I've had many years of experience with
Scottish Flake. It has a luscious tin aroma, but I already knew enough not to be allured by it into stoking a big bowl full of it. Been there, done that, and paid the price in
Green Gills Syndrome. I keep an assortment of small pipes for tobaccos like this. In this case it's an old Barling's Make Ye Olde Wood Straight Grain that loves matured Virginia flakes.
Here's Peretti's description:
SCOTTISH FLAKE: Our fullest bodied flake. A blend of mature virginias are cured with red wine, pressed in a cake, and steam treated. The result is a jet black cake which delivers load of thick rich smoke.
No argument there. This stuff is intensely flavorful; a little goes a long way, and there's plenty of flavor available, even when sipping it from a smallish flake pipe.
I've found it's best not to rub out the flakes. I just cut them into longish chunks about 3/8" in length, press them into a round plug (mostly lengthwise, along the grain), roll the plug between my palms a couple of times to loosen the slices just a bit, squeeze the plug into the right diameter to fit into the bowl, and then shove it in with enough pressure to get the draw I want. I cut off the part of the plug that's sticking up above the rim, apply slight pressure with the soft pad of my thumb to fine-tune the pack, and it's ready to go.
It usually takes two or three lights and tamps to get a good burn going, mostly due to the relatively high moisture content of the weed. But it's well worth the little bit of fussing it takes. You can dry out the flakes a bit, but it's not necessary. The tobacco will light just fine with a charring light or two and a couple of tamps.
Flavorwise,
Scottish Flake is in the same league with well-aged
Full Virginia Flake, except that it's darker and sweeter. There's nothing but dark, matured 'Ginnyweed here, and a hint of the red wine that Peretti uses to dress the leaf before pressing. The wine is a subtle presence—virtually indistinguishable from the intense aroma of the tobacco itself in the tin, and impossible (for me) to separate from the flavor of the tobacco in the pipe.
This is undoubtedly one of my all-time favorite blackweed flakes. It has a smoky sweetness that's reminiscent of a fruitwood campfire. It perfumes the air with the smell of Christmas pudding and toasted sugar, while it serves up a smoke that has just the right amount of sweetness on the tongue. It's especially tasty with a mug of dark roast coffee, but its deep, rich flavor holds up perfectly well on its own, and it's flavorful enough to be a great after dinner smoke.
There's not much complexity in the first 1/3-bowl, but who cares? It's such a delicious smoke that I'm too busy enjoying what it is to fret over what it isn't. That's not to say that
Scottish Flake is entirely monochromatic; it does evolve as you burn your way down through the bowl, with fascinating citrus flavors emerging down into the second 1/3-bowl, where I would least expect to find them. It's not that it becomes less flavorful; rather the balance of flavors changes.
This isn't like your usual pure Ginnyweed flake. That is, the Virginia tanginess that usually shows up at the top of the bowl and gradually gives way to the deepening, toasted flavors as you burn down toward mid-bowl are mostly absent in the first 1/3-bowl, or at least they're overwhelmed by the toasted sweetness that's evident from the start. Then by the midpoint, the spicy tang that has gradually been building adds another dimension to the smoke, giving it a zesty character that usually comes from the addition of a Turkweed component.
In fact, by the bottom third of the bowl, the tanginess deepens into an almost cigar-like quality that makes me wonder whether there might actually be some Oriental in the blend. If not, it's truly an amazing feat of blendmeistering that such depth and spice can come from pure Virginia leaf.
The weed DGTs OK, but it's certainly not needed to improve the flavor or the burn. I prefer to smoke the entire bowl in one sitting, or at least in two burns on the same day. It loses something overnight—not much, but just a bit of the creamy smoothness is gone—and it can get a little bitey on the tongue if it sits around in the pipe for more than a couple of days. Otherwise, I can't recall any time in which I've ever experienced tongue bite with
Scottish Flake. It's a smooth, rich, sweet smoke that any lover of fine matured 'Ginnyweed is sure to appreciate.
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