Sutliff Tobacco Company 507C Virginia Slices

I purchased this blend because of the previous review. And I'm glad I did. This is a lovely, cool, tasty virginia flake. Excellent quality and a great value. Very well mannered and even burning. High quality virginia flavor with a slight touch of flavoring. Upon opening the pouch, you can smell the faintest whiff of anise. You can almost taste the anise while smoking, but not quite. I kept asking myself if this was really an Altadis product. That's how good it is. I thought I tasted a little perique on the finish, but I'd guess it's really the touch of stoved virginia visible while examining the flakes. It's very easy to handle. Perfect for those who havn't experienced the pleasures of a straight virginia flake. Rub out a flake and don't pack it too tightly. Delicious to the bottom of the bowl. My review is based on ageing for at least six months. My first bowl lacked the sweetness that six months of ageing provided.

Grassy slightly sweet bright Virginia as described. Slices were easily rubbed into a medium shag. Packed well into the bowl, take care not to pack too tightly! Very mild with no harshness or overly large Nicotine punch. Most assuredly an all day smoke for the smoker who enjoys a good Virginia. As with nearly all Sutliff tobaccos this one is an excellent smoke and a good value as well. Believe it would mix well with either Kentucky or Perique, which I plan to do. Details into that experiment to follow. A good entry tobacco for the beginner.😀

Mine came in a an 8 oz. purchase from a cellar someone was reducing. It had been two years since purchase and jarred, etc. It came at a good state of hydration - maybe a little on the damp end of ideal. I rubbed it out and smoked it in several different pipes - a couple of GBD pots and a Grabow billiard.

My review in a sentence is that it was a little ho-hum. It did not strike me as especially remarkable but was competent. Virginias cover a lot of territory, and I got hay with a little citrus on the side in terms of taste. I am not tasting any sort of topping. There was a sweet note or two.

It was a fairly mild smoke and was easy enough to keep lit. The few natural sugars in this leaf did not give it a tendency to burn hot, although I had to be mindful not to overpuff looking for more flavor.

This is one of those blends where if I were on that mythical desert island with nothing but this to smoke, I would be grateful. It comes at a reasonable price. It is fairly mild in terms of strength and flavor. I went back and forth on the strength and finally decided it was closer to the mild-to-medium rating.

an absolute surprise. This is a very good straight virginia...mostly bright virginia it seems. Might be some other varietals in there, but in any case its a very nice naturally sweet virginia. Much better than one might expect. Id take this over a number of other more well known tinned virginias. The taste is sweet, without casing that I can detect, with a lot of hay and some citrus. Burns pretty cool considering. No bite. I like it a lot and have purchased a lot more.Aging will help.

3 and a half stars.

I was late in the game to try this one. I am always trying new tobaccos and I love Virginias and this one was a surprise. It has become my all day smoke. For a bright tobacco there is no bite. The flavor is just enough to stay interesting. I have shared with other members of GKCPC and they were surprised at how easy this is to enjoy. Priced right and tastes right. I will see how it stands up to Scotch whisky when the weather turns here in KC area.

First review here, I feel like I just had to share this, I was a cigarette smoker for years and I enjoy the pipe so much more, I'm sure some can relate. So I am mostly into Virginia blends and flakes. Enough about me. I got a 1 oz sample of sutliff Virginia slices from pipes and cigars, it came at perfect moisture nice size flakes and rubbed out easily, medium brown in color, very light tobacco tin (bag) note. I smoked it in a brand new stanwell 9mm filter pipe. I say perfect moisture level because it packed perfectly and the draw was exactly how I like it. First lite tasted of hay and a little sweet but very lightly. It gives off plenty of smoke, is not very strong and never bit me. Because of the volume of smoke I found it easy to sip. I'm really surprised how much I liked this one since it seemed there isn't much flavor, but the way it burned was as perfect as I could ever want, I lost myself in what I was doing and found that I smoked down to the bottom of the bowl and never worried about it getting hot or slowing my cadence. Room note is close to a cigarette but not as bad. Most enjoyable smoke I've had in a while even though it wasn't the most flavorful. Anyone who used to smoke cigarettes will find comfort here. Lightly tamp now and then and sit back and enjoy with a good drink. I'll come back and update when I finish my sample. I'll be buying more for sure.

A carefree stroll through a hay field in early spring. Sweet and grassy with a touch of musky earth. Well-behaved. Excellent way to build a cellar at a good price.

I am definitely a Virginia and Va/Per lover. I have recently been having an affair with burley, particularly the lighter, OTC blends. I've come to like most burley-based blends very much. I guess my tastes in pipe tobacco are fairly eclectic: I also like light English blends and certain other latakia blends - long as they aren't "lat bombs". But I find myself always coming back to Virginia and Va/Per blends.

So, after the fling with burley, I wanted to get several good quality Virginia-Va/Per blends for a nice change. Sutliff's Virginia Slices was one of them. I must say that the presentation is very interesting and attractive. These slices are cut considerably longer than most other flakes I've seen. I read that this is a European style. These slices rub out pretty easily, but my preferred method of flake preparation is a variation of "fold & stuff" I think of as "wad & stuff". So, I pulled a slice into a shorter section, then took a bit and simply wadded the tobacco into a ball and stuffed it into the bowl of my pipe. I repeated until the bowl was full. Bag note: smells like fresh, good ole tobacco. I couldn't detect a topping. This tobacco lights and burns readily to a fine, gray-white ash, and very few re-lights required. As with other Virginia blends, smoke this slowly to get the most flavor. Sip it! The smoke was cool and lasted a long time. Now, I usually have difficulty tasting the citrus notes everyone describes with Va blends. Plenty of grass and hay and all that, but citrus always seems to elude me. But with this blend, I was able to detect it! That sorta citrusy taste was subtle and would shy away whenever I tried to reach for it, but I was definitely getting it with this blend. Some earthiness in there, too, but lots of good, solid tobacco taste. Most Virginias leave a good after-taste for me, and Virginia Slices is no exception. It is also not hard on the tongue provided you don't huff n puff it. My favorite straight Virginia is G.L. Pease "Union Square"; Virginia Slices isn't going to beat it, in my opinion. But, just the same, this blend is tasty. Yes, it is a basic tobacco that is one- maybe two-dimensional. But, sometimes that's what is needed. This blend is good, especially for the price. I recommend it!

The sweetness for which Va. flakes are renowned is present, but turned down a bit in this blend, and the citrus notes are similarly reduced to a hint of lemony tang. What it delivers, predominantly, is natural tobacco flavor, remarkable smoothness, and little of the sharpness for which Va. flakes are notorious.

507c is a mild flavored blend with medium nicotine strength and good whole mouth feel. There may be a bit of top flavor – something dark, maybe licorice – I dunno; but frankly, it’s below the threshold of identification and more in the realm of imagination.

This blend is open to a little criticism because it starts to get ashy-tasting near the bottom of the bowl, and with its reduced sweetness and vague citrus presence, it becomes a little more cigarette-like than I’d like. The only thing that keeps the flavor on track is the grassiness of the tobacco. I don’t find a lot of nuanced flavor in this blend, and that tosses it into the utility smoke category for me; but it is smooth and satisfying, and I think it has a place in my deep rotation – even if it is near the bottom relative to the pricier gourmet blends.

I’m confident that most Va. flake lovers won’t be terribly disappointed by this blend’s lack of complexity and depth; but I wouldn’t go into this expecting to get my socks knocked off either. I would give this a strong 2-star rating, but since it's sold at rock bottom prices, it deserves more consideration.