Cornell & Diehl “Carolina Red Flake”
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Kevin Godbee - Dec 3, 2018
- 5 min read
Kyle Weiss
Almost like the spirit of the holidays, when the razor-edge scenarios between sanity and comfort swirl about like snow, reaching for a good smoke is essential. Red Virginia is one of my favorite of favorite tobaccos out there. It’s mellow, slow-burning, refreshing, not too acidic, not too sweet and not too meaty. Properly handled, it is a fantastic base for any mixture, especially when carrying the flavors of other tobaccos needs to be done with dignity. Red Virginia, I might say, is close to tobacco perfection–to make it sing requires a special hand to blend and a gentle approach to smoke. In my experience, any blend or mixture with a sizable helping of red Virginia tobacco doesn’t take kindly to seriously unkempt pipes and it will snarl a bit with serious rapid puffing. Snarling is part of the overall theme this time of year if things aren’t kept in check, so perhaps it would be a mindful and good companion. I don’t know about you, but 2018 has been a rough one, and I’ll be glad when it moves on, and I might as well do it with pleasure.
Cornell & Diehl has its Small Batch engines firing once again on another limited run. “Carolina Red Flake,” you appear again for a second go-round. There was a previous review featuring another C&D Small Batch offering, “The Beast,” that I really enjoyed. In that same review I also tackled the timely notion that tobacco is being presented to us more and more in different ways. There’s a challenge being presented to the status quo–and criticize the marketing though I did, the moral of the story is, if it sounds good, get it, smoke it, and decide for yourself.
Naturally, “Carolina Red Flake” in my book read like a total delight, as the tin confidently tells us about the finest North Carolina grown red Virginias, and their Carolina Red Flake being a tribute to the Old Belt. They go on to say, “Sweet, tangy, and spicy, Carolina Red Flake is both surprisingly straightforward and pleasantly complex: you’ll find it’s rich, deep and earthy, with undertones of dried cranberries, orchard grass and citrus.”
Upon first glance Carolina Red Flake’s second incarnation slumbers in the tin, and reveals exactly what Red Virginia should look like–it’s not orange, it’s not yellow, it’s dappled shades of rust-colored leaf and what could only be described as “a ginger’s coif.” The cut-style is what I affectionately call a “lazy flake,” because they aren’t stiff little pieces of tobacco jerky that requires further cutting or mangling to get into good smoking form. It’d be a little harder to “roll and stuff” a pipe with this leaf. I eventually broke all of it up pretty good to a rough shag which in the end performed well.
“Straightforward” is another claim the tin made, and that is well-deserved: it gives the smoker what I feel is a direct and honest experience of Red Virginia. The first lights are easy, as there isn’t the moisture content of its cousin, The Beast. I didn’t get any of the cranberry, orchard grass or citrus as the tin noted. I did, however, enjoy a slightly spicy and sweet paprika, tart apple with a roasted almond meatiness and mouth feel. In general, this is a very savory and herbaceous tobacco, with a little natural sweet on the side. There’s a pleasing garden-like freshness to the smoke, as opposed to a grassy, lemon-like or tart nature known to Red Virginia’s cousins, Yellow and Orange, and a signature reason why I enjoy it so much.
Carolina Red Flake is a “light-it-and-forget-it” kind of smoke and totally easy to manage. This is not a bold tobacco even if it is straightforward. The flavors I noted around curiously bounced around the halfway mark, depending on the pipe chosen and the portion chosen to smoke. I found myself sometimes hoping it would do just a little more. Slower smoking is the magic key to open up the experience here. It goes without saying it’s a more advanced tobacco, while aromatic guys will probably not be interested, the new guys might find it downright boring. Personally I found it intriguing. While the room note was suggested as “cigarette-like” to non-smokers, any pipe-appreciating bystanders expecting “grandad’s old pipe” scent around your Yule merriment might be disappointed. The nicotine levels are moderate but a few times I felt heavy in the chair.
