Butera Kingfisher

(2.92)
A distinctive combination of zesty lemon Virginia, burley, and perique. All whole leaf is layered together then pressed in cakes until the blend of whole leaf are perfectly matured. Cut and spun to ribbon form, the ribbon is then pressed into cakes for a second time (Double Cut). Then we cut the cake into flake form and packaged in 2 oz tins achieving an even more exquisite finish as time passes. A light, sweet, mellow smoke, subtle and complex, with a flavor curve ranging from lightly zesty through richly satisfying.

Details

Brand Butera
Blended By  
Manufactured By J. F. Germain & Sons
Blend Type Virginia/Perique
Contents Burley, Perique, Virginia
Flavoring
Cut Flake
Packaging 2 ounce tin
Country United Kingdom
Production No longer in production

Profile

Strength
Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild -> Overwhelming
Flavoring
None Detected
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
None Detected -> Extra Strong
Room Note
Tolerable
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unnoticeable -> Overwhelming
Taste
Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild (Flat) -> Overwhelming

Average Rating

2.92 / 4
28

28

19

8

Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 10 of 83 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 24, 2016 Mild to Medium None Detected Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
The burley is earthy, woody, and nutty with some molasses, and occasionally takes a small lead. The Virginias offer a potent tart and tangy citrus and lemon with a lot of grass, bread, sugar, floralness, and mild wood and earth notes. Its overall effect changes as it leads more often than it doesn’t. The earthy, woody perique is a smaller support player with some spice, stewed, sugary raisins, plums and fig notes. Sometimes, it recedes a mite. The strength and nic-hit are just short of the medium mark. The taste just reaches the medium threshold. Won’t bite, but fast puffing may result in a small harsh note. Has a few rough edges. Packed in crumble cake form, it’s easy to break apart. Burns at a slow pace, fairly cool, clean, and a little creamy at times. It will require a number of relights. Leaves a little moisture in the bowl, but no dottle. There’s a fair amount of nuance in the flavor, which tends to be inconsistent as it will change on you several times during the smoke. The pleasant after taste lingers a mite. The room note is a tad stronger. Can be an all day smoke for the veteran, but not over all.

-JimInks
12 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jan 26, 2014 Medium None Detected Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
Let me say that I can understand some of the negative reviews of this blend. I had purchased a tin of this in 2009 but before I opened it, I had a chance to try some from a friend. It was wet, the sliced krumble kake fell apart and there was too much burley forward for my personal taste. Not to mention, that if over-dried, it turned to dust. As a result, I never purchased anymore (stupid me), and never opened my tin. Now in 2014, while looking for something new to smoke out of my cellar, I popped my now five year old tin. The aroma was fantastic. The oils, or whatever causes the tobacco to seep through the paper, had occurred and I was left with a wonderfully sweet VaPerBur with the Burley moved well back. It is still a bit of a pain in the bum to work with and one still has to be careful not to allow it to turn to dust, but the flavor, from top to bottom of the bowl was outstanding! The Virginia’s are wonderfully sweet, the Perique is just right and the burley makes itself known toward the end of the bowl, but never becomes bitter. I cannot say for sure if there isn't some manually added sweetness, but my guess is no. I have experienced changes from age before, but this one is toward the dramatic end of the spectrum. Kingfisher has a fair amount of Lady N, and if smoked in a deep bowl, it could become strong for some pipe smokers. I was tempted to only offer up three stars because of the challenges associated with Kingfisher, but I just can’t, it’s just too good.
Pipe Used: several, mainly group 2
Age When Smoked: 5 years
12 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Sep 03, 2015 Medium None Detected Medium Pleasant
I am happy to have smoked this fine blend. It has a gentle and also full creamy taste. The tobacco leafs mixed in this blend are of the best quality. A nice natural tobacco aroma comes out when the tin is opened. This combination of Virginia, Burley and Perique is a very nice one. The taste is mostly a nutty one comes from the Burley and keeps in a very great harmony with the Virginia's sweetness and Perique's peppery touch. Easy to pack and light it and there is no tongue bite, just a fine smoking experience. Goes so well while drinking a coffee. It has a medium nicotine level. The crumble cake flakes of Kingfisher are giving a complex smoking experience that gives pleasure to the pipe smoker who will smoke it slowly and calm. Since this blend is no longer in production, I just hope one day to be back again. It is a lovely tobacco, a Kingfisher "tobacco bird" that with it's excellent and tasty pipe smoking "colors" will keep you happy while smoking your pipe with it!
6 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 30, 2012 Medium Extremely Mild Mild to Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
The tin description of this blend says it better than I ever could. It says "Subtle but Complex". That sums it up right there.

