Sutliff Tobacco Company Breckinridge

A straight uncomplicated Kentucky plug cut burley with no topping. It has a little earthiness contrasting nicely with mild molasses, nutty, and cocoa notes with some earthiness. Has a mild nic-hit, and will not bite. Burns at less than a moderate pace, cool, clean and even, though if you puff too fast, you may get a hint of cigarette. It’s not as sweet as the more familiar OTCs on the market, and as it burns slowly, you'll have a nice long smoke depending on the size of your bowl. Also works well as a mixer. Has a consistent flavor, and leaves virtually no moisture at the finish. Needs a few relights if you use a big bowl. Can be an all day smoke.

-JimInks

EDIT 4-12-2016

I just finished another tin of this and ordered a few more fro the cellar. No change in my feelings on this one, but I would say that I am even more confident in my four star rating on this one.

ORIGINAL REVIEW 6-30-2015

A friend sent a tin of this to me from the Chicago show last year, because he thought I would like it. I was skeptical of anything sutliff at the time having been disappointed by a couple of their blends I tried and not really finding one I did. Well, this blend changed all that. This is one of the best burley blends out there today. I would say it is the best in a ribbon format as I would still put ABF above this one.

A nice thing about this is that it gives all the sweet nutty and earthy notes that you would hope for in a burley blend, but doesn't overwhelm you with nicotine the way several others do. It also doesn't get bitter at the slightest provocation making it a good candidate for mindless smoking while putzing around the garage.

This is a no brainer at 4 stars for me as I have recommended this blend a lot since popping the tin. Great work Sutliff! I will be stocking up on this one.

I was very excited to try this blend and it did not disappoint. Fans of burley seem to be few and far between these days. That's a good thing, we always have our favorite blends readily available because nobody is buying them up 🙂

The tin is a mishmash of various cuts with colors that are reminiscent of cardboard or cork boards. I was a little surprised at first to find some plume though, being that Burley is not known for naturally occurring sugars. If you inspect closely there are little sugar crystals on the leaves which probably is from a slight casing just to balance ph levels of the tobacco. It doesn't impinge on the lovely flavor of this tobacco at all, if anything, it enhances the experience.

Packing is very easy because all the varied sizes of cuts offer you to customize how you want to load up. I typically put the big chunks at the bottom of the bowl and use the smaller ones for kindling.

Lighting this up there is a faint sweetness evocative of a sugared bran cereal (Honey Chex Mix maybe?). It isn't obtrusive to the smoke but rather quite nice. The first 2/3 of the bowl provide gentle whips of an array of flavors including but not limited to; cocoa, nuts, milk chocolate, leather, honey bread and chocolate mousse. The last 1/3 of the bowl really brings out the earthy and mossy notes but it's a nice close to a wonderful smoke. I would not be surprised if the tobaccos were treated with a sugar water because that sweetness allows so many other flavors to show themselves.

If you can't tell, I love this blend. Solani ABF and Carter Hall are my two favorite burley blends but this is like a perfect marriage between the two of them. ABF has more of the low notes with some highs where CH has more sweet highs than lows. Breckenridge's range is greater than both. I've heard others make reference to PA, SWR or Half N' Half, but this tobaccos leaf is of a much higher quality IMO.

I can only hope that Sutliff decides to put this into an 8 oz can because I would absolutely buy it. Highly recommended for Burley lovers.

This is a very good burley. Mine came in a generous sample from a friend and was slightly on the dry side. I can't comment on moisture from the tin, but I smoked it as is and did not hydrate it.

The flavors are subtle molasses and cocoa. There is an earthy quality to the taste, and I found it unusually easy to smoke very slowly. It stayed lit and did not have problems with burning hot. There were no chemical "notes." While it contains Kentucky, it is not spicy or smoky. I got a little ashy taste in the last few puffs of a bowl.

This is only available in a 1.5 oz tin, and while it is very good, current pricing is effectively $72 a pound. Were it an option in bulk, I think more people would try it.

I like to call this ERR match Deluxe. If you like Sutliff's ERR match and you want a bit more oomph, a bit more taste then try this. Side by side with ERR match I cannot tell the different by the look. Same cut, same chunky pieces.

The difference is is the taste. This has more of a chocolate taste and jar note then ERR. To say that this is uncased is kinda weird. This is Sutliff hehe. The Fast food company of the pipe tobacco world.

This is a nice omage to the OTC blends and a nice all day burley if you like OTC blends and ERR match.

I have always associated the term "Kentucky" with fire cured burley. So I can only assume that Sutliff's tin description is referring to the origin of the leaf in this blend rather than use of Kentucky dark fired, as Breckinridge is not dark, stout or smoky tasting. Still, this is a lovely burley mixture with a mildly-sweet, clean and evenly-balanced flavor.

The smoke is smooth and medium bodied. It finishes with a touch of honey, chocolate and a hint of the same mustiness that I found in Sutliff's Great Outdoors. The chunky plug-cut pieces burn perfectly. I prefer to leave them intact which helps insure a slow bite-free burn that's flavorful and cool with no bitterness.

The only way to improve this blend would be 8 ounce tins.

