I will preface this by saying that I am still working on my ability to awaken my taste bud to brain receptors, more so than just to think just tangy sweet or smokey. So, take all of this as from one who is trying to learn to taste deeper into a blend.
I was gifted the whole series of Former’s blends and asked for my opinions. The Straight Grain Flake is the first that I’ve sampled in multiple pipes and managed to log sufficiently enough to write about.
It is a broken flake of Virginias and perique as you can see in the picture. It has an oily dark color, as if has been aged in the tin, but I saw this tin pulled from the box it was shipped in to the B&M that gifted me the tin. Maybe Former ages them before it was tinned or after it was tinned, or it was setting on the shelf of the distributor for a while. But, it has yet to have any shelf life at the B&M as some blends will before you pick them up.
The tin note is strong and smells lightly of apples along with the regular sweet aromas of an aged Virginia. As a Danish tobacco, I suspect it has a flavored casing, but I sense a casing without it being overwhelming, as Stokebye’s Luxury Twist Flake can be.
It crumbles easily and I prefer it crumbled as to being fully rubbed out. Rubbed out it bites like Virginia #1 in a narrow bowl. I taste red and lighter Virginias with the fruity apple taste, but the apple dissipates rather quickly after the initial char and tamp. The first half of the bowl continues with honey sweet taste of Virginias with a light dash of the cinnamony tastes of the perique coming through.
I think of perique being used as cinnamon is used in cooking. A light dash can enhance the other sweet tastes of a food. A little more and you get the zingy spicy taste. A big dash and its peppery like a red hot. This blend is a light dash that enhances the Virginia’s natural sweetness, similar to how GLP’s Telegraph Hill uses perique.
The Virginias stove well as the bowl progresses, and I prefer it in a tall narrow chamber. In a wide bowl, the flavors get muddy and smokier tasting to me, but the tingly on the tongue taste is less in a big bowl.
I enjoyed this blend down to the ash, with the last little bit being more of a moderate more complex taste, not heavy and one dimensional. Definitely, the slower you smoke this blend the more flavor you pull out of it, but I've yet to find a tobacco that is enhanced by puffing too strongly. It leaves a definite aftertaste that I enjoy from a sweet Virginia with a little bit of the apple flavor lingering on my teeth that disappeared quickly while smoking. The strength was mild to moderate with a very light hint of the apple flavor, but the overall taste ranks a medium in my opinion. A great all day smoker.
I highly recommend this, and I think you’ll find it priced on the low side for tins, making it a must try for the smoker who enjoys a good all day sweet VaPer and doesn't mind a tiny bit of an apple casing.
