Tobacco Review: Sutliff 504C, Aromatic English
Sutliff 504C, Aromatic English
History
In 1849, H.W. Sutliff founded the Sutliff Tobacco Company in San Francisco, California as a retail store for cigars and pipe tobaccos. In 1933, Sutliff began manufacturing its own pipe tobacco, Mixture 79.
From the 1960’s through the 1980’s there were a lot of changes for the Sutliff Tobacco Company. After purchasing another company, they were bought by Consolidated Cigar Corporation (owned by Gulf and Western). With new purchasing capital behind them, Sutliff then purchased Greenville & Winters and entered the Private Label business, a brand of pipe tobaccos found in a lot of retail spaces.
In the 1970’s taste in pipe tobacco changed from a more traditional flavor to aromatic tobaccos. And in the 1980’s, the Consolidated Cigar Corporation entered the bulk pipe tobacco business with the acquisition of several companies.
In the 2000’s Consolidated Cigar Corporation (then owned by the French company, SEIT) merged with Havatampa (owned by Tabacalera) to form Altadis USA. Altadis introduced a premium line of tinned tobaccos under the Sutliff Private Stock label.
In May 2013, the Mac Baren Tobacco Company, a 125 year old Danish tobacco manufacturer, acquired the pipe tobacco division of Altadis USA. At that time, Mac Baren decided that the pipe tobacco division of Altadis USA should return to its original name: Sutliff Tobacco Company.
Packaging
Some of Sutliff’s tobaccos come in tins but most of them come in bulk. 504C is a bulk blend. What that means is there’s neither a tin, nor art, nor description, nor a list of the tobaccos used in the blend. When you order Sutliff 504C it arrives in a plastic, zip-lock bag. If a tin’s important to you, I suggest looking somewhere else (or creating your own), but know that you’d be missing out on some great tobacco if that’s the only thing stopping you.
Rating: 
— If you want a tin.
— If you want a tin.
— If you don’t mind not having a tin.
Contents
Sutliff 504C consists of black cavendish, burley, and latakia. Burley tobacco is primarily found in cigarettes. Cavendish is not a tobacco itself but refers to the processing and cutting of other tobaccos, namely Virginias and Burleys. I’m not sure which variety is used by Sutliff; it could be either or both. There’s a topping of some sort — either vanilla or liquor. Some have detected rum while others have noticed dark fruit, like plum. Basically, this is a mild aromatic tobacco with some Latakia added to the mixture to give it the “Aromatic English” label.
Sutliff 504C is a course, ribbon cut of varying shades of brown. There are some dark tobaccos in the mix and a few golden ribbons, too.
This is a very moist tobacco. Very. Moist. Each time I’ve ordered it, I’ve left it in it’s bag and it’s still wet by the time I’ve finished off the bag. I recommend a lot of drying time.
Rating:
Tin Note
Or, in this case, bag note! The aroma from the bag is intoxicating to me. It’s very alluring. At first, all I can smell is the casing — the vanilla or liquor. Then there’s the smell of fecund earth — a deep, wet, nutty, earthy smell. Lastly, I catch just hints of incense.
Rating:
Smoking
Again, this is a wet tobacco so some (a lot of) drying time will be needed. It took a couple of “first lights” before I could get this to a place where I could do a “true light.” Once going, however, I was carried away by the aroma. This is one of those tobaccos where the tin note translates well into aroma and taste, though the tin note is still stronger. All of the tobaccos cooperate nicely with the Burley being a constant earthiness as the main player — the rhythm section holding the whole thing together. You get tastes of sweetness from the Cavendish (which leads me to think they may be Virginias) and a light incense from the Latakia making itself known more often than not.
There nicotine hit is very mild, as is the tongue bite. All in all, it’s a very mild blend which could easily be an all day smoke.
Rating:
Overall rating: (2.75) — Wanting a tin.
(2.75) — Wanting a tin. — Not wanting a tin.
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Disclaimer
This is my favorite tobacco. When I first tried it I thought, “Wow! This is it!” And while I still smoke other tobaccos, I keep coming back to this one. I remember walking into a room where a friend was smoking a bowl of it which I had loaned him. “Oh my gosh,” I exclaimed. “When I think of pipe tobacco, this is exactly what I think of!” It’s become my all-day, go-to blend. The subtlety is there from all the components — the earthiness of the burley, the gentle sweetness of the cavendish, and the light wisps of incense from the Latakia. It’s all blended so beautifully with each part of the symphony playing off each other in a very balanced way.
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