What is Your Favorite Cornell & Diehl Blend?

Brothers of Briar

Help Support Brothers of Briar:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Star of the East

But absolutely never Evening Rise, that stuff is the spawn of Satan.

Just smoked Epiphany from 2010, it was a quite pleasant smoke.
 
Never tried any C&D blends, but I do have an order in for Captain Earle's Nightwatch blend which I heard is blended by C&D. Can anyone confirm this? Has anyone tried this or any other Captain Earle's blends? What do you think of em?
 
SkaCJ7":ojekr7ku said:
Never tried any C&D blends, but I do have an order in for Captain Earle's Nightwatch blend which I heard is blended by C&D. Can anyone confirm this? Has anyone tried this or any other Captain Earle's blends? What do you think of em?
Click to expand...
half a dozen variations of Pirate Kake
 
Nonsense.

Captain Earle stuff by C&D are quite different than Pirate Kake. PK has a ton of Burley in it, and has no Perique, for example (which is fine, I like it that way).

I guess it could be argued all C&D mixtures and blends are variations on each other, and therefore, the same. :scratch: :lol: I won't argue that, but a good blender with some good leaf is a magician.

8)
 
Kyle Weiss":e3gokzhe said:
Nonsense.

Captain Earle stuff by C&D are quite different than Pirate Kake. PK has a ton of Burley in it, and has no Perique, for example (which is fine, I like it that way).

I guess it could be argued all C&D mixtures and blends are variations on each other, and therefore, the same. :scratch: :lol: I won't argue that, but a good blender with some good leaf is a magician.

8)
Click to expand...
When I first tried Star of the east I thought it tasted just like engine99, but then I smoked them both back to back and tasted a world of difference
 
Kyle Weiss":mju2dnf2 said:
Star of the East, flake or regular. Billy Budd, too. Everything else is either under a different name by them (Hermit/GLP) which hold the rest of my favorites. C&D does a lot of stuff very, very right!

Then there's abominations like Mississippi Mud. :x
Click to expand...
So I'm abominable... :p Mississippi Mud is my C&D favorite ever :cheers:
 
Votes since my last entry:
Pipe Smoker: Da Vinci
Big Casino: Star of the East ... Engine99 is better ... "a world of difference [between the two]"
Kaiser83: Epiphany - NEVER! Epiphany 2010 - YES!
Brando71 - Mississippi Mud (no argument here, 'cause I have no experience with it, and am too deep into N.O. music at the moment to argue with a blend dubbed with the name of the "big river" any way ;) hope i didn't miss any)

Brando71, "feel no way" - I still haven't heard anything about Byzantium, so I guess it's even worse than Mississippi, according to it's lack of even one vote ;) ... and regarding that blend from cakeanddottle@pipetobaccoreviews:

"Turkish, Perique and Latakia ... doesn't appear to be related to Red Odessa/Engine #99 ... jar note has a similar fermented fruit sweet tang ... fuller than Red Odessa, less full than Engine #99 ... focus squarely set on the Oriental component ... enough Latakia to keep you from dozing off ... Perique adds a bit of pepper ... don't get a very strong nic kick ... medium strength, medium bodied Lat blend mostly about the Orientals with a bit of Perique ... missing component in Lat blends that don't have either Orientals or Va. Less so in Va/Lat-only blends than in Oriental-Lat-only blends ... Byzantium sidesteps being a blend that draws attention to the absence of Va by throwing Perique in the mix ... a tangy note to a blend that teeters on deliciously sour ... never gets bitter ... tad oily ... Perique smells like heaven ... fermented fruit ... Lat here is medium ... $27.49/lb I may buy a pound to smoke on occasion ... not great but definitely good ... elements blend well ... not so well that you block out everything else ... "

It seems that from other reading, Byzantium may not be the best choice in the TPL direction. I'll have to cross that bridge later because right now, I have so much Mac Baren, Peterson and Stokkebye, that it's going to be a while before getting deeper into C & D. By then, with so many comments and votes here, I'll have a wealth of criteria. The obvious response to reading what others say about such and such is the matter of individuality, but when I know nothing of a blend, it's only sensible to check out the opinions as a useful guide to the unknown - and even if I miss responding to one or two, I appreciate everyone.

Obviously if 99% say "#1 blend" is the tops, it's probably well worth risking a sample purchase.

Hope my lengthy notes are not too taxing, if so, you definitely don't want the unedited version ...
 
I will try to be serious (very hard task for me). IMHO it's very difficult to proclaim the absolute winner in a brand with hundreds of blends, but talking about some sort of classification, I would pick

Atypical Blend: Mississippi Mud
Aromatic: Crooner
Burley Blend: Burley Flake #3
Burley Based: Canal Boat
Cigar Leafs: Bow-Legged Bear
English Blend: Crooked Lane
Liquored Blend: Blockade Runner
Oriental Blend: Rajah's Court
Scottish Blend: Strathspey
Virginia Based: Easy Times
Virginia Blend: Manhattan Afternoon


 
My favorite: Night Train, 2nd Bayou Morning 3rd Epiphany.
 
I haven't sampled all of the C & D blends by any means but Epiphany is my light English. Just enough latakia to be noticeable and not enough perique to give me the drools!
 
C&D has so many blends that I'm willing to bet any pipe smoker could eventually find something he loves, but it could take quite a few tries to get there. I got a sampler many years ago when I first started smoking pipes and eventually gave them all away. Over the years I tried a blend from time to time, but didn't find anything that wowed me until I tried Haunted Bookshop and Billy Budd. I regularly stock up on them both.
 
In my former days as a nicotine addict I was a devout Old Joe Krantz smoker. I also enjoyed Evening Rise, Riverboat Gambler, and Haunted Bookshop. These days I am a much more intermittent smoker, and as such I have developed a love for Pirate Kake.
 
I enjoy:

Cordial
Epiphany
Blockade Runner
Exhausted Rooster

you guys got me interested in:

Byzantium
Pirate Kake
Engine 99
Mississippi Mud

Everything else in this thread I've pretty much tried and thought it was ok, even the vaunted SoTE.

 
Opening Night
Mississippi Mud (quite unique)
Star of the East
Bow Legged Bear
Pirate Kake
Good Morning
Evening Rise
 
Christmas Blend 2012 "Chestnuts Roasting"


Cavendish/Latakia
Chestnuts Roasting" has a delightful muted nutty taste on a lightly aromatic
base. A hint of Latakia brings out the “over an open fire” part of the verse.
 
I have quite a bit of Byzantium which I was working my way through before I got a stash of H&H Blackhouse which oddly enough was in tins with C&D stickers under the under the taped on paper label.

Byzantium is good on occasion (Heavy Lat). I wasn't too impressed with Red Odessa or Star of The East but I have them jarred and will revisit them at a later date.

I also have blending tobaccos from them which are very nice. The Izmir Turkish is good pretty much straight. I have some home-made blends aging.
 
I like Exhausted Rooster and it is the only one I've tried.
 
Top