Cornell & Diehl Burley Flake #4

I am a burley fan all the way. In fact, nowadays, I only smoke C&D burley blends. After years of trying many of such burley blends, I came across Burley Flake #4. I consider it my favorite (together with Burley Flake #1) all time smoke, with an unparalleled taste, richness, sweetness, aroma and true strength. It has all positive marks in every aspect of pipe tobacco smoking for me. My only complaint is that it is not sold in bulk (anymore). It is a fantastic smoke, which will fully gratify the discriminating pipe smoker.

If you seek a blend with depth and grace in tobacco, you owe to yourself to try C&D Burley Flake #4.

Of C&D's four burley flakes, #4 is the only one containing latakia (two others contain small quantities of perique). As the name suggests, this blend is all about the burlies. The latakia is used in such limited quantities that it's barely detectable, as is the Virginia leaf, and there is precious little natural sweetness in the burlies used here. The result is a somewhat bitter, muted blend that produces far less flavor than its components would indicate. Even loaded into an extra large IMP meer, this blend didn't really develop until the final third, when it began to remind me of a toned-down version of Morley's Best. Unlike the other three blends in this series, there is little nicotine in this one.

As much as I love burlies, this one simply doesn't ring my bell, which is disappointing -- I had been looking forward to it, as I have a serious soft spot for American-English mixtures. But there's not enough sweetness, latakia, or nicotine to make it worth my while. On the plus side, the flakes are nice to look at but require some drying time before lighting up if you don't want to have numerous relights.

C&D’s Burley Flake #4 (BF4) is part of their series of 5 Burley flakes, all of which I’ve now tried. It rather reminds me of BF2 (recently reviewed) with substantial Latakia, which makes BF4 seem like a fairly "serious” blend. My tin is dated 09-28-18, so it aged over a year before I got to it. In the tin I found cut/”broken” flakes ranging from light/medium, red-ish brown to medium and dark brown, to black. The chunky “ribbons” smell smoky, musty, leathery, earthy, sweet, briny, and sour, and tastes follow suit, along with bitter, smoked nuts, and BF4 shares the barnyard thing with BF2. It handles, loads, lights, and smokes very well in my usual Burley blend briars. This blend might be dubbed an “American English”, and I suppose it will be best liked by those who appreciate C&D Burleys going in. I would not be surprised if some lovers of traditional English blends are put off by the strength, the bitterness, and the gamey “funk” they’ll encounter. Though the Lat is rather soft and a little perfume-y yet the ensemble is a deep, solid smoke, much stronger and fuller than top traditional English blends I’ve tried. If you have the time, I recommend DGT at the ½ way point, not only because of the nicotine but it also smooths the bitterness from the white Burley and brings up the subdued dark fruit and sugar from the red VA. Strength is more strong than medium. Tastes are full. Room note is almost pleasant. Aftertaste is a sweeter, long trailing off of the best of the smoke. It’s delicious!

Although BF4 is not a favorite of mine yet I have to give it 4 stars as a successful gambit, along with the caveat that it’s different from both traditional English and other C&D Burley blends I’ve tried. IMO, different is good in this case. Caution: ghosts the pipe it's smoked in.

This flake melds incredibly. It’s not complicated, but that doesn’t mean it’s not fantastic. I’ve been holding off on writing a review on it because of that reason. I can’t pick out all the different notes and subtleties from this flake. I can’t break it down tobacco by tobacco, and talk about their individual characteristics. But this I know, it’s a ky and latakia flake and the flavor is as smooth as silk, but kicks like a mule. That’s the best I can do. The nic is probably above average and the moisture almost perfect. I can get through a bowl with 2 or 3 lights or even less. Puts out massive thick smoke. Its a must try in my opinion. One of my all time favorites.

This is the third of the BFs that I have tried. The other two were # 2 and # 3. I found this to fall in the middle as far as my personal enjoyment. I did not like 3 as I found it so stout as to be overwhelming. I loved #2 as it was to the brink of stoutness that I could still enjoy and had a nice nutty sweetness.

BF4 also has a nice nutty sweetness to it with a nice touch of smoke thanks to the Latakia, which is pretty lightly applied btw. I also found it to be less stout than the other two I mentioned which added to the enjoyment of the blend for me. The nicotine content is still pretty strong though.

