WESSEX RED VIRGINIA FLAKE

There’s a fragrance there that brings back memory-echoes. But while the era remembered is relatively clear, the actual product seemingly recalled is not.
Perhaps something from the tobacconist next to Priem's bookstore?
It smells somewhat like a Theodorus Niemeijer product.
At that time I wasn't smoking very good tobacco in my pipe.
Couldn't afford it, and wouldn't have known what to do with it.

But this is entirely different.


WESSEX RED VIRGINIA FLAKE

Fine compacted little sheets that need to be pullicked apart. When rubbed out they render to thin pliable shreds. Yes, there does appear to be a top-dressing, of an old-fashioned sort. But it is very mild and does not in any way detract from the smoke.
I'm not entirely sure that it adds anything to it either.

Wessex Red Virginia Flake is a mild to mild-medium smoke with an appealing tangy sweetness on the tongue. As flue-cured tobacco goes, this is one of the most charming little flakes in my cellar. The tin I opened up recently must have been several years old, though, and that may be why it pleases me so.

Underneath and above the added fragrance is the perfume of plums and herbs, ethereal and discrete, which subsumes into the smoke once lit.

I would put this in my pipe even if it didn't play on moods and images grooved in my subconscious decades ago, as it is an excellent product.

Like with all flakes, I rubbed it fully out and aired the tobacco a bit before putting it into a small storage container. Flake is often too wet to smoke right out of the tin, and this is deliberate. Were such products the right moisture level for immediate consumption, they would more than likely crumble into unsmokable crud in the hand. A few days in a tobacco jar after frazzing up the flakes allows the leafy odours to redistribute, careful and not too tight packing yields an effortless and enjoyable smoke.


ADDED BENEFIT

Rubbing out an entire tin of flakes leaves one's hands smelling quite yummy.
Come here, little girl, would you care to guess where my hands have been?

It's a profoundly old-fashioned aroma.
Likely to piss-off earth-mother types.
Who can't enjoy life unless indignant.
And instinctively despise fine smoke.

Dot - dot - dot

Mmm, my fingers smell like I've been touching someone.
Oh don't look like that, it's quite innocent.
Holding hands with a young lady.
Clean and glowing.

She's wearing cotton.
I'm sure of it.

TOBACCO INDEX


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