Solani silver flake and 633 1st impressions

[hyper_dermic]

After smoking about 3 bowls each of the Solani line, here are my initial impressions.

BUY MORE!!!!!
yes, i just placed an order for 3 more tins of each.
I will put these away for atleast a year.

Lets begin wiht Solani Silver.
It only comes in 100g Tins, which holds a gold foil bag inside.
The tin is nice, and will hold various objects nicely, but its utterly useless for keeping the tobacco fresh. After opening the gold foil bag, i placed the contents in a mason jar.
Those familiar with Rattrays tobaccos will enjoy the bag aroma of this tobacco, reminicant of Gowrie or HOTW. I found the two to be similar, but silver flake has enough to clearly set itself apart from Rattray's blends.
Silver flake is a stringy broken flake, i rubbed it out coarsly before lighting up
The Flavors are deep and satisfying, There is certainly ALOT going on here!
Rich and earthy flavors dominate, but about halfway through a sweetness and tanginess begin to surface.
Very complex, cool and dry smoking, this one is near perfect for me. No tounge bite for me at all!
Mine was ready to smoke right out of the bag, no need to dry out.
Solani Silver Flake has earned a top position in my VA rotation.

Up next is Solani 633.
This is their Va/PER version.
the 50g tin is a fine piece of work. the packaging is very very nice. inside the square tin large unbroken rectangle flakes are nicely layed out underneith paper. I removed 1 and 1/2 flakes, layed it out to dry for about 10 min.
I then folded n' stuffed with a little bit cut into cubes placed on top to get it going.
Once again i am greeted by the complex VA that solani has shown in Silver Flake. But this time the overall flavor is much lighter and sweeter. The levels of perique are quite low in this blend, Just enough to effect the taste without distracting from the VA. The overall effect is excellent. Virginias, with perique. not the otherway around...

The quality of tobaccos is clearly evident in these blends, and they are well worth the extra coin. Being impressed by Solani, i look forward to trying reiner's long golden flake (placed an order for it today along with some more tins of Solani)

I highly reccomend both tobaccos!

-hyp

[kjd2121]

Very nice review. Sounds like a purchase is in order - :pp

[hyper_dermic]

These blends seem to be sensitive to the bowl they are smoked in.
I noticed brighter flavors in my cobs and ashton, whereas when smoked in a new briar that wasnt oil cured, the flavors seemed muted.

I suppose thats just how it goes when your pipes arent broken in yet!
anyways, VAs and Cobs sure do taste good!!!

-hyp

[Kayak_Rat]

While I agree with you about the quality of the tobacco, I found both of them, as well as the Luxury English to have a rather muted flavor. It almost seemed as if a flavorful puff was right around the corner, but never made it. I plan on letting these set for a little bit, bit I found nothing overly amazing about them. :2

[hyper_dermic]

did u try them in several different pipes?
They can be picky... my R. Wiley pipe seems to mute high notes and tang.
doing that to solani makes it just run of the mill.
When smoked in a cob or oil cured ashton, the brightness was there and it just an amazing taste... almost like food... citrus, i want to say bread perhaps?
ill write up some more tommrow...

-hyp

While I agree with you about the quality of the tobacco, I found both of them, as well as the Luxury English to have a rather muted flavor. It almost seemed as if a flavorful puff was right around the corner, but never made it. I plan on letting these set for a little bit, bit I found nothing overly amazing about them. :2

[carbonbased_al]

After smoking about 3 bowls each of the Solani line, here are my initial impressions.

BUY MORE!!!!!
yes, i just placed an order for 3 more tins of each.
I will put these away for atleast a year.

