...bit of a difficult question because there seems to be so few,
most even remotely fitting the correct form are called "broken flake".
That said,
my fave hands down is Dark Star by McClelland.
I consider it to be one of the best dark flakes ever made, I love the taste of it and its burning characteristics always set to sublime slow smolder, although I do wish they'd do a DSExtra version with some burley mixed in the fold for an added body because the notes are mostly all mids with a creamy top of highs, but almost no big bottom, and N is medium at most.
It's beautiful stuff though...
...and, it does fit the form of a true flake in my experience, although, to speak candidly, the flakes aren't as refined as those we've seen from the classic UK houses, and now the Danes and Germans, and I tend to agree with Peter Piper who made a note of it in his review of Blackwoods Flake, quoted here with relevant opinion in bold...
Why don't we have more American made flakes?
I mean,
surely it can be done!
Look at the old Edgeworth Sliced from Larus Bros. --- they most certainly made a proper correct flake;
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/edgeworth-sliced-vintage-tin-opening-pics
Even Dill's Best fer chrissakes made a decent flake:
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/jg-dill-co-dills-best-smoking-tobacco#post-716837
For most of American tobacco history, we've called flakes (as we know them today) "slices" or "sliced plug",
in the way way back days, the term flake in American baccy terms denoted a sort of a large rough cut which more resembled corn flakes rather than the British notion of the thin slivered rectangular flake...
most even remotely fitting the correct form are called "broken flake".
That said,
my fave hands down is Dark Star by McClelland.
I consider it to be one of the best dark flakes ever made, I love the taste of it and its burning characteristics always set to sublime slow smolder, although I do wish they'd do a DSExtra version with some burley mixed in the fold for an added body because the notes are mostly all mids with a creamy top of highs, but almost no big bottom, and N is medium at most.
It's beautiful stuff though...
His commentary is quite true concerning the form of the flakes, but at least McClelland does make an actual flake, unlike some other American manufacturers who've been around for much longer and have never ever produced a flake in their entire existence, houses like Lane Ltd. and Sutliff come to mind here.
Why don't we have more American made flakes?
I mean,
surely it can be done!
Look at the old Edgeworth Sliced from Larus Bros. --- they most certainly made a proper correct flake;
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/edgeworth-sliced-vintage-tin-opening-pics
Even Dill's Best fer chrissakes made a decent flake:
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/jg-dill-co-dills-best-smoking-tobacco#post-716837
For most of American tobacco history, we've called flakes (as we know them today) "slices" or "sliced plug",
in the way way back days, the term flake in American baccy terms denoted a sort of a large rough cut which more resembled corn flakes rather than the British notion of the thin slivered rectangular flake...
:
