Cornell & Diehl Burley Flake #4

I'm going to start off by saying that I'm not much of a fan of flake tobacco. I think it's always helpful to know a pipe smokers likes and dislikes before getting too in depth into a review. I'm also a big fan of burley from C&D so I wasn't quite sure how I'd feel about their Burley Flake #4. To add another layer of complexity I like latakia so I figured the only way to really know for sure if I'd like this blend is to crack a tin open.

The tin I opened had a good 9 months of age on it. With all the C&D blends that I buy I like to have at least 3 months of age on them before I really make any judgments on them. With a little bit of settling time on each tin the flavors seem to be more distinct and not as muddy as a fresh tin. In any case the tin note is one of dark burley, earthiness and a very faint smell of latakia. Interesting. I was expecting a lot more latakia for some reason but there is no disappointment in the tin note, it smells heavenly to me.

The flakes come apart easily and that is very helpful for someone like myself who isn't typically a flake smoker. They were easy to rub out or stack up like a bundle of sticks. In my experimenting I've found that rubbing out the flakes into thin "sticks", stacking them vertically (and loosely) in the bowl and then finely rubbing out a little bit of "kindling" for the top of the bowl worked wonderfully. As long as I did my part I had no problems lighting my pipe whether the tobacco was a little moist or dried out. A little bit of air time helps but certainly isn't necessary.

I tried this blend in three different pipes and each pipe was very different in how the blend smoked and tasted. One was a KB&B Yello Bole billiard, another a Loewe billiard and the third was a Peterson 999 army mount rhodesian. The billiards smoked bitter with muddled flavors and generally just not a good experience. The Loewe specifically was quite stinging to the tongue which I found strange. Enter the Pete Rhodesian. If not for this pipe I would have written off this blend as foul but being humbled by blends in the past tells me to explore some options before passing on any blend. It may be bowl geometry or some other factor but the Pete brought out an amazing dark earthiness from the burley that is supported by a faint sweetness and smokiness from the Virginia and latakia respectively. Every now and then a whisp of chocolate or cigar notes would cross my tongue but at the forefront is that dark burley earthiness that is delicious to me. Ah, now this is the wonderful burley I know from C&D. The nicotine is a respectable medium level and for some may be medium to strong.

This blend definitely requires some patience and slow smoking to bring out all the potential. I would heartily recommend trying it in different pipes because of my experience. If you wanted a possible starting point then a wider, shallow bowl would be a good place. A Rhodesian, bulldog or Prince would be ideal in my experience. I definitely recommend this blend to burley fans and I would cautiously recommend this to English blend smokers with the caveat that they will not get the complexity or latakia hit that they might typically like.

Recommended and rated *** out of **** stars. The only reason it was docked a star is because of pipe dependency.

I've been working my way through the CD Burley Flakes and made it to number 4.

It's a "typical" CD broken style flake which makes it easy to pack and prepare. Mine was a little moist when opened, but dries out quickly to smoke. The tin note to me is "smoky" and I was not surprised from the description to learn some latakia might be hiding in there.

The KY dark fired to me carries the blend. It has a dark full taste similar to me to ODF with some smoky notes added from the latakia. The nic to me is north of Medium and its not a blend I'll smoke multiple bowls of.

If you like Burley forward, KY forward flakes you'll probably like this one.

this is a very strong very robust burley blend. not to the liking of everyone but this fits my tastes very well. this will put hair on your chest for sure. mostly tastes of strong dark nutty burley with some peppery hints. the virginia plays the roll of smoothing out the smoke and adds a hint of sweetness. if you like very robust blends then this is for you.

NB: Take this review with a grain of salt even though I try to be as objective as possible. This was my first burley/Virginia I ever tried and I have good things to say about it!

My Experience: Firstly, this is an amazing burley blend simply because it exhibits all the characteristics of a burley while not being too strong or too meaty if you will. That said, this is relative to my experience, just like how some might rate this tobacco as having a very strong strength who haven’t had HH Bold Kentucky or Old Joe Krantz. My elderly neighbor even said, wow that gives off a very nice aroma! I was very surprised considering it’s a burley. I picked this blend up because I was craving something more full body than the English blends I was smoking, and I never had a Virginia/Burley at this point in my journey.

Review: Burley Flake #4 is one of my favorite Virginia’s since it exhibits notes of smokey wood & meat which a smooth and almost creamy like aftertaste. The reason why this Burley stands out is because it isn’t dominated by that Barbecue-like pungent taste throughout the smoke until the second half of the bowl. The first half of the bowl is more creamy and definitely woodsy. In a sense, it’s one dimensional in terms of the few flavors it actually gives off, yet has depth in terms of the mixture of the flavors and subtle strength it has. In my opinion this tobacco smells great, tastes great, and even leaves a nice but somewhat strong aroma after the smoke. The strength is perfect where it isn’t so light that you feel unsatisfied, but still not too strong where you can’t smoke it in the afternoon (in my opinion).

Should you buy it?
Yes, and this goes for anyone who likes Virginias.