Orlik Golden Sliced
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Kevin Godbee - May 14, 2018
- 5 min read
Kyle Weiss
Pipe smoking has a way of stirring up the past, sometimes emotionally, sometimes directly. Lately I’ve been figuring out a lot of what means something to me versus what does not, as it’s been a trying last few months. Tobacco is, unscientifically, a form of patience grown in the sun, harvested, cured and treated in various ways, and released when we set it ablaze. Poetry isn’t my strong suit, but memory is.
Orlik Golden Sliced was and is one of those curious tobaccos that I don’t pick up very often, and I’ve been picking up a lot of tobacco lately that I don’t pick up very often. The mind has a funny way of going certain places when in duress, and even our simple habits are affected. I have several tins of Golden Sliced hanging about, each from different years. April of 2012 what I wrote on this one, and it wasn’t the most recent nor was it the oldest. Like many things we may or may not need, we ponder them when our lives change, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. I may be a shrewd judge of my own character, but when it’s time to sit, smoke and take a break, that’s exactly what needs to happen. Some things, thankfully, no matter what, never change.
Orlik Golden Sliced now comes in round tins, but I am glad I have a few of the increasingly rare square tins. They’re easy to stack, store and the paper packaging with the face of the judge on a sticker greeting you when it is opened delights me. It reads on the reverse:
“This delightful blend is composed of golden and full body Virginia tobaccos with a touch of Burley. A fine natural sweetness in both taste and aroma characterizes Orlik Golden Sliced. The cut is a traditional Navy Cut Flake i.e. pressed tobacco and cut into thin slices. Rub the tobacco slices gently before filling your pipe.”
It should be noted there was much fuss once upon a time about the contents of this tobacco, and whether or not the claims of Burley and/or Perique were accurate. It seems it was settled that this flake does indeed contain Perique, and even if there wasn’t a controversy, my tongue knew better. Nonetheless, the flakes sit arranged like perfect shingles, used-copper-penny red and oaken brown. There isn’t much of a scent to them besides the raisin-sweetness of a real tobacco, but left to air out for a day a brighter, slightly grapefruit scent becomes apparent.
This is generally a very relaxed Virginia flake more than anything, and after breaking apart, lights almost immediately. The tin with a few years on it abandons most grassier undertones and gives more of a mushroom-like flair when first lit, along with some tongue-tingle and spice thanks to a dash of what can only be Perique. Broken apart fully, this tobacco gives off voluminous smoke, which I like, but with smoke often comes heat. This isn’t a hot-smoking tobacco for me even on its worst day, but I keep the breaking apart roughed up and in-between: chunks and strips, intermixed.
Smoking Golden Sliced on the porch or simply in the outdoors does something lovely to it. The curls of smoke coming from the bowl is gently honeysuckle, while the flavor is slightly woodsy, as fresh as fallen leaves. The sweetness is fleeting, reminiscent of a waft from a dandelion bloom, and just as clean. The mid-point of the bowl is where things meld together firmly and fairly, and inoffensively, but also where the spice of the Perique perks up.
The bowl’s last puffs leave something to be desired, as much of what I am used to smoking increases and concentrates toward the end. Orlik Golden Sliced is perhaps a little too clean here, a little too predictable. I am not one to note smoking to a “fine, white ash” as a positive, as that old saw has gone from being cliché to generically overused. At the same time, it’s difficult to deny this tobacco performs for me so admirably in just about any pipe I sometimes wonder what to do with myself as I’m smoking. If focusing on the task at hand is more important than fixating and fussing over your smoldering leaf, this is a good one to stuff in your pipe.
There’s quite a few tobaccos doing nearly the exact same thing as Orlik Golden Sliced. Some are more sweet, others have more Perique; some have thicker slices, others are ready-rubbed for your convenience. This tobacco seems to have a great balance to it no matter what. Coffee is a real delight early in the morning for this smoke, and I don’t think there’s a better companion for it. Nicotine is admirable and present without being overpowering, and since the controversial Perique is so minimal, those just trying to dabble with Virginia-Perique mixtures may enjoy it as a jumping-off choice. Credited by me for being a flexible smoke, as this is could be an anyone, anywhere, anytime kind of tobacco.
The only reason I began to remember why I don’t pick this tobacco as my “go to” frequently is though it is solid, it stays true. Too true. It’s more of a friend you see only once in a while because he is milk-toast as they come. Excitement isn’t the point of this friendship, but familiarity and loyalty. If you’re in a headspace where things are changing quite a bit, perhaps the simplicity of that which is true is exactly what you need. Orlik Golden Sliced and I had a lot of catching up to do, but who knows when, not if, it will happen again.
(Author’s Random note: In one of the images above, you’ll notice “The Blue and Gold Cook Book,” published in 1912. I have a thing for pre Prohibition-era cookbooks, as the modern way of writing recipes and cookbooks dawned just a bit before the turn of the 20th century, sometimes including how to make your own wine, hooch and cordials. Nearly every conceivable business at the time printed one, as well as church groups and from the wives of fraternities–no home was complete without a dozen. Their main drive was advertising, and their marketing art is fantastic. Rare items today, this is one I found recently, published for the now-defunct Blue and Gold Brewing Company that had many breweries in California. The information is great and the recipes are fun classics The recipe part of this era is a fun challenge to me, as our modern means of food processing, packaging and *cough* “improvements” don’t always yield expected results from a time when not only common ingredients, but manners, men, women, booze and tobacco were enjoyable, wholesome and real…)
Editor’s note: Here’s the reveal of Perique as an ingredient, and the history of the origins of the blend:
Orlik Golden Sliced Update – No Burley, Yes Perique
and my original review in 2011.
