John Cotton John Cotton's Double Pressed Burley

(3.50)
John Cotton's Double Pressed Burley is a fantastic choice for Burley-lovers, but also for people who may have tried unflavored Burley blends before and didn't care for them. This blend starts with superb Burley that's mixed with just enough naturally-sweet Virginia to counterbalance the earthy sourness of the Burley. Then, a bit of dark-fired leaf is added for smokiness and spice. These tobaccos are pressed and sliced into flakes. Then, these flakes are tumbled out into a chunky ribbon, allowed to breathe, put into a mold, and re-pressed into a crumble cake. This deepens and enriches the flavor while softening any sharp flavors. John Cotton's Double Pressed Burley will be an intriguing change of pace for the Burley fan and might just surprise people who think they don't care for the flue-cured leaf.

Details

Brand John Cotton
Blended By  
Manufactured By Sutliff Tobacco Company
Blend Type Virginia/Burley
Contents Burley, Kentucky, Virginia
Flavoring
Cut Krumble Kake
Packaging 50 grams tin
Country United States
Production Currently available

Profile

Strength
Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild -> Overwhelming
Flavoring
None Detected
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
None Detected -> Extra Strong
Room Note
Pleasant to Tolerable
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unnoticeable -> Overwhelming
Taste
Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild (Flat) -> Overwhelming

Average Rating

3.50 / 4
4

4

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Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Aug 04, 2020 Mild to Medium None Detected Mild to Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
The nutty, earthy, woody, lightly molasses and cocoa sweet and sour burley is the lead component. The Virginias provide some tart and tangy citrus, grass, earth, wood, bread, and light, tangy dark fruit and floralness in a secondary role. The nutty, earthy, woody, floral, dryly sour and light barbecue, spicy sweet, smoky dark fired Kentucky is also a secondary player as it competes with the Virginias for that position. The strength and taste levels are a couple of steps shy of the medium mark. The nic-hit is a slot behind them. No chance of bite or harshness exists here. It does have a few small rough edges. This crumble cake is easily broken apart to suit your packing preference, and requires no dry time. Burns cool, clean and a little slow with a mostly consistent nutty, mildly sweet, lightly spicy, and rugged, slightly savory flavor that translates the short lived, pleasant after taste. The room note is tad stronger. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, and requires some relights. Can be an all day smoke for the experienced piper, and very repeatable for those less so. Three and a half stars out of four.

-JimInks
16 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Dec 12, 2020 Medium None Detected Mild to Medium Pleasant
I enjoy Burley tobacco over all others and was pleased to try this offering. Upon arrival I opened the first of two tins and found a nicely pressed cake of tobacco, neither dried out nor damp. There was no detectable tin note to my nose. I broke a portion off from a corner of the cake and was wasy to crumble it to fill my pipe. What I did like was the fact that the rest of the cake, unlike some other crumble cakes, remained intake.

Lighting was very easy and I settled in for a nice relaxing smoke. I didn't pick up any sour notes with the Burley as I normally do with Mac Baren's Burleys and was happy about that. The blend smoked very smoothly and without bite or excessive heat. There was no detectable flavor, however, while smoking there definitely was a nice tobacco presence in the mouth, full and satisfying. TAny sharp notes I experienced, and mild at that, were most likely from a combination of the Kentucky and Virginia. There was a nice sweetness to the smoke and not at all artificial. This is the kind of tobacco I enjoy the most. Very old-school and pipey, a true codger blend. The room note was of the type that makes one say, "That smells like my grandpa's pipe." My favorite Burley is Wessex Burley Slice and John Cotton's is a very close second. For me, more enjoyable than any of the Mac Baren Burleys and Solani's Aged Burley Flake. Highly recommended with four stars.
Pipe Used: Stanwell Featherweight Half-Bent Dublin
PurchasedFrom: Pipes and Cigars
Age When Smoked: fresh from tin
5 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jan 01, 2021 Medium None Detected Medium to Full Pleasant to Tolerable
This is a very appealing tobacco in various ways. This crumble cake is rich and dark with small freckles of gold. I preferred to simply break off a chunk and crumble it as I pressed it into the bowl. It burns easily and cooly. I found no hot spots. A delicious malty,molasses, burley taste that stayed pretty consistent throughout the bowl. There is definitely Virginia but I found it more on the nose than the taste buds. Highly recommend giving this a go.
Pipe Used: Various
PurchasedFrom: Pipes and Cigars
Age When Smoked: Fresh
3 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Nov 28, 2020 Medium None Detected Medium Tolerable
I have already reviewed the Double Pressed Virginia in this series and I was impressed. I like the inspiration behind this series and so far it produces a lot of good smokes. I love a good crumble cake and here we have a pressed flake that has been rubbed out and then pressed again. What this process achieves is an incredibly well married and smooth smoke. Today I will start with the Burley.

When you first open your tin you will see a very dense but good size crumble cake. The tin note on this one smells like chocolate, nuts, hay, spiced fruit, and tiny bit of citrus. The cake takes a little work to rub out and it doesn't reduce to dust when you do so. This one packs pretty well in the pipe. I have found these to be a touch more moist than perfect, so a light dry time will help in lighting. Talking about lighting. I've been smoking these blends for a few weeks now, and they all take an easy light. It needs an average amount of relights.

