ATTENTION: CB Pipe Tobacco Review Bombing Run Version 2.0

[Emperor Zurg]

Date: 4/15/15
Bum: Emperor Zurg
Sample: “Pink K" Vac Packed G&H Glengary Flake
Pipe: Barling Canadian 5574
Environment: Vehicle - windows down, highway

Observations
Appearance: Mottled light and dark brown, sticky flake
Preparation: Cube cut right off the end of the stack of 4 flakes. Dried several hours
Burn: Steady and long burning. Burned steady and even after the false light for most of the bowl.
Tin Note: Sweet hay and figgy with citrus in the background. Smells delicious. I'm temped to try a chaw of this.
Flavor:
Cold draw was almost flavorless. I might have dried it a bit too long. Hard to tell with cubes.
Initial light was a bit woody and reminiscent of a sweet dry hay with a touch of Lakeland soap. The Lakeland went away pretty quick and may have been picked up from cutting this flake on the same card I'd used to dry the perfumey blend I tried previously. Flavor was very light at first. Once the bowl got underway the flavor intensified and I got mainly dried fruit - figs probably, maybe raisins (although the only figs I've eaten are Fig Newtons, it was sweet but not that sweet) - and a dusting of chocolate. The chocolate died out pretty quickly and after a bit the fruit began to give way to more of a floral flavor with a zing of citrus. There was light pepper on the tongue but almost no pepper on the retro. Floral / citrus and a slight touch of pepper hung on for most of the remainder of the bowl with the pepper slowly fading away to non-existent. Eventually the citrus also died out, giving way to more of a dry hay. There was a sweetness throughout the bowl that reminded me of molasses. Toward the bottom, just before it refused to stay burning, I'd describe the flavor as floral and dry hay. I didn't get much sweetness at that point, but it had been a long smoke and my sense of taste was starting to give out at that point. Regardless, I did not get a nic hit at all so I'd classify this as mild in the N department.

Comments and conclusion:
I'm pretty sure this is some kind of a hot pressed Virginia flake. There may be a bit of perique in there but if so, it's very little. It's a very nice smoke and the changing profile made for an interesting one as well. Getting it lit was an adventure as it kept wanting to erupt out the top of the pipe like one of those 'Magic Snake' pellets we used to get in the kids fireworks assortments my parents bought us around Independence Day. Sorry for the crappy pic - the phone camera insisted on focusing on the road - but you get the idea.



Thanks to @NeverBend for the opportunity to try these tobaccos

[Emperor Zurg]

Date: 4/15/15
Bum: Emperor Zurg
Sample: “Orange i" Vac Packed G&H Brown Flake
Pipe: MM Freehand Natural
Environment: Vehicle - windows down, highway

Observations:
Appearance: Brown flake with lighter streaks
Preparation: Dried for a couple hours - fold and stuff almost 1 entire flake. This pipe holds quite a payload.
Burn: Burned beautifully after I got it going. No relights unless I put it down for a while.
Tin Note: Sweet hay and raisins.
Flavor:
False light tasted of Lakeland soap. I puffed it a bit and it changed to a creamy soap, then I let it go out.
True light took a couple tries with quite a bit of fire and puffing - got pretty bitter but I finally got an ember going.
Once it got under way and settled down...
The first thing I noticed was dry hay. Dry hay with a touch of soap. Soon this took on a pretty dry, floral profile that stabilized for a bit. After about 10 minutes I got some sweetness creeping in that continued to build throughout the bowl. About 20/25 minutes in I would describe the flavor as sweet dry grass with a light floral component. Eventually the floral started to fade a bit, giving way to a hint of pepper. The pepper was welcome because I was getting bored with the floral grass flavor and hoping to get a shift to citrus or dried fruit (which never came). The pepper built for a while and the smoke eventually took on a bit of an almond flavor once in a while, although never loosing the floral component. This seemed to be the dominant profile because it lasted for the majority of the bowl. Toward the beginning of the last 1/3 the pepper had faded out quite a bit (was never really strong in the first place) and I think I picked up a touch of apricot or something once in a while - the floral component seemed to be coming and going at this point. I was getting dizzy so I set the pipe down and grabbed lunch. After I recovered a bit, I lit it back up and once it settled down I was getting a pretty delicious caramelized sugar flavor on the tongue, although the smoke was still pretty floral out the nose. I was liking the caramel much more than the floral at this point so I didn't retro much anymore. The caramel also made a sip of my coffee taste a bit like butterscotch. I was enjoying this quite a bit but alas, the vitamin N was getting to me again and I was pretty near the bottom of the bowl so I set it down for the last part of the trip, fearing any more and I wouldn't be fit to drive.

Comments and conclusion:
This was another interesting and enjoyable flake. I didn't care so much for the constant floral profile but it changed around enough that it stayed interesting. I'd classify this as a medium strength that probably wouldn't have bothered me much had I smoked a usual-sized bowl but this was a long delivery trip and the Freehand holds an enormous payload - way more baccy than I would usually smoke in 1 sitting; about 2 hours in and I still have some left in the pipe. I did enjoy the previous, sticky flake more as I like the citrus flavor that one had, but I wouldn't turn this one down.

Thanks to Pete and Tobias for making all this possible!