Cornell & Diehl 2019 Wintertime Reserve Hearthside

[Fooberticus]

Cornell & Diehl 2019 Wintertime Reserve Hearthside

An exclusive tobacco available at SmokingPipes as a marketing promotion, buy a new Peterson pipe and choose one of four Cornell & Diehl 2019 Wintertime Reserve tobaccos for free.

Tin description:

A complex, smoky crossover blend of select Virginias and Latakia, layered with notes of dark chocolate and vanilla. Pressed and sliced into delicate flakes. Perfect for sipping by the fire with a wee dram.

Tobacco is perfect moisture level in the tin, fairly dry and ready to go. The flakes are in a broken ready rubbed state. Tin note is mostly latakia with a hint of chocolate. The smoking mechanics are just about perfect, one char light and few relights, smokes dry and cool.

That's all the praise I can give this blend. The flavor is anything but complex, dominated by a rather stale latakia flavor that overpowers everything else mentioned in the description. No matter how slowly I smoked, I got nothing but stale latakia. Occasionally a faint whiff of bready Virginia would waft from the bowl, but none of that flavor was present in the smoke. The chocolate and vanilla toppings weren't detectable in the taste or room note. Sticking my nose down into the bowl and sniffing mid-smoke I could almost detect a chocolate aroma, but nothing like the tin note.

This was honestly a chore to smoke. I love latakia. I love Virginias. This doesn't do justice to either. Overall impression was smoking a very stale latakia cigarette. With a cellar full of other excellent blends I can't see myself ever reaching for this again.

 

[rushx9]

The tin description had me drooling thinking it could be a more lat driven alternative to Samuel Gawith Chocolate Flake... which also doesn't have very much chocolate flavor, but is made from very high grade tobaccos and ranks as a favorite of mine. Stale latakia sounds like a bummer, though. How long has the tin been open? I've noticed that sometimes tinned tobacco really comes to life 3-7 days after exposure to fresh air.

 

[Fooberticus]

Fair point, I only had the tin open for maybe an hour before smoking. I think my expectations were high and my experience was a complete let down, but I should be fair and give this another chance after a few days to let my damaged feelings recover.

I also have an unopened tin of the Wintertime Reserve Evergreen which sounds like it's pretty good from other folks' reviews. I'm considering leaving it tinned and saving it for next year. Too many open cans at the moment!

 

[seanv]

How many bowls did you smoke before writing a review?

 

[Fooberticus]

How many bowls did you smoke before writing a review?

One.

Out of the 60 or so blends that I've tried, this is the only one that I had such a strong negative reaction to. I guess because I've had the fortune of mostly trying blends that others have already reviewed so I've been able to avoid the truly bad ones.

I'd rather smoke Drum cigarette tobacco from an aluminum can, but I'll give it one more shot in a day or two and post any clarifications.

 

[Fooberticus]

I just smoked my second bowl of this blend after letting the tin sit for several days.

First thing I noticed was the tin notes of the toppings were more apparent after letting the tin breathe a while. The vanilla mentioned in the description was still nowhere to be found, but the chocolate was far more pronounced. Also noticeable was an almost rosy floral scent. The odd, musty, stale odor of the latakia was still lurking, like a campfire built with green wood that had been recently doused with water from a flooded basement.

I fully rubbed out the flakes this time and loaded up a Savinelli 122 pot. The flakes were still the same moisture level as before, pretty much what I would consider perfect. The charring light tasted like hot air, and once I got the bowl going the flavor kicked up a little.

The first third of the bowl definitely had more flavor than the last time I tried smoking this blend. The chocolate was more apparent, not really sweet but more like a savory mole sauce. The stale latakia flavor from before was tamed down and the bready virginias spoke out a little louder. The floral scent from the tin carried over into the smoke. Overall this stage of the bowl was more aroma than flavor, with the overall very subtle flavor profile of a rose dipped in salty bittersweet baking chocolate.

By the halfway point is where the trouble started. At this phase the chocolate and floral toppings had burned off and the virginias went completely flat. The familiar, acridly bitter latakia flavor crept back onto the scene. No matter how slowly I sipped all I got was ashy, bad latakia flavor. This persisted to the end of the bowl.

I love latakia blends. This flavor is not representative of latakia as I've tasted it before. It's almost as if the latakia died, leaving a mournful, oily bitter specter like Jacob Marley rattling his chains in your mouth.

Bah, humbug!

 

[Bowie]

I just smoked my second bowl of this blend after letting the tin sit for several days.

First thing I noticed was the tin notes of the toppings were more apparent after letting the tin breathe a while. The vanilla mentioned in the description was still nowhere to be found, but the chocolate was far more pronounced. Also noticeable was an almost rosy floral scent. The odd, musty, stale odor of the latakia was still lurking, like a campfire built with green wood that had been recently doused with water from a flooded basement.

I fully rubbed out the flakes this time and loaded up a Savinelli 122 pot. The flakes were still the same moisture level as before, pretty much what I would consider perfect. The charring light tasted like hot air, and once I got the bowl going the flavor kicked up a little.

The first third of the bowl definitely had more flavor than the last time I tried smoking this blend. The chocolate was more apparent, not really sweet but more like a savory mole sauce. The stale latakia flavor from before was tamed down and the bready virginias spoke out a little louder. The floral scent from the tin carried over into the smoke. Overall this stage of the bowl was more aroma than flavor, with the overall very subtle flavor profile of a rose dipped in salty bittersweet baking chocolate.

By the halfway point is where the trouble started. At this phase the chocolate and floral toppings had burned off and the virginias went completely flat. The familiar, acridly bitter latakia flavor crept back onto the scene. No matter how slowly I sipped all I got was ashy, bad latakia flavor. This persisted to the end of the bowl.

I love latakia blends. This flavor is not representative of latakia as I've tasted it before. It's almost as if the latakia died, leaving a mournful, oily bitter specter like Jacob Marley rattling his chains in your mouth.

Bah, humbug!

Good second review. I enjoy your descriptions of the aromas: “like a campfire built with green wood that had been recently doused with water from a flooded basement” and “a rose dipped in salty bittersweet baking chocolate.” Humbug!

 

[Casual]

Forgive my off-topic interjection, but do you actually load your bowl like in the picture below? If I loaded a broken flake like that, upon lighting, it would expand and be all over the floor.

View attachment 13167

 

[Fooberticus]

Forgive my off-topic interjection, but do you actually load your bowl like in the picture below? If I loaded a broken flake like that, upon lighting, it would expand and be all over the floor.

View attachment 13167

The tobacco was quite loose. I left it unpacked for the sake of the photo, to kind of show what the flake looked like. I packed it down before lighting