I just tried P&C's "Butternut Burley"

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Kyle Weiss

Kyle Weiss

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Someone around here mentioned something to the order they once thought Burley tabac was for old pipe smokers who had lost their taste buds. Granted, I believe they also changed their mind once they found out it's actually a very subtle and complex tobacco, packed with some good stuff if you give it a chance. After my great experience with Pipeworks & Wilke's "Nut Brown Burley," I figured pipesandcigars.com's Butternut Burley to be a good one to try--even if it is an aromatic, which I am hit and miss on.

In the bag, it smelled suspiciously sweet. It also had a strange chop to it, mixed with ribbons, and I could see (and smell) the black cavendish in there. It packed just fine, but was a little moist--even after drying it out a little, it still felt spongy. Lighting it up I was kicked in the nose a little by the squash and pumpkin-like top note--as in, not pumpkin spice, but actual...pumpkin. This has to be the "butternut" as the namesake suggests. The tongue-taste is not sweet at all, really, in fact, it's the driest aromatic I ever smoked. There was a little tongue pepperiness, likely the alkali of the Burley, but it was to be expected.

Though this tobacco smoked true, I do admit, I got about 3/4 the way through this one and had to ditch it, disappointed.
If you have learned much about me thus far, I don't mind aromatics, but I really don't like sweet. I don't drink soda, I don't sugar my coffee or tea, I don't do cake. Once in a while a cup of ice cream is okay. I could not get past the smell of this stuff--much like my aversion to Villager 1888 Mid Day I tried, if the scent is that strong and distracting from the smoke that I can't get past it, there just isn't a point. I could tell there was really good Burley hidden in there, too. Sweet factor is a 6 (Scale 1 - 10). (I like about a 2 at most.)

If you like aromatics and "room note," but want something you could also taste some tobacco, this might be just the thing for you. My senses couldn't handle the former, and I wanted to like the latter really, really badly.

Perhaps I've settled so far into straight Virginias and English I'm not able to return to most aromatics, which I hope isn't the case, or I just have to find the stuff that isn't detached and distracting to my senses. This is a good tobacco, it just isn't my tobacco.
 
Anything blend with "butternut" in its name is way to close to an aromatic for me. I've never considered trying it, even before your review.
 
Upon thinking about my very non-stellar experience with this stuff last night, something occurred to me:

I hate stuff that tastes contrary to how it smells. I feel like I've been duped, or that some crime of science over nature has just just happened. Any of the aromatics I've liked have had a complimentary taste to the nose--these, in this blend, were in totally different countries, they were so apart. I know one isn't supposed to smell his own pipe smoke as he smokes, but I truthfully do, likely because I do a little post-nasal exhaling/protoexhaling/snorking whatever you call it. It's different than "smelling" a scent around you, but picking it up nonetheless.

 
I'm going to go onto an interesting analogy that just occurred to me.

We all have digital cameras, and understand the "megapixel" gimmick, right? The technology of the camera is more apt to capture "more pixels" in a given area, which is supposed to be directly linked to quality. Well, it isn't a lie. A camera with ultra-pumped megapixel capability will show a very high quality picture of an image captured by a very imperfect lens. Lens curve, clarity and ability you can really zoom in on!

I think my nose, personally works like this. Somehow I got a high megasmell nose but my nasal capacity isn't able to keep up with what I receive as information. I have noticed my nose working better since I've been smoking a pipe, and I'm not overwhelmed by ambient or other scents, and am more in tune with direct scent and taste. Kind of like how a really large antenna can sometimes hinder reception, because it's gathering much more signal than it can process out.

Regardless, I can thank the pipe in part to helping to fix this, but I still get overwhelmed by certain tobacco applications--like this one!
 
