I must admit, I love a mild burley. PA, Granger, Mild Kentucky Club, Boswell's Premium Burley all trip my trigger, but this blend takes the Kake. I've tried a number of Cornell and Diehl burleys, and they are all too strong and harsh for me, with the exception of Habana Daydreams.

This blend is smooth, completely bite-free, lots of pure flavor, with a touch of flavoring that I can't quite pin down, but is the ultimate complement to a cup of steaming black coffee. I can't wait for the cold weather, so I can sit outside wearing my favorite wool sweater, drinking hot coffee, and enjoying many bowlfuls of Classic Burley Kake. I think I'm in love.

CBK arrives as an abused looking reddish to dark brown pressed block with lots of broken chunks floating about the bag. Though I understand that this tobacco is designed partly as an homage to the OTC tradition, I find this much more heavily flavored than most of the familiar OTCs. Bag notes are strong and a combination of chocolate, licorice, and sawdust. Rubbing out is easy, though it does tend to stick to the fingers. For me, at any rate, the flavorings used here are just too strong and too overdone. The smoke itself is dry and pleasant, but the aggressive flavoring made the first dozen bowls a chore to get through. And the chocolate and licorice flavors tended to be overmatched by that sawdusty Burley.

I do, however, find this to be an admirable blender. I’m a big fan of lightly flavored Burley and I find a small quantity of CBK (about 10%) can add interest to more neutral Burleys like MacBaren’s Symphony, Peter Stokkebye’s Cube Cut, even Carter Hall and Five Brothers.

As for rumors of its relationship to anything Edgeworth…nada, niente, nil. And given that some reviewers have described as "tasteless" a blend I find overwhelmingly aromatic...well, I wonder about product consistency. It'll take me a good 5 years to go through the pound I foolishly ordered.

This burley, like others blended with rum, refuses to bite. I pulled pretty hard (which is necessary if not dried a bit) and received no teeth from this delightful blend.

Upon lighting there were hints of a smooth nutty flavor beneath a mild semi-sweet to lightly sweet chocolate chip flavor. I did not taste any anise, and my wife did not immediately detect such a note. About halfway through the bowl I noted a mild nutty flavor that was a bit different than the usual Burley-Nutty flavor. I can best describe the flavor as "toasted sunflower seeds". The "full-on" "roasted-nut" flavor was detectable beneath the other flavors, but did not dominate as with other burley blends.

This tobacco must be well dried in order to ensure a dry smoke.I filled a bowl a day previous to smoking in order to ensure this. This is reasonable since it does come in broken cake form and so probably retains much of the moisture that develops during processing.

I gave this 3 stars because I would maybe have preferred slightly less flavoring, but I also will say that as the bowl continued it became much better. Also, my second bowl was better than my first, and the third better than the second. From this, I conclude that this tobacco is a very good "all day" smoke that could easily become a "go to" blend in time. I ordered 7 lbs all told and will see how it ages over the years. Thanks Russ!

I'll report back in a year.

***A week later I am trying this tobacco again, just to see if there was any improvement at all. Some of the really pungent, artificial maple topping seems to have left, but it still smells really strong. The flavor is actually much worse than the last bowl I tried; just plain gross.

After I figured it out this smokes nice. Tasty notes of nuts and vanilla. I really enjoyed it. Seemed different from the other burley I have had. I think if you like burley it is worth a try. I think as I get better at the prepping and packing this will get wven better.

Comes as a bunch of somewhat soft, very moist chunks that are really messy to rub out the traditional way. After developing a whole new rubbing technique, laid about 4oz onto a cookie sheet and dried it for a day. Very difficult to get some small flakes/patches to separate but very, very few sticks which makes me happy. After the drying, still a little too damp but loaded up a pipe with it and had at it. Really great stuff! First light tastes about like the pouch aroma smells, kind of sweet and fruity/nutty but not what I would call an aromatic (never really tasted the rum, either). Lights easily, even when too damp, smokes cool with no hint of a bite, lots of tasty white smoke, VERY pleasant taste all the way down and no goopies left in the bowl. Smoked 3 bowls full in one morning in the same pipe and everything was super smooth and pleasant without leaving any objectionable residue in the pipe (or my mouth). The wife also had no complaints.

Will continue to dry this out some more, but I foresee no problems. I really don't think that there is any humectant in this and it feels like the most natural flavored and tasting baccy I have ever tried (at least as a Burley). Expect to keep this around as a regular and am putting it in my very favored shelf.

Thanks again, Russ, you're the greatest!

Added 20th August...I am absolutely loving this; so long as you smoke it gently it has the nicest flavour. I'm ordering another 3lbs as we speak. One of the nicest tobacco's I have come acrosss in years.

I love it!

Maboman

Humility comes at a price it is said and I find this to be true. Russ' burley blend is a delightful change of pace and I admit this freely. Nice taste,good burn qualities,easy packing and very little aftertaste--none of the goopy slug either. My cheif room note evaluator - my darling wife - also likes the smell of this "old-timey" tobacco. What more could be asked for?

Though I am still not an avid burley or aromatics fan I will nevertheless highly reccomend this blend while deferring to those true burley smokers who have more experience than I do.They seem to agree for the most part with my evaluation though.

Very nice job Russ. A somewhat timid tryo at burley blends.

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn