virginias

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dantiff49

dantiff49

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I have been smoking aros for the past 5 years but I keep feeling like im missing out on some good tobac flavor .so I felt like I should try some Virginia's. I have place a order for a tin of Samuel gawith sun glow.can anyone recommend some other tobaccos to wean my self off aros.im not a big fan of latakia. I have tried early morning pipe .didn't care for it much.....Dan
 
Hi Dan,
I'm going through a similar process. Staying with the Samuel Gawith theme, Fire Dance Flake should be perfect for you; Va based with a little casing for good measure...
 
dantiff49":uiwdlk44 said:
I have been smoking aros for the past 5 years but I keep feeling like im missing out on some good tobac flavor .so I felt like I should try some Virginia's. I have place a order for a tin of Samuel gawith sun glow.can anyone recommend some other tobaccos to wean my self off aros.im not a big fan of latakia. I have tried early morning pipe .didn't care for it much.....Dan
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You've got some of the world's BEST Va's produced down the road from ya in K.C., why go with the imports? McClelland's makes the worlds BEST Va blend/mixtures and since you are coming from liking Aeo's I'd suggest one of the BEST Red Va's made, McC's Fragrant Matured 2000 a nice easy smoking ( fully rubbed out) broken flake and it's available in $ saving bulk as well !! JMHO as a Va smoker for the last 25 years   :twisted: :twisted:
 
Mcbarens' vanilla creme flake is excellent too. And red cake 5100 is a great va for beginners. If you like red cake, try the 2035 dark navy flake. One of my favorites for sure. Just be sure to dry it out a bit and sip slowly.
 
Blackwoods Flake is probably my only must have straight VA. Everything else I enjoy are VaPer's, Va/Turks, etc.
 
d4klutz":38q34jmu said:
Mcbarens' vanilla creme flake is excellent too.  And red cake 5100 is a great va for beginners.   If you like red cake, try the 2035 dark navy flake.    One of my favorites for sure.   Just be sure to dry it out a bit and sip slowly.
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+1. JP put these on my chart too. The Red Cake is just the finest smoke I've had.
 
Fribourg & Treyer makes two excellent Virginia flakes: Cut Virginia Plug is lighter in color and flavor, while Cut Blended Plug is sweeter, darker, and richer. The Blended could be a desert-island smoke for me.

Dunhill Flake is in the same vein as the FT Cut Virginia Plug, and is also top notch.

Orlik Golden Sliced is a beautiful light and grassy Virginia which supposedly has some Perique in it, but if so, it's so subtle as to be undetectable by me at any rate.

If you want some strength, Royal Yacht is a favorite matured Virginia with a distinctive but subtle added flavoring.

McClelland's Blackwoods Flake is a nice stoved Virginia with a rich, complex character.

If you want some Perique with your Virginia, you have a large number of excellent options. Peter Stokkebye's Luxury Navy Flake has the Perique applied with a very light hand. It's also a terrific bargain. My two top choices for Virginia/Perique blends would be Escudo (another desert-island choice) and Solani 633.
 
One of my favorites is PS LTF. Just be careful of tongue bite with va's. I've found I'm particularly susceptible to bite with them and so I mix in 1/2 by volume of blending burley to most of the va's and va/pers I smoke.

Best of luck in your search brother.

Jim
 
Another McClelland fan here...

Deep Woods is great crossover, it's a straight Va, but has a little aro-something (apple and vanilla I think I've read) in there. One of my favorites (or desert island as was mentioned above).

 
my short list of favorite pipe tobacco

Va's
BBF, FVF, MVF, Germain Brown Flake, F&T CVP, Capstan Original Flake, Butera Golden Cake
honorable mentions for Marlin Flake and Astleys No. 44

VaOrs
McC Tudor Castle, Butera Blended Flake, McC Matured Virginias No. 24

aside from preferring Burley with my morning coffee, I could smoke from the above list with nothing else for the rest of my life and be content
 
fsu92john":242y8jvk said:
Orlik Golden Sliced is a beautiful light and grassy Virginia which supposedly has some Perique in it, but if so, it's so subtle as to be undetectable by me at any rate.
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^This. It's excellent as an entry to Virginias as well as an entry into flakes. Affordable, mild (which doesn't mean tasteless), and very forgiving.
 
My #1 Virginia is SG's bulk offering "Medium Virginia", also sold tinned under the name Golden Glow. For me it's the perfect virginia. For variety I also like Blackwoods flake, F&T Cut Virginia Plug, GH & co Curley Cut regular, Rattray's Brown Clunee.
 
McClelland's Blackwoods Flake was the first tobacco I fell in love with and I enjoy it just as much today. My other favorites are Samuel Gawith Full Virginia Flake, and more recently I developed in insatiable taste for Rattray's Hal o the Wynd.

Those are my three must haves. I also enjoy Orlick Golden Sliced and PS Luxury Navy Flake, when I am in the mood for something lighter.

(HotW makes up about 75% of what I smoke an regular basis)
 
My first flake was MacB's Mixture flake. A decent starter flake. Not a Virginia benchmark by any means but won't break your will of trying flakes and non aros. Mild and a much better flake than one might think based on being the flake version of MacB's Mixture. It set the table for me and got me excited about trying other flakes.
 
My first Flake was Player's Navy Cut Flake. It's some tasty stuff but sadly is not sold over here anymore. Ya gotta cross the Big Pond to the EU to get it !!  :twisted: :twisted:
 
You've got me thinking of the first time I lit up a bowl of Medium Virginia Flake and thought, this is astoundingly like the Player's Plain and Export Plain cigarettes I smoked in Canada when I was in college in the 1970's. Those were still old-British-law cigarettes and a fine smoke.

But I've never had Player's (English manufacture) in a pipe cut. Maybe a longshot--or maybe not--but I wonder whether and how MVF compares to PNC.
 
Curious if the original poster tried any of the Virginia's mentioned...

McClelland 2015 bulk va/per was one of the first great Virginia's for me. Lots of flavor, great zesty zing. Also loved Rattray's Dark Fragrant. Lots of goodies!
 
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