Brown Sugar Flake Fail

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jacks6

Lifer
May 9, 2016
1,005
3
So, I was super stoked to try this blend. I picked up two tins when it came out and this has been - by far - the most frustrating tobacco I've tried to smoke. I've tried it with about 30 minutes drying time - fail. Tried it with 1 day of drying time and rubbing out the flake - fail. Tried it with 2 days drying time - still can't keep the damn tobacco lit. I was finally able to get McClelland Dark Star to sing for me but this one has me so frustrated I almost chucked the tin over the fence this morning. I'm not even sure if this one is worth the trouble to keep trying to get it to behave. I've never been so frustrated by a tobacco.

 

yaddy306

Lifer
Aug 7, 2013
1,371
502
Regina, Canada
I had a similar experience with Demerara Flake, which GQ says is the same as Brown Sugar Flake, but the bulk version.

Wettest flake I've yet experienced.

I'm going to try the microwave.

 

jmill208

Lifer
Dec 8, 2013
1,087
1,163
Maryland USA
Cube cut, and try packing a lot looser than you normally would. The looser pack has helped me when I encounter wet flakes. You may not eliminate relights, but you may alleviate some frustration. It has worked for me. YMMV. :puffy:

 

jerwynn

Lifer
Dec 7, 2011
1,033
12
I too have been frustrated with this blend for the same reasons and then some... but I really like it at the core... it was just making me suffer for it to reveal it's mysteries to me. I was inspired by Nate's review it not long ago and really wanted to like this one. Last night I tried again... I took a flake and pulled it apart strand by strand, dried it about a half hour, cut it in quarter inch lengths, rubbed the hail out of it, let it sit again, trickled it into the pipe for a lighter than usual pack, and exe.burn. Frustration at first... but then I discovered, partly by accident, that a way slower, more deliberate smoking cadence started to work wonders. When this blend began to blossom, it was UTTERLY EXTRAORDINARY!!!! All the immense blessings, joys, and characteristics of a brown VA flake, and then the "brown sugar" began to kind of slightly steamily smolder forth, and the end result was nectar and ambrosia! This was about my 6th bowl of experimentation... it still took more relights than anything else for me... but that became just a happy means to the end of letting it sing... and sing it did! I was extremely happy and impressed! More experimentation is mandated!! BTW, I flipped over to spc and it's GONE!!! What happened? Will they make more?? Will we still be able to get it? Or is it another victim to be folded into the extinction spasm we are now facing? Sigh...

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
Haven't tried this blend yet, but with moist flake, I just rub out about four squares of flake into a bowl and give it a day to dry, probably similar to the microwave process. The blend dries out sufficiently but not too much, and away you go. McB's Latakia Flake for example -- this works fine.

 

shutterbugg

Lifer
Nov 18, 2013
1,451
21
I smoke Dunhill Flake and Erik Stokkebye's 1931 flake. Jar it straight from the tin, grab half a flake, stuff it loosely in the pipe so there's no feel to the draw, sprinkle a few loose shreds on top and light up. Hardly ever need to relight unless I let the pipe sit to go do something. Honestly if I bought tobacco I had to dry out to smoke, I'd never buy it again. I would think with today's containers and vacuum sealing technology, a blender who knows his stuff would ship it at the proper moisture level. That seems to be what Dunhill and Stokkebye do, no clue why other blenders can't.
That said, Brown Sugar Flake has tempted me, in fact I was on the cusp of buying some until I read this about the moisture. Now I'm reconsidering.

 

noquarter

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jan 18, 2015
104
0
I have a few well seasoned briars that burn damp Gawiths/SGs like a champ. Lightly rubbed with a few loose bits sprinkled on top for an even charring light works best for me.

Some pipes just work well with the right tobacco with the right technique. Best of luck on the Brown Sugar Flake jacks6.

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
A Forums member was so generous as to send me an unopened tin of Brown Sugar Flake, my first Samuel Gawith, so I will follow up on this thread and dry it thoroughly and see if I can make it happen with BSF. Yes, what happened with the availability on this one? I went to see how it was described at online retail sites (well, one or two) and haven't seen it offered. I plan to open the tin, rub it out into a bowl as I often do with flake, and let it dry for a few days (or until it feels dryer), and see how it smokes. Maybe I am in custody of the last of a rare species, like the Ivory Billed Woodpecker. Will report back. (Thank you for the tin, Tom!)

 

Chasing Embers

Captain of the Black Frigate
Nov 12, 2014
43,258
108,360
Looks like it is still available from its co creator The Danish Pipe Shop. They also have the second blend in their collaboration series, "Beginner's Luck".

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
Maybe I'll try the microwave. It sounds like a sure bet, and lets you smoke right away.

 

hiplainsdrifter

Part of the Furniture Now
Jan 8, 2012
977
14
According to every retailer I have talked too, Brown Sugar Flake will no longer be distributed in the US. Those that bought from the initial shipment were smart. As chasingembers said, you can still get it from Denmark, if you want to pay those kind of prices.

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
Now I don't know whether to smoke it or hoard it. Yes, I do, smoke it of course.

 

snowyowl

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 21, 2015
885
21
I recently purchased a Peder Jeppesen (Neerup) pipe from The Danish Pipe Shop -- gorgeous stuff, many with 9mm filters... so continental.
Their July deal included no shipping on tobacco, so I added some tins of Samuel Gawith Brown Sugar Flake.
Two things can be seen on the tin: first, the tin art has both the SG and TDPS logo and logotype, right; also, a big-ass "1", left. SG-TDPS Beginner's Luck (1 Oct, mentioned above) has a "2" on the label. So, they are in concert on these two blends. Likely, at this point, only via Copenhagen.
With the current, favorable exchange rate, my 50g tins were $15.56 per... considering rarity/availability, I 'm a happy camper.

[Tom, you're welcome]


 

jerwynn

Lifer
Dec 7, 2011
1,033
12
Every time I smoke BSFlake, I like it more! My original order was for 2 tins... sigh... now it has retreated to Europe. I'm not even minding so many re-lights... it's kind of like sitting around a campfire roasting marshmallows... BSF just wants to be the main character!

 
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