Burley Sugar Topping

Joined : 17 Dec 2007 Posts : 100

I've been smoking samples of Solani Aged Burley Flake and Edgeworth RR, and the flavor, although monochromatic, is good. But given burley's low sugar content and finding sweetness in both blends, I wonder just how much burley is topped with sugar? Topped more, say, than a VA would be?

Mike,

How are you man?

I was going to asked you what you thought about the Edgeworth.

As for the sugar according to Steve Monjure, and I hope that I am getting this partly right, he said that the blender of the Solani Burley blend goes through a process in which the leaf is wet down or heavily moisturized and heavily coated with sugar and then pressed and aged. I suspect it goes through some sort of stoving process as well while it is pressed.
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Joined : 11 Dec 2007 Posts : 49

I spent a tiny bit of time looking for these posts but didn't find them, don't remember which forum -- but at one time Greg held forth at some length on the qualities of Burley and the processing required for it to be palatable. I didn't find it on his site, probably just missed it. Perhaps someone else, perhaps Greg, will provide a link.

Jack

Here is some good information from Vito, Doc, and GLPease concerning burley from the Knox Forum. Not sure if this was the one you were refering to or not Jack, but I remember reading a very good explanation from Greg also.

http://forums.knoxcigar.net/viewtopic.php?t=7340&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=burley&start=120
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Arizona, where the temperature is always warm but the pipe smoking is always cool. Mikem

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Joined : 21 Dec 2007 Posts : 140

I remember reading something Greg wrote to the effect that burley without some kind of topping is almost unsmokeable. One of these days I'm going to order some straight burley in a sampler from C&D and see what it tastes like.

Smokey

Most burley, if it were not the for addition of something, would be unsmokable for most pipe smokers. This is because burley, in it's natural form, is very low in natural sugar content. This may sound like a bad thing, but it really is not a bad thing. Burley, because of its natural tendencies, makes a very good base for flavorings because it absorbs them very well. A good burley (note the use of the term GOOD burley) adds a richness to blends and has a flavor of cooked oatmeal. Burley also has a good "vitamin N" content naturally.

Most Virginias, on the other hand, are very high in natural sugar content and, though you can use some toppings on them, they rarely need anything to sweeten them.

Jay