Toward the end of nearly every bowl the experience was as nice as the first light, if not a little more mellow. At this point, as with most Virginias, they can be a little dry on the palate…not quite unripe persimmon or mouthful of vermouth dry, but enough that having a beverage handy was a good idea. It may or may not dissuade any random hiccoughing. In Southeastern US fashion, some homemade sweet (but not too sweet!) tea was just about the perfect accompaniment one could have with it. If warm adult beverages chasing away the chills seems better, hot black coffee with a shot of bourbon is a wise choice. Nothing makes merry in my world quite like that.
I do believe a little “cellar time” would do this tobacco wonders, especially to expose and separate those intricate complexities. Fresh out of the can, there’s a little sharpness to Carolina Red Flake that some might notice, but patience might be rewarded in a year, or two, or even if five went by. Alternately, if any buzz and limited availability about such tobaccos leave patience something to be desired, so be sure to experiment. Get two tins, smoke one now, forget about the other until it’s time. Perhaps “near perfect” is attainable for this leaf yet. Here’s hoping, and the second time’s a charm.
Is this a near-perfect Red Virginia Flake? If we’re okay with the idea it is exclusively red Virginia, with a little mellowing time and the right approach, it may be. There has to be some balancing components other than simply Red Virginia leaf, but if there are, they aren’t overwhelming, and the end product is very good while fresh. It isn’t replacing my favorites in the genre, any claims of complexity aside, but it’s far from humdrum. While it lacks some of the depth and orchestral wonders of other Virginia-only blends I tend to reach for, the solo virtuoso (even duet?) nature of this small-batch Cornell & Diehl creation can be appreciated here without much complaint. These tins are likely to disappear sooner than later as the eager up-and-comers look to stuff their stockings or collectors grab a few extra to stuff their cellars.
Happy Holidays, smoke well, enjoy you and yours in good health, Godspeed, keep sane, and see you next year.
Written by Kevin Godbee
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Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 636. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Barry Kane. Barry started smoking a pipe in 1961 when he was 14-years old. Back then it seemed like everybody smoked, and you could buy pipes and tobacco just about anywhere. Barry is a true old-school pipe smoker, sticking to just one blend. See if you can guess which one before listening. At the top of the show Brian will give his take on Scandinavian Tobacco Group’s purchase of Mac Baren and Sutliff Tobacco and their announcement that they will be shut down.
There’s a pipe in my collection that I cannot bring myself to smoke, though I’ve had it for more years than I care to recall. It’s old, or shall I say, well experienced; that experience, that oldness came to it long before it was in my possession. The pipe is an old Comoy’s Grand Slam from the 1940s. The shape (#93), a slightly canted, stack billiard (sometimes referred to as a Belgian) is right up my alley, and it’s a beautiful example of it. It came to me with some wear and tear; nothing unusual for an old pipe, but more the signs of one that has been well loved, smoked a lot, treated as a favorite tool, cherished, in a sense, by frequent use. It’s the pipe equivalent of a vintage car that’s been driven a lot, enjoyed fully and maintained adequately, rather than one kept in a spotless garage, dusted and detailed weekly, brought out only for leisurely Sunday drives, or to be ogled behind the ropes at the next Concours d’Elegance. When it arrived, those uncounted years ago, it wanted a little restoration. Nothing dramatic needed to be done to it, but the stem was oxidized, the finish a little dingy. The cake was even and fairly thin, and the airway was relatively clean, both signs that its previous owner cared for it, but the bowl’s surface was a little drab and dull. It took little effort to reveal its beauty, to show the lovely contrasted stain and interesting grain beneath the old wax. I often think I should do before and after photos of pipes that I work on, but those thoughts always come after the work’s been done. This one would have been a great illustration of how years of handling that can sometimes make a pipe more beautiful, can other times make it just look grungy. Once I’d cleaned up the externals, it was time to address the inside bits. I approach this a little bassackwards, I realize. It would be more sensible to take care of the inside before addressing the outside, but it’s how I roll. If an old pipe isn’t pretty to look at, it’s unlikely that I’ll care much about it, and cleaning is usually the hardest part, or at least the most boring part of any restoration for me. Alcohol and pipe cleaners. Lots of pipe