Written by Kevin Godbee
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When I first started with the pipe as a quirky and precocious teen, the only tutelage I had at my disposal were scenes from old movies in which a well dressed chap would stick his pipe into a pouch, scoop tobacco into the bowl and press it down unceremoniously with his thumb. Then, with great flourish, he’d strike a match and light the thing with all manner of cinematic excess, puffing up vast clouds of smoke falling just short of completely obscuring his visage. While it may look good on film, it’s a terrible approach to actually enjoying the thing. Somehow, though, this “technique” seems to have survived in the contemporary vernacular, at least to some extent, even with bit-loads of information handily at our fingertips that should dissuade us from the practice. 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Before we begin, I should tell you: this tobacco review is being written by an A.I. Not the fancy new GPTs or their ilk; no, this is last century’s meat-and-bone, all-organic model. To be fair, a large part of what we call knowledge is merely the accumulated perceptions and impressions gathered from a life wandered through, synthesized into a spongy mass of what-it-is-that-we-think-that-we-know. The algorithm for this prompt is simple enough: pump thousands of bowls of smoldering plant matter into a gaping maw, cross-reference the chemical sensations with all other matter previously ingested or inhaled, sieve it all through the diffuse and fractal twin lens of memory and emotion, and churn out a panoply of adjectives that attempts to convey the sensations to someone who hasn’t experienced it yet. Odds are that a diligently trained monkey could succeed half the time; if this reviewer nears fifty-one percent then that would qualify as an unrivaled success. 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A first whiff from the tin releases the aromas of shoe leather and hide glue in a base of clay soil with a campfire wafted over it like last night’s beach party. Once it’s been accustomed to oxygen again, subtle hints of sweetness poke through from the Virginias: lemon rind, light milk chocolate, the dregs of a peaty Scotch, and muddled cherry. Old regulars like fresh-sawn oak and tilled earth are there, of course, with distinct notes of truffle, creosote, damp peat, and pine bark mulch. As an aside, I’ve been re-potting my camellias and the similarity of aroma to the ericaceous soil mix is notable; the Katerini really brings the unique depth of its vegetal complexion when supported by the Rustica and afforded more voice in the mix. 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Thoroughly smoky with lemony, grassy highlights from the Virginia spectrum, it soon segues into the mid-bowl profile: heartier, smokier, with the flavor leaning to the mildly acrid and tangy tinge that is the campfire-esque signature of English blends. Caution advised, it can turn overly bitter if pushed—this is where one’s sipping technique is required to maintain the fullness of flavor through to the heel. I did tend toward a lot of relights, though it may have as much to do with technique as with the blend. Pacing is also important as the nicotine starts to manifest; though the Rustica’s contribution has been tempered well by the stoving, it can certainly upend an empty stomach. At the end of every bowl, the mouthfeel somehow gets better. The balance of sugars in the tobaccos would seem to be spot-on in this regard. I started out my tasting in cobs, then cut short an unpleasant bowl in a meer, and finally landed on my best instrument with the lovely Dunhill 4427 pictured, a quaint group 4 shell briar with a gentle curve and Cumberland stem supporting a perfectly executed acorn bowl. It surprised me here, as I’ve learned through the years that I generally have the best experience with English blends in large, wide bowls. With this blend it seems that to get the best out of the Katerini’s somewhat diaphanous influence the smaller bowl fared much better. Room note is very English, so the company you keep will either love it or hate it, and it doesn’t linger too much. I find it paired best with a strong coffee; Sumatran beans complement the flavors well, as do Ethiopian if a lighter brew is preferred. Overall impressions of the blend are that it’s a curiously interesting take on the English genre, almost a reductive reconstruction of the theme using the unique components. 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Great story…
Perique is a burley, but I don’t think anyone would refer to it as a burley. It has about the least amount of perique as any blend I have ever tried, maybe just enough to help it taste a little more like a flue cured Virginia. I say this because the main reason I think that this blend (and even some C&D Virginias) get confused as a burley is because it doesn’t taste like it was flue cured. Air Cured Virginias are just burleys basically. Not that it wasn’t flue cured, just maybe under-cured? Something…
I am always asking myself why I don’t smoke this one more, also. I bought fifty tins of this back when I first started buying online, and I smoke maybe one tin a year. It’s not that I don’t enjoy it, but it just so damned humdrum. Even with age on it… still boring. But, once I do convince myself to pop a tin, the tin doesn’t last very long, maybe two days at most. It’s like green beans. You don’t really look forward to them, but once they’re on the plate, you eat them.
Thanks for an amusing rumination on a classic blend — so classic, in fact, it flies under the radar and is often taken for granted. A statue in a park.
Cosmic: One man’s “boring” is the “subtle” of the other. There’s a difference to me. Tobacco is like most relationships, they may start out wild and even boisterous, but over time, you learn to appreciate what the smoke doesn’t have as much as what it does have. On the other hand, sometimes it’s the opposite: too much of what you don’t like versus what might be missing. Probably why some guys cheat and some guys don’t. On tobacco, I mean. <3
Cortez: Yep. And like Cosmic said above you, something worth visiting once a year to some guys–to others, maybe there’s a bit more of a story to everything if some searching is to be had…
Thanks guys.