Pipe Tobacco Review - Peter Stokkebye Luxury Twist Flake - a 5-star Budget Virginia-Perique Spun Cut
Retailer's Description
pipesandcigars.com says:
A blend of ripe Virginia tobaccos spiced with pure Louisiana Perique. The center of Black Cavendish smooths out the taste. The outer blend is pressed into thin layers before being tightly spun around a stick of pressed Black Cavendish.
Jar Aroma
Heady and slightly sweet, with just a hint of plum. A bit like wet, well fertilized black soil after a rain.
Preparation
The medallions crumble easily and rub out into fine ribbons, though I find the black cavendish center needs a bit more breaking apart. I use a small bowled pipe any time Perique is mentioned. It's got a great peppery kick to it (and is the source of the plum aroma in the jar) but as a nicotine lightweight I find a little goes a long way.
For outdoors, I would just fold a couple of the medallions in half and cram them firmly into a slightly larger bowl.
Smoking
There's no aromatic top-casing to this blend (unlike the Luxury Twist Flake from Stokkebye I reviewed here). Instead, I get a well-balanced mix of natural tobacco flavors. It takes a couple of minutes to develop, starting off on the mild side and gradually getting richer. I noticed the natural sweetness of the Virginia leaf first, and then the complimentary earthy, deeper note of the Perique.
The Black Cavendish doesn't stand a chance of standing out among the other flavors, but it does provide a smoothing effect, so the Virginia doesn't get too hot or tangy, and the Perique doesn't get too peppery.
Towards the second half of the bowl, the flavors start to harmonize more, turning into something rich and well-balanced, like a red wine aged in oak barrells. It's rather uncommon to find a tobacco that gets smoother towards the bottom. But here we are.
Room Aroma Report from @donnadavisart:
"Sweet, but 'cooler' than the others. Like an outdoor campfire in the Springtime, or woodsmoke out of a chimney."
Smoke with me!
Summary and Score
Full flavored without being overpowering. A great, all natural Virginia-Perique blend. (Known among the hip young pipe smoking set as a VaPer.) At under $3/oz, it's affordable enough to be an all-day smoke, and the spun-cut flakes make it fine for both indoor and outdoor smoking. But I feel like this one deserves the armchair and the hour of relaxed attention. Would pair great with a Malbec1 or Merlot.
What the hell. 5/5 stars. Why not?
Footnotes:
1 Ever notice that "Malbec" is an anagram of "becalm?"
Sounds good, I'll add it to my list for my next order.
Today I'm smoking Wild Hare out of my Neerup sitter.
Those Neerup pipes look gorgeous. Just googled them and found he's a disciple of Erik Nording - can't go wrong there!
It is a really great smoker. Most of my pipes are vintage new old stock, antiques, or effective cheap pipes which are disposable for work. I've bought very few new pipes but this one was a a must have. Sits well, smokes well, I like the low maintenance of the acrylic stem. This one is a bit of an oddball but that's more my taste.
A handsome oddball, for sure. I love that it's been sandblasted but you can still see the grain. Come to think of it I don't know as I've seen that before.
Yeah at the time when I bought it they called it a very light sandblast. It's still very smooth to the touch so you get the best of both worlds out of it. I may post some of my collection on my blog.
Please do! We've got to get the #smokewithme tag to start trending!
I've never smoked a pipe, not with tobacco anyway...
However for many years my hobby was Cuban cigars... sadly now I can't smoke them anymore, at least not as often, but sometimes I take one out and smell it. :)
Oh no! Doctors orders, or have they just become too difficult to obtain?
Of course, we still can't buy Cuban cigars in the US. I'd love to try a few and see if they stand up to the legend. I suspect cigar makers in other countries have caught up by now, but the only way to know for sure would be to smoke some of each!
lol if the doctors had known I was smoking, they'd have told me to lay off... yeah it's better for my health this way.
But you can get Cubans in the US, I used to buy them from here all the time when I lived there:
http://www.friendsofhabanos.com/forum/
I met the guy who sells them, the leader of the forum, based in Australia, I can vouch for him. :)
They'll simply package the cigars separately from the Cuban original box, then send both to you but separately. Customs can't tell the difference, because similar brands are made in Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, etc.
Thanks for the trip. Maybe I'll treat myself someday soon.
I've read that it's no longer illegal to buy cigars for personal consumption and bring them back. Hopefully it won't be long before we can actually sell them here. Then again, our tobacco taxes are outrageous.