cleaners. That’s why I leave it for last. Sometimes, I’ll even give a pipe a test smoke before a deep cleaning, just for a point of reference. I gave it a sniff to get an idea of what I was up against, and it stopped me cold. There in that bowl was an aroma that I had not smelled in decades. My head was instantly filled with memories of being in the back room of a fabled Berkeley tobacconist’s shop where I stumbled upon a few jars of long discontinued blends. One of them, a blend called Forty and Eight, had the most engaging and unusual scent of any tobacco I’d stuck my schnoz into. It was sweet, but not in a candy store way. There were none of the usual vanilla, cherry, berry or anise notes of typical aromatics, nothing that could be compared to aftershave or deodorant soap, but something almost musky, a little earthy, something exotic. The shop’s owner couldn’t tell me what was in it, how, or where it had been produced. The old blend had been retired before he’d bought the place. The printed catalogue gave no clues, either, other than being overprinted with the word “DISCONTINUED” in bold, rubber-stamp type. (And, I don’t recall it as being “highly aromatic” as the description indicates.) There was still quite a bit in the jar. Being, at that point, an intrepid explorer of all kinds of tobaccos, whether I thought I’d like them or not, I had to give it a try. It was burly based, but also comprised a good measure of virginia leaf, and maybe some other varieties; I didn’t have enough experience at the time to really pick it apart. But, that aroma was unlike anything I’d experienced before or since. It was something now completely lost to time. Until it wasn’t. Memories are powerful things, and there is no sense more tightly bound to memory than our sense of smell. One whiff was all it took to carry me back in time, conjuring a vivid recollection of something long submerged in the inky depths of a subconscious mind. Look, I know as well as anyone that pipes are meant to be smoked, and that many feel it almost sacrilegious to have a pipe and not set it to its intended task. In this case, I simply can’t. I won’t. Ever. Rationally, I am fairly certain this pipe would probably be a great smoke. It was too well loved by its previous caretaker to be anything less than that. My choice not to smoke it is an emotional one, not something rational. Of the thousands of pipes that have passed through my hands over the years, this is the only one to create such a singular and vivid, almost Proustian recollection of temps perdu, of lost time. It revivified a long dormant memory that is mine, and mine alone, and that’s enough. I keep it in a drawer with other old English pipes. In some ways, it’s nothing special, just a nice old pipe. I don’t lavish it with any particular care that arguably befits the hidden treasure that it holds. It’s not in a special box, or displayed preciously in a glass cabinet. Every once in a while, I take it out, point my nose bowlwards, and every time, those memories return just as powerfully as they did the first time. I have no idea how long it’s been since its last owner smoked it, but in the years I’ve had it, there seems to have been very little degradation of the aroma, and that’s […]
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 635. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with James Ravenwood. James is the boutique tobacco blender of Ravenwood Blends. His blending started out as a fun hobby, and he now has professionally packaged commercially available products with some great tin art. Part of his interest in pipe smoking goes back to fond memories of a retired Navy Veteran that lived on his street while he was growing up that would sit in his driveway smoking a pipe all day. Later, in 2011 he began smoking pipes and soon after started experimenting with mixing different tobaccos. His other hobby, that he has been doing for 30 years, is photography. He takes wonderful photos of outdoor spaces, and still life pictures of pipes and tobacco. You can see them on his Instagram @thebriarfellowship. At the top of the show we’ll have an Ask the Pipemaker segment with renowned pipe artisan Jeff Gracik.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 634! Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with Warren Ertle. Warren is an extremely accomplished musician with a PhD in music. He started early as a percussionist in sixth grade. Later his grandmother got him a cheap Casio keyboard which he taught himself to play. He started playing in blues bands in high school, and has been a pianist with jazz big bands for years. Even though he was already a professional musician, he took his first real piano lesson when he enrolled in college with his studies in classical music. He is of course a pipe smoker. At the top of the show we will have an Ask the Tobacco Blender segment with Jeremy Reeves. Jeremy is the Head Blender at Cornell & Diehl, which is one of the most popular boutique pipe tobacco companies in the USA.