I am a Burley fancier and although I smoke the occasional Virginia or aromatic, and not caring much for Perique or Latakia, Breckinridge was a must try for me.

Fresh from the tin you are greeting with a true plug cut - very easy to pack and light. It was of a medium brown color throughout and velvety soft to the touch. Considering the softness, it was not damp at all. Although its description says it is natural without flavorings, there is a distinctive tin note of fudge brownie batter (before baking) and that taste translated into the smoke - not over the top or cloying, but just right. While smoking, good nutty Burley flavor came through as well. Both flavors lasted throughout the smoke (I've had several bowls so far). I honestly couldn't detect the presence of Kentucky leaf per se (not very strong here), but it was a true Burley smoke; nutty and very tasty. If there was any Virginia leaf included, I could not detect it. The slightest bit of moisture found its way to the bottom of the bowl, but certainly not in any abundance to be concerned about. Breckinridge, for me, is what all codger Burleys should be. A good tasting, slow smoking, enjoyable smoke. No evidence of chemicals, didn't smoke hot or bite at all - even with vigorous puffing. Kudos to Sutliff...they have a winner!

As a final note. I smoked this in a refurbished Peterson that came in the same order from Smokingpipes.com. Sucking on its stem without any tobacco within, I could not detect any flavor of past smokes whatsoever. After lighting my first bowl, every now and then I got the distinct taste - and whiff - of a mild aftershave. I'm not talking Lakeland here at all. It smelled rather familiar, but I could not place it. The strange thing is that it came and went. It in no way remained throughout the smoke as did the chocolate and nutty Burley tastes. At first I thought perhaps the tobacco, during its preparation/packing was handled by a factory worker who had a liking to using this particular aftershave. I figured, however, that very little (if any) manual handling is done these days with all the machinery employed to do the job; plus I am sure workers wear gloves. My next thought was "a visit from beyond." Probably nothing more than the refurbished pipe...but one never knows! I'll have to try it in several other pipes to test the theory. Regardless, 4 stars and highly recommended.

Blend Name:Breckinridge

Description on Tin: A non Aromatic mixture of Kentucky plug cut burley

Leaf: Burley

Tin Aroma: sweetness, leather, paper bag, undertones of coco

Taste: Mild in the flavoring but the taste lead with soft cream, burning grass with light hints of coco in the finish. Decent body

Smokability: the blend was dry and needed no extra drying time. Did smoke a little hot in all the pipes I tried.

Room Note: Had the sent of dry smoke, and old paper bags (not bad smells)

Thoughts: This wasn't an unpleasant smoke for me, but it seemed flat and slightly uninteresting. There was not a huge hit of nicotine that gets associated with burleys. With that said it was not a bad tobacco blend, but it was not in my preference range.

Recommend to: Mild Non aromatic and Burley smokers

Summary: After smoking half a tin I found that the tobacco flavors stayed consistent through the entire bowl. It burned clean and smooth from top to bottom leaving soft white ash.

My Background: I am a Chef and rely on scents and flavors and how they interact with each other. I mix liquors and brew beer in my free time. I have been smoking pipes since 2009.

This is a very earthy but mild smoke. The tin has a very mild smell of the burley/kentucky when opened. Has a nice flavor but is a bit mild for my typical tastes. Tobacco was not too moist and burned well. Although it did seem to burn hot even when trying to nurse it slowly. If enjoy mild blends with burley/kentucky I would recommend this.

Most Sutliff blends I've smoked were given to me but this one I bought, so I was hopeful for some hidden gem. Interesting cut and color, the former being sort of a ready-rubbed thing and the color being shades of gray, from darker to a sort of cigarette ash color. Looked almost like plume on a Virginia. Definite cocoa notes that went beyond an uncased burley, making me think this may have a mild casing. No real issue there - most of the tobaccos I smoke have a casing or topping of some kind. I smoked this at tin moisture and dried it out a bit.

The pos' and negs... Well, it smoked cool. I could never get it to bite or get harsh, although it got kind of cigarette-ish if pushed. But puffed gently, it never lost that cool. It also wasn't laden with nicotine but was most gentle on both palate and bloodstream. As a blender (once I got the cut of this to match what I was blending it to!) it added a bit of body and some light burley flavor, although it's far from my favorite burley blender. Finally, it had no signature Sutliff chemical flavor. A blessing, that.

Unfortunately, it didn't have a lot of any real flavor. Some slight nuttiness. The cocoa notes settled down quickly. None of the usual spice or deep flavor from the Kentucky. Definitely more than a hint of cardboard taste. A bit too gentle for my palate but would probably work well for someone that wanted something extremely mild that didn't offend. No complexity, which I expected, but also no depth to this one, although I don't think that will be an issue to its intended audience. Finally, I had some troubles keeping this one lit. Not horrible but noticeable. This occurred no matter how much it dried out... and too dry, this one collapsed. Somewhere just south of tin moisture was best for me. Just not much use for this one, as there are much tastier examples of this style out there. Not quite two stars but better than one star blends, plus this one has its fans, so curious readers may want to start with those reviews rather than mine.