Kingfisher is a really nice krumble kake. The tin art is really nice and classy and the blend is a true winner.

This blend is pretty dark in the tin, and can appear to be a little moist, but in my experience it performs flawlessly without any drying time. This is a vaper I think...er maybe not...a burley?..er.. Well whatever it is it is really nice. I cant really pick up the perique, and the Virginias are not a high note sweet type, more like a earthy dark Virginia, like Wessex campaign flake.

The flavors here are really comforting. Nothing really sticks out but this is a nice warm feeling blend. It has a wonderful genuine tobacco flavor, and I for one think as subtle as this blend is it is really quite complex. This blend also pairs amazingly well with single malt scotch, especially the islay's, laphroig to be particular.

This blend seems to be getting hard to find. If you can get your hands on some snap it up.

Recommended
6 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Mar 14, 2001 Strong None Detected Extremely Mild (Flat) Tolerable to Strong
This is a mottled flake, mostly dark brown, with maybe 25% black tobaccos and 10% lighter brown. The pouch aroma is musty with more than a little hint of vinegar (maybe a good bit of Perique?). To be quite honest, it’s a little off-putting. The cut turned out to be “krumble kake”, as it disintegrated into small chunks at the barest touch.

My first impression after lighting remained with me throughout the entire smoke -- it’s bland. There’s a goodly amount of strength here (almost too much for a nicotine wimp like me), but not a lot of flavor. There’s also a lot of Burley, and it gets cigary and rather ashy by the midway point. The aftertaste is reminiscent of cigars, but a little more acrid. It does burn quite well, however, and there wasn’t even a hint of bite. The room aroma is fairly strong and would not likely win you new friends if you smoked this in a crowd of nonsmokers.

I tried this first in a briar, followed a few days later by a meerschaum and a corn cob, but neither did much to alleviate the Burley curse.

I would recommend this to fans of Burley, but I don't think there's enough subtlety here to attract VA flake smokers.
5 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Nov 16, 2012 Medium Medium Medium to Full Pleasant
Around a year has passed since I was able to find this tobacco, and my last tin has been gone about as long. I have missed it ever since.

What did I like so much about this blend?

The crumble cake - it wasn't a flake, but it came in the shape of one. The tobacco disintegrated into the bowl. It was a soft cake not unlike penzance.

The note in the tin was like none other. To me it smelled like red wine, but it wasn't flavored, just earthy tobacco. It had a tartness to it that I can't describe or find in another tobacco.

The smoke varied for me between cedar-like burley notes a la MacBaren London Blend and a spicy perique-ness. The tin note also translated nicely to the side stream.

The nicotine hit was sufficient. It was one of the most unique tobaccos around, and I will remember it fondly.

I know I sound like a wing nut but this was good s**t.
4 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Nov 29, 2014 Medium None Detected Medium to Full Pleasant
This wonderful Krumble Kake has been around for quite some time, but it is one of the more rare tobaccos to be able to find. The smell is wonderfully natural, yeast like, savory in the tin and the waxed paper was oily upon opening. This breaks apart so easily and packs very well also, loosely packed in the bowl when dried some this comes to life with flame. The amount of smoke produced is impressive and the perique makes itself known quite well in the beginning. The VAs are quite nicely on par with the perique and you have a wonderful blend that delivers full body (burley helping here) and moderate strength. I have not seen any of this online for years, so if you do by chance see some, snatch it up and I think you will be well rewarded. I did not know this was discontinued, after speaking with a shop owner I trust he indicated it is simply very hard to find and production is low. So I'm not sure if its off or on in small quantities. A very good blend to be sure, whether here or gone. TYLJFSM
3 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Aug 31, 2013 Mild to Medium Extremely Mild Mild Pleasant to Tolerable
This tobacco has a very mild flavor, but at times I notice a slight citrus note, and for whatever reason, it leaves my mouth enjoying the taste of delicious seafood.

When I smoke this blend, my cares seem to disappear into the air along with the smoke. It is a very relaxing experience that I only wish I had more time in the day to enjoy. I am not very sensitive to nicotine, but I'll count the feeling I get here as a respectable buzz.

