been achieved, the smoker can closely guard his special “recipe”, or else share it with other devotees who are also seeking perfection. The reward for all this effort is a wonderful smoke.