Tobacco Review - University Flake.

Peterson Tobacco Review – University Flake.

This month's tobacco choice for the start of the new year, is University Flake.

Brand: Peterson
Blend: University Flake
Tin Description: Originally manufactured in Ireland by Murray, and now manufactured in Germany by Kohlhase & Kopp. The new tin description reads "An easy smoking blend of fine Virginia's and Burley tobaccos, made the traditional way."
Country: Germany
Cure: Air cured
Cut: Flake
Tobaccos: Virginia, and Burly.

Packaging: 50 gram Tin
Strength: Medium to Strong
Taste: Medium
Room Note: Pleasant to tolerable.

Reading the above notes and descriptions from the manufacturer and Tobacco Reviews, you could easily be misled into thinking that this months choice was fairly ordinary and unexceptional. How wrong that would be!

OK. the reviewing and the tasting of tobacco is subjective and very personal to the reviewer, this I understand and appreciate.

I tend to view the tasting of the myriad selection of tobaccos available to today's pipe smokers, as an Odyssey. A very long pleasant journey, punctuated by different influential experiences. I have tasted all of the 150 blends of tobacco which I have in my personal cellar. From light fruity,sickly sweet aromatics and through to heavy Latakia's at the other end of the taste spectrum.

University Flake stands out from all of those in my experience. It is a very pleasant,uncomplicated, well balanced smoke that is on my regular rotation. Given my wide choice of blends available for tasting/smoking, I would have to say it probably is up there in my top three favourite blends.

If you like a high-quality sweet tasting tobacco that doesn’t bite and is not sickly, then you can safely choose this one. Some would and still do class it as an aromatic, referring to Plum or Berry flavours or toppings, I do not get any of those weird suggested ingredients, I think that impression comes from the choice of blended tobaccos which includes Kentucky. To my taste I find aromatics generally, are bland, sickly and lacking in strength. There is a Burley nuttiness and a light Virginia sweetness, combined with a smoky fire-cured Kentucky, that makes for a well-rounded flavour. Giving off a pleasant room note.

I would say that the nearest comparison would be MacBaren's Navy Flake, also a favourite of mine. Both of these have the basic ingredient which I seek in any blend, plenty of good body and strength. This is a blend for the more experienced pipe smoker.

As far as preparing the pressed flakes for smoking, I tend to simply rub these out in the palm of my hand. Easy peasy! Let the resulting rubbed out tobacco dry out for around 20-30 minutes and then lightly pack the bowl. This method ensures that I never have any problem of having to relight with this blend.

Would I buy it again? , you can most certainly rely on that!! .

Regards,
Jim.

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