Mellowest Unflavored Burley Blends?

[Sigmund]

Keep in mind the new Solaini is different.

Its got a lot more topping than the older version. Still a pleasant smoke but to me the notes of honey were a bit too persistent.

EDIT: I was thinking of the virginia. The burley supposed to have changed too but I didnt have it.

 

[Skippy Piper]

Five Brothers is likely 100% dark fired “burley”and there’s not one shred of that in Carter Hall.

Dark fired blends are kind of my thing and I've smoked a fair bit of them. 1792 Flake, Coniston Cut Plug, Dark Flake Unscented and Aromatic, Bosun Plug and Cut Plug, Kendal Dark, Dark Bird's Eye, Kendal Kentucky, Happy Brown Bogie, Black Irish X, Irish Flake, HH Old Dark Fired, HH Bold Kentucky, Navigator, Ryback, Ryback Gold, War Horse Bar and War Horse Green.

Enough that I can easily identify the flavors of both dark fired Burleys and dark fired Virginias, and I can quite confidently say that there isn't a single shred of dark fired leaf in Five Brothers. It does seem to be lightly toasted, but not dark fired. That said, I have no idea why Five Brothers is so dang strong in the nicotine department yet so incredibly smooth and non-abrasive, since those are qualities that don't usually go together in non-dark fired blends, but it sure doesn't look, smell, or taste like it's been dark fired.

 

[Briar Lee]

Dark fired blends are kind of my thing and I've smoked a fair bit of them. 1792 Flake, Coniston Cut Plug, Dark Flake Unscented and Aromatic, Bosun Plug and Cut Plug, Kendal Dark, Dark Bird's Eye, Kendal Kentucky, Happy Brown Bogie, Black Irish X, Irish Flake, HH Old Dark Fired, HH Bold Kentucky, Navigator, Ryback, Ryback Gold, War Horse Bar and War Horse Green.

Enough that I can easily identify the flavors of both dark fired Burleys and dark fired Virginias, and I can quite confidently say that there isn't a single shred of dark fired leaf in Five Brothers. It does seem to be lightly toasted, but not dark fired. That said, I have no idea why Five Brothers is so dang strong in the nicotine department yet so incredibly smooth and non-abrasive, since those are qualities that don't usually go together in non-dark fired blends, but it sure doesn't look, smell, or taste like it's been dark fired.

Let’s agree, that if Happy Brown Boogie and 1792 are something tobacco, that something tobacco is NOT Carter Hall.

Carter Hall was the last tobacco advertised on the radio, clear into the ninties.

The fair young maidens of the UMKC Conservatory of music just loved the smell of pipe tobacco.

I made a deliberate study of which they loved most.

Candy, a six foot tall buxom blonde, preferred Pallidin’s Blackcherry.

But Madeline, almost five feet tall with a mane of auburn red hair past her waist, preferred Carter Hall. She’d sample it sometimes and thought it was wonderful!

And they both loved Bobby Bare.

And so it came to pass, that my mother drove up for parent’s night in November of 1976 to the campus, and upon arrival I had Candy and Maddie greet her at the door, me carrying Mama’s old guitar my father bought her.

Candy’s parents were there, and they’d promised her a new guitar, and Candy had not traded in her old one because I’d promised twenty dollars for my Mama, and Candy handed her old guitar to her. I still have the check someplace in my box of memories.

Poor Mattie’s parents could not be there because both were part of the New York Philharmonic and were performing in New York.

For the benefit of my mother, we sang The Game of Triangles.

Candy’s parents had taken her and left to go buy her new guitar, my mother said to Mattie, this guitar needs new strings.

Could you string it for me?

Sure enough Candy kept new strings in the case, and I sat there and watched Mattie and Mama, sort of plotting against me, while I smoked my Carter Hall.


But, I didn’t want to ever leave Missouri, you know?

Mattie moved on to a boy not five feet two.

When I told Mama, in tears, she just said their children won’t likely be basketball players, will they, and she set me up with the sheriff’s daughter.

Here’s to you, Mattie, wherever you are.

This was her favorite song I used to sing.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

D&R Two Timer. No casings and the double toasted process really makes it a smooth smoke.
It irritates me that people suggest Carter Hall and Prince Albert for straight burley suggestions. Might as well add in some of Lane or Sutliff's aromatics. Those are all very cased. Can barely taste the burley in those.