The Burley is up front which I would expect. I taste earthiness, nuttiness with a little bit of cocoa. I also taste the Virginia's here, they are sweet, citrusy, and grassy. There is a little Dark Fired Kentucky in this blend, and it adds a little spice but it mostly melds with the taste of the Burley. The taste here is mellow, the double pressing process has made this a really relaxing smoke.

You will find that this does produce some creamy white smoke, and that your smoke can last for quite a bit of time. The taste is a medium for me, it could be a full but the process that has been used to make this has made it mellow out a lot. The strength is a solid medium here too. Overall, a good addition to anyone's cellar.
Pipe Used: Savinelli Oceano Poker
PurchasedFrom: Pipesandcigars.com
Age When Smoked: New
3 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 25, 2021 Medium None Detected Medium Pleasant
John Cotton - Double Pressed Burley.

This is a proper 'no-nonsense' blend!

The tin holds a single piece of kake, quite dark, well compressed, covered in flecks of lighter Virginia. Although tightly pressed together, it crumbles with ease into coarse ribbons. The moisture of the broken kake is perfect.

The smoke? Very much a Burley-forward one. There's a sweet, smoky flavour from the Va and dark fired, but the Burley leads. Although quieter, these two are enough to detract the smoke from being an over dry, rugged, coarse Burley one; dry, rugged, coarse. This is the style of Burley, to me. I don't find it particularly sweet. Because I rubbed the kake to coarse ribbons the burn from DPB is fairly slow and nicely cool. It doesn't bite; me.

Nicotine: medium. Room-note: nice.

Double Pressed Burley? A blend to recommend:

Three stars
Pipe Used: Ismail Baglan meerschaum
PurchasedFrom: Tobaccopipes.com
Age When Smoked: Two months
2 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Nov 20, 2023 Medium None Detected Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
An old-school burley blend. I’d say it is a Bur/Va with the burley in the lead. The other players are present but not the tip of the spear. Chewy. Tasty. Full of flavor. The double pressing probably makes the difference here. Nutty. Hints of cocoa. The citrus and tangy VA. Really good.
Pipe Used: Pipa Castello
1 person found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Dec 27, 2022 Mild to Medium None Detected Medium to Full Unnoticeable
A good friend of mine from the San Diego Pipe Club sent this to me in a Christmas Package. “E” as he shall be called is a bona fide “Burleyphile” of late. Hopefully one day he will come back to the “English” side but only time will tell. I had gotten a few of the other John Cotton’s but as of yet have not opened any. In a matter of days, I have already smoked about half of this tin. This is a nice semi-hard crumble cake but easily broken apart. I have chosen the cob to smoke this in as all Burleys should be. I did throw this into a Meerschaum this afternoon just to see if there was much difference. None that I could tell. Upon opening the tin, I was immediately hit with a sweetness that I am guessing may be the Virginia. The sweet tin note soon dissipated. Upon lighting I sometimes get a few wisps of sweetness but that quickly fades into a dark, smoky, meaty, taste that sort of reminds me of a milder version of Mac Baren Bold Kentucky both in taste and nicotine content. As I continue down the many bowls that I have smoked I get a one-dimensional consistent taste. In other words, this blend offers no surprises in regards to taste from start to finish. This one has been really difficult for me to describe the taste, other than mentioned previously. I would enjoy this one more in the summer time as I do not smoke in doors and have been smoking outside where the temperature is in the teens, well you get my point. This smoke is strong enough that it went quite well with my “espresso” from my Mr. Coffee Steam Espresso Machine. I just got a text from Big “E” and he says this blend is not bad. Sounds as if he is straddling the fence on this one and my thoughts exactly. Good yes, great no, but not every blend is going to satisfy all. I will still give this one a 3 as it still has a lot of redeeming qualities. Since leaving San Diego and the club, my reviews are no longer plentiful as they use to be as my source of samples has diminished but I will still toss a review out there every once and awhile when I can. As if anyone cares, Ha. My last comment and I will get over this but I really hate square tobacco in a round tin. I know…. if that is the worse thing on my mind then I am a lucky man. Almost at the 400 hundred mark, hard to believe that I have had so much fun trying all of these different blends over the last 15 years and still around to boot.
Pipe Used: Corn Cob
PurchasedFrom: Gift from Big "E".
Age When Smoked: New
1 person found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
May 29, 2021 Mild Extremely Mild Medium Pleasant
The tobacco art advances -- from a technical point of view this stuff is 100% perfect: exactly desirable low moisture right out of tin, solid cake that crumbles with no effort into bits easy to load, packs with one tamp, burns well. From an industrial and quality control point of view this stuff as good as I've experienced.

That leaves only taste. Burley is just a change of pace for me (my idea of an ideal smoke is Balkan - especially Peretti Tashkent). I'm a sucker for the idea there is a "natural" pure Burley with "natural chocolate" notes -- even though I doubt any of that is literally true. (My betters are welcome to contradict me, but I doubt any 'baccy is "natural," nor can it be).

Double Pressed Burley is not 100% Burley, though the other notes are subtle. I tried to avoid fruit and other analogies -- how can anyone describe taste, anyway? Except this blend tastes close to blends sold as pure Burley (Uhle 00 and I forget the basic Peretti burley I like), and the differences are minor and pleasant.

4 stars

Pipe Used: Savinelli - large bowl - grezza
PurchasedFrom: smokingpipes
Age When Smoked: Fresh
1 person found this review helpful.
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