Butera Kingfisher

I just don't get it. The tin aroma was of faint tobacco, the texture is OK, but the flavor was missing. I smoked two tins back to back in a variety of pipes, but........nothing. I even smoked this inside the house while comfortably seated, and searched high and low for the perique, but alas, I could not find it. I thought it tasted rather cigarettish at times. I guess I am spoiled by McClellands 2015. I do like the krumble kake though, but I guess I am missing some crucial tastebud spectrum bandwidth required for this blend. On the upside though, I smoked it with such intensity and concentration that I got a major case of the hiccups, which my wife found ever so amusing. Maybe the perique slipped in unnoticed after all.

(From blind tobacco tasting review)

Appearance: A mottled broken flake, perhaps 15% bright, 60% brown & 25% black. Good smoking moisture level (on the dry side).

Tin Aroma: A natural Virginia smell, with a mildly fermented, wine-like quality. I pick up a hint of unburned clove cigarette and a hint of non-Latakia smokiness.

First Smoke: New corn cob pipe. Started on a dog-walk, ~36 F. No fear of light-up bite, has a matured tobacco smoothness and lack of bright flavors. Pleasant flavor, but no Wow! reaction here. Very nice sidestream aroma, and a nice medium taste and body.

DGT for 5 hours, then smoke on front porch, ~27 F. The flavors begin to expand slowly, haltingly, with a muted top note browned marshmallow, and a ginger-like ?tang? and not-unpleasant bitterness. The middle range has a nice toasty sweetness and a subtle campfire element. The lower range is nicely creamy but muddled, and I occasionally pick up a camembert twang. The blend lacks any clear, contrasting flavors, and changes very little as the bowl progresses. The strength and flavor don?t really change during the smoke, except for a sourness that develops near the end of the smoke, overwhelming any other flavors. My guess is that this blend uses a goodly amount of matured, non-American, Red Virginias producing a creamy but dull blend. The sourness is probably "burley curse."

Second Smoke: Two days later, in a perfectly-caked Comoy Silver Cloud. This smoke is almost identical to the first.

Summary: I don?t want to create the impression that I dislike this flake. It is a nice, smooth, easy-smoking blend - it?s just not thrilling. If there weren?t so many tobaccos that I love, I would smoke this without much regret. Matured Virginia fans may love this. I will happily keep my sample to use for blending.

I have had this on two occasions with very different results.

The first tin I had was sent to me from the US by a very generous gentleman. I bought a pipe specially for it. On opening, the appearance was of flake slices, cross-cut diagonally so the flakes disintegrated into small diamond-shaped fragments that could be easily packed into the pipe. Lighting was difficult due to moisture, and it didn't stay lit. Flavour was subtle but pleasant and it eventually smoked down to next to nothing. It didn't produce large volumes of smoke, rather a slow-burner giving off wisps of pale blue smoke. A pleasant outdoor smoke.

The second tin was purchased from the UK shortly after I finished the first. It was 'laid down' to age and opened after quite some years. On opening, I found that despite the tin vacuum seal being intact, there was a dry, powdery appearance to the flakes. The cut was different too. Instead of cross-cut, this was just 'short' flake (sliced as if across the tin instead of along) that disintegrated into large pieces on handling. It Though they appeared to feel dry, they were hard to light. The flavour was bland and somewhat 'blah' and were almost impossible to keep lit. It was NOT anywhere near the same as the first tin and was a complete disappointment.

I find the Kingfisher's balance of its three constitutent tobaccos to be nicely balanced. However, the perique, as other reviewers have noted, is in rare supply. The interplay between the burley and virginia is enjoyable, with figs or apricots coming to mind. Do be advised there is nothing exceptional going on in this blend, but there are pleasures to be found. I appreciate the krumble kake and its ease of loading, resulting in a bowlful requiring very few lights. The tin art is quite a nice touch.

I guess I am just not a Butera fan. This was better than Pelican, but nothing to right home about. I just did not find it at all exceptional.

I've smoked this in a variety of pipes. Small pipes bring out the flavour. In big pipes all you taste is the burley.

