Why smoke Burley?
- Thread starter Scottmi
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Sir Walter Raleigh/Sir Walter Raleigh Aromatic
Recently become a big fan of Old Joe Krantz. It's especially good as the first smoke of the day with a dark roast coffee.
There are good burley blends out there. But I more or less associate it with codger OTC blends and smoke 'em in cob pipes. SWR/SWRA are good and easy to smoke. Carter Hall is also good.
Burley is my main event, though I like most other genres in one blend or another. But I like burley straight up, or in English blends, or with Virginia or other leaf. It seems to me that Cornell & Diehl back in their Pennsylvania and Morganton, N.C. days re-introduced burley as a premium blend condiment and base tobacco, and now that Jeremy Reeves has taken on the C&D blending, he has sustained that motif as well as work in other genres.
I grew up with my dad smoking only Granger from pouches, so that imprinted me with an appreciation of burley. To me, it is the fundamental pipe experience, strong, flavorful, and in various forms subtle, complex, and often refined. It isn't that the old time codger had no taste; it was that he knew a good thing when they smoked it.
I grew up with my dad smoking only Granger from pouches, so that imprinted me with an appreciation of burley. To me, it is the fundamental pipe experience, strong, flavorful, and in various forms subtle, complex, and often refined. It isn't that the old time codger had no taste; it was that he knew a good thing when they smoked it.
Not to forget about the stimulation of strong inner and outer nose-hair growth, while graying and reducing scalp-hair quite rapidly.
Burley and cobs just seem to go together, for me. I would also give a nod to Mac Baren Golden Extra and Sutliff Match Ready Rubbed, their match for the old Edgeworth Ready Rubbed. Amphora Burley and Original are two more winners.
I like burley for the nutty and chocolate notes to it and the easy smoke (you don't have to baby it), but for me it needs a lot of opening up time. I have a tin of Solani ABF which is good now, but that's only because I left a tin open for a year.
The type of pipe has been mentioned. For me burley shines the most in a meerschaum. I like to dedicate a pipe to a blend, if I would stock a burley for my cellar I would certainly have a dedicated meerschaum.
The type of pipe has been mentioned. For me burley shines the most in a meerschaum. I like to dedicate a pipe to a blend, if I would stock a burley for my cellar I would certainly have a dedicated meerschaum.
“Why smoke burley?”
1. Simple answer…. because it is damn good!
2. More nuanced answer….. a) it really is what I believe MOST pipe smokers inevitably sample first and “cut their teeth on” when start out as most OTCs have at least some burley content. And, as such…. b) if a person ends up sticking with pipe smoking…. it would therefore be likely that they find burley pleasurable.
With that said… it appears you came into pipe smoking by another (non-burley) route. If you do not enjoy burleys…. no problem…. as you know, there are many other tobaccos.
“Anti-burley” folks can still be a part of the pipe smoking club…. albeit perhaps only as a radical fringe group.
(sarcasm).
1. Simple answer…. because it is damn good!
2. More nuanced answer….. a) it really is what I believe MOST pipe smokers inevitably sample first and “cut their teeth on” when start out as most OTCs have at least some burley content. And, as such…. b) if a person ends up sticking with pipe smoking…. it would therefore be likely that they find burley pleasurable.
With that said… it appears you came into pipe smoking by another (non-burley) route. If you do not enjoy burleys…. no problem…. as you know, there are many other tobaccos.
“Anti-burley” folks can still be a part of the pipe smoking club…. albeit perhaps only as a radical fringe group.
(sarcasm).
If you want a classic burley taste, sir Walter Raleigh is hard to beat, esp out of a tub and not a dried out old gas station pouch.
The word they're looking for is "subordinate," but "sublimate" has now entered pipe tobacco review culture and... I'm ok with that. Quirks are endearing.
“Anti-burley” folks can still be a part of the pipe smoking club…. albeit perhaps only as a radical fringe group.
In the interests of Affirmative Action, I feel that I ought to participate here as a token non-lover of burley ;-)
@Scottmi , if you are enjoying your foray into burley -- good for you!
But if, over time, you begin to realize that you simply aren't going to love burley -- that it does something radically different on your palate than VA does, which you do not like, and which completely misses the things that you love in other tobaccos -- know that you are not alone.
I love the sweet fermentive haylofts, stewed Christmas fruits, or doughy breads of VAs.
(On occasion and in moderation) I also like the campfire or BBQ flavors of latakia.
To my palate, the nuttiness of burley comes off in a dry, green, cigarette or cigar ash sort of way. There's probably some body-chemistry reason for that, but in my case it is what it is.
None of this is meant to discourage you from burley, if you like it.
It's meant only to assure you that you're welcome in our radical fringe group, if need be ;-)
Burley in the morning with black coffee. I love it. Rustic, strong, woody, nutty, earthy, spicy, slight chocolate, dry, mouth filling and smooth in its own way, extremely satisfying. I’m talking about Cornell and Diehl here, the Clint Eastwood of Burley.
Most people here associate burley with those gross codger blends that are basically lightly flavored aromatics disguised as butch. But, really before the 1860’s there was absolutely no such thing as a Virginia. Heat curing an inferior bright leaf was no such thing before that. So, for 400 years burley was the only tobacco, and it was not a limp wristed aromatic. Although, there is nothing wrong with aromatics (cough cough).
But, if you want to try one of the tobaccos that built nations and empires, you’ll have to dig a little, because the founding fathers did not have catalogs or brands. They smoked what was grown and offered on an agricultural level.
Try Kellys Coin, Haunted Bookshop, white cubecut burley, Pegasus, twists, aged burley flake, etc… dig, explore, taste… It’s ok to be a varietal snob. I was too. But, then I started to try other blends, mostly because I started growing tobaccos. Now, I can alternate between varietals throughout my day and enjoy the cornucopia of flavors tobaccos have to offer. That is why burley.
But, if you want to try one of the tobaccos that built nations and empires, you’ll have to dig a little, because the founding fathers did not have catalogs or brands. They smoked what was grown and offered on an agricultural level.
Try Kellys Coin, Haunted Bookshop, white cubecut burley, Pegasus, twists, aged burley flake, etc… dig, explore, taste… It’s ok to be a varietal snob. I was too. But, then I started to try other blends, mostly because I started growing tobaccos. Now, I can alternate between varietals throughout my day and enjoy the cornucopia of flavors tobaccos have to offer. That is why burley.
I will pin that scarlet letter on my cloak as well. I smoke Virginias 98% of the time, with the occasional English mixed in. I believe what happens is that we train our palate to a certain type of leaf and then when a different leaf is introduced our mind tells us that it tastes off.
This is what happens to me every time I try and smoke a burley blend. If it is not a burley blend topped with some aromatic component, I can't ever seem to find the nutty taste we all know burley has, I only wind up with a mouthful of cigarette tasting smoke. I have ranged up and down the burley aisle many times, sampling everything from codger blends to some of the most premium KBV blends and have just not come across one that trips my trigger.
I suppose this is the place where we all rejoice a little bit, as we live in an age where there is such a variety of blends available to us, that we can find that blend or leaf that we like and not have to settle for what is available at the grocery or gas station.
No matter, fill your pipe and keep it smokey!
Burley was invented/discovered in 1864, air cured Virginias where the main US tobacco previously.
Ummm… you have that completely backwards.
“Flue-curing [a process accidentally invented by Stephen, a slave in Caswell County in 1839]
September 6, 1856: The Beginning of Brightleaf Tobacco in NC
On September 6, 1856, Abisha Slade of Caswell County spoke at an agricultural meeting about "the new process of curing yellow tobacco."
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