I mostly smoke VAs or VaPers, but I started out on aromatics and still have a go at them every now and again. Even with that in mind, I don't much care for Butternut Burley. To me, it's that it doesn't have any real taste other than somehow being simultaneously over-sweet and bland. Unlike you, Kyle, I could never really tell that there was "good Burley hidden in there" or that you could really taste the tobacco, at all.

Maybe its just me, but it was like smoking the tobacco equivalent of sawdust mixed with sugar.
 
I've never tried the stuff and after reading these posts I don't really care to. I happen to know GOOD burley for my liking and they include LJ Peretti burley blends, Uhle's blends, McClelland burley, Solani Aged Burley, and Wessex Burley Slices. That's enough burley blends to keep me smiling forever. :D
 
docwatson":0b5d6sz1 said:
I've never tried the stuff and after reading these posts I don't really care to. I happen to know GOOD burley for my liking and they include LJ Peretti burley blends, Uhle's blends, McClelland burley, Solani Aged Burley, and Wessex Burley Slices. That's enough burley blends to keep me smiling forever. :D
Click to expand...
Gonna pick your brain again, Doc: which specific blends of McClelland, Peretti and Uhle's are you into? I'd like to look them up. Wessex Burley Slice has Cav in it--what's your impression of the sweet factor? The less sweet the better, but just a touch or faint nuance won't bother me.
 
Kyle,
For McClelland my fav is X-40 Burley Slices. It is heavily cased with what I believe to be fig, but only my opinion. I love the stuff straight or blended.
LJ Peretti, blend 333 or BPC (Burley Plug Cut) is tops.
Uhle's blend 300 or Perfection Plug Burley are the ones I relish the most.

If you aren't fond of the sweetness factor I'd recommend the BPC or Perfection Plug Burley.

Good hunting.
 
I never tried this one, but the tobaccoreviews.com description compared it to 1Q, which I never cared for. It had a nice room note, but flat flavor.

Now, P&C's Classic Burley Kake I have had, and while the description makes it out to be very aromatic, it's really a semi-aromatic at best. I taste a little something in there but it doesn't bury the flavor of the baccy by any means. I need to smoke it a bit more, but it may enter into my top 3 burleys....although I admit bias since I'm a sucker for a kake style baccy.
 
Don't know if anyone has realized, surely they have...surely someone knows it, that the butternut in the butternut burley is actually a white walnut extract and has nothing to do with squash. Black and white walnut (butternuts) are our native walnuts.
 
I tried Butternut & Burley, still have some of it. Too much Butternut and not enough Burley.
Stan
 
Storm_Crow":rulwlkp6 said:
I never tried this one, but the tobaccoreviews.com description compared it to 1Q, which I never cared for. It had a nice room note, but flat flavor..
Click to expand...

I smoke 1Q every now and then for a change of pace (usually blended with something else, but still...). Based on my own tastes, if you think 1Q is "flat" in flavor, you'd probably find BB virtually lifeless. But then, to each his own!
 
idbowman":2gs1f3nz said:
Storm_Crow":2gs1f3nz said:
I never tried this one, but the tobaccoreviews.com description compared it to 1Q, which I never cared for. It had a nice room note, but flat flavor..
Click to expand...

I smoke 1Q every now and then for a change of pace (usually blended with something else, but still...). Based on my own tastes, if you think 1Q is "flat" in flavor, you'd probably find BB virtually lifeless. But then, to each his own!
Click to expand...
Maybe I got a bad batch. I bought one ouce where it was being sold under a different name (as is common with 1Q). It just had this boring vanilla flavor. I mean, I like aros and vanilla, with Boswells vanilla blends being my fav. It also...and this is the only time I've experienced this...it left this feeling on my tongue like it was coated in something. Funky.

What's BB BTW?
 
I've smoked a lot of Butternut Burley and like it a lot. I don't understand why someone who doesn't like aromatics would even try it, it is billed as an aromatic. It burns clean and doesn't leave your pipe goopy. Cheap excessively topped aromatics will do that but Butternut Burley doesn't.

Smokey
 
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