Butera Dark Stoved

This seems to be a love-or-hate smoke. I wonder, honestly, how much it has to do with the pipe? I smoke this 'blend' in a small bent plateau freehand by Walt Cannoy which has never had anything but Va flakes in it. It comes off in this pipe as somewhat 'monochromatic,' not being a complex flavor at all, but very smooth and mild. It is only a tiny bit sweet, still it has the distinct taste of the dark Vas that everyone else mentioned. It reminds me of the woodsy, haylike, field-of-wheat descriptions that apparently mean we all know what we are talking about here. It does NOT taste of vanilla, raspberries, leather, chocolate, or anything else. It tastes like good straight Virginia, well stoved and nicely cured. Four stars.

Tin aroma is very pungent, tangy and vinegary. A strong McClelland odor I would say. But very very pleasing to me. The flakes are pitch black and highly compressed, so they won’t peel off to ribbons but rather break with rubbing. Loading and lighting is easy and it keeps lit while burning slow and evenly.

When smoked aromas of burnt caramel, leather, black pepper, smoky wood came to me. Even the vinegary aroma comes through, at least in the beginning, a thing that is not always the case with McClelland’s tobaccos. Overall it is pungent with some sourness but there is plenty of supporting sweetness but towards the end it becomes more mellow, earthy, nutty and sweet-spicy.

Dark Stoved is a fantastic, complex tobacco. It’s also strong but never crosses the threshold of being unpleasantly so. In any case I cannot imagine it being an all-day tobacco for me, it has to be an occasional treat. I believe it is a tobacco that will benefit from ageing.

I have never tasted Samuel Gawith’s Lakeland Dark, but Dark Stoved has similarities with 1792 without the tonquin. However it’s not as strong and behaves better.

Butera - Dark Stoved (Royal Vintage).

The appearance of Dark Stoved is quite unique as it's not strictly a whole flake, nor is it in broken flake form; it looks like dark 'shards' of flake. The moistness of my tin is spot on, but the flakes are quite firm, making them difficult to crumble.

The smoke has a deep/dark fruitiness to it, not the bright citrus flavour that one would normally get from a straight Va. There's also a small touch of molasses. Dark Stoved burns well, and as it does the molasses-sweetness becomes slightly stronger; I'm not talking about a cased flavour but a very mature, rich, natural one. If I'm not careful with my puffing Dark Stoved can be a bit uncomfortable with tongue bite, so I use a gentle technique with it. The smoke D.S. gives off is quite thick, and relatively cool in temperature.

The nicotine's less than medium and the room-note's only tolerable at best.

I'm sure lots of folks will love this, but I don't rate it with any more than two stars.

Somewhat recommended.

Nice dark stoved broken flake. Mild virginia blend, tasty and cool burning. Plum and currant flavors, easy to ligth. Need to be rubbed before packing. None of the Classic McClelland's ketchup aroma.Good for a brunch pipe. Maybe a little plain.

Butera Dark Stoved (Royal Vintage) tobacco is the prefect collaboration between pipe carver Michael Butera and the McClelland Tobacco Company.

Tin aroma was McClelland’s signature aroma vinegary/ketchup but goes away in a few days.

Dark Stoved look very similar in color, feel and appearance as McClelland Dark Star. It is somewhat of a chore to pack and light, in the bowl Dark Stoved offers an overall sweet smoke with occasional notes of fig, dark chocolate, and wood. Once lit, it burned richly and smoothly to a fine white ash. As it gets going the sweet vs sour tastes are fun to play with. Enjoyable any time of day. I have several more tins set aside to age. I recommend it highly.

If you want the prep work and attitude of Full Virginia Flake without any of the promise of reward, then this flake's for you.

For all you tobacco tinkerers out there, when FVF just gets too easy and monotonous, when you want to spend even more time *#%ing with your tobacco for an even more ambiguous payback, grab some of this and knock yourself out.

I was a bit miffed when I opened my tin of Dark Stoved. I wasn't aware that the blend was made by McClelland, and was shocked to find that I had ordered a simple rebranding of Dark Star. So let's see, there's Dark Star, 2035, and now Dark Stoved. Am I missing any?

Judging by the inability to find any Pelican or Kingfisher, and the overwhelming availability of Royal Vintage, it's obvious what people really want. It's simply unnecessary to rebrand an endless array of McClelland blends when people are pining for something more native to the Butera name. That's not an insult to McClelland, they make many fine blends.

So how about devising something more derivative of the Pelican and Kingfisher formula? Or increasing the supply? If I wanted to purchase McClelland blends, then I would. Can't you people be a bit more creative?

Dark ain't a lie! When I popped this open a while back, it was a catsup bomb, but some time has mellowed that note. ( Yes it is packed/blended by McC) In fact now when I open the tin to fill a bowl it reminds me of A1, or wochestershire sauce. The flakes themselves are smaller chunks and slightly broken. They are black. Black like death. Tarry like a New York roof top in July, and just as black. Some have noted the moisture content, but I think this stuff may just be oily. It leaves your fingers resiny, not goopy like PG, but slightly oily to the touch. I found it does its best work in a medium to large bowl and when rubbed out to the point of crumbs. I had a hard time getting it lit as larger flakes. Flavor wise, it starts off for me a a very tangy, slightly sour, and heavy smoke. As it gets going the sweet vs sour tastes are fun to play with. About midway through the bowl it brightens up a bit and you hit the classic VA buttery, oaky, baking bread and cookies portion of the ride. At the bottom third it gets dark and heavy again. Gaining in bitterness(not in a bad way), building strength, and taking on a very tanic feel. All in all it is neat stuff that VA nerds need to try. I get the feeling that many people don't know about it as the tin I bought recently was from 2005! Happy Puffing!

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I wanted to try Dark Stoved because I really like McClelland Virginia tobaccos. I smoked it quite dry, cut into small pieces. Even with that, I still had some difficulty keeping it lit. It started off a little grassy and hay like. It was also quite tangy with some spice into the bowl. It was less sweet than I prefer compared to other McC blends that I prefer. There is no bite at all but in the last half of the bowl, it made my tongue a little leathery. This blend didn't capture my interest because as the bowl progressed it gave off a flavor that was less than I had hoped for mainly because, being stoved it didn't offer the sweetness that I really like from one of my favorites, St James Woods. Although St. James Woods is stoved too, the lack of red Virginia found in St James Woods separates this from being a winner for me.