Butera blends

[Brewdude]

A very generous member of this board once sent me a partial tin of Butera Royal Vintage Golden cake, circa 2003. I find this to be sublime beyond belief and plan to get in another couple tins as finances allows. Of course the age thing is not lost on me.

My question is this -

I see that Butera has several other blends that interest me, at least from the standpoint of the descriptions. I'm considering:

http://www.smokingpipes.com/tobacco/by-maker/butera/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=2000

http://www.smokingpipes.com/tobacco/by-maker/butera/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=1999

http://www.smokingpipes.com/tobacco/by-maker/butera/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=1998

And this one also jumped out at me, but it's currently oos-

http://www.smokingpipes.com/tobacco/by-maker/butera/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=2005

Any experience with these? Bearing in mind I'm primarily a Va/VaPer guy.

TIA


Cheers,

RR

 

[MisterE]

A lot of the Butera stuff is put together by McClelland. I'm not sure if all of it is. I recently tried some 2004 Blended Flake and it tasted like, well, "McClelland" flake. It has the distinctive smell and flavor that all their flakes have. Kind of like sourdough bread from San Francisco. You can only get that flavor of sourdough there and it's all very similar. If you like that it's great. If not, you have to go to another city to get something markedly different. After I dried it out completely it began to get a little of it's own personality. Overall I wasnt too terribly impressed. I have a few tins of that and some other things by Butera and just haven't been compelled to open them after the Blended Flake experience.

I have a few tins of Pelican here that I might give a try soon.

 

[babysinister]

My aged Kingfisher tins all have a Made in the Isle of Jersey label in the back. I've always understood that Kingfisher (and other Butera blends) are produced and tinned by Germain. BTW, check those rectangular Butera tins frequently, as they sometimes tend to lose the vacuum seal.

 

[MisterE]

The Pelican I have and it says Made in Denmark, however I have no clue to the tinning date on those. They probably had differnet blenders over the years. The cans I believe are put together by McClelland for Butera. Germains, McClellend, who else!? lol

 

[Kapnismologist]

McClelland produces everything in the "Royal Vintage" series (which includes Golden Cake). The others are produced on the other side of the pond.

 

[Itinerant]

I've never had the Golden Cake, but the Blended Flake is one of my favorites. I'm working through a new tin of it right now. If you're one for Va/Pers, I would definitely recommend.

 

[sisyphus]

Pelican is tinned PS Balkan Supreme
Kingfisher is a proprietary blend made by Germain, like their Esoterica line
the rest are McClelland

 

[MisterE]

Pelican is tinned PS Balkan Supreme

I got that impression too because they are very, very similar. Are they indeed the very same tobacco though? That's be a disappointment.

 

[sisyphus]

Pelican is tinned PS Balkan Supreme

I got that impression too because they are very, very similar. Are they indeed the very same tobacco though? That's be a disappointment.

I don't see why Stokkebye would have made a new blend that tasted exactly like BS. I think BS, Balkan Sasieni and Butera Pelican are the exact same tobacco.

 

[MisterE]

Pelican is tinned PS Balkan Supreme

I got that impression too because they are very, very similar. Are they indeed the very same tobacco though? That's be a disappointment.

I don't see why Stokkebye would have made a new blend that tasted exactly like BS. I think BS, Balkan Sasieni and Butera Pelican are the exact same tobacco.

Come to think of it, you might be right. I always suspected the Balkan Sasieni and Balkan Supreme were one and the same. If Pelican is also, then it's getting up there with 1Q for most renamed blend!

 

[s.ireland]

It makes sense.

Why would they create blends that are so similar to each other as to ALMOST be indistinguishable??

They wouldn't.

It reminds me of the experiment where samples of McC's Navy Cavendish and their bulk 2035 were sent out for blind taste tests and someone who was given two samples of the same tobacco somehow found differences because he believed that he had two different tobaccos...


There was another debate if Stonehaven was the same tobacco as the European market "Dark rich flake" or whatever.

It's the same. If there is any variance, its no different that one tin of a specific tobacco being different from a tin of the same blend, tinned in a different year with possibly a different crop of one or all of the components.

 

[Brewdude]

Interesting revival of an older thread.

I did get in some of the aforementioned blend but have yet to crack them. It'll be interesting to see what my impressions are.

Thanks for the prompt!


Cheers,

RR

 

[fishnrust]

Anyone know if Kingfisher has been discontinued? I have not seen it around for a while.