I can't see black irish twist making a good chew, but to each their own. I chew brown bogie but it took a few tries to get the technique down, I more make a thick coin and kind of use it as a tobacco lozenge almost, you kind of let the spit moisten it up good and then you can suck a bit of juice out, I just swallow it mostly. If you actually chew it you'll get a nic hit that will turn you sick, I pretty much slowly suck it while it's between my lip and gums, then after maybe an hour I'll actually bite into it and then I need to spit. I find once it's dry it's pretty hard to rub out, it's more like chunks, but I found it to burn really nice and had a great flavor. As soon as I rehydrated it the slightest it was gross. I also smoked bowls of it back to back my first time and I wasn't a nic heavyweight at all. Some of the pieces of it once it's dry are almost like oily looking charcoal. I guess you could cube cut it and then let it dry. I do find cube cutting works the best for preparing ropes and it really doesn't take much longer than preparing flake tobacco. I'll also rub out coins I've cut, but the key is let it dry until it's crispy. The brown ropes are different, those I like moist.