Smoking my first bowl of McClelland bulk # 2015 Virginia Flake right now. Wow...this is amazing stuff! Took a guess with packing it and decided to wing it. Seems to be working great! I love it! Smokes cool and dry...the sugars in the Virginia is very evident, very sweet smoke...creamy and with just enough bite from what I am assuming is the Perique. I am hooked. I will be dedicating my next pipe to Virginias. I'm smoking out of my meerschaum now.
I'll throw a full review on tomorrow. Back to enjoying this great new experience now!
-Adam
Edit...Full Review
So my experience with Bulk # 2015 Virginia Flake was one worth noting. I had been reading up on a lot of the Virginia/Perique tobaccos but was not quite sure if I was up to that level yet and or if I had the smokers palate to appreciate what these had to offer. I decided to purchase some of the bulk about a month ago from my local B&M and kept it stored away for a bit until I decided to try it. I figured it couldn't go bad with age so why not?
Last night I pulled out the bag and the trusty meerschaum and decided to wing it as far as packing flake tobacco into my pipe. I decided to take some of the unrubbed flakes and lay them on the bottom of the pipe. Then I rubbed some out and put them on top in order to help get it lit. Doing this kind of created a chamber under the rubbed out tobacco. I only packed enough for a half bowl. Upon the charring light, the taste was VERY strong, and I actually coughed a few times from a bit that escaped into my lungs. I was unsure at this point if I had jumped into this too quickly. The loose tobacco on top expanded and puffed up like I had never seen before. Perhaps it wasn't packed tight enough but it expanded quite a bit which made me glad I only packed the half bowl. I'll remember for next time to go a little below the rim if I am going to pack fully.
After I let the char mellow and cool, I lit the tobacco again (I'm only using matches, for what it's worth). This time the smoke was noticeably sweeter, but I still coughed a little and tried to mellow my puffing to light this. My mouth burned a bit but a sip or two of water and I was fine. I tamped a little to keep the tobacco at bay, and got it to where it was smoking comfortably.
Upon first impressions, the most obvious thing I noticed was the sweetness of this smoke. It reminded me of an English or Oriental in the smoothness and cool aspects but it was MUCH sweeter. The leaf had no trouble staying lit and smoked cool the entire time. I had it go out once on me but the re-light was no problem at all. After I mellowed it out again, it was back to the sweet cool smoke again. There was a slight spicy note mixed in which I assumed was the Perique, and it added just enough character to keep the sweet VA's from being overwhelming. The room note was not as bad as I expected it was going to be. Some said it was a nasty cigarette odor, but I noticed none of that. When my girlfriend came home (about 20 minutes after I finished the bowl) she said the smell was noticeable but not bad at all.
One other thing I noticed was that this burned rather quickly. Maybe 20 minutes or so, but for the size of the bowl I packed that may not have been unusual. The great thing about the flake tobacco is that there are so many ways I can experiment with smoking it, each experience could be different. I am stopping at my local B&M today and maybe buying them out of this stuff. Definitely a great tobacco to pick up and keep on hand, and definitely one to keep cellared.
