Blends like Crooner

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makhorkasmoker

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 17, 2021
564
1,354
Central Florida
By "like Crooner" I do not mean blends that contain deer tongue. (I know C&D for one offers several, and I hope to try them all bit by bit.) What I'm really looking for here are blends that "work" the way Crooner does.

This is to say, I'm looking for blends of straight burley tobacco that have not been overly sweetened or deprived of their nicotine, and that use that "clean taut canvas" quality of strong(ish) white burley to feature an aromatic element.

In Crooner, the aromatic element is deertongue (and maybe a splash of something, but mainly deertongue), and I think it is wonderful. But I can't smoke Crooner without thinking: surely there must be other aromatics that work this way. It seems like all sorts of interesting blends could be created using a similar format.

But when I read descriptions and reviews of blends, I don't see anything like Crooner, at least int he ways I'm talking about. I'm considering several different OTC straight burley aros, but I'm afraid they will be too sweet for me and that the nicotine will be toasted out of them.

Can you think of any blends like Crooner?

Thanks!
 

anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
15,678
29,398
45
In the semi-rural NorthEastern USA
By "like Crooner" I do not mean blends that contain deer tongue. (I know C&D for one offers several, and I hope to try them all bit by bit.) What I'm really looking for here are blends that "work" the way Crooner does.

This is to say, I'm looking for blends of straight burley tobacco that have not been overly sweetened or deprived of their nicotine, and that use that "clean taut canvas" quality of strong(ish) white burley to feature an aromatic element.

In Crooner, the aromatic element is deertongue (and maybe a splash of something, but mainly deertongue), and I think it is wonderful. But I can't smoke Crooner without thinking: surely there must be other aromatics that work this way. It seems like all sorts of interesting blends could be created using a similar format.

But when I read descriptions and reviews of blends, I don't see anything like Crooner, at least int he ways I'm talking about. I'm considering several different OTC straight burley aros, but I'm afraid they will be too sweet for me and that the nicotine will be toasted out of them.

Can you think of any blends like Crooner?

Thanks!
you hit the nail on the head about the problems with the descriptions on the tins. Some of my favorites are aromatics but ones that have been called tobacco forward. And the descriptions on the tin or websites never ever really tells you if it's a hint of flavor or if it's so aromatized that you're never 100 percent sure if it's got any tobacco or just cardboard sprayed with tobacco juice. Best advice is to go look at lots of reviews or just wait till someone here talks about a blend and then other people chime in and it sounds like they're talking about your cup of tea.
 
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krizzose

Lifer
Feb 13, 2013
3,104
18,030
Michigan
Try buying some C&D Cube Cut Burley (the base of Crooner) and adding various amount of aromatics you like until you find something that fits the bill.
 
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makhorkasmoker

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 17, 2021
564
1,354
Central Florida
Thanks to you all! Making a to-try list.

Krizzose, I have been doing something similar to what you suggest with Five Brothers, and I'm playing around with C&D's white burley and dark burley blending tobaccos now. (I think those are what cube cut is made out of ?) I'm just wondering (and hoping) that some of the pro blenders out there have a straight burley aro with some strength, in the Crooner style. I'd hate to miss it, if it exists.
 
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makhorkasmoker

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 17, 2021
564
1,354
Central Florida
Have you tried a burley/oriental blend? Also, have you tried warhorse?
Funny that you mention this... I have been mixing Izmir Turkish with C&D burleys lately. I absolutely love the white burley and izmir. Still working on getting the proportions right though. I find that their dark burley overwhelms the Izmir, but the two smooth each other out very nicely.

I was mixing arguably oriental blends--Balkan supreme, for example--with 5 Brothers. I like it, so long as I put enough 5 Brothers. My problem with a lot of orientals is that I don't like too much latakia, and I am beginning to think I am not a fan of virginias even. One of the reasons why I blend so often my burleys with turkish is that it takes the edge off the burley without adding those super sweet or lemony notes I get when add even a little virginia.

I was actually going to post a question about Oriental Burley mixtures in the future, but if you can suggest any good ones, I'd love to try 'em.

War Horse Green is definitely at the top of my to-try list.

And I'm going to read up on Barbary Coast right now.

Thanks to you all.
 
