Solani 656: Aged Burley Flake

This review is based on a sample from a generous friend. The dark brown flakes can be smoked as is, but I recommend setting them aside for about an hour.

Upon lighting, I sense nuts, wood, a light amount of smokiness, molasses and some cocoa. While the pleasant sweet molasses is present throughout the bowl, it takes a backseat to the nutty taste. It’s also mildly spicy.

ABF burns slow, so set aside at least an hour plus. Its never harsh, even with quick puffing. It smokes well in cobs and briars, though a wide bowl works best to bring out its flavour.

It’s almost full in body, but can be smoked anytime of day. The nicotine level is between medium and strong. Pay attention to your puffing. If the bowl gets warm, put the pipe down, unless you enjoy an all out nicotine assault.

Some say Aged Burley Flake is the benchmark by which all burleys are measured against. While I disagree, I can say with certainty it’s one of the best burleys currently available, maybe the best.

The best Burley I've tried to date. Have some in the cellar just in case, the current tobacco climate makes me panicky ! Great, refined flavor, very high quality leaf. It's been a number of years so details are a bit fuzzy, but if you love Burley this is a must try/ addition to the rotation. Without reservation : 4 stars.

Wet from tin. I dried and smoked a Flake right away. Meh. Left in a mason jar for about a month. Tried again. Rubbed out the Flake. Dried it a touch from being crispy. Bam. Incredible smoke. Reminds me of coco puffs cereal in a way but light and subtle with a only a hint of sweetness. Does build in flavor as the bowl burns down. One of my favorites.

The only reason I don't have 20 pounds of this is price. There are Burleys almost this good that sell for less that are easier to cellar. That said, you'll find no better tasting, easier smoking Burley than this. Nutty smooth with a chocolate sweetness. It's a delight and pairs fabulously with a cup of coffee.

America has a tradition of great Burleys. Every American pipe smoker should make the rounds IMO. Or you could just start and stop right here. Burley doesn't get much better than this.

update 12Nov2019: I've smoked a lot of Burley since this review. My review doesn't stand. This is good, but it's a 3 star blend. There are a lot of 3 and 4 star Burleys that are a lot easier on the wallet than ABF.

As is customary with Solani, presentation is very classy. Nice tin and very neat slices of flake. Tin notes are mainly on the dried fruits side: figs, dates, ..., and is very pleasant. The tobacco smokes best wit the fold/stuff/twist metod for me. It tastes beautiful on light up, with initially notes of dry fruits, fully in line with the tin aroma, developing into licorice, tar and pine sap. Overall very dry, with hardly any sweetness detected. Burns well, but was a tad too moist on opening the tin, giving a bit of the hot steam effect, but after a few months of drying out the flakes burned solidly from tip to heel. Room note is woody, with a strong note of burned biscuits, as is characteristic of good Burleys. I found the flavour a bit flat. Nice, but nothing special. I can see that some people would love this, but there are better pure Burleys out there in my book.

Now that I am writing I have almost finished my tin and the flakes left in the tin are a bit drier but when opened where rather moist and a bit sticky but so delicate to the touch as I have never encountered before. Still easy to fold, crumble or peel and pack.

The tin note is spectacular: ground cocoa, maple syrup, molasses, honey… It makes want to chew it! Ok, we know that almost all tobaccos are slightly topped, but especially Solani markets its non-aromatics as containing as little additives as possible. However it’s difficult to believe that this delectable aroma comes all from the tobacco itself… - Yep, I went to the Kohlhase & Kopp website where it states that this tobacco is aromatized with chocolate, for heaven's sake: http://kohlhase-kopp.com/ceemes/tabak/solani/aged-burley-flake-blend-656-853.html

Despite being moist it lights easily and stays lit needing only a few relights and smokes to the end. Let me get this straight, this burns so evenly, smoothly and slow as no other tobacco I’ve ever smoked. It does not produce much smoke and it forces you to rather sip than puff, especially at the moisture level at which it comes. It burns so exquisitely slow that it makes an experienced smoker out of a newbie like myself. Obviously a premium quality tobacco as Solani advertises itself.

The problem is that it does not produce much flavor when smoked. I tried to enjoy in good will, I folded it, I crumbled it but not much was happening flavourwise. I tried it moist and then I dried it and found that it enhances its strength and flavor a bit but at the cost of becoming a little harsher and at the loss of its remarkable slow burning qualities…without me ever finding the golden mean.

Still, I got some hints of cocoa and a taste of natural tobacco and being a Burley it possess a slight nuttiness, but it’s very mild for my taste when moist…How I wish a little more from that wonderful tin aroma translated to the smoke! Some reviewers have mentioned that it’s fairly monochromatic. Well that is to be expected somewhat, being a straight Burley and I mostly agree, although I found that while up until the middle of the bowl it is extremely mild, then on things get slightly more interesting, a honeyed sweetness is accompanied by a toasted aroma and progressively the smoke gets more robust without however losing any refinement. All this in a small degree though.

Room note is almost innocuous and nicotine strength is medium, an early morning rather than evening smoke I’d say.

Overall I have to say that this tobacco leaves me ambivalent and slightly unsatisfied. It’s like it promises something that it fails by a small margin to deliver. I will state again that it is the tobacco with the best burning qualities I have ever had and the tin note is stunning. And although I am in the process of ever trying new tobaccos I think will buy 656 again hoping that I will get a better tin or find the elusive golden mean. I’ll give it four stars, but for me it’s a 3.5…

Bland. Little flavor. Medium strong in nicotine. Relatively expensive. Overall, this flake misses the mark. A less than stellar attempt by Mr. Will.

Like the other Solani offerings, it is a beautiful tobacco. The flakes have just the right moisture content. It loads, packs, and lights easily. Burns cool. But there just isn't anything to get excited about.

If it is nicotine you are after, there are stronger tobaccos that actually offer some flavor. If it is burley you crave, there are better burleys out there.

This stuff is just boring and bland and not worth the money. Not even worth the time. I should never have switched from scotch to martinis.

I have been smoking a great deal of burley lately and was very excited about this flake from the reviews here. One person had commented on how it reminded him of Peterson's UF and I happen to like that flake very much. Well it smelled like UF without the fruit topiing, but that's where the comparison ends.

The amount of smoke was poor after I finally got it lit well.

The flavor was non-existent...this seems to have been pressed, steamed, processed or whatever so thoroughly that it tasted like..well....nothing.

I even had a hard time detecting the typical nutty aroma of Burley. This is by far the worst pure/mixed burely flake I have ever experienced.

If I could give this Zero stars, I would....so one will suffice. And with taxes and money tight, I was exponentially disappointed. I threw away the rest of the tin without blinking an eye!

We have here a beautiful flake broken down in what seems to be equal proportion of dark, medium and light-golden brown. The flakes are thicker than most and require a bit more effort to properly rub out to the smoker's preferences.

The tin aroma is nutty and somewhat impregnated with a sweet-molasses like-aroma. The first impression is delectable! The moisture level is higher than usual but becomes dryier after less than a week, making the leaf more manageable.

Easy to light and smoke, it has a tendency to be slow burning, even when rubbed out. The taste range varies from sweet to pure tobacco with occasional bitter episodes. The bitterness frequencies seem to increase when, for some reason, I will finish the pipeful over a couple days period. When smoked the same day, it seldom happens.

Aged Burley flake is definitively interesting the first week, when the nutty-sweet flavours dominate, but it eventually becomes a unidimensional smoke with only pure tobacco taste. Which is a pity! I give it 2.75 for complexity but 3 for the perfect level of nicotine.