Lane Limited Edgeworth Sliced

Too bad this nice flake, in the big blue 100gram tin, has gone the path of many long gone yet great tobaccos. I smoked this for years and was quite sad to see it go. The quality of this leaf yielded a wonderful medium flake. Since the formula to UF has been dumbed down, and I don't like Wessex, I really have not found, and quite honestly, stopped looking for a replacement. This flake burned very cool, had a nice aroma and solid flavor, plus produced a wonderful volume of smoke. Will not pay the prices for old tins of the stuff so this is a Eulogy of sorts. I knew ye well and I miss you friend.

The flavor engages all the tastebuds at once and provides a smoky and flavorful burley-forward blend. The best burley I've tasted. Complex and easy at the same time, what a paradox. I like the way the flavor gets right under your tongue but does not neglect the palate. I agree with an earlier reviewer: what were they thinking when they discontinued this blend?? I would pay extra for this one.

Edgeworth Sliced has been on the American market for over 10 years. Such a brand consistency say, to me, that there is some real success here. The blend is a burley, made of both Tennessee and Kentucky burleys leaf. The tobacco comes in a nice presentation; a nice, mottled flake which is mostly a medium brown with flecks of lighter and darker color. The aroma is nutty with a note of sweetness to it. The slices lend themselves well to being balled up and stuffed into a pipe rather than being rubbed out. Each time I first light a bowl of this tobacco I ask myself why. To me, both the charring light and the early flavor is harsh, and filled with tongue-bite demons. However, this smooths out after perhaps five to ten puffs. Once settled, the nutty flavor and subtle, edgy sweetness of the burley comes through. Deeper into the bowl the flavor is downright creamy and smooth, with the nutty overtones playing softly with an undertone of sweetness almost surprising for a burley blend. The smoke can sour is overpuffed, so smoke this one slowly and easily. The smoker should be cautioned that, like other burleys, this one has a high nicotine content. In addition to the sourness noted previously, heavy puffing will cause a nicotine high, which, to me, is rather unpleasant. However, this is avoided by a gentle smoke. In my opinion there are better burley blends. MacBaren's Navy Flake comes immediately to mind.

edgeworth sliced was very good, alot better than it's ready rubbed blend or it's cavendish blend, wessex burley sliced is pretty darn close, solani burley flake was a disapointment, go with wessex!

I bought a tin of this on a gamble about 2 weeks ago on ebay. Paid some $30 for a 50g tin which should be some 30-35 years old.

I got it in and it was still sealed up (not vacuum, but I don't know if they vacuum sealed this back in the days).

Upon opening all was as it should be. I opened the paper gently to find a wonderfull row of slices with a very sweet tobacco smell. Not artificial, just the smell of aged tobacco. Extremely good. I got 2 slices out with my knife and found them quite dry (but not dried out). As they are slices, I like 'em a little dry, so I saw no problem in loading a bowl up (I'm a smoker, not a collector :-))

The first few puffs were next to flavorless, but as the tobacco was tamped and re-lit, I got rewarded with a sweet virginia taste of exceptional proportions. Nice mellow taste and I can understand why this tobacco is a classic.

Half-way down the bowl I got a sharper undertone, but the sweet finesse never went away.

I like it, although I'm not a real virginia lover.

Did I pay too much? Obviously, but the experience is well worth it. Still have some 12-15 bowls left in the tin, and they will happily be smoked away.

Has anyone noticed the older you get the more things seem to vanish? Has anyone else noticed it is almost always the good high quality things that seem go first? Nowhere has this been more true than with pipe tobaccos. Remember Bell's Three-Nuns; Dunhill amd now Edgeworth? At the same time there has been an explosion of high quality pipes from the best artisans to ever grace the face of the Earth. One of my favorites was Bill Taylor, the man behind Ashton pipes. We lost him this past September. He figured out how to make a trditional English pipe to as close to perfect as we will ever see. The best that could ever be said is so and so is almost as good as Bill was. No one will ever exceede him. The good news is there are plenty of young carvers out there like Lasse Skovgaard. This young man will make you a custum very high grade pipe to your specs at a very reasonable price. Heck, he will even stamp your name on it if you like. I bought three such pipes from him that I designed and he brought to life.

