Wilke Pipe Tobacco Nut Brown Burley

Anyone wishing to try this lovely burley may do so at the Pipeworks & Wilke online store at the following website: http://www.vtpipes.com/

01/05/05 My half pound of NBB has been around for about six months now. I still smoke it occasionally. Its quality cannot be faulted. And I still smoke it occasionally. However, when I want a Burley, I usually choose McBaren's London Burley Blend, hence the demotion from "One of my favorites" to "smoke on occasion."

Nut Brown Burley (NBB) is my favorite burley blend. I even like it better than Barbary Coast(this is a major statement for me, because I love Barbary Coast). The pouch aroma is out of this world; it almost smells good enough to eat. After realizing how good a burley can be after trying Barbary Coast this past summer, I went on an extensive search for the perfect burley blend. I found mine in NBB.

The taste is classic burley: nutty, rich, and satisfying. The description claims that the blend also contains some Virginia and Turkish tobacco. I believe them, because this blend is more complex than you would expect from a burley. NBB could also be described as slightly sweet, which might stem from the Virginia, because I don't find any clues of a topping.

Upon visual inspection, there appears to be several types of burley present, dominated by small brown cubes. I also find longer strands of light leaf and even green leaf.

If you're like me and enjoy a great burley, give NBB a try.

Great Burley blend here. Very high quality tobacco is evident from the pouch aroma to the last few puffs at the end of the bowl. Really like the cube cut in here. Had absolutely no problem keeping it lighted and it smoked clean all the way down. No dottle to speak of. Rounded rich burley notes present in abundance. Cannot really taste the Va. that is supposed to be here. Just awesome aged burley with a room note that reminded me of grandpa's pipe.

A fine natural Burley! Just the right amount of nutty natural sweetness. A mild cool smoke!

I smoked this while wandering downtown, and really I picked this one for an out and about tobacco, as I knew that being burly, I wouldn't have to futz around with it in the wind. I wasn't disappointed, it lit, and smoked, and smoked and smoked.

I like that this tobacco has a nice sweetness to the smoke, but it isn't heavy enough in the casing to interfer with the burly's superb ability to just keep trucking. I ended up setting the pipe down, about half way through the bowl, and coming back to it later. Even after sitting around it hadn't really soured and was really much as it was before I set it down. My only real downside for this tobacco was that I really didn't get any "Nut" flavor, or at least not any more then I have come to expect with a burly. Other then that little gripe, I would say this would be a fine addition to my rotation, and it really shows what a fine burly can be like.

Undoubtedly the highest quality straight burley available. It's expensive, but worth it.

This is the quintessential burley blend. All the blends that report the flavor is nut like aren?t as nut like as this one. Smooth taste, full mouth feel, no bite. Stays consistent to the bottom of the bowl, leaves no goop, and it cashes out as a nice white ash. The only downside is not quite enough punch for me. However that does seem to be par for the course in strict burley blends. A definite do again.

Without a doubt, the best Burley I've ever smoked. Mixed 50% with any good ribbon-cut Virginia, NBB makes an excellent half-and-half. Since I'm a Virginia tobacco snob, I seldom smoke NBB "straight up" but I smoke it daily as a blend component. The only Burley that comes close to NBB, in my opinion, is MacBaren's London Blend. I find NBB better for my purposes, though, since it has less casing than the MacBaren offering. I can't imagine the dedicated Burley smoker finding a better tobacco anywhere.

Update 9 Match 2006: Having smoked another half pound of NBB, I have found that it nearly always leaves my mouth with the same scoured feeling I sometimes get with McClelland blends. NBB remains tasty, and of quality, but it does not, apparently, agree with my tongue. Too bad.

This is a remarkable, outstanding blend. Cool, rich, enveloping and thoroughly surprising. Surprising, because Nut Brown Burley does not profile as one would expect a basically Burley mixture to taste if a pipe smoker has tried the better known cheap to epic Burley blends available.

Hardly monochromatic, yet it does not require a sophisticated palate to appreciate. I detect that spicier leaf bolsters this. There is a Dominican cigar leaf effect, perhaps from a particular Burley, maybe from Turkish leaf, or perhaps cigar wrapper. I do not know. I do not get much nuttiness or sweetness either, but the flavor is round, smooth and washes the palate without overwhelming it. There is also a dry effect not unlike a cigar. I enjoyed this more than Edgeworth Sliced in every way and it is much cooler, less impacting than Dark Strong Kentucky from Orlick.

I like this best in briar and pack it firmly for a long, dry and refreshing smoke. Worthy of dedicating a pipe or two to keep this pure, unobstructed.