I'm almost exactly in the middle. I really like the nuance of a good, tangy, fruity VA, but also find the easy going nutty, chocolatey goodness of many burley blends to be equally craveable. 90% of the time when I smoke it's either a VA/VaPer or a Codger style Burley.
The Virginia People And The Burley People
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Straight Viginias or VA/Per 90% of the time. Burley dominated blends just taste dry and dusty to me, and leave a bitter aftertaste in my mouth. Similarly, I enjoy the taste of DFK, but it gives me nausea.
I do occasionally enjoy a good oriental forward blend, but those are really hard to find these days.
I do occasionally enjoy a good oriental forward blend, but those are really hard to find these days.
I think it is great we have such differing flavors. Imagine if we all liked Burley or only liked Virginia. We would have half the pipe smokers sucking air with their burleys , reading Sad Sack and the rest connoisseurs sipping their Virginia's ready War and Peace.
I kid I kid.
I kid I kid.
I’m a burley and dark Ky type. I haven’t found a straight Va or Va-dominant blend that I really like except for a couple Perique-heavy VaPers and Gawith XX Twist—which has the smoky charred meat taste rather than grass/hay/ketchup of lighter Va. I like Va in a blend if it’s a condiment or the blend is heavy on Latakia like Star of the East.
Well, I say condiment but I use closer to equal amounts instead of the majority of the mix being one tobacco. In a ky/va/per it will be around 40-50% Kentucky, 30-40% stoved and/or black stoved Virginia and 20 % perique. If there is no perique it's about 60-70% Kentucky.
I have been experimenting with English /Balkan blends without Virginia with nice results.
Ex:
-40% Latakia
-40% oriental basma
-20% perique
Or cut down the oriental and Latakia to 25% and add Kentucky. Almost letting the Kentucky take the place of what usually is Virginia in an English blend.
I've tried many many combinations and half the time I'll just mix up a blend on the spot with whatever I feel like at the moment.
I thought that would be the case. In my similar experiments, none of the leaves seem to dominate. They rather fight that dominance as the smoke progress. Is that what happens with your blends too?
I do favor Burely forward blends but not so much plain Burleys ,generally speaking All goes except for heavily cased Aromatics, Latakia Mixtures or blends where Perique is in abundance
Virginias all day. Straight VA, Va/Pers, and English/Balkans I love. I also love HH Burley Flake, ODF, & Heinrichs Dark Strong. I seem to enjoy burley as a condiment too, I love Three Friars. But most C&D burley, and straight burley in general, I just find harsh & acrid. I'm trying to figure it out though. I'm working through a tin of Solani Aged Burley flake right now. I've tried it i a bunch of different pipes, packed it a bunch of different ways, always just harsh & generally flavorless. I might as well be smoking cardboard. But yesterday I had some crumbs of leftover Stokkeby Navy Flake & I figured, why not, so I threw that into the mix. BAM!!!!! What a difference. I finally tasted the chocolate & nuts that everyone talks about. I guess I have strange taste buds.
Almost exclusively burley forward blends, and maybe dark fired kentuckys for spice. That said, I do like the occasional VaPer, and many blends I like use Virginias as a condiment. That said, when it comes to ropes I like (brown bogie, brown #4), the Virginias seem quite different and I enjoy them.
Yes sometimes as the bowl progresses different tobacco take the forefront, which I like. But generally one will stand out. Usually for me that's Latakia(with orientals close behind) or Kentucky.
I have been running low on my Virginia stash, which I was using in all my blends, so now I'm leftover with lots of Kentucky, lat, oriental and perique. So I've just been omitting the Virginia for blends and find I don't miss it that much and enjoy the fuller flavour. I still do appreciate va and vapers quite a bit though, but only stoved.
Have you tried C&D Byzantium? It’s one of my favorite smoky blends: Latakia, orientals, and Perique. Great stuff.
On a sunny, warm day (15°C+) I usually prefer virginias. On an average day (0°C-15°C) I pack burleys. On a cold day (under 0°C) I smoke the hell out of all my latakia blends.
But in general I prefer burleys over virginias. This doesn't mean that I don't like virgina blends of course.
But in general I prefer burleys over virginias. This doesn't mean that I don't like virgina blends of course.
If I'm going to smoke just the one varietal, I'll reach for burley most often. I don't have a lot of straight VA flake on hand, but do have some, I have plenty of D&R 3 Sails, but that can be difficult to manage in the bowl unless you've got it mixed with a broader cut leaf, such as TwoTimer. Tends to clog otherwise.
Lucky you. Here in my country no one produces any type of fire-cured tobacco. Importing not being an option, thats the only thing I badly miss in my blends.
Both. When Gawith & Hoggarth mix them, magic happens.
I keep telling myself, I'm going to keep at least one Virginia or Va/Per open and available, in rotation. I have maybe eight tins of premium examples, and I do enjoy them when I smoke them, but burley and burley blends just keep drawing me in. It's like going to a string quartet if you've been listening to Dixieland.
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