Blender's Gold Golden Burley

Summary: a light Burley flavored with honey and vanilla but not saturated in the flavor, allowing for a mild smoke.

This tobacco served as my introduction to pipe tobacco way back when I knew next to nothing. You bought it at Walgreen's in twelve ounce bags for about $1.25 an ounce, and it burned gently and left a pleasant marshmallow smell in the air. While there was not much Nicotine, a decent amount of the natural Burley flavor came through, which is why I find this a better blend than true sodapop aromatics like "1Q." These days, I would probably not smoke this, but "Golden Burley" provides an enjoyable basic smoke especially after it has had time to dry in the bag for a few weeks, and for your average pipe smoker could be a pleasant all-day smoke that will not draw complaints from wives, neighbors, and itinerant neighborhood children.

Straw, with just a hint of caramel corn. I bought this while waiting on a mail order, Blender's Gold has become my 'nuclear winter, pipe tobacco.

As others have mentioned, this stuff might make your mouth and tongue feel raw. I was impressed with the consistency and humidity level of the tobacco and enjoyed the flavor somewhat. The Tobacco stays lit easily and doesn't burn more than a bit hot. Unfortunately, the chemical additive is just too hard on my mouth and I pay for that all through the day following the smoke. My other complaint is what I will call the can note: gingerbread cookie in a dirty tennis shoe.

Judging a tobacco by its name is dangerous, from the name “Golden Burley” I anticipated a relatively unadorned, plain and trusty burley blend along the lines of a Prince Albert. This is NOTHING like a plain burley, it is an aromatic and a pretty heavy one at that. If you have an aversion to PG avoid this blend, if they had placed a bag of this in King Tut's tomb when the archeologists opened things up this tobacco would still have been moist even after centuries. In its favor it is cheap and available and the taste, which I had trouble completely pinning down, lets call it vanilla-caramel is not unpleasant. It did not bite, I finished the bag but it took me a long time and I was thoroughly tired of it long before it was all gone. If this was the only tobacco in the world I would still be a pipe smoker, but I would not enjoy it as much.

I can not finish a bowl of this to save my life. It makes my mouth feel like I have been chewing nails and broken glass for the rest of the day. I have tried to dry it out abit and it still makes my mouth hurt bad. Save this to give to people that you really hate.

Gold Burley.. Some time ago, while on a driving trip, the idea came to me to try something other than the tobacco I brought with me. Realizing my only hope, would be Walgreens, I found one, and went baccy shopping. They had most of the usual stuff, plus these large poly bags of various blends. My eyes went straight to the bag marked “golden burley”. Great price, large bag and free shipping, why not. A short time later I was puffing nice clouds of wonderful mild burley smoke, with its distinctive aroma. Thinking how did I not try this stuff before? Light up is straight forward, flavor is pure mild burley, with no topping that I could detect, and there seems to be a pleasant amount of vitamin N, that covers that. If one must complain about something, I quest the fast burn rate should be noted, but in spite of this, the smoke remains without harshness and is completely bit free. A good candidate for a mild all day smoke. Since that time, this baccy has been used as a foundation for many homebrew blends, some better than others. Would I buy more? Yup, and I have. For what it is, simple unflavored straight burleys. 3 stars. My personal rating; 2.5/5

A real nice homebrew blend, using this baccy, is 3 parts GB too 1 part (Dan) Blue Note. For my taste a little BN goes a long way.

I'm judging this tobacco based on what it is, not on what it is not. It's a plain golden burley, pure and simple. About a year ago I bought a 12 oz. Bag of this for $12 at a local Walgreen's and immediately packed it all into a pint sized Mason jar (yes it was a tight fit). Recently I returned to the jar and upon opening it was greeted with as delicious an aroma as I've ever met from any tobacco. Nothing exotic but plain home cooking, so to speak. An aroma that can only be attributed to good old American burley. I was immediately tempted to do what my cat does when I lay out an ounce of catnip for her; just bury my face in it.

Smoking it was an equally delightful experience. That sweet, nutty, flavor one would expect from a good, plain, burley. Nothing complex. Nothing to fret over. No casing that I could detect. It lit on the first light and stayed lit to the bottom of the bowl. Left no goop, no gurgle. Never bit. Never turned bitter. Same flavor from start to finish. And the experience has been the same with every subsequent bowl.

This is better than Prince Albert, Sir Walter Raleigh, Granger, or any other OTC burley I've ever tried, and considerably cheaper. I've never tried any of the boutique burleys at 3x the price of this stuff. I can't justify buying any, not when I can get a plain burley this good for $1 an ounce. Maybe the year tightly packed in the jar helped; I don't know. I've been told that such aging doesn't really improve burleys (though it obviously doesn't do them any harm either).

Like anything else by Blender's Gold I have to leave it in a baking pan for a day or so to dry it out. The aroma was very sweet, but it decreased as it got drier. When I lit up I noticed an almost buttery taste with a hint of caramel, and my wife said it reminded her of pecan pie.

For a "drugstore" tobacco this is really pretty decent as an everyday all day tobacco. I can honestly say I'll keep buying this in the future.

I agree with a previous reviewer who said it tastes like the plastic bag it came in. There is a distinct "plasticine" taste to it, like drinking water from a new plastic cup. This went away after about half of the bowl, though, and the tobacco taste came through. I want to say I tasted a very subtle woody note, but this is literally my absolute first smoke, so I am probably just tasting the pipe. The aroma, or I guess room note is the proper term, is not bad. As far as the nicotine edge that has remained since I gave up cigarettes- it nicely removed that, which is a big plus for me. It's cheap and easy, so it'll probably do until my online orders arrive.

Being a burley lover I really wanted not only to like this but also to love it. It is unfortunate that this came so heavily cased with a moisturizer that it tastes like the plastic bag it came in. I'm not sure how to get rid of that so I've stuck it in jars and stored it away. Maybe a few years from now it might be possible to smoke it. I know that the tobacco companies don't want it drying out on the shelves before you can smoke it but this is way overboard.

It doesn't bite. The room note is ok. Wish I could taste the tobacco.