In my younger years, I wouldn’t smoke anything considered a Lakeland Blend. I hate the soapy floral aftertaste and the “Old Lady Perfume” smell I get from those tobaccos. If I would have tried Rum Flake back then, it would have been tossed over the side and float tested (militarize version of thrown in the trash).
Ah…but time changes all and something compelled me to buy a tin of Rum Flake before reading about it on tobaccoreview.com and other forums. I wanted the see whether I liked it or not before having my opinion impacted by other reviewers. When I did check the reviews, there were many good ones and some that made me glad I bought first, researched second.
The tin note to me is sweet and fruity but nowhere near what I expected after reading that its the “Christmas Cake” of GH flakes or the “rum, raisin, maple, molasses and licorice” that others described. Over the six weeks I smoked the tin, I noted that the tin note changed as the tobacco dried out. At the end it reminded me more of a potpourri, something more floral than the rum, vanilla and licorice. I know this is an aromatic but I found that as I smoked it, the less aromatic it seemed to be. By the end of the smoke, the tobacco was definitely the star.
Rum Flake is moist when the tin is first opened. I won’t say wet because I felt it was smokeable from the start. It did take a re-light or two more than usual for me, but smokeable. The room note is hard for me to describe because I mostly smoke outside or in my two car garage. What I did get is the floral sweetness at the start of the smoke and a little spiciness from what I assumed to be the anise/licorice flavoring. After 10 or 15 minutes, the floral notes fade and the rum and maple becomes more noticeable as does the sun-cured and Virginias. I found it to be a nice, mellow smoke with just enough of the other tobacco (dark air cured and burley, I think), to tame the Virginias.
I found it to stay smooth and consistent. The only time it gave an indication of biting was in a clay pipe. In a cob it was, as expected, a little sweeter than when smoked in a briar.
Rum Flake is also one of those that starts out mild in strength and builds as you smoke it. Put it in a small or regular size pipe and it’s going to stay about medium. I did smoke a couple of bowls it in large bowl pipes – a Savinelli Dry System and a Meerschaum – and the nicotine hit starting knocking at the front door after 45 minutes and was breaking down the back door by the time I got to the bottom of the bowl roughly 1 hr. 15 minutes after starting the pipe.
Pappy Joe’s Bottom Line: I know people who don’t like GH Rum Flake. But I also know people who don’t like little children and puppies. There is no accounting for taste. I bought one tin and before I was halfway through the tin, I bought two more. This is a tobacco that should be available for a long time since it was on the market as far back as 2001. I can live with smoking it.
