AGING KENTUCKY / VA BLENDS

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whiteburleydude

Starting to Get Obsessed
Dec 4, 2017
144
13
Kentucky/VA blends have become some of my favorites lately. Triple Play, Three Nuns, JackKnife, BF #3, etc. I've been picking up a tin here and there when I can to cellar. Everyone knows VA's age great and burley not so much. But what about the combo of KY and VA? Are they worth cellaring for 5+ years? Thanks!

 

briarbuck

Lifer
Nov 24, 2015
2,287
5,492
Never done a side by side but I have a older can of JKP open right now and it's fabulous. No sharpness at all. Lots of bass notes.

 
Everyone knows VA's age great and burley not so much.

And, what exactly are you trying to say with that? Is this just an assumption from reading a post on some forum and then warping it into this? I know that one the PMRadioshow, Brian Levine said that Virginias improve the most, with latakia coming in second, and burly third, with aromatics being last. Then people took this to mean that Latakia and burleys do not age well; I guess assuming that they suck or something. When it was merely just a case of assuming over actually "hearing" what he was saying.
Burley ages just fine. Aged Burley Flakes, Burley Flake #1, and people with hundreds of pounds of burley twists in the cellar will attest to their greatness.
Your VaBurs will be fine, great even. Read Greg Peases blog on aging, and stop believing the rehashed trash you read in forums. It's what happens when one person misunderstands something, then repeats it, and then it proliferates the forums as a fact.

 

cigrmaster

Lifer
May 26, 2012
20,249
57,277
66
Sarasota Florida
My only experience with long term aged Vaburs was a 100 gram tin of 1997 Orlik Dark Strong Kentucky I cracked in 2012. The tobacco was oily and black and the flavors were sublime. I have been smoking through a pound of 2007 Stonehaven that is very tasty. The flavors are smoother, richer and more well rounded than when fresh.
I have also been smoking 2012 Mac Baren Old Dark Fired that has been smoking beautifully. I have other Vaburs that are 6 years old and everyone has gotten better with age. I would not hesitate to age your Vaburs for 10-20 years.

 

johnsteam86

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jan 1, 2018
271
0
I'm actually doing a test on Three Nuns right now since it is one of my go to brands right now. So far aging a month now to see if it lost any of its flavor or intensity. The flavor seems to be doing pretty well. I will not be checking back on this one for another 3 months but so far so well. Taste even better so far than right out of the tin which was amazing.

 
I have 18 different VaBur, VaBurPer blends in the cellar, and the two that age the best that I have noticed are GLP's Navigator and Newminster SRS. The Kentucky just sweetens up so nicely from the wine like Virginias. Very rich and delicious. In fact, I really don't care for fresh Kentucky Dark Fired at all. Especially after tasting it with a few years on it.
Even the cigars, cigars BTW are all burleys, and age quite nicely. But, the Kentucky Fire Cured cigars from Drew Estates... three years on them,.. man! orgasmic.

 

npod

Lifer
Jun 11, 2017
2,942
1,024
+1 on what Cosmic said. Va/Burley blends age well. My favorite story in this regard was a few years ago when a guy stated with authority that Burley doesn't age well and in the exact same post he raved about how much he loved aged Stonehaven. In fact, most people probably don't realize that Stonehaven is a Va/Burley.

 
npod, I am fairly sure that this is all a result of binary thinking in regards to what Brian said on the radioshow. If it doesn't age the best, then it doesn't age well, which was misconstrued as it gets worse as it ages.

Now, it is true that some people may not like what age does to tobacco. Some people prefer instant coffee over freshly ground beans, some people like paper cuts on their tongue, and some people prefer sniffing glue instead of a walk on the beach with a beautiful woman. There's no accounting for tastes. :puffy:

 

thomasw

Part of the Furniture Now
Dec 5, 2016
862
24
My experience is that burleys do age very well. Perhaps not as dramatically as VAs alone or when combined with VAs, but burleys do get smoother and more nutty or more cocoa-y over time. ODF or BK with age on it is much richer and smoother than when fresh; in these two flakes it is the dark fired burleys that are melded over time. So most of the burley variants I know do show the effects of being aged. One burley blend that I can't affirm or deny the effects of aging it: Semois. I have only smoked it for just over two years and most everything has been quite consistent -- consistently fantastic -- but not much difference in the age of the bricks that I have smoked, only a few months.

 
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