The thing is, I have all these wonderful pipes and am running out of choices to fill them with. Plenty of pipes and ever decreasing supplies of my favorite blends of which Edgeworth was my everyday tobacco of choice. To those who facy burley, you'd be hard pressed to find a blend as good as Edgeworth.

If anyone knows of a true substitute, please let me know. I have one tin left and dare not open it. For if I do I will have to come face to face with the fact that I will never partake of such a wonderful blend again.

I certainly bemoan the loss of Edgeworth Sliced. A true benchmark for Burley flakes. I still have some left - about enough for a half dozen medium sized bowls - from a tin I purchased a good 20 years ago! It hasn't held together as slices any more, more of a crumbled flake, but boy is it ever so good! I remember when I first smoked it I found it very strong and a bit dizzying. It took me by surprise as I wasn't prepared for its strength of character. Originally, I bought it thinking it was the same as Edgeworth Ready Rubbed (which I enjoyed and presently only remember its wonderful room note) and found out it was ERR's more mature, street smart relative. Basically forgot about it but decided to revisit it after all this time after reading the reviews on this site. My sample was taken from its tin long ago and re-hydrated in a thick zip lock since it was very dried out. I put it away and promptly forgot about it. That was maybe 10 years ago. The sample in the zip lock was dry to the touch, but not at all decomposed to dust. There was little aroma emanating from the bag. Upon first light, however, it woke up from its deep slumber. There was a slight, soapy taste that immediately brought back memories of old. I dislike any Lakeland-type essence, but this soapy presence with Edgeworth, in my opinion, was part of the appeal. A beautifully stout, spicy, yet sweet taste immediately overwhelmed my palate. It is such a shame that this is no longer being produced. The taste is spicy rich and very full flavored - chocolaty even. I don't know if chocolate was ever added by the blenders (I believe it was said to have been molasses), or perhaps it is the chocolate-like flavor of good Burley (made better with age), but it is delicious.

I will ultimately finish what little I have remaining. I will spread it out over time and most likely savor it in smaller bowled pipes to stretch it as far as enjoyably possible. I take this over Mac's Navy Flake and Peterson's University Flake in a heart beat! If you can come by any, don't hesitate on it - grab it up! ...what a smoke...what a pity.....

UPDATE 4-19-10: I just purchased and received an unopened tin of ES from our fellow piper pipestud's consignment shop. I couldn't wait to open it and I am on my second bowl (2 flakes each) as I write this update. First off, the label on the tin had the Lane Ltd. distribution seal and atop it, a price label that read $16.95. There was another price label beneath it but I couldn't peel away the first to see the price. I am suspecting from the price label that this was from the time of this tobacco's last run before being discontinued (maybe 5-6yrs old?). The beautiful flakes were well packaged within a nice plastic bag wrapping and they were as pliable as if just produced. The tin aroma was nearly identical to Wessex Burley Slice (there was a light, "alcohol-soaked citrus" smell which only translated into the first several puffs upon lighting) and after smoking my 2 bowls, nearly identical in taste. There is also a much more pronounced nicotine kick with this tin of ES, similar to what I first experienced with this blend. As I stated in my original review, I bemoan the loss of Edgeworth Sliced. I would have to agree, however, with the Wessex claim that theirs is "the" substitute for ES (but in my opinion closer to the Richmond original than the Lane version manufactured by Orlik, and therefore, making WBS much better overall) - a claim I am quite happy about! Although Wessex Burley Slice is more reminiscent of the old ES from Larus Bros., and favored by me over the Orlik/Lane version, the Orlik/Lane version is quite good and recommended, however, Aged Burley Flake is by far a superior Burley and favored over ES and BS.

