Cornell & Diehl has several bulk Burleys: Ribbon Cut, Cube Cut, Dark, and White. For those of you who have smoked 'em straight, what are your thoughts?
C&D Bulk Burleys
- Thread starter rsshreck32
- Start date
I like them all as mixers, but cube cut and dark are the ones that really stand out on their own.
If you're looking to smoke them straight it's worth considering Crooner too. Cube cut burley with a hint of deertongue.
Their Dark Burley, straight, is my everyday smoke. It is my favorite tobacco. A very subtle and nuanced tobacco. Please note (you may already know this): if you're used to smoking burleys sold by other companies, even straight burleys, you're probably used to smoking something that has been toasted, cased, topped, or processed in some other way. If you look at tobacco reviews on this tobacco, you'll see they are totally all over the place, I think it's because C&D's Dark Burley resides in a different tobacco galaxy that is foreign to many smokers.
My understanding is that ribbon cut and cube cut are blends of their dark and white burleys. You can play around with blending the dark and white yourself and come up with some nice variations. I think 80% dark and 20% white is a good ratio.
The thing you cannot do with these burleys, unfortunately, is turn them into a genuine plug, flake, rope or, for that matter, shag. You can buy the C&D flakes in a tin--but they're always blended with other tobaccos.
You can get the cube cut--but that will be a blend of the white and darks (with too much white, to my tastes).
My understanding is that ribbon cut and cube cut are blends of their dark and white burleys. You can play around with blending the dark and white yourself and come up with some nice variations. I think 80% dark and 20% white is a good ratio.
The thing you cannot do with these burleys, unfortunately, is turn them into a genuine plug, flake, rope or, for that matter, shag. You can buy the C&D flakes in a tin--but they're always blended with other tobaccos.
You can get the cube cut--but that will be a blend of the white and darks (with too much white, to my tastes).
Ok I'm sold, Ill have to try some dark burley on my next order.
That should be read, "Deertongue bomb". It's got the highest percentage of deertongue out of their four blends with it.
True. But the proportion is still negligible versus the burley.
Were it any more you couldn't taste the burley, powerful stuff. Then again I've never smoked a deertongue blend that I didn't like.
What got me thinking and why I posted this is all the reviews, like you said, they're all over the place. But then I got to thinking, most of these people probably just don't like strong tobacco, both in nicotine and flavor. I'm going to get some of that dark Burley, thanks so much for the thoughtful response!
I recommend being patient with it and doing some experimenting. It’s a bit of a chameleon. It will taste different in different pipes, in different weather, with different packs. It’s very sensitive to cadence too. Some people say it’s “plain” because its flavors don’t jump out at you. But they’re there.
That's why reviews are useless. Sense of taste is too subjective and you'll do better experiencing them yourself than reading reviews. If I'd paid any attention to them, I'd never have tried blends that are now my favorites.
Get an ounce of each and try 'em.
