Star of the East. . . Flake?

I have opened many a tin of MC's Blackwoods flake, all have been broken shreds of what once might have been a flake ;-)
:: Ever tin still smoked like a dream...Love MC blends

I like the stuff, but then I'm not a flake purist. I do appreciate the fold & pack ability of flakes like Peterson's Irish, but I personally prefer something like SOTE. It's still pretty big chunks of tobacco, so for me it serves the purpost of a flake pretty well. It's condensed and stays lit better than ribbon. As far as flavor, I've found it to be a complete lat bomb, which is what I was looking for.

Actually, SOTE Flake (and most CD flakes) come in flake form. It's just that they aren't as compressed as the European flakes (they don't use the same equipment) so they break up easily in the tin. It all depends on how gentle the postman or shop owner is when they handle it. It doesn't bother me much, but to each their own!
Personally, I find SOTE Flake to be a very, very full flavored blend. Almost too rich, in fact. It is NOT complex, however, and isn't really meant to be. It's a lat bomb. I've tried many good C&D English blends, but no great ones. Their niche tends to be burley blends and, lately, a lot of high-quality VAs (Opening Night, for instance, is the equal of FVF, in my estimation). Of course, they also manufacture GL Pease blends, and I don't think anyone in the world is producing as many high-quality latakia mixtures as Pease is.
Also, unlike the European blends (which often take over a year to even make it across the pond to our retailers), C&D blends need to be aged a few months before opening. For economic reasons, they can't age large quantities of their leaf at the factory. Again, some smokers don't like that and other don't care. To each their own!

I had a comment ready, but doctorthoss seems to have summed it up pretty well for me. It would seem C&D lacks the high pressure presses required for really dense and solid flakes. Even the Pease plugs are fairly loose and crumbly affairs compared to 3P or Gawith plugs. For me, I don't mind. The pressing process seems to marry the flavors some and I enjoy the consistency in my hand as I load it straight or rub it out. Another advantage is the broken flakes don't dry out as easily as a ribbon mixture might, which is advantageous for a company that typically ship fairly dry tobacco. It also give you finer control over the moisture content of your smoke. With Blends like Embarcadero I tend to air them out in broken flake form, then break them up for loading. This consistency also lends itself well to a crumbly cube cut. Lastly, Star of the East Broken and kind of Crumbly Flake is more challenging to print nicely on a tin.
EDIT: First comment on the forum, woot.

Thanks for the welcome. I agree on both account. The C&D factory seems to push their stock through without giving it a whole lot of time in the warehouse. Luckily, most of the tins I've purchased seem to have sat on the shelves for at least six months, so I haven't had to worry. I lucked out on a tin of Blackwoods recently from Cigars International marked 2011.