UPDATE 7-20-10: I noticed a while back that ES was listed on Orlik's website (st-group.com) as one of their manufactured tobacco brands. I contacted the company as to its availability in the USA. I received a reply stating that it was being pulled from production as it was only manufactured for distribution in Denmark and its sales were not high enough to justify its continued production. I noticed shortly thereafter that its listing was removed from their product range. I wrote back stating that its sales would most certainly skyrocket if re-introduced to the USA, but I have yet to hear back from Orlik concerning this.

UPDATE 9-29-10: Still no reply from Orlik - I didn't really expect one. Something I would like to share, however. Coming home this evening after teaching, I decided to mix some Solani Aged Burley Flake and Wessex Brigade Campaign Dark Flake. It was a 50/50 mix, folded and stuffed into a bent group 4 Dunhill Cumberland. After the first puff, I would have sworn I loaded some Edgeworth Sliced instead! This has been the closest to the taste of the ES of old that I remember - even closer than Wessex Burley Slice (which is a very close match). It has the spiciness that the original ES had (so does WBS) but without the harshness that is sometimes present with WBS. Try it, you might like it!

Why on earth did they quit making this stuff. It was good quality and I always kept a tin around because it was handy to carry around and provided a good burley smoke. I smoked the Edgeworth made in Richmond - not the English version.

Does anyone know of anything at all like this? I've been having cravings for it lately.

I initially found this tobacco disappointing, but it grew on me after I gave it some tin time in the cellar. I still have a few tins cellared, which I do look forward to smoking. For now, I'm biding my time, so this is something of a preliminary review.

In a nutshell, this is a decent smoke that improves with age, going from rather coarse and unexciting in its youth to a tobacco of substantially greater character and refinement after a few years of cellaring. Like virtually all Burleys, it derives much of its flavor from the added sugar, which was added with a sparing hand in the tins I've smoked. If you like your Burley on the sweeter side, you might find this a bit too austere, but that could well be a virtue for those who prefer Burley of more Spartan character.

As of this writing, I can't say I especially bemoan the extinction of this Euro version of Edgeworth Sliced. I certainly wouldn't chase after it, paying the high prices it commands in some auctions. For all its virtues, it's not the epitome of Burley flake. For example, I consider Wessex Burley Slice to be a superior tobacco in every respect. And for those who recall the original Edgeworth Extra High Grade Sliced, manufactured by Larus & Bro. Co. of Richmond, this version will appear as a pale counterfeit whose only provenance in connection with the original is in name only.

Nevertheless, it's a better than average Burley flake, and it does improve noticeably with age, so I do expect it be a tasty smoke when I open and smoke some of the stash that has been aging in my cellar. If my expectations pan out, it will be my pleasure to update this preliminary review with more glowing praise.

Update: 2009, August 7 --

After burning a bowl of Edgeworth today, I'm happy to say that the weed has unquestionably mellowed after three years of jar time (opened and jarred 3.33 years ago, on April 4, 2006). If it deserved three stars then, I'd give it maybe another half-star now for having smoothed out its rough edges quite a bit.

Flavor-wise, it still leaves a LOT to be desired, but it has good, solid Burley flavor, albeit pretty light. The nicotine content is low enough that I can smoke a Group 6 bowl and get only a mild buzz.

The jar is going back into the cellar and I'll see how it develops, but I've smoked enough Burley over the past 4+ decades to know that this tobacco isn't going to change significantly anytime soon. As for the remaining unopened tins, I intend to leave them alone for at least another 5 years, but in truth this stuff will still be developing 10, 15, even 20 years down the road. There's just not enough sugar in there to quicken the pace. In the meantime, if you're looking for a more deeply flavored Burley flake that is a joy to smoke now and will age more rapidly, try Wessex Burley Slice...which also has the advantage of being readily available, as it's still in production as of this writing.