I do not have a very sensitive or experienced palate either, and my opinion of this tobacco may increase as I try more. I agree with the reviewers that suggest drying time in advance. This stuff is pretty moist, and I have yet to smoke it as far down as I'd like to, though I admit I am still a novice pipe smoker.

Give it a try, it'll make your day better.
3 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jun 03, 2012 Mild Strong Full Pleasant
The idea of a high class fisherman being cast upon the jetties of misfortune has been a curse that many have had the displeasure of encountering throughout time. This unfortunately has been the curse befallen upon myself and my crew. My name is Jeremy Waid; extreme angler, writer, adventurer and little known to the rest of the fishing community, an extreme flatulentist. It started with my trip to India to catch the legendary Serang Catfish. Upon landing in the airport I was not happily received by the locals. I began my acquisition on the Serang by interviewing the locals when I had came upon an Indian witchcraft, voodoo, gypsy shaman woman. At fist she tried to sell me her first born granddaughter but I was only interested in fish. My camera man was upset that I turned down this offer, so naturally he took her for himself. He was a bastard and I had always wished that Animals Planet would fire his arse. Besides this point she proceeded to tell me that the Serang was protected by their gibberjabber Hindu myths and that I would never be able to catch it. Fueled with rage and desire to disprove her, that's when it happened. I silently expelled wind so fowl from my nether regions that my crew and the gypsy woman took notice. "Why have you expelled this fowl stench?!" The Gypsy woman said. I immediately turned to her "Whoever smelt it, dealt it, you stupid old hag!"; the crew and I laughed, but the gypsy woman took slight to my false accusation, thus placing a curse on my head that I should forever more be he who dealt it... Soon after this we set out to the river to begin my research. I made sure to fish with only the finest bait known to fishing legends, river pizza. The local Durkadominos had been happy to oblige my journey and provided me with enough to catch enough fish to feed a small village, but at a high price. It didn't matter for the amount of money I made through this television series was enough to cover any expense, including local brothels. Fishing being my number one passion, women were my second. I hold records for monster fish size and also monster man size. People would often look at my face and think that I was a bastard. Who am I to tell them wrong. A few hours into fishing I had no bites, only the sound of starving children and water rippling. I had started to think that the old hag was correct. But I would not give up so easily. Then it happened, another flatulent event that filled the ozone with my putrid stench, must have been the saffron seasoned eggs this morning. With my camera crew nearly passing out, the fish started to jump into the air to make contact with what they thought was food. It was the curse, my flatulence had now become a dangerous weapon, but a weapon that I could use to my advantage. I quickly re-cast my line and hooked a river monster the size of a small car. This was my crowning glory, I had caught the Serang. I had landed the beast and witnessed the ugly mug upon its face, it appeared to look like my brother Jordan Waid. I hated him. I remembered how he would dangle his boy jewels in front of me whenever he would out fish me as children. May his soul rot forever. I made sure that we took as many photographs to not be forgotten. To celebrate I lit my army made Peterson pipe with some Kingfisher tobacco and enjoy the sweet mild aroma mixed with the stench of my hindquarters. So I leave it to the viewer to determine whether I am an extreme angler or now, an extreme farter. You decide. Jeremy Waid, signing off.
3 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Dec 07, 2009 Mild to Medium None Detected Mild to Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
This is a tobacco I had to work at to find it's strengths. My first reaction was of a fairly bland blend of mostly burley and the faintest whisper of perique when it felt like showing itself and the virginia not so much tasted as perceived condimentally.

I still believe this is mostly burley and I think a nice nutty smoke is the intent. But the VA is really a nice teaser, and the blend is chameleon-like from bowl to bowl and less so as the individual bowls progress. In fact, this is a tobacco that changes the most from bowl to bowl of any I've smoked. Some bowls tasted like straight burley and some tasted like a solid VaBurPer. I never knew what to expect, and that has a certain excitement to it. No overabundance of perique in this one, to be sure!

Generally, this is a "set it and forget it" blend that has few surprises down the bowl and that might be a little TOO nuanced for a lot of smokers. I don't see myself buying this again, at least not on a regular basis, but I did enjoy my time with it. If you want something different and you like to concentrate on your smoke and really bond with it, this is recommended. Perhaps for the perique newbie.
3 people found this review helpful.
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