Lets begin wiht Solani Silver.
It only comes in 100g Tins, which holds a gold foil bag inside.
The tin is nice, and will hold various objects nicely, but its utterly useless for keeping the tobacco fresh. After opening the gold foil bag, i placed the contents in a mason jar.
Those familiar with Rattrays tobaccos will enjoy the bag aroma of this tobacco, reminicant of Gowrie or HOTW. I found the two to be similar, but silver flake has enough to clearly set itself apart from Rattray's blends.
Silver flake is a stringy broken flake, i rubbed it out coarsly before lighting up
The Flavors are deep and satisfying, There is certainly ALOT going on here!
Rich and earthy flavors dominate, but about halfway through a sweetness and tanginess begin to surface.
Very complex, cool and dry smoking, this one is near perfect for me. No tounge bite for me at all!
Mine was ready to smoke right out of the bag, no need to dry out.
Solani Silver Flake has earned a top position in my VA rotation.

Up next is Solani 633.
This is their Va/PER version.
the 50g tin is a fine piece of work. the packaging is very very nice. inside the square tin large unbroken rectangle flakes are nicely layed out underneith paper. I removed 1 and 1/2 flakes, layed it out to dry for about 10 min.
I then folded n' stuffed with a little bit cut into cubes placed on top to get it going.
Once again i am greeted by the complex VA that solani has shown in Silver Flake. But this time the overall flavor is much lighter and sweeter. The levels of perique are quite low in this blend, Just enough to effect the taste without distracting from the VA. The overall effect is excellent. Virginias, with perique. not the otherway around...

The quality of tobaccos is clearly evident in these blends, and they are well worth the extra coin. Being impressed by Solani, i look forward to trying reiner's long golden flake (placed an order for it today along with some more tins of Solani)

I highly reccomend both tobaccos!

-hyp

Excellent reviews! I couldn't agree more with you, never had a solani blend I didn't like!

[EvanS]

Hint on the 633....feel free to dry it a LOT. The VA retains all of it's sweet smoothness and the Perique POPS big time. Not so much a huge dose, but a very nioce Perique flavor with a lot more spiciness.

Probably my favorite VA/Per after 3 tins in the past several months

[dls]

Hint on the 633....feel free to dry it a LOT. The VA retains all of it's sweet smoothness and the Perique POPS big time. Not so much a huge dose, but a very nioce Perique flavor with a lot more spiciness.

Probably my favorite VA/Per after 3 tins in the past several months

Gonna have to give this a try. I enjoyed my first bowl of 633, but it wasn't the superb smoke I was expecting, the flavors seemed muted. Hopefully this will work out some of the kinks for me!

[IHT]

Hint on the 633....feel free to dry it a LOT. The VA retains all of it's sweet smoothness and the Perique POPS big time. Not so much a huge dose, but a very nioce Perique flavor with a lot more spiciness.

Probably my favorite VA/Per after 3 tins in the past several months

what's funny is that i meant to post a review of this earlier today. i had a half bowl last night and then DGT'd the rest for this morning.

it made it a tale of two halves, for sure. the first half was very tangy/tart and a little sweet VA with hints of light perique. the DGT'd half was more peppery with the perique, but still very light and nice. no biting at all.

[EvanS]

what's funny is that i meant to post a review of this earlier today. i had a half bowl last night and then DGT'd the rest for this morning.

it made it a tale of two halves, for sure. the first half was very tangy/tart and a little sweet VA with hints of light perique. the DGT'd half was more peppery with the perique, but still very light and nice. no biting at all.

I have found that a sort of extreme drying out of this flake gives almost the same effect as the DGT

[IHT]

cool.

i forgot to mention i had it in a Karl Erik. i took some of the flake, folded it into 3rds. then took one of the 3rds, rolled it up, gently rubbed it between my fingers into a cylinder shape, slid it into the bowl. use some scraps as kindling. off it went.

[hollywood]

Just had my first bowl of the 633 in my Bjarne billiard. The taste was really what I was looking for. Really a solid VA flavor with the right amount of sweetness. As said before; the Perique is evident, but not dominant in this mixture.

I think I will have to try out either DGT or drying it out some; as it really wanted to get "wet" when I smoked it. It was almost immediately producing a small gurgle in the pipe.

I'll be picking up a tin or 2 of this to set back for a few months.

Thanks again for the sample Evan!!:tu