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Ahi Ka

Lurker
Feb 25, 2020
6,520
31,471
Aotearoa (New Zealand)
Like you, my only experience with bur/or blends has been through my own tinkering. However I’ve seen people rave about D&R cockstrong. That was always on my hitlist.

I like both of the warhorse options, but my preference is for the bar (red). I find I get more leaf flavour and I like the nod to the Brittish OTC flavours. The topping on the green is absolutely delicious, but that’s all I can taste.

I’d definitely try mixing some of your stronger burley into EGR or 79.

I’d also say try some of the Gawith stuff. Their air cured Virginias sits better with my palette, and I’m enjoying their stuff (both scented and ropes) as a change to my predominantly burley diet. I find the sweetness is more like raw sugar than the artificial sugar I sometimes get from bright leaf.

have you tried blending burley with perique?
 
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makhorkasmoker

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 17, 2021
564
1,354
Central Florida
Like you, my only experience with bur/or blends has been through my own tinkering. However I’ve seen people rave about D&R cockstrong. That was always on my hitlist.

I like both of the warhorse options, but my preference is for the bar (red). I find I get more leaf flavour and I like the nod to the Brittish OTC flavours. The topping on the green is absolutely delicious, but that’s all I can taste.

I’d definitely try mixing some of your stronger burley into EGR or 79.

I’d also say try some of the Gawith stuff. Their air cured Virginias sits better with my palette, and I’m enjoying their stuff (both scented and ropes) as a change to my predominantly burley diet. I find the sweetness is more like raw sugar than the artificial sugar I sometimes get from bright leaf.

have you tried blending burley with perique?
I have not tried blending burley and perique myself. I was smoking Big n Burley for a while, and I loved the burley, but there was something in there I did not like. I tried Old Joe Krantz next, and there was also something in that I didn't like. I'm thinking it's the perique, but I don't know. One of the reasons why I'm experimenting with straight blenders is that I'm trying to figure out what it is I don't like about many of the blends I've been smoking. It's been quite a discovery. I realized that I like c&d's straight dark burley better than either big n burley or Old Joe, for example. That said, I'm also seeing that when I blend even just two tobaccos, both change in dramatic ways. For example, I tried a bright virginia straight, and it was weak and mild, not unpleasant, but when I blended it with something else it became extremely acidic.--way too acidic for me. So, in other words, I began trying to learn what basic tobacco types I liked and did not like, and wound up learning it is not that simple. I may one day learn that I love perique in a certain blend, but so far the perique blends I have tried--Bayou Morning, for example--I'm not happy with.

I have smoked Gawith dark birdseye, and I do prefer it almost any other virginia blend I can think of. And I'm drying out a little coniston right now, to try later. I'm exploring this company's offerings slowly because so often when I make an order most are out of stock. I didn't know the virginias in any of these were air cured. I will have to read more about this.

Just read about Cockstrong. Sounds like it's right up my alley. Definitely going to try that one.

Pegasus, too.

Thanks!
 
Jun 18, 2020
3,800
13,540
Wilmington, NC
you hit the nail on the head about the problems with the descriptions on the tins. Some of my favorites are aromatics but ones that have been called tobacco forward. And the descriptions on the tin or websites never ever really tells you if it's a hint of flavor or if it's so aromatized that you're never 100 percent sure if it's got any tobacco or just cardboard sprayed with tobacco juice. Best advice is to go look at lots of reviews or just wait till someone here talks about a blend and then other people chime in and it sounds like they're talking about your cup of tea.
Calling @jiminks
If anyone can tell you, he can!
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
Two good burleys that have enough flavor without flavoring are Peterson 3-P and Peterson Irish Flake. Another good one is Amphora Burley. If you haven't tried Tabac-Manil Semois, a Belgium burley variant, you might enjoy it, no flavoring but a unique burley flavor in medium or thick cut.
 

anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
15,678
29,398
45
In the semi-rural NorthEastern USA
OTC Burley blend that's straight up and powerful on the nic is Five Brothers
Honestly that's one of my standards. As in I've smoked quite a few pouches of that stuff. My recommendation with it is to pack tighter then you normally do. Make sure the draw is open but cram it into the pipe more then you would with a ribbon cut. Sip it without worrying about if the burn is even, the tamper is your friend. When I smoke it like that I find it really opens up in the flavor department and the flavor is good tobacco with notes of molasses and other dark rich flavors. It is the blend that opened me up to drug store blends having potential.
 
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