St. James Flake

[frozenchurchwarden]

I just saw that ithelouniverse has indeed tried, and liked, Escudo. So there's my question answered.

 

[cigrmaster]

I have to dry SJF for a couple of hours and it smokes perfectly after that. I cube cut it first and then let it dry. Since it is such a dense flake, I cube it smaller than all of my other flakes, except Best Brown and FVF. I love SJF and it is one of the four vapers I keep in stock.

 

[saltedplug]

Given the intense VA/Perique nose of St. James Flake, I expected the smoke to be full-flavored, but it's more medium. This confused me for some time (I can be a bit slow). Though a good smoke, when I smoke a VA/Perique I'm always thinking of the flavor-bomb Escudo. The only reason I don't have a tin open right now is that I'm contemplating opening an 8 oz tin of Fillmore. As stated elsewhere Pease's work really has my attention; though he has 50+ blends, I intend to smoke all of them. I've asked him to consider releasing 1 lb tins of all of his tobaccos, but I think most would agree that at $70/lb, one gets great value.

 

[mrenglish]

I think why we only see a handful of Pease blends in one pound containers is sales volume. I asked if he would release Key Largo in one pound tins but he said the sales did not justify it.
As for St. James Flake, love the stuff. I smoke it frequently and it just gets better with age. Over the past years I've managed to get about twenty pounds stashed away. I've got some going back to 2006 that has turned black and is heaven, nicely covered with sugar crystals. Medium would definitely describe its body.

 

[halfy]

Open the tin, rub it whole out, close the tin, wait for a few months. That's how I dealt with SG flakes. As the air seal broken the tobacco would slowly dry and develop with time.

 

[ithelouniverse]

I did enjoy escudo. However since they are all in the same price range, I think I'll be sticking to Orlik Golden Slice.
I stumbled on the other two because When I reorder OGS, I always grab one or two tins from the "other customers also bought" section.

 

[kola]

I am a big SG fan...esp their flakes. IMO SG smokes best after DGT'ing. I wouldn't even think about puffing a bowl of SG fresh out of the bag or tin. StJF is the King of VApers....3-4 years of age is even better.

 

[bowler1]

Good advice for smoking most any flake. I will tag this post.

 

[mrenglish]

+1 Kola.
Most of my bowls of St. James Flake are packed and smoked over the next few days.

 

[hiplainsdrifter]

Although I definitely think some drying is in order, I don't know if hair dryers and days of airing out are necessary. Perhaps it is because I live in an arid climate, but I usually just put St. James in my little pocket ziplock for a day or so and then it is perfect. It is super hard to rub out one way or the other. I have had some problems with FVF over-drying it and getting unpleasant effects. I think that St. James is a flake that you can push pretty hard if you load your bowl right- my last bowl of it was atop a windy peak at 12500 feet, and it was fabulous.