 

[Briar Lee]

D&R Two Timer. No casings and the double toasted process really makes it a smooth smoke.
It irritates me that people suggest Carter Hall and Prince Albert for straight burley suggestions. Might as well add in some of Lane or Sutliff's aromatics. Those are all very cased. Can barely taste the burley in those.

That was the point of all codger burleys.

The casings for the girls and the taste for you.

As I understand it, plain white burley is nearly unsmokable without flavorings, casings, and toppings.

I used to have some cubed burley, but I wound up mixing it.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

That was the point of all codger burleys.

The casings for the girls and the taste for you.

Maybe, this is why I never gravitated towards them. My wife has developed a nose for really good tobaccos. Great wives are hard to come by. I just got lucky.

But, the OP's request was for "unflavored."

 

[Briar Lee]

Maybe, this is why I never gravitated towards them. My wife has developed a nose for really good tobaccos. Great wives are hard to come by. I just got lucky.

But, the OP's request was for "unflavored."

One of the saddest things about my wife’s health problems is I no longer get to smell her Virginia Slims Menthol 120s.

In October of 2000, my divorce was final and I’d went out West to Winner, South Dakota to pheasant hunt with some old friends of mine.

Instead of cutting across I drove up to Sioux Falls and thought I might need a divorce present at Cabela’s at Mitchell.

But the guns didn’t interest me, and I bought a hat and ordered a meal at the cafe.

About then the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen came walking in with three children, to get them a lunch at Cabela’s.

She sat down at my table, and I watched her kids, and she was a paralegal in town visiting her mother, and I was on my way to pheasant camp.

And I know, there truly is a God, when she said, do you mind if we step outside so I can smoke.

I lit her Virginia Slim with my Zippo, and my American Spirit and we watched her kids climb the rock columns.

But when I took her and her three kids that night to a movie, I was clenching a Kaywoodie with a brand new pouch of Carter Hall.

Whatever works, you know?

An old married man might smoke unflavored burley, but a young man better not.

 

[makhorkasmoker]

That was the point of all codger burleys.

The casings for the girls and the taste for you.

As I understand it, plain white burley is nearly unsmokable without flavorings, casings, and toppings.

I used to have some cubed burley, but I wound up mixing it.

I like plain white burley. It has interesting pine/evergreen notes—but toasting, casings, and toppings wipe those out for me

 

[pauls456]

Uhle, Blend 00. Or if you want a bit of sweetness, Blend 300.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I like plain white burley. It has interesting pine/evergreen notes—but toasting, casings, and toppings wipe those out for me

I've never noticed this fragrance you speak of. What blend do you notice it in? Or, where have you been able to try unprepared white burley?


I also notice that people mention sweet burleys. This would indicate that that there is something added to the burley as burley is never sweet.

 

[Pipke]

So far I'm looking at trying:

Daughters & Ryan - Two Timer

I do recommend Two Timer. Pure, straight burley with no additives. I mix it with Kentucky Select Gold and whatever condiment I'm feeling like. Can't help you with your sore throat problems.

 

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

Two Timer is a solid smoke. Even the new stuff ain't bad.

 

[Bassman65]

It's real dang mysterious trying to figure out what exactly bothers my throat and what doesn't. In an attempt to sort it out I've been doing a "blend of the week" experiment for the past year, where each week I smoke a single blend every day for a week and write down my experiences with it. Based on what I've learned so far I thought it was relatively untopped Burley and Perique that bother my throat, but the recent discovery that Five Brothers doesn't give me any trouble and some Virginia based blends with no Burley in them at all do bother my throat throws the whole thing into question. For reference, here's the blends I've tried for the experiment so far:


