Vanilla Flake VS Vanilla Cream Flake

[alexnc]

This may be common knowledge, sorry if so. But I was wondering and asked Mac Baren to get this reply.

Also, an official ‘Thanks’ to Hawky for pointing me to this blend. (A year ago when I was posting about not liking Aros Hawky advised it was OK to be Aro curious, and that Vanilla Flake might be a good one to try. Of course I immediately rejected it only to unearth the jar a year later, try it again, and wonder how the heck I didn’t like it the first time.)

Q: Is there a difference between Vanilla Flake and Vanilla Cream Flake?

A: No, it's the same product. We can't use the word cream in some markets, and therefore we are changing to Vanilla Flake only.

 

[BROBS]

This may be common knowledge, sorry if so. But I was wondering and asked Mac Baren to get this reply.

Also, an official ‘Thanks’ to Hawky for pointing me to this blend. (A year ago when I was posting about not liking Aros Hawky advised it was OK to be Aro curious, and that Vanilla Flake might be a good one to try. Of course I immediately rejected it only to unearth the jar a year later, try it again, and wonder how the heck I didn’t like it the first time.)

Q: Is there a difference between Vanilla Flake and Vanilla Cream Flake?

A: No, it's the same product. We can't use the word cream in some markets, and therefore we are changing to Vanilla Flake only.

Yup I found that out a while ago trying to tell the difference between the flakes/mixtures. ?
it's a great smoke.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Good smoke. Not a lot of (or ANY) nicotine, but it tastes #1 Chief Boss Most Excellent!

 

[Tommy Boy]

It's truly a great smoke and my wife LOVES the smell of the stuff. Win win in my book. She will ask me to puff this blend while she sits with me regularly and occasionally will even "pack" a pipe for me.

 

[ray47]

The Loose Cut is my favorite, but today I bought a tub of Mixture 79 at my local tobacco store that has been sitting on their top shelf for years and I'll be digging into that for a week or so.

 

[saltedplug]

Unfortunately I never smoked either. It joins the other 500 blends that I eyed repeatedly but never bought.

 

[workman]

I tried the flake and liked the flavor, but found it a little too generously topped. At the time I had gotten some tins of Mac Baren's Navy Flake, which is nice but not stellar in any way, so I started mixing the two.
A single strand of Vanilla Flake would change the Navy Flake a lot. It was fun to play with. I should get some more.

 

[BROBS]

I tried the flake and liked the flavor, but found it a little too generously topped. At the time I had gotten some tins of Mac Baren's Navy Flake, which is nice but not stellar in any way, so I started mixing the two.
A single strand of Vanilla Flake would change the Navy Flake a lot. It was fun to play with. I should get some more.

I’ve done this too: add a small amount to a plain VA or other non-aro blend and it really changes it.

 

[kschatey]

At the time I had gotten some tins of Mac Baren's Navy Flake, which is nice but not stellar in any way, so I started mixing the two.
A single strand of Vanilla Flake would change the Navy Flake a lot. It was fun to play with. I should get some more.

@workman ... Adding a bit of the Mac Baren Vanilla Flake to the Mac Baren Navy Flake is a fantastic idea! Thanks for sharing it. I will definitely be trying that since I don't think much of Mac Baren Navy Flake on its own. It will be interesting to see how this combination compares to plain Mac Baren Vanilla Flake and Dan Tobacco Sweet Vanilla Honeydew (another VA with Virginia that's quite good).

 

[workman]

@workman ... Adding a bit of the Mac Baren Vanilla Flake to the Mac Baren Navy Flake is a fantastic idea! Thanks for sharing it. I will definitely be trying that since I don't think much of Mac Baren Navy Flake on its own. It will be interesting to see how this combination compares to plain Mac Baren Vanilla Flake and Dan Tobacco Sweet Vanilla Honeydew (another VA with Virginia that's quite good).

The Navy Flake has quite a lot of nicotine. So with the added vanilla you get a relatively high-nic aro. Which may or may not be a good thing, depending on preferences.

 

[lawdawg]

This is one of the few blends that seems to get a lot of love on the forums, but has a pretty mediocre (to be generous) rating on tobaccoreviews. I've been interested in trying it, so will probably add a tin to an order at some point, though so far I've been scared off by the relatively low ratings.

I will say that I've found tobaccoreviews to be pretty good crowd sourced determination of the overall quality of a blend. Pretty much anything highly rated (say 3.5 or higher) has impressed me, but of course sometimes the crowd is wrong and might give us a misrepresentation about a blend, especially something kind of odd like an aromatic virginia.

 

[kschatey]

I will say that I've found tobaccoreviews to be pretty good crowd sourced determination of the overall quality of a blend. Pretty much anything highly rated (say 3.5 or higher) has impressed me, but of course sometimes the crowd is wrong and might give us a misrepresentation about a blend, especially something kind of odd like an aromatic virginia.

I have only been pipe smoking for a year now and do reference TobaccoReviews.com occasionally, but I don't actually find it to be overly good at helping make a determination on good vs. bad tobaccos. Much of this may be due to subjective tastes, but it seems that there are several problems with the site that make it unreliable, including:

• Relatively low volume of users and reviews
• Known historical changes (e.g., different manufacturers) aren't considered for a particular tobacco blend listing
• Four star ranking system isn't comprehensive enough
• Scoring formula appears to only be an average of the submitted ratings

I used to participate heavily in other review sites for beer and board games. The main review sites for those hobbies have a much greater number of participants, generally separate versions/editions of a particular product, have more refined ranking systems, and use a Bayesian (or some variation) for scoring. Those factors contribute to a more reliable system, but ultimately individual tastes and preferences are extremely subjective and so review scores must really be taken with a grain of salt. I have been finding it more and more common that my preferences apparently go against the grain for not only tobacco, but also beer and board games! What that means is that items with a relatively low score can't be written off so easily and additional research is necessary. The problem with pipe tobacco though is that there just isn't a ton of information out there to find for many blends.

