Looking to try Virginia blends. Anyone have any they can recommend. I tried OGS. looking for something not so mainstream.

I usually recommend Dunhill Flake, but the DF is very popular and fits the "mainstream" moniker.

Dunhill's just brought back a blast from the past -- The Elizabethan Mixture.  It's a Va/Per (Virginias and Perique), definitely worth a try.

Also a Va/Per and a favorite of mine is Hearth & Home Anniversary Flake from Pipes & Cigars.

For a "straight" virginia, there's Capstan, finally available in the USA and now made by Mac Baren.  The Capstan Gold is milder, the Capstan Blue is Medium, both come in flakes (which I prefer) as well as rubbed out mixtures.

I'd be interested in what you get and what you think.

GLP Union Square is very good and a new favorite for me

The G.L. Pease Union Square is certainly not mainstream -- pure virginia, all natural, no added topping.  Quite unique for the genre, IMHO.

Cube-cut C&D After Hours Flake after lunch today, in a Savinelli 320 KS.

Not sure how mainstream this is, but MacBaren's HH Mature Virginia is a nice blend. Very enjoyable.

Quotemetalhead y cigarguy - 8/12/2013  3:26 PM

Not sure how mainstream this is, but MacBaren's HH Mature Virginia is a nice blend. Very enjoyable.

Probably not mainstream as Mac Baren HH Mature Virginia contains over 20 different types of leaf which, to me, provides a rather unique flavor profile.  I love the stuff and have more than two pounds of it in my cellar.

I really like Union Square but the GLP Va blend I really like is Laurel Heights. Its definitely not mainstream, in fact it flies under thr radar of most smokers. I have a tin from 2006 im smoking now, fantasticly delicious. Ive tried many many vas but alwsys come back to LH.
Also, Mclelland makes many great Virginias and their Christmas Cheer is different every year.

The 2013 McClelland Christmas Cheer was just released.

It's a limited edition.  I buy a few tins every year and around Thanksgiving, I open one of my the oldest tins of the CC and smoke it through the Holidays.  Great stuff -- all virginia -- but the blend changes every year.

thanks guys. i am going to give a few of those a try. i will let you know which ones i get and then ultimately how they were

Where are you with this Dave?  Did you pick up any of these Virginias?

Full Virginia Flake.