Blends That Gave Me A Sore Throat
Carter Hall
Condor Plug
Cornell & Diehl - Autumn Evening
Cornell & Diehl - Briar Fox
Cornell & Diehl - Corncob Pipe (And a Button Nose)
Cornell & Diehl - Haunted Bookshop
Cornell & Diehl - Interlude
Cornell & Diehl - Kelly's Coin
Cornell & Diehl - Old Joe Krantz
Cornell & Diehl - Old Joe Krantz Blue Label
Cornell & Diehl - Pegasus
Cornell & Diehl - Winchester
Escudo Navy Deluxe
Gawith Hoggarth & Co. - Dark Flake Unscented
Gawith Hoggarth & Co. - Dark Flake Aromatic
Gawith Hoggarth & Co. - Kendal Dark
Mac Baren - HH Bold Kentucky
Mac Baren - Three Nuns
Mac Baren - Vanilla Cream Loose Cut
Mac Baren - Vanilla Roll Cake
Middleton's - Cherry Blend
Orlik - Golden Sliced
Peterson - Irish Flake
Peterson - Royal Yacht
Prince Albert
Sir Walter Raleigh Aromatic
Super Value - Bourbon Whiskey
Sutliff - Pumpkin Spice
War Horse Bar
War Horse Green


Blends That Didn't Give Me A Sore Throat
Arango - Balkan Supreme
Capstan Blue
Capstan Gold
Captain Black Original
Cornell & Diehl - Cordial
Cult Blood Red Moon
Five Brothers
Gawith Hoggarth & Co. - Bob's Chocolate Flake
Gawith Hoggarth & Co. - Coniston Cut Plug
Gawith Hoggarth & Co. - Happy Brown Bogie
Gawith Hoggarth & Co. - Jamaican Flake
G.L. Pease - Union Square
Lane Limited - 1-Q
Lane Limited - RLP-6
Lane Limited - Very Cherry
Mac Baren - 7 Seas Red Blend
Mac Baren - HH Pure Virginia
Mac Baren - Vanilla Flake
Peterson - Early Morning Pipe
Samuel Gawith - 1792 Flake
Samuel Gawith - Fire Dance Flake
Samuel Gawith - Full Virginia Flake
Sutliff - 507C Virginia Slices
Sutliff - 515 RC-1


I've gathered quite a lot of data from my blend of the week experiments so far, but the results are a little nebulous. Generally speaking it seems like most blends made by Cornell & Diehl bother my throat, but then there's a couple outliers like Cordial and G.L. Pease Union Square that don't. For a long while I thought it must be anything with Perique or over 15% Burley content that wasn't heavily topped with something sweet that was the culprit, but Five Brothers threw that theory out the window.

At this point it seems a little random trying to figure out what will give me a sore throat and what won't, but I figure if I keep at it long enough than eventually a pattern will emerge. In the meantime I suppose I should just be grateful to have finally found a relatively plain Burley blend that I can smoke comfortably, even if it does have more nicotine than anyone probably needs!

I should add that category to my cellaring list/review. Sore throat Y/N

I have to admit, however, that I’m no professional reviewer along the lines of Jim or yourself.

My typical reviews look like this - For Sutliff’s Mark Twain:

* Worst tobacco tasted to date. Strong Anise. Devil’s putrid armpit on steroids.

 

[Skippy Piper]

I should add that category to my cellaring list/review. Sore throat Y/N

I have to admit, however, that I’m no professional reviewer along the lines of Jim or yourself.

My typical reviews look like this - For Sutliff’s Mark Twain:

* Worst tobacco tasted to date. Strong Anise. Devil’s putrid armpit on steroids.

That's a legitimate review! And I'm no "professional reviewer", just a guy who has wasted way too much money trying any blend that sounded interesting and can talk a blue streak about tobacco (in other words, a bit of a windbag). I do love pipe smoking though, and tobacco in general! There's a handful of blends I smoke regularly, though I think my favorite blend may always be the one I haven't tried yet.

 

[rakovsky]

I really love the flavor of Burley but most of them tend to give me a sore throat when I smoke them (and no, I don't inhale, my throat is just weirdly sensitive to Burley). I've tried lots of Cornell & Diehl Burley blends like Pegasus, Haunted Bookshop, Old Joe Krantz, Old Joe Krantz Blue Label, and Kelly's Coin; and while they all tasted great they all really kicked the heck out of my throat. Suffice it to say anything made by Cornell & Diehl is a no-go for me. Prince Albert and Carter Hall both really rough up my throat too.

....

but I was wondering if there are any other really mellow and easygoing Burley blends I should try?

One issue in answering the OP is that "Lightness" is different than what the blend market calls "Smoothness" vs. "Harshness".

So for instance Whole Leaf Perique is probably the heaviest, thickest pipe tobacco that I've tried, out of the ~60 blends that I've had. It was thick like molasses. It has gone through a lot of fermentation and had a sweet smell that reminded me of root beer.

