Solani 656: Aged Burley Flake

I am not fond of burley blends, but reading reviews over the years made me want to try this notable tobacco blend, so I finally ordered one.

Cracking open the tin, I was greeted by a familiar scent reminiscent of Italian Toscano cigars, with subtle hints of liquorice and cacao. It was inviting, promising a comforting yet intriguing experience. Because you see, even though I don't like burley blends in my pipe, I love smoking Toscano cigars.

Upon lighting up, the first couple of puffs were somewhat bland, which made me think, "Oh! Yet another Peterson Irish Oak disaster coming". Aged Burley Flake started to reveal its flavours after the 1st third, blending deep cocoa undertones with delicate notes of nuttiness, earthiness, and woodiness. It offered a refined yet indulgent quality, akin to those Italian cigars but in a milder form.

While some may prefer more intricate flavours, this blend excelled in simplicity. Its smooth, semi-sweet, bead-like taste remained consistent, leaving a pleasant aftertaste that lingered just enough to leave an impression.

Will I buy ABF again? Well, I am giving it a solid four stars because why not? It's an excellent offering for those who love burley blends. However, the maximum amount of burley in a blend I can "lovingly" tolerate is as much as Mac Baren Navy Flake's and Peterson University Flake's 🙂

The quality of the tobacco is excellent and the nicotine content is satisfactory to me, but I can't like the taste, it is like a kind of soil plant burning, but it is not tobacco, maybe a friend who likes Mixture No. 79 can accept it, I won't buy it again.

There is every good reason to keep Solani 856 Aged Burley Flake on hand. An easy burning, pleasant smoke if you like pure burley. No particular bite if you go slowly. The flake rubs out easily.

It’s stronger than Lane’s Burley Without A Bite (as one would expect) but not as flavorful or nuanced as Ken Byron’s Morning Burley Pipe.

I like a straight burley ‘now and then’ but not on a regular rotation. People say they can taste licorice. Yeah, no. Don’t get any flavoring. There may have been a cocoa in the past but not now. It’s an ok burley.

Good burley blend. I cannot detect almost any flavoring. I love burleys, so I expected I would like this. Anyway, after smoking a HU tobacco´s Dockworker I can´t give this more than 3 stars. This flake is not as fantastic as that. Very strange thing is, I couldn´t smoke it till the end of the bowl when it wasn´t rubbed out.

It´s typical burley blend. I think burley lover won´t be disappointed.

Tin note of very mild cocoa, vegetation and coffee grinds. Tobacco is marbled dark brown and light brown flake. Moisture content is ok. Drying maybe preferred by most. Rubs out with little effort. Burns slow with few relights. The strength is medium and nic is mild to medium. Flavoring is mild to medium, with Cocoa as a constant background note. Taste is medium and consistent, with notes of very woody, toasted bread, unsweet cocoa, molasses, spices, earthy, bitter dry vegetation, citrus peel, brown sugar, floral, savory, a tangy zesty, coffee, spicy/acidic, a semi-sweet nutty background note, and a mildly peppery retro. Burley is leading with the Flavoring supporting. Room note is pleasant to tolerable, and aftertaste is great.

NOT REVIEWED YET Blender R.L. Will developed a unique toasting process to enhance the natural sweetness of this blend. No sugar has been added. v v v

After almost finishing a tin of 14 years old 656 I can say this tobacco is a win/win . Earthy Burley Brazilian reddish tobacco with a great note of Kentucky in it . Looks for me a sweeter version of the HH Old Dark Fired. Overall a great choice.

As someone who has tried many different burley blends, this was one that made finally love burley. A multi color thin flake awaits you when you open the tin. I use the Mac Baren fold and stuff and find that it brings all the flavors out wonderfully. Hard to find now days sadly.

The only tobaccos which get 1 star from me are the ones that annoyed me, this one's close because I'll finish the tin rather than putting it in the compost pile.

I don't understand the hype around Aged Burley Flake, it's nothing bad, it's not bad tobacco at all, but it hasn't got much going for it.

I've had it twice, first was a flake from a friend who was equally bored of it as I am. The taste of that flake was odd, tasted very strongly of liquorice for the first half bowl, the next half was a bit better because the liquorice went away. That was when I had an unopened tin of ABF in my drawers, so I decided to forget about it knowing there's nothing exciting for me there.

That tin sat for about 3 years, but when opened the seal was intact and the neat pile of flakes perfectly moist. The Solani brand always means top quality preparation and presentation.

Smell from the tin is slightly sour. The tin lists liquorice as flavouring in the back. Another friend told me to dry a flake to a crisp and then crumble before smoking, so I did that, since then I've tried smoking it stuffed and folded at various degrees of moisture, cube cut, and dry crumble. Dry crumble works best for me to get any flavour off it.

The taste is earthy, with whiffs of liquorice, occasionally, very occasionally cocoa, some grass too. Nicotine is very low. There's really not much in terms of taste or development. I don't know that I'd smoke that tin if I could give it away, but actually there are people I offered it to and won't take it, citing the same reason as me: it is boring.

Ageing is not meant to do much to Burleys, this one was 3-year aged Aged Burley Flake and really not seeing anything in it. Aged Boring Flake.

P.S. in terms of straight Burley, and single leaf Burley to boot, Wolfway's Epos Green (Greece only sadly) is far FAR superior in every way.