Sutliff Tobacco Company TS-4 White Cube Burley

The Grapenuts of Pipe Tobacco.

The bag note is slightly sweet and mostly earthy. The cut is well.. diced cubes. This means that it is easy to pack in any bowl but I just have to be thoughtful to ensure a good draw as it wants to pack down tight if tamped.

Might be the easiest tobacco to light that I smoke regularly. Be mindful if you pack to the rim that this will expand and those little glowing hot cubes LOVE to jump out of the bowl to freedom.

Taste is very similar to the bag note, except to me the maple stays way in the background giving a slightly sweet top pitch to a very earthy base. Wants to burn quick, but no tongue bite.

As mentioned in another review, this is an excellent tobacco to mix into other burley blends that need a little help on the low end. It will also help any blend burn better and the topping really doesn't come across in most cases.

C&D's cube cut burley is similar without the molasses note, much dryer in the bag, but also works great for blending.

The white burley has a burst of nuttiness, earth, wood, toasted bread, some sharp, dry rough edges, floralness, a little sourness, spice, vegetation, light sugar, slight pine needle essence, and a bare touch of smokiness. The molasses topping mildly sublimates the burley. The strength and nic-hit are a step past the center of mild to medium. The taste levels is a slot stronger. No chance of bite, and little chance of harshness, unless you’re aiming to set a record for fast puffing. Burns cool and clean at a moderate pace with a very consistent flavor from top to bottom. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, and requires few relights. Has a lightly lingering, pleasant after taste. The room note is a tad stronger. As a stand alone smoke, it’s three stars. As the blending component it’s supposed to be, it’s four stars. Smoked straight, it may be an all day smoke for the experienced smoker or a repeatable one. That would greatly depend on your personal preference.

-JimInks

Sutliff TS-4 Only 2 reviews both by reviewers I respect and read everything they add to this site. Here is my take on it. This is an 8 oz sample that I have smoked over the course of 6 months. It has a sweet jar note that is molasses forward with earthy burley undertones. As for the smoke, it is very earthy, with some nuttiness. It is a little sharp with a slight bitterness that I associate with white burley. It is also too sweet not to have a top note. The molasses is there for sure, I also get a hint of cocoa (and that could just be the burley as some burleys with high quality do naturally have that note) and it could be my imagination as it is not present often but a very subtle vanilla note is there too. As far as a straight smoking tobacco if you enjoy OTC blends but are tired of the PG solution this blend might very well be your ticket home. At $49.00 a lb it is not quite as cheap but the difference is marginal. Smoked straight I found that although the cubes feel dry to the touch they are quite moist. I like to take a pinch and rub that between my palms and let it dry for a few minutes. Then take some cubes and poor them about 4/5 of the way full and then add the rubbed out drier portion before lightly tapping the side of the pipe to let it all settle. But this burley was not designed to be smoked straight, that fact it can be shows that the manufacture has tamed it some. It's primary purpose and the reason I purchased it is as a blender. If you have a blend that burns too hot and you want to add something that does not change the flavor all that much, this is it! It slows the burn and cools the blend as it is designed to do. This is the best blending white burley I have came across to date. I don't think you can go wrong adding it to any blend. The nic is on the mild side and the smoke itself would suggest the upper end of mild. The taste is a little more than this and I would place it at mild to med. It did not bite or get harsh even when pushed a little. A great blending burley!

Summary: a nice little cube cut that suffers from too much sauce

When you open the package, you might think that you are staring down at a sample of Martian pebble-sand. Little rocks of tobacco, reeking of cacao and molasses, with some kind of alcohol possibly used in an extract or topping as well, stare up at you. Pour these into a pipe from the spine of an old cardboard folder, put your thumb over the top and shake it a bit to settle the bits by saltation so that they are touching each other but still have room to expand as they heat and burn, and you are ready to go. The initial light will take more flame than most blends, and this blend burns hot due to the topping, but otherwise, it is an easy smoke. If they kept the topping more subtle, this would be a competitor for "Sir Walter Raleigh."

Jar note of earth, bitter nuts, and salty spices. The brown tobacco nuggets are relatively dry, and uniform in size. No drying or prep needed. Recommend rubbing out a few nuggets to sprinkle on top to assist getting it going. Burns slow with few relights. The strength is mild to medium and nic is mild to medium. No flavoring detected. Taste is medium and consistent, with notes of nuts, very earthy, sour vegetation, very, wood, sharp, very dry herbal bitterness, mildly floral, molasses, a toasted bread background note, and a peppery retro. Room note is pleasant to tolerable, and aftertaste is good.

Since the change to colder weather, I've been on a burley kick. With the exception of MB scottish blend, I've been trying cube cut burley even though there is only 3 or 4 cube cuts on the market that are avaliable currently. And despite the fact I'm for the most part NOT a fan of sutliff, I thought I'd give this a try. The bag note Is slightly sweet chocolate with a little bit of a nuttiness. Almost like a hazelnut. The cubes a pretty large but it doesn't really affect the burn. Flavor wise, it's about medium high with spicy, vegetal, slightly chocolately, and nutty notes with a very minor sweetness here and there. At times, a pleasant leather note comes out with a underlying earthiness. The quality of the burley seems to be decent. At currently $60 a pound roughly. The cost is more then I'd like to pay but tobacco isn't getting cheaper. Overall I'm surprised of how good this is. It's not my favorite but I believe you can make a very good diy blend from this.

20230221 edit: After trying Prince Albert, I can no longer justify keeping this around for smoking by itself. PA satisfies the urge for a simple burley as good or better than this, requires far less work, and is cheaper. This would probably be better for blending, if I ever get into that.

20230210 edit: it's kind of growing on me. After meticulously rubbing out the rest of my ounce, it burns fairly well, and i love the sweet jar note. The complexity there doesn't translate to flavor unfortunately. By itself it's kind of plain (not tasteless), but that's not necessarily bad. I could definitely see using it as a canvas for stronger flavors, or smoking it when i don't necessarily want to be punched in the face with flavor. May actually consider reordering.

Not a fan. Taste is fine, I get some slightly sweet, light bready, wheaty, nutty flavors, maybe a little black pepper? I'm not great with tasting notes. Another reviewer mentioned grape nuts, somehow that seems right. Enjoyable enough, but so far I can't get it to burn correctly. The merits don't justify the trouble. Packing it at all causes a compacted block which won't burn, and requires digging out with a pipe tool. Gravity packing works somewhat, but requires many relights. Rubbing out a bowl's worth made it burn a little better, but it's troublesome to rub out completely. My nicotine tolerance is low, and I get a significant nicotine hit from this one.