In contrast, Cherokee Blue RYO was the "harshest" blend selling on the US market that I've tried. On the mouth it was OK, but on the nose on the retrohale, and on the lungs it was rough.

Carter Hall (a burley) is one of the lightest blends I ever had. However, it was the only blend that I got the same rough feeling on the nose and lungs that I did with Cherokee RYO, albeit to a lesser extent than I did with Cherokee. One theory is that it's not processed or aged as much as some other blends, so it has this roughness. I think that my system is alittle more sensitive than other people's, and that they don't perceive this "roughness" in CH.

The blend that I can tell was the most mellow was a B &M's English house blend with Orientals, because I smoked it 5 bowls in a row, one after the other, on a walk outside. It has minimal if any tongue bite or roughness, which was why I could smoke so many bowls. Orientals go through a lot of treatment and aging.

So bearing all of that in mind, strictly speaking the smoothest burley would be something aged alot like Solani Aged Burley Flake that @SmokeyJock mentioned. I had it and liked it, and it matched my idea of what I thought an "aged" blend would be like, and in a way it reminded me of the smoothness/"mellowness" of some Turkish blends like Camels Cigarettes.

If Solani ABF doesn't work for you, then if I were in your shoes I would conclude that I had a lot of sensitivity to burley and personally would go for Oriental leaf because of its special mellowness.

 

[rakovsky]

As I understand it, plain white burley is nearly unsmokable without flavorings, casings, and toppings.

What's bad about the White burley if it's uncased?
Personally I like PA a lot. It seems soft to me.

 

[makhorkasmoker]

I've never noticed this fragrance you speak of. What blend do you notice it in? Or, where have you been able to try unprepared white burley?


I also notice that people mention sweet burleys. This would indicate that that there is something added to the burley as burley is never sweet.

Some reviewers claim to notice those flavors in c&d white burley, which, according to that company, is an uncased untopped straight white burley —which is to say the lower to mid leaves from a burley tobacco plant. I admit I strained to detect those flavors in c&d white burley. For me it’s a bit of a rough smoke, but I disagree with Mr Lee about it being unsmokable.

Where I really get those flavors SOMETIMES is in whole leaf Kentucky burley. I say sometimes because those leaves, to my tastes, are inconsistent. Some leaves have really pronounced resin flavors, so much so that it reminds me of some orientals (though it’s completely different). Other leaves don’t. I’m guessing that the leaves with those flavors come from lower /mid positions on the plant. But I don’t know that. I do know that burley “red tips”—the uppermost leaves—have none of that, though they’re really nice in a different way. I only get those notes when I smoke Kentucky burley straight. In blends I usually lose most of it.

 

[rakovsky]

Where I really get those flavors SOMETIMES is in whole leaf Kentucky burley. I say sometimes because those leaves, to my tastes, are inconsistent. Some leaves have really pronounced resin flavors, so much so that it reminds me of some orientals (though it’s completely different).

That's pretty interesting. You are right, KY Burley would count as burley still, and is a valid answer.
Your name Makhorka Smoker refers to Russian/Soviet shag makhorka. I had White Sea Canals as if they were cigars and thought it was OK, kind of a wild bushy smell. Does that mean I ended up smoking makhorka?
I made a thread on Herzegovina Flor and Kapitanskiy, two Soviet blends. have you heard of them?

Have You Heard of Škija Ravnjak / Drina / Herzegovina Flor? :: Pipe Tobacco Discussion

"Škija" (pronounced Shkiya) is a type of Oriental blend brought from Java in Indonesia to the former Yugoslavian republics. "Ravnjak" means "plain." It is still grown in the former Yugoslav republics, where it is considered high grade toabcco, and people have been smoking it in pipes for...

pipesmagazine.com

 

[Briar Lee]

What's bad about the White burley if it's uncased?
Personally I like PA a lot. It seems soft to me.

It’s like eating straight lettuce.

Iceberg lettuce.

https://www.smokingpipes.com/smokingpipesblog/single.cfm/post/closer-look-burley

The Buoy Gold I love so much probably has enough white burley to soften it and cut the bite.

 

[PaulTheScandinavian]

meanwhile , here acorss the pond, many who like easy going dependable burely forward blends would chose either Barens Golden extra , Symphony or Amphoras