Sutliff Tobacco Company Stoved Virginia #507-S

Stoved Va is my favourite genre of tobacco. With the demise of McClelland and the now absence of those blends containing their wonderful stoved tobaccos, and the unreliability in supply of Rattray's Black Virginia and Rattray's Dark Fragrant, the tobacco apocalypse appeared to have come early for me. I have trolled thru dozens of tobaccos described as 'unflavoured Black Cavendish' or 'natural Black Virginia' and similar hoping to find a bulk, easily available dark stoved Va, all to little avail. For my efforts I now have a very large jar of mixed tobacco of varying shades of vaniila, caramel, maple and Heaven knows what else. I use it for my excursion tobacco. It isn't very nice, but it at least has the virtue of being relatively inoffensive to strangers.

So when I came across this tobacco on my Friday Buy Day, my heart leapt a little to see a bulk offering clearly marked as a Stoved Va and unflavoured. But the often disappointed part of me was cautious. I was well past 'fool me twice' on this score.

But praise be! This is what it claims to be. A straight, bulk offering of unflavoured Stoved Black Viginia. I have found my unicorn blend.

To the tobacco. Given the sort of reviews I see on Tobacco Reviews, stoved Va is not a well loved beast. I appear to be an outlier in this regard, so take this review with that in mind. Chances are YMMV.

This tobacco is loaded with dried fruit aromas: currants, candied lemon peel etc. For me it is like smoking a Christmas pudding. It has very little nicotine. Puffed at a slow pace, as I think it should be, it does not produce much smoke at all. But it is packed with interesting flavours. I find stoved Vas do not bite, and 507S is no exception. Again, YMMV. It has the odd rough edge; I doubt this has the same quality source leaf as the Rattray's product, but to be fair, it is also a fraction of the price. Loving it. Highly recommended but only for lovers of the type.

Once the bright Virginia leaf is stoved, it offers mildly fermented and tangy, rich, deep, dark fruit, some citrus, a lot of earth, wood, bread, and sugar, and very light lemon notes. The strength is a couple of steps past the mild level, while the taste just passes the medium mark. The nic-hit is hair more obvious than the strength threshold. No chance of bite or harshness. Burns a tad slow, very cool and clean with a sweetly consistent flavor from start to finish. Leaves little moisture in the bowl, and requires an average number of relights. Has a very pleasant, lightly lingering after taste and room note. Does well in the pipe as it is, though I do recommend a smallish bowl. As a mixer - which it was designed to be - it adds depth and dimension to any blend you choose to invent.

-JimInks

Sutliff Tobacco Co. - Stoved Virginia #507-S.

This review could be short: a very rich Virginia!

#507-S isn't just a ribbon, as badged. In fact, the blend's made of virtually black, very coarse pieces; a Mixture. The nose is full and fruity. I'm smoking this fresh and the moisture's refulgent; no airing was needed.

The moisture aids an easy ignition, and then, that word again: rich. The taste has all the fruit/luxury, one could expect from a top end Va. However, any citrus/sharp Va flavours are defunct; it's all about sweet, dark, fruit. Due to the coarse cut it burns slow, and medium in temperature. I get no tongue bite.

Nicotine: mild. Room-note: nice.

Stoved Virginia #507-S? Four stars:

Highly recommended.

This is a blending component, but I am surprised it seems to be so good in its own right as a standalone. There is nothing remarkable about the first quarter of your bowl, but it evolves quite nicely once you go past it. Something worth mentioning is I can't detect any casing, this tobacco feels so clean it is hard to believe is one of Sutliff's. It looks as though it had been treated in the red Cavendish way, and it is reminiscent of C&D's Autumn Evening but without the casing. The tin note is sweet and evokes the smell of sultanas and figs. It comes as wet as those towelettes they use to wipe clean a baby's bottom, but I have been able to smoke it without needing many relights. Yes, I like it, and I can see myself buying again, so 4 stars this time.

This was a very pleasant surprise. The last black stoved Virginia I had (from E A Carey UK) had been cooked to the point where it had scarcely any flavour left. By contrast, as soon as I opened the pouch of this one, I was struck not just by the expected earthiness, but by warm fruit aromas, blackcurrant say, with a hint of citrus. It smelt almost like a black Cavendish (I tasted it to make sure there was no mistake).