Other than that, it is the normal thick C&D Flakes at the perfect smoking humidity that one would expect from C&D. As is also expected from C&D the red Virginia is not that sweet, but it does its job of accentuating the burley.

I only purchased one tin of this, but would add more if I was still buying tobacco. It is good.

Presentation is typical of C&D flakes - thick cut, loosely pressed, easily crumbled, and on the dry side. I love C&D flakes. I just pinch some off and crumble it into the pipe. The tin note is of straight tobacco, nutty, with a light smokiness.

Burley is the forward flavor, of course. Latakia is definitely there, but it serves more of a supporting role rather than an in-your-face campfire of the typical English blend. I don't really key in on the Virginia per se, but the blend is not at all astringent...there is a bit of sweetness there, no doubt from the Virginia component. Big burleys ordinarily perform better in a cob, and this one is no exception to that...but I've found that it performs well in my latakia dedicated briar as well.

Very well behaved in the pipe. Nicotine level is medium-strong. Comparatively speaking, this is the weakest in nicotine of C&D's Burley Flake series, but it make no mistake - it is not a lightweight.

A nice addition to and a natural progression of the Burley Flake series, the only one containing latakia (the others having various ratios of Virginia or Virginia and Perique). My tastes have been moving away from latakia of late, so that probably plays into my opinion of this blend. I find it to be a pretty good smoke, but lacking compared to the others in the series - #1's strength being its melding of brute force with subtle flavor, #2's strength being its smoothness and complexity of flavor. #4 isn't bad, but just doesn't ring any bells for me like the others. I'll have no problems finishing this one, but I won't be buying more.

This stuff is intense. I smoked lmost a full tin and every time I need to back off of it. I like it, but it is just a big punch of strength. The vitamin N in this is strong. Upon opening the tin it smells of straight burley. I detect no latakia. The flakes a somewhat broke one the edges but one can easily tell there are flakes. I am sure if I didn't roll the tins arond and had softer treatment then they might be full intact flakes. Lighting is easy. I used the fold and stuff method but the flakes easily broke. I also used the rub it out method. Both light equally easily. I used a meer and a briar. Taste is pretty typical of a burley base with kentucky. In the briar you taste more of the sweetness of the virginia but it is minimal. And in the meer I only taste the burley and kentucky. And at no time do I taste latakia. Even in the smoke, no latakia. Tastes of dark hay and dried grass mostly. It burns evenly, cool and dry like it should. Ashes out very easily in the rub out way. I did have a few unburned flakes here and there when using the fold and stuff method, but only about half the time. Now, I mentioned above about its strength. About the second half of the tin I was packing 3/4 full as the nicotine in this was gettng me light headed. And I am not big on this feeling way. I would rate this around a 2.9 so it'll end up being a three star. Can't say I'd ever buy it again but I'm glad I tried it.

I found this tobacco to be strong, stout, dense and smelling like dirty socks - and I rather liked that! I didn't find it to be the butt-kicking knock-your-socks off blend that other reviewers noted. I first smoked it straight out of the tin and it was pleasant but not as strong as I anticipated from other reviews. It had that smelly but nut-like aroma in the smoke that I have always enjoyed in burley blends and the small amount of latakia lodged it squarely in the English category. I experienced no tongue bite at all.

I knew that this would not be a steady stand-alone regular smoke for me as it didn't have enough variety in tastes; i.e., it just wasn't complex enough for that. I began to add it in varying amounts to my microblends and that worked out quite well, giving each one that special little extra taste that can only come from a quality burley.

I can easily recommend this tobacco to fellow pipe smokers for both straight smoking and blending. Cornell and Diehl will be at our 2014 NASPC show in August and I am planning to purchase a tin of the other three Burley Flake blends for experimentation. A very solid three stars.

Having built a tolerance for nicotene, this stuff is absolutely delicious. After 30 minutes of drying, it lights and smokes easily. The burley is rich and meaty tasting with the right amount of virginia in the background adding some pleasant sweetness. I don't detect the Latakia but that's probably because my usual smokes are Latakia rich Balkans.