 

[BROBS]

This is one of the few blends that seems to get a lot of love on the forums, but has a pretty mediocre (to be generous) rating on tobaccoreviews. I've been interested in trying it, so will probably add a tin to an order at some point, though so far I've been scared off by the relatively low ratings.

I will say that I've found tobaccoreviews to be pretty good crowd sourced determination of the overall quality of a blend. Pretty much anything highly rated (say 3.5 or higher) has impressed me, but of course sometimes the crowd is wrong and might give us a misrepresentation about a blend, especially something kind of odd like an aromatic virginia.

IT DEPENDS HOW MANY PEOPLE START THEIR REVIEW: I DON'T LIKE AROS BUT....

apparently I bought this one thinking: hey, maybe I like aros now.

I seriously think you would like it. It's got better flavor than your MickeyDolce with no goop! (just messing with you)

oh another reason people might bitch is because of the fruit with the vanilla.. but that's just the Mac's "Modern Cavendish". They work together and give it a cotton candy-like quality.

 

[workman]

I have only been pipe smoking for a year now and do reference TobaccoReviews.com occasionally, but I don't actually find it to be overly good at helping make a determination on good vs. bad tobaccos. Much of this may be due to subjective tastes, but it seems that there are several problems with the site that make it unreliable, including:

• Relatively low volume of users and reviews
• Known historical changes (e.g., different manufacturers) aren't considered for a particular tobacco blend listing
• Four star ranking system isn't comprehensive enough
• Scoring formula appears to only be an average of the submitted ratings

I used to participate heavily in other review sites for beer and board games. The main review sites for those hobbies have a much greater number of participants, generally separate versions/editions of a particular product, have more refined ranking systems, and use a Bayesian (or some variation) for scoring. Those factors contribute to a more reliable system, but ultimately individual tastes and preferences are extremely subjective and so review scores must really be taken with a grain of salt. I have been finding it more and more common that my preferences apparently go against the grain for not only tobacco, but also beer and board games! What that means is that items with a relatively low score can't be written off so easily and additional research is necessary. The problem with pipe tobacco though is that there just isn't a ton of information out there to find for many blends.

When you've found out how it works, which you seem to have, it's very useful.
Some blends are polarizing and will have some reviewers give full score and some give crap. The overall score will be mediocre, but to some users, the blend will be stellar.
Other blends will get a very high score, but you might not enjoy that particular genre and dislike it. And vice versa.
The majority of reviewers review something they like, inflating the general score of some mediocre blends.
Take all this into consideration while also trying to single out a few reviewers that try to be objective, like Jiminks, Pipestud, DK and a few others, and it'll be helpful albeit not perfect, of course. Nothing is.
It's a bit of work, but it's fun work.

 

[BROBS]

When you've found out how it works, which you seem to have, it's very useful.
Some blends are polarizing and will have some reviewers give full score and some give crap. The overall score will be mediocre, but to some users, the blend will be stellar.
Other blends will get a very high score, but you might not enjoy that particular genre and dislike it. And vice versa.
The majority of reviewers review something they like, inflating the general score of some mediocre blends.
Take all this into consideration while also trying to single out a few reviewers that try to be objective, like Jiminks, Pipestud, DK and a few others, and it'll be helpful albeit not perfect, of course. Nothing is.
It's a bit of work, but it's fun work.

agreed.
I try to use Jim as a baseline then compare others to his..
if the review is completely opposite to his.. I usually know that review is most likely not accurate.
Not saying all reviews should be just like Jim's.. but if he says something tastes a certain way, and someone else says something completely out of this world, you know that one is suspect.. and it isn't Jim's.

 

[workman]

agreed.
I try to use Jim as a baseline then compare others to his..
if the review is completely opposite to his.. I usually know that review is most likely not accurate.
Not saying all reviews should be just like Jim's.. but if he says something tastes a certain way, and someone else says something completely out of this world, you know that one is suspect.. and it isn't Jim's.

I do the same. My mind works with comparing things, so I need an idea about how a blend compares to others. That's where all the other reviewers come in.

 

[alexnc]

I agree with that. I have maybe 5 or 6 reviewers I pay attention to, and then qualify. Jim likes aros better than I do, I like perique more than Pipestud does, and so on. I’ll have to try mixing in a little V flake with my Navy Flake, I love McB Navy flake as it is!

 

[STP]

Good to know. Thx

 

[krizzose]

tried the flake and liked the flavor, but found it a little too generously topped. At the time I had gotten some tins of Mac Baren's Navy Flake, which is nice but not stellar in any way, so I started mixing the two.
A single strand of Vanilla Flake would change the Navy Flake a lot. It was fun to play with. I should get some more.

I sometimes mix HH Burley Flake with Vanilla Cream Flake, which I think is pretty good

 

[workman]

I sometimes mix HH Burley Flake with Vanilla Cream Flake, which I think is pretty good

I have a tin of Burley Flake that I haven't popped yet. I'm hoping to like it well enough not to need to cut it with an aro. It seems quite popular.