Butera Kingfisher

I picked up a tin of this and forgot about it for six months. Saw it, and opened it up. Had an awesome tin aroma. Kind of an apricot like note. The krumble kake is nice also. You hardly have to roll it around to break it up into almost a powder. Pack carefully.

Burns adequately.

Smoke it most often in a Kirsten that I have dedicated to Va/perique combos. It has a subtle sweetness from the Virginias, a slight peppery note from the perique and a nice toastiness from the burley.

If you are a fan of perique, you might not like this one as there is little of it present. The amount here lends just the right effect for me, however. This is my favorite Va/perique blend.

I purchased a tin of Kingfisher back in July,03 and smoked some of it right away. I noted that the tobacco was a little on the damp side,so I smoked a few more bowls here and there and put it away for a while. Well just last week I got back to the old Kingfisher,and boy what a few months made! Lately, I have found myself smoking this more than any other tobacco in my stock. The Burleys are outstanding,and the Perique,oh my goodness what a great combination together.The perique adds that warm stewed fruit to the nutty round taste of the Burley. The Virgiia leaf is suttle and not to tangy,though it is there. This tobacco does have a BIG nicotene lift and I have dedicated a pipe to it.Wonderful tobacco.

Update-2005 I still like this tobacco blend and if it weren't for the steep price I'd probaly smoke it on a more regular basis-( wish I could get it in bulk).

The pipe that I have found best suited for this IMO is my Dunhill Cumberland group 4 size,(small bowl). The smaller chamber seems to really burst the flavour out.

Sipped softly this is a great tasting tobacco.It is mellowy,and high in nicotene.The ash does turn yellow indicating to me there is old belt North Carlina Virgina leaf here. Sip-Sip- Sip. If you are one who rated this tobacco low, try it again sometime,I'll just bet your taste buds have changed,and you'll like it. Hey,it happens with me.

Since Kingfisher is crumble cake, it smokes nice, cool and slow. However, akin to Petersons University Flake, it is for the most part tasteless, even though it contains perique.

First off, because kingfisher is crumble cake it provides a very nice, cool, even smoke; and the molasses seems to have no ill effect on the experience. But i found it, overall, to be rather tasteless, despite the perique. Afterwards i was left with too much of a buzz (im a lightweight to nicotine though). I can never smell a tobacco while its in my bowl, but it was tolerable to those around me.

~Lord Cavendish~

Wow, I thought, a Perique blend in cruble cake form. The excitement ends there folks. If you, like me, love Penzance for its flavor and cut, you'll be sorely dissapointed here. It burns well, stays lit and no bite, but the trade off is no flavor. Burley and Perique must keep this blend cool, but the VA just doesn't stand up. I'm glad I tied this blend, but before you drop the high dollars on this blend, see if you can sample some -- you coulda had better!

This is Perique done correctly. It is cool and rich and the Perique provides a wonderful zest to the blend.It comes in krumble kake and is incredibly similar in cut and burning charateristics to Penzance (same company).I normally do not smoke flake or Perique, but this is true magic.It has a sour taste but in a good way -think ESOTERICA. I would encourage anyone who likes a different English blend to buy this, it provides a little relief from Latakia, yet yields a potent and natural flavor. 3 of 4 stars.

A medium strength va/p/burley mixture. This blend focuses more on earthy, fruity tastes than the cigar and pepper mixture normally associated with the ingredients. Smooth and well behaved, I could imagine this being a great transitional blend into the VA/P realm. There is enough Perique to create a tingle, but not so much that you run for the water bucket. The texture and aroma is reminiscient of McClelland's - but not quite so sticky and pungent.

An autumnal sweetness not unlike Dorchester peaks into the smoke. This is counterbalanced by a much more defined cigarette flavor and aroma - ala Stratford.

It is a quality smoke from an expert blender - but as others have noted seems to be slightly understated. However this could easily be a va/p mixture which fills the niche of easy to enjoy yet slightly earthy and rich.

I don't know why people write reviews of tobacco blends they know they won't like! If you like Virginnia-Burley-Perique Flakes then I highly recommend this one. The Burley is fairly understated the Virg. and Perique dominate. The one negative is there is very little tobacco in this 50 gram tin. Seriously, there couldn't be more than 5 or 6 pipefulls in this tin! I used the gravity fill method with the very lightest tamp after first light. It smoked perfectly.

Two observations about this tobacco previously noted: As Bobcat13 mentioned, I, too, agree that KF has a very distinct, one-dimensional, cigar-like note about it. This was not unwelcome but it was unexpected. This was prevalent for the first two-thirds of the bowl and pleasurable, especially when sipped. And as Pipestud touched upon, I found that the perique REALLY kicked in towards the bottom one-third of the bowl. But unlike Pipestud?s favorable experience, this hot and spicy perique overload was not pleasant for me. I have experienced this ?bottom-of-the-bowl perique overload? with a few other VA/Per blends. Because of this latter characteristic, I am not enamored with this blend. I will cellar some and revisit it.

I rate this tobacco 6.0 out of 10