The smoke is rich, sharp & tangy, but with little tongue bite. Fairly mild by my standards. Sometimes takes a few relights, but not much above average; does better if packed a little loose. No gumminess as it smokes down. Altogether a pleasant smoke. It also blends well with some Burley I have on hand.

I had just about given up on stoved Virigina, but this tobacco changed my mind. A solid 3 stars.

I use this as a substitute for McClelland's Blackwoods Flake when blending. It does the job, however, it lacks the famous barbecue sauce note. On it's own, it is a good, tangy, easy to smoke Virginia.

A cooked black virginia, with a thick cut and where the predominant flavors are fruity, acidic and especially burnt caramel, similar to the one that is stuck to the bottom of a saucepan that has been used to caramelize sugar. Stays on smoothly and doesn't sting your tongue. Leave a pleasant and tolerable note in the room.

In my particular case it has turned out to be quite an original tobacco, since in my short experience as a pipe smoker I had never tried anything like it. It seems that it is a tobacco made mainly to mix, which I have not tried yet, having only smoked it without mixing with other ingredients.

Despite being rich and recognizing its virtues, it is not one of the Virginias that I liked the most, perhaps because that predominant flavor of caramelized sugar in the long run tires me a bit. For this reason I recommend smoking it in small capacity pipes.

However, I will continue to smoke it to see how it evolves in me.

I can imagine some reviewers trying to mimic some McClelland mixes by adding Stoved Virginia 507-S, as it similarly reproduces the now-defunct brand's toasted virginias. If someone get it and wants to do a service to humanity (pipe-smoking humanity), let them leave their recipe as soon as possible. It will be gratifying ...

Wow! This blend is just great! I love it. The stoving really brings out the sweetness. It is like carmelizing an onion or garlic clove. The pouch note is understated, but a slightly charred aroma is noticeable. The smoke is rich, thick and tastes of ... stewed fruit with a touch of charred grassiness. Burns easily and slowly. Fantastic! Get some!

Whenever I buy tobacco, I always end up getting a few ounces of this stuff. It's one of my favorites. Not only is it great on it's own, but it's an excellent addition to lots of blends, adding complexity and a rich sweetness. It can give a sort of "aged smoothness" to blends too. It's also a major part of one of my favorite home blends: my "Black Balkan", which is basically just bright Virginia, Latakia, Smyra, and Sutliff's Stoved Virginia, with a few little tweaks.

This Stoved Virginia has a great smell, like rich fruit pastries. It actually smells a bit like fig newtons... which makes sense, since bright Virginia has that fruit sweetness, and when it's stoved, it brings out a pastry-like smell. The smoke is perfect too... it burns slow and very cool with zero bite. I don't know what else to say about this one, it's just a super enjoyable, highly versatile smoke.

Bought for mixing but smoked it as is.

Smoking now:

The bag note reminds me of sweet sun tea. There’s a bit of fermented hay (tea leaves) very slight tang (lemon) and lots of sweet sugar (the sugar in your tea). It smells heavenly. Has a cooked sugar smell like maple. The leaves are HUGE. This isn’t ready rubbed tobacco these are the biggest leaves I’ve ever seen in pipe tobacco. Obviously this is meant for mixing. However it packed and lite just fine. Comes rather dry, or in my opinion the perfect moisture. This is a mixing tobacco.

The taste. Now I’ve smoked many a pure Virginia flake… I’ve even stoved my own flakes. This has a pretty easy going and mellow body. The typical harshness of Virginia is toned way down by the stoving process. There’s dark hay flavors, slight fermented bread dough, dark sugar sweetness. It’s pure Virginia tobacco cooked down for pure smoking enjoyment. Retrohale does give you a mild Virginia sting but is worth it for the grassy hay and citrus notes. Slightly spicy aftertaste.

This reminds me of sun tea, in that it’s a no bullshit all natural sweetened tobacco. Would smoke this again by it self and will have fun mixing it. For what it’s intended job is I give it 4 stars. Can’t wait to see what this does over time.