BryGuy reviews Peter Stokkebye Luxury Twist Flake

Date: 7/20/15
Tobacco: Peter Stokkebye Luxury Twist Flake
Age: None
Blend Contents: Virginia
Pipe: MM cob
Tin Note: Virginia, with a bit of something else
Prep: Straight from bag, twisted one flake into a musketball and sprinkled the broken bits on top.

Notes:
I’d been wanting to try this for a while, and finally broke down and ordered a few ounces.
I jarred up most of it and set aside a stack of flakes to smoke right away.
This is definitely an interesting-looking flake - an unique, swirly square.

First impressions are that it is a tad “bitey,” and I’m not digging the casing.
Speaking of the casing, I can’t really nail down what it is. I get fleeting hints of honey, or caramel, or vanilla? flowers? Gah! Whatever it is, it is mild.
Mild. Mild. Mild.
I am definitely not blown away.
I have to carefully puff slowly enough to not burn my mouth, which is just slow enough to not be interesting. You have to really focus on the tobacco to pick up the subtle flavors.
Of course, it could be that my youngest is out here shooting his airsoft gun, dumping out entire bottles of bubble soap on the ground, singing, and asking me a lot of questions. It is a little hard to relax and focus on the tobacco.

Not amazing, but I’ll give it some time to age.

All in all, this was a bit disappointing; and I’m a little bummed now. I’ll have to break out some SG Navy Flake to recover!

http://media.giphy.com/media/YRleSgrfcBuNO/giphy.gif

That stuff usually gets high marks. Maybe you just need to dry it a bit first.

Yeah, I'm definitely going to let it sit up a while and revisit.
I think I was also not in the mood for something that mild.

FWIW, there are a few blends I keep around because I really like the flavor (what little there is) and aroma but they just seem like an airy, watered down smoke. (Incidentally, all of them are Cavendish blends.) It's like you're sucking warm air with the tiniest hint of flavor. These are the ones where I mix a coin of some vaguely similar SG rope in with a bowl of said tobacco. Seems to do the trick almost every time. So what I'm driving at is if you try it a few times and there's no hope for it, try adulterating it with a little rope.

Tnx for the review, but I'm going to have to disagree. You actually did like it :)

I was just having a bowl of this last nite in a cob as well. I too was trying to place the flavor of the topping. To me the overall flavor is kind of grassy VA with a hint of... sugar.

No topping involved... just an excellent curing and roping method. It gets pressed square after that. I find it had to be dried fairly well to smoke without grief. adding 15% St. James Perique to it makes a heavenly blend after the two have some marrying time at full moist. I'll dry the blend to smoke in a heavy wall Mark Twain cob to get a great experience.

I've smoked about 3oz of the Luxury Twist. The scent (to me) is a faux maple syrup. I pick up Stokkebye scent more than I do in the milder Gawith Hoggarth (that many find oppressive), so I'm with you Bryan and had the same experience with this tobacco. It did get better.

I had a similar first impression of LTF. I wanted to like it but there was a distracting and not particularly enjoyable aftertaste. To me, it was an artificial taste; somewhat sweet, but unnaturally so. The smell reminded me of play-doh.

I decided to put it away for a while. Time passed and I enjoyed at least a jar each of the other luxury flakes before I sampled LTF again. Alas, time was what it needed. After a couple of years in the jar, it had mellowed into something sublime. It went from my least favorite of Stokkebye's luxury flakes to my favorite.

My suggestion: Jar it up and forget about it for awhile. There are lots of others to keep you busy in the meantime...

In the space of 8 posts, I went from thinking "nah, I'm not gonna bother with this stuff," to "I need to get some of this and age it!" I like play-doh.