Favorite Straight VAs

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alfredo_buscatti

alfredo_buscatti

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I have:

GH Curly Cut
Red Ribbon
Wessex Gold Brick
Union Square
Fillmore
FVF

What are yours?
 
Union Square
BBF
5100 (Red Cake)

Still trying more! :cheers:
 
My favorite Virginias:
Union Square
Opening Night
Hamborger Veermaster
Hal O' The Wynd
Wessex Brigade - Campaign
Full Virginia Flake
 
Wessex Brigade Campaign
Fribourg & Treyer Cut Virginia Plug
Astleys no 44 Dark Flake
Wessex Brown Flake
Wessex Gold Flake
Wessex Gold Brick
SG Best Brown Flake
SG FVF
Fribourg & Treyer Vintage
Dunhill Flake
Rotary Navy Cut
Peterson Irish Flake

One Va flake that is out there that does not get much mention is the Wessex Red Virginia Flake. I love the taste but cannot smoke it due to my body chemistry issue with Red Virginia's. If anyone is a fan of the Red's, I highly recommend this one.
 
I know Fillmore is a VA/Perique. I read somewhere about it being a "VA," and that's where that came from. Maybe the writer was commenting on it having very little Perique like all the straight VAs that one day became VA/Periques: HOTW, Reiner Gold Flake, Heinrich Spec. Selection Curly Cut, etc. Oh, and now we've also learned that straight VAs usually have some burley.
 
Fillmore also has a pinch of Latakia in it if IIRC. Not on the tin, but Greg mentioned it somewhere.

I'm more of a VaPer smoker but I do love FVF; BBF is good too. I like a few of the McClelland matured VAs as well, #22 and #24 (which has Drama added). McCranie's Red Ribbon is nice too. Hm, tons more I know, but I'm drawing a blank...
 
It's interesting to read all of your replies as I have struggled mightily trying to find a straight VA that I can honestly say I truly adore. Throw in some sort of condiment tobacco (a VA translator if you will) be it Perique or Dark Fired and I am right at home. But I have yet to smoke a straight VA that has put me in the zone.

Every experienced piper I have spoken to loves their VA's, maybe I need a better smoking chair and a more educated tongue but the nuances that many find there are lost on me. Blackwoods Flake is the closest I have come to really falling in love with a straight VA.
 
I don't think they are all straight but...
In no special order

Christmas Cheer
SG FVF
PS LNF
Dunhill Flake
Solani Silver Flake

Andy
 
Blackwoods Flake
FVF

Even though these might not technically be "straight VA", I consider them to be in the same category.
OGS
PS LNF
Hal O the Wynd

 
FVF
Christmas Cheer
OGS (ok, technically not straight VA, but I treat it like one)
 
BBF
FVF
Germain Brown Flake (contains semois)
Astleys No. 44
Dan Hamborger Veermaster
Wessex BCDF
F&T Blackjack
F&T Cut Blended Plug
C&D Opening Night
Dunhill Flake

in that order
 
alfredo_buscatti":35mpqgyp said:
Heinrich Spec. Selection Curly Cut, etc. Oh, and now we've also learned that straight VAs usually have some burley.
Click to expand...
This for sure as our resident Va EXPERT has told us. According to him, there's only two "strait Va's" made, one no longer blended and GLP's Union Square. ALL the rest are variations of VaBur's and from this we would have to say that ALL these blenders are lying to us! So, according to him only ONE is available :twisted:
 
All good ones, to which I might add Wessex Golden Slice (a new, but unheralded flake), the 2 Aylesburys, Altadis #507, and RussO's new Virginia Nights. The new McClelland 35 Stave is whiskey enhanced, in a very tasty way.

hp
les
 
Funny question...now that it comes to it, and I never realized this, I'm not sure there are too many VAs I enjoy all that much that don't have a lil bit 'o this or a lil bit 'o that added in, whether it be perique, cavendish, burley, orientals, cigar leaf, or latakia.

I think Christmas Cheer, Dark Star, and BWF are straight VAs, and if so I enjoy all 3. In fact they were once my absolute favorites. Over time my taste for McClelland VAs have faded somewhat though. However, all three are still very good.

If I'm not too much mistaken, Best Brown Flake/ Kendal Plug is straight, and if so, that would be my favorite.

Were I to go with the best VA dominant blends however, Marlin Flake and HOTW would take center stage followed closely by VA Spice, Sweet and Savory, and Stonehaven.
 
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