Favorite Navy Flake

[gamzultovah]

Ok. I will reread the article. I am looking for one with a more raisin plumb type flavor.

If it’s raisins and plums you are looking for, I second Salty Dogs. Dryer is better with SD as it helps draw out the flavors.

 

[Mopiper]

If it’s raisins and plums you are looking for, I second Salty Dogs. Dryer is better with SD as it helps draw out the flavors.

Never heard of it. I will look it up.

 

[PaulTheScandinavian]

Player's navy Cut pipe tobacco and cigarettes come to mind, though I don't know if these are discontinued in the UK

 

[craiginthecorn]

Nope

Navy cut tobacco - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

This one is blatantly called Navy Flake and has Latakia.

Navy Flake 50g - Samuel Gawith Pipe Tobacco | Smokingpipes

Samuel Gawith's Navy Flake pipe tobacco comprises Virginias and Latakia with a touch of rum for a traditional navy mixture.

www.smokingpipes.com

Based upon the articles cited, I will grant that historically speaking, Navy Flake was a cut and not a blend. Interesting history. I'm just a little better educated than a few minutes ago!

However, I argue that we should adopt Webster's practice of accepting evolution of language, even when it seems to defy logic. Ask a large number of pipe smokers what a Navy Flake is and nearly all who had some idea what it is would describe it as a generally Virginia-based flake that is sometimes flavored with rum. Not much more. Pretty vague. It's not just a cut anymore.

I should've just addressed the Samuel Gawith Navy Flake at the outset. I KNEW someone would bring up SG Navy Flake. Have you ever actually smoked it? The Latakia is condimental. Occasionally makes its presence known, but is never the star. I chose my words specifically to cover that blend, though --"Primarily Virginia-based". In any case, it is the outlier, being the sole Navy Flake with Latakia, or any other Oriental tobacco, as far as I can see.

As for the idea that Carl Ehwa, co-founder of McClelland Tobacco, wasn't familiar with the term Navy Flake, that seems highly improbable to me, to say the least.

 

[craiginthecorn]

Ha! Contradicted myself! Mac Baren Navy Flake is primarily Burley. Looking back at this argument in past threads, I think coming to a consensus is hopeless. I'm not sure myself anymore.

 

[logs]

Seems like rum is common to many blends with Navy/Nautical theme. Windjammer is a recent example.

 

[BROBS]

With all due respect to shanez, I think there's more than cut that defines a modern Navy Flake. I believe that the definition is murky, as it seems to vary from one producer to another. My reading of the article differs from shanez's. I think the point Chuck was making was that flake tobacco made pipe smoking more practical for seamen and that there is a long history of pipe smoking being associated with the sea. As a result, maritime-related names have been very common for pipe tobacco. Carl Ehwa's excellent The Book of Pipes and Tobacco, makes no mention of "Navy" when listing the various cuts of tobacco.

I don't recall ever seeing a Latakia Flake referred to as a Navy Flake, yet the cut is the same as any Navy flake, so I believe a Navy Flake has come to mean a simpler, lightly cased and optionally rum-flavored, primarily Virginia-based flake.

I too like the Mac Baren Navy Flake, but slightly prefer the 4th Generation 1931, which I believe is virtually identical, but possibly with higher quality tobacco. Both of these are more strongly topped than Capstan Blue, Samuel Gawith Navy Flake, or Peter Stokkebye Luxury Navy Flake.

SG navy flake has lat

 

[REO]

I like Escudo also.

 

[krizzose]

Rum? Nautical name? Yes, yes, and maybe. I can’t pretend to know what the exact definition is, either, so I declare the following as my favorite navy flakes:

McClelland Navy Cavendish
Fribourg & Treyer Special Brown Flake
Mac Baren Navy Flake
Rattray’s Marlin Flake
GLP Windjammer
Capstan Blue

 

[craiginthecorn]

SG navy flake has lat

Please see my comment just before your reply regarding that issue.

 

[Mopiper]

I'm going with the use of rum as the definition of what navy flake is. Not the cut.

 

[FurCoat]

Never heard of it. I will look it up.

It's good stuff, I mean really good.

 

[mingc]

All the linked articles do not cite authoritative sources. They're rather circular and I find them singularly unconvincing. Churchill may or may not have said that naval tradition was nothing but "rum, sodomy and the lash," but he certainly did NOT say, "rum, sodomy, the lash, and flake tobacco."

 

[mparker762]

I used to have several pipes dedicated to MB Navy Flake. They've all been converted over to F&T Brown Flake.

 

[craiginthecorn]

I used to have several pipes dedicated to MB Navy Flake. They've all been converted over to F&T Brown Flake.

As s a lover of several brown flakes, you've definitely put F&T Brown Flake on my RADAR.

 

[Peter Turbo]

probably Mac Baren Navy Flake, got a bunch of tins from 2015 im smoking through and its fantastic.

 

[Chasing Embers]

All the linked articles do not cite authoritative sources.

Like everything else about pipe opinion.

 

[mso489]

I've long enjoyed PS Navy Bullseye Flake, which are actually coin, and I have a well aged unopened tin of Dunhill Navy Rolls, also coin, that I look forward to opening, and some McC's Navy Black Cavendish unopened.

 

[Bobby Bailey]

So far, P.S. Luxury Navy Flake.

 

[Sandblast]

Can anybody "date" these various tins? I've got one unopened tin (first pic) & two unopened tins (second pic).
I'm curious about the round (third) pic, since it resembles older Mixture Flake (Scottish) tins. I'm greatly anticipating opening the first tin, whenever?

I'm currently smoking an Oom Paul filled with some Navy Flake that I jarred back in '09. Dried it & it's wonderful. Also, I've noticed nobody has mentioned Mac Baren's Navy Mixture, which has been discontinued.