Soon now, supposedly, our neighborhoods will shift from grinning pumpkins, skeletons in various assortments, and zombies dashing about to pretty reindeer, angels, and flashing lights illuminating homes with sparkling stars and laughing, scurrying Santas. But, lest we forget, there is the turkey season, fancy pie aromas wafting from kitchens, and a national pardon of a big Tom Turkey. Remember, now, that only one of these holiday personalities is a pipe smoker. And that is the hefty, bearded fellow in a bright red suit sitting in a sleigh with a herd of deer hitched up and ready to streak across the globe, bringing tidings of joy and many presents. Ok, the scene is set for the next couple of months, right? So, before we get too far off the beaten path, let’s just take a deep breath of fresh autumn air, shall we? Ahh. That’s better, isn’t it? What’s got the Pundit in a snit is not all the Halloween spooks who came a-jostling for candy. Or the wild turkeys gobbling in the backwoods or all the fuss and feathers over the big one—Christmas. No, it is that we might need to take note of all the little things that mean so much to us. Like a good sunrise (seriously, Pundit has not gone all Pollyanna.) Mayhaps we need to appreciate more of what we have than what we have not. Or something like that. Like, a good pipe in the morning with coffee as the dawn brings us coolish weather now that we have flipped the calendar to autumn. But it also brings beautiful leaves that have become a spectacle of technicolor in the wind. It is the little things. The rereading of an enjoyable book and finding something you did not see or learn in the first go-round. Or a stunning phrase you commit to memory with the re-read, while smoking that favorite pipe. And you notice a superior puff that just seems to be different. It’s in the air and the seasons of meaningful little things. It’s aromatic! 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A fact is not a truth until you love it—Shelby Foote. A parting thought: It is said that famed Southern author William Faulkner carried a packed pipe in a coat pocket wherever he went. That’s one effective way to deal with workday conflicts and confusion. A calm and objective judgment in our everyday human affairs, as the quantum man said.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 633. Our featured guest tonight is Jon David Cole. JD is the Owner/Tobacconist at The Country Squire in Jackson, MS, and the accompanying online store. We’ll have JD and Brian talking about what’s new at the store and in the business in general. At the top of the show, Brian will discuss tobacco growing, what happens to the leaf, and provide updated information on where tobacco is being gown today. Tobacco production originated in the United States and we were once the #1 producer. It’s quite different now.
Lovely review, and very insightful. I’m digging the blend quite a lot myself.
Also wondering what are the Virginia-only blends you typically reach for, esp. the ones with particular orchestral wonders. Sounds awesome!
Thank you Brad(ical).
GLP Embarcadero is one… if not “the” one
Thanks for the heads up, Kyle. Just added Embarcadero to my cart for future purchase.
Good review; that said, I bought several tins of this with this last batch because I had heard so much about previous batches. I live in and around the area of North Carolina this batch came from…tobacco fields all around me (although I don’t know if any of those nearby actually supplied this batch). I agree with your assessment that it isn’t quite right yet and could use some aging, however, I have found a unique solution that you touched upon…’mixing’ it with another tobacco. What is unique about my solution is what I blended it with…and this is where I’ll probably get raked over the coals by many on this site. I mixed it with the OTC Carter Hall, which is mostly burley, and separately with Lane 1-Q which is a bulk aromatic that has a vanilla background. Then, I mixed all three…here is my assessment of the three blends. The two former mixes where actually quite nice, while the mix of all three left something to be desired. The only problem I found initially was the burn rate…Carter Hall and Lane burned far more quickly being ribbon cuts, but after I rubbed out the flake really well, it gave for a more even burn. Anyway, just my two cents for readers that may have tried this for the first time, with their reaction being “meh”.
Thanks for a great review. As always, well written and nicely illustrated.