The tin smells like figs, but the taste is very mild. The suggestion to smoke this in a meerschaum is a good one, you'll want either a dedicated pipe or a meerschaum to really get at the flavour.

As a latakia smoker, this will not replace Scottish Cake for when I want something different. It's just too bland and uninterestng.

Update: smoke this in a dedicated latakia pipe. It adds a wonderful complexity to the blend.

Tin: Musty Fig Newton smell. The aroma lures you into trying to identify the individual components in this VAPER/Burley. Apricots come to mind. Pressed cake, cross-cut into slices, that crumbles. Moisture level was such that the crumbled up tobacco could almost be pressed into a ball.

Packing & Lighting: Packing is quite a chore. Tryed to scoop out each slice with the spoon of my tamper but the slices kept crumbling, so they were just scooped out anyway. Easily overcrumbled to a powdery consistency. Be careful not to pack too tightly. Using flake just stuffed into the pipe, moisture necessitates two strong efforts to achieve first light, is more difficult to keep lit, but is slower burning. Crumbling KF to a powder, it burns easily with one match.

Taste & Aroma: There is a definite Perique aroma, levelled on a burley base. Not much taste; the Perique is not peppery. KF smokes cool, if it isn't hurried, but it does not smoke to an ash. The dottle doesn't burn well, but there is no moisture in the stem. Biteless. I don't get a good VA signature from KF. With residue left in the pipe, I couldn't call KF clean-burning.

Room Note: Stale, burley. The ash had a strong cigar odor.

Nicotine: For a Perique blend, KF is moderate.

Overall: Just not my thing; not enough of a VA signature; too much burley.

This is my second experience of perique, and I can say that this is not my cup of tea. The peppery taste that some reviewers praise feels like chewing strong pepperoni. I will stick to my sweet VA and danish aromatics (and latakia from time to time). The tobacco in the tin is very nice though, very similar to Penzance in the look (same producer?)

I have to admit that I have a sentimental attachment to this tobacco. It is the first I tried when I decided to move away from the Grabow /Borkum Riff combination that I had understandably forgotten about years before.

Now, keep in mind that I was used to getting my tobacco out of a plastic and paper pouch, so when I opened that tin of Krumble Kake I was a little perplexed. The strips were very dark and smelled earthy, sweet and borderline pungent; when I tried to get them out of the tin they, well?krumbled.

That winter night I tried my first Kingfisher out of a small Dublin bowl I knew that fine pipes and tobaccos were in my life for good. I also found that, quite miraculously, I had a winning combination with tobacco/pipe/temperature combination on my very first smoke! Since then, I have tried Kingfisher out of a wide/shallow bowl and a deep/wide bowl just to find absolute wrongness throughout the entire ordeal. Also, I have found that on summer days the spice in the nose is left un-rounded due to the heat and humidity of the day. I have smoked Kingfisher now in all the ranges of temperature, humidity, and bowl shapes that Iowa and my pipe rack have to offer. Again, the original combination is essential to get this tobacco to behave.

As far as any flavor is concerned, it is definitely a subtle, familiar smoke that I had trouble pinpointing. It wasn?t until I had a friend come back from Turkey and brought with him a tin full of whole dried figs that I knew what it was. When I popped the fig in my mouth I instantly thought of Butera?s Kingfisher blend on that first winter?s night.

A very peculiar note: the first tin I tried was dark, robust, sweet, and a favorably pungent; also, the tin was barely two thirds full. The second tin I bought was much lighter in color, not as rich, and the tin was completely full. If not for the tin, I would have thought that these were two different blends (the first being the better). I am trying to find another tin of Kingfisher so I can get an idea of what ?normal? is for the blend but am finding that, due to Katrina, it will probably be close to winter again before I do.

So, until next time, I'll leave my judgment as this: If done right, Kingfisher is an even burning, cool smoke with subtle, earthy, delightful, well rounded, tones... It has the potential to be nasty and the potential to be outstanding! Stick to the prescribed smoking method and this finicky smoke will not do you wrong!