Star of the East. . . Flake?

[rmbittner]

Just opened a tin of C&D's Star of the East Flake from last year. . . and I was shocked to discover that it's a completely broken flake. Yes, at one time it had been pressed into cakes and cut into flakes. But then it was completely broken up prior to tinning.
That's not my definition of a flake. When you put "flake" on a tin, that's what I expect to find inside: whole flakes. Otherwise, I think a more accurate label would say "ready rubbed" or "broken flake."
Bob

 

[rmbittner]

Roth:
Hmmm. . . It's been a while, but I've had a lot of Dark Star and my memory is that it has always been full flakes (along with the minimal kind of breakage that just naturally happens when you put a rectangular flake in a round tin). And Dark Star doesn't even claim to be a flake in the name.
Bob

 

[thesmokindragon]

I have opened many a tin of MC's Blackwoods flake, all have been broken shreds of what once might have been a flake ;-)
:: Ever tin still smoked like a dream...Love MC blends

 

[rmbittner]

Just thought I'd offer my first -- single-bowl -- impressions of this blend. (I won't "review" it until I've had about half a tin.)
The blend, a broken flake, needed a couple of hours of drying time. Upon lighting: Prodigious amounts of smoke and a wonderful, lightly rich and sweet aroma (for the smoker). But that was it. This first bowl had virtually no flavor whatsoever. Maybe a little smokiness from the latakia and a hint of sweetness from the Izmir and the stoved red Virginias. But no one flavor ever comes through, and the bowl was unchanged from beginning to end.
The tin claims that this is one-half Cyprian latakia, with a dose of Izmir and stoved red Virginias "for sweetness."
This is only the fourth tin of a C&D blend that I've ever tried. The others were Autumn Evening, the original Longevity, and Yale Mixture. And so far I wouldn't go out of my way to smoke any of them again. Hopefully, future bowls of SOTEF will improve.
Bob

 

[erichbaumer]

I like the stuff, but then I'm not a flake purist. I do appreciate the fold & pack ability of flakes like Peterson's Irish, but I personally prefer something like SOTE. It's still pretty big chunks of tobacco, so for me it serves the purpost of a flake pretty well. It's condensed and stays lit better than ribbon. As far as flavor, I've found it to be a complete lat bomb, which is what I was looking for.

 

[doctorthoss]

Actually, SOTE Flake (and most CD flakes) come in flake form. It's just that they aren't as compressed as the European flakes (they don't use the same equipment) so they break up easily in the tin. It all depends on how gentle the postman or shop owner is when they handle it. It doesn't bother me much, but to each their own!
Personally, I find SOTE Flake to be a very, very full flavored blend. Almost too rich, in fact. It is NOT complex, however, and isn't really meant to be. It's a lat bomb. I've tried many good C&D English blends, but no great ones. Their niche tends to be burley blends and, lately, a lot of high-quality VAs (Opening Night, for instance, is the equal of FVF, in my estimation). Of course, they also manufacture GL Pease blends, and I don't think anyone in the world is producing as many high-quality latakia mixtures as Pease is.
Also, unlike the European blends (which often take over a year to even make it across the pond to our retailers), C&D blends need to be aged a few months before opening. For economic reasons, they can't age large quantities of their leaf at the factory. Again, some smokers don't like that and other don't care. To each their own!

 

[hedonaut]

I had a comment ready, but doctorthoss seems to have summed it up pretty well for me. It would seem C&D lacks the high pressure presses required for really dense and solid flakes. Even the Pease plugs are fairly loose and crumbly affairs compared to 3P or Gawith plugs. For me, I don't mind. The pressing process seems to marry the flavors some and I enjoy the consistency in my hand as I load it straight or rub it out. Another advantage is the broken flakes don't dry out as easily as a ribbon mixture might, which is advantageous for a company that typically ship fairly dry tobacco. It also give you finer control over the moisture content of your smoke. With Blends like Embarcadero I tend to air them out in broken flake form, then break them up for loading. This consistency also lends itself well to a crumbly cube cut. Lastly, Star of the East Broken and kind of Crumbly Flake is more challenging to print nicely on a tin.
EDIT: First comment on the forum, woot.

 

[hedonaut]

Thanks for the welcome. I agree on both account. The C&D factory seems to push their stock through without giving it a whole lot of time in the warehouse. Luckily, most of the tins I've purchased seem to have sat on the shelves for at least six months, so I haven't had to worry. I lucked out on a tin of Blackwoods recently from Cigars International marked 2011.

 

[rmbittner]

roth:
Thanks for your comments re: aging. I do have tins of SOTEF from 2006 and 2007 in the cellar; perhaps I should pull one of those out as soon as I finish this 2012 tin, just to have a direct comparison. . .
Bob