Cornell & Diehl Pirate Kake

[TheDesertPiper]

I decided to ring in the new year by trying out some Pirate Kake by Cornell and Diehl. While I do enjoy latakia I have never smoked a lat bomb before. I honestly was not too sure whether I was going to really like it or not. Tin note was nice. Very pungent and full of leathery goodness. As I'm sure you can gather from the name it comes as a crumble cake. I rubbed it out and packed a bowl in my Savinelli mattone prince and stepped outside to light up.

It didn't feel like it was particularly wet, but it took me a few attempts after my charring light to really get my pipe going. However, once it was lit it stayed that way. I was immediately hit with some STRONG earthy, smokey, woody flavors as well as a very smooth herbal, almost incense like taste that ended with tongue tingling chili like spiciness. The flavors work really well together to deliver something quite unique and leaves a very pleasant aftertaste in your mouth. I sucked that bowl down way faster then I thought I would, but It burned cool the whole way through. The flavors were consistent for the entire duration of the smoke so while overall flavor is great there is no real complexity. I'm not really sure where the nicotine level is on this. It wasn't strong, but it wasn't weak either, so I guess somewhere in the middle?

This is a good blend. I don't think I could smoke this everyday, but I could easily see it being in weekly rotation. If you are at all curious I would say give it a shot. If you don't like I'll gladly take the rest of your hands.

 

[TheIronMonkey]

I bought a pound of it awhile back and smoke it pretty regularly. It's not terribly complex, but because I come from more of a cigar smoking background, it delivers a bit more fullness of flavour that I'm used to.

 

[beezer]

I purchased a pound of this back in 2013 and still have about half of it. It's decent enough, but for some reason it always struggled to keep my interest. Glad you enjoyed your smoke of it!

 

[JOHN72]

For my taste it is one of the best tobaccos, with that fantastic aroma of burley and latakia pump. It is marvelous.

 

[Simmerdown☕️]

I decided to ring in the new year by trying out some Pirate Kake by Cornell and Diehl. While I do enjoy latakia I have never smoked a lat bomb before. I honestly was not too sure whether I was going to really like it or not. Tin note was nice. Very pungent and full of leathery goodness. As I'm sure you can gather from the name it comes as a crumble cake. I rubbed it out and packed a bowl in my Savinelli mattone prince and stepped outside to light up.

It didn't feel like it was particularly wet, but it took me a few attempts after my charring light to really get my pipe going. However, once it was lit it stayed that way. I was immediately hit with some STRONG earthy, smokey, woody flavors as well as a very smooth herbal, almost incense like taste that ended with tongue tingling chili like spiciness. The flavors work really well together to deliver something quite unique and leaves a very pleasant aftertaste in your mouth. I sucked that bowl down way faster then I thought I would, but It burned cool the whole way through. The flavors were consistent for the entire duration of the smoke so while overall flavor is great there is no real complexity. I'm not really sure where the nicotine level is on this. It wasn't strong, but it wasn't weak either, so I guess somewhere in the middle?

This is a good blend. I don't think I could smoke this everyday, but I could easily see it being in weekly rotation. If you are at all curious I would say give it a shot. If you don't like I'll gladly take the rest of your hands.

This blend is made for the saltiest of buccaneers so beware. ️

 

[North Pole piper]

For a 75% Latakia blend, it’s very smooth and creamy with a hint from the east. That’s called good blending. I’ve had blends with half that amount of Latakia and all you taste is Latakia. Not overly complex like someone said, but you know your smoking quality tobacco and the guy that blended knew what he was doing. One of my favs.

 

[JimPM]

I scored PK at 150/163 based upon the standard attributes of the genre, it's mechanical properties and overall cost. This equated to like a 3.4-ish subjective assessment. Although I really like PK, I found it a little racy at times and the overall enjoyable complexity which I highly value was a little reduced by the heavy Latakia content. If you like PK, C&D Byzantium or Sutliff Heavy English will give you that same heady ride/feel.

 

[dctune]

Arrrrgh! ?‍

 

[jrharrigan]

I did what passes in my mind as a review of Pirate Kake here. There's a story too, if you're bored.

TL/DR: I like Pirate Kake quite a lot. It might be the only C&D blend that I like.

 

[Grangerous]

I tried it and gifted it. Incense-like someone said and it’s an apt description. I’m not knocking it, I just don’t care for that much Latakia. To those that do, this might be their ticket! But not an all-day blend. With a name like Pirate Cake, it’s a must try once.

 

[Fralphog]

Well, my tin that I ordered from SP arrived today. I found this review after I ordered it.
I’ve got a few tins open I want to finish before I open the PK, but based on the reviews, I’m thinking I will enjoy it. I’ll chime in once I smoke a few bowls.

 

[btp79]

I still get Pirate Kake and Black Frigate confused; they both get smoked in the same pipe so it's not a problem. Good stuff wither way.

 

[J-Evverrett]

I got it as a sample when it came out. It was a bit too one dimensional for me. It was excellent with a good smokey scotch. I love most lat blends that I’ve tried, but there’s so many fish in the sea.

 

[btp79]

I still get Pirate Kake and Black Frigate confused; they both get smoked in the same pipe so it's not a problem. Good stuff wither way.

That should say either way and I can't edit it. Oops

 

[truthpil]

Thanks for the review! PK was my first Lat bomb as well and I too was surprised at how smooth it was. It'll definitely stay in my rotation!

 

[JohnMosesBrowning]

I still get Pirate Kake and Black Frigate confused; they both get smoked in the same pipe so it's not a problem. Good stuff wither way.

Haha, this is from review #12 in the thread and for the first 11 I absolutely was thinking about Black Frigate and kept thinking to myself, "hmm...I didn't remember it being that latakia heavy or having that lack of complexity." Thank you for admitting I'm not the only one who has trouble keeping these two straight! I have jars of both somewhere, maybe I'll scrounge them up to spark my memory for each of them.

 

[karam]

Never tried it and never will. All Latakia blends taste the same to me unless the Lat is at around 30%.

I have had straight Latakia, interesting observation which is corroborated by others here and elsewhere is that Latakia seems to have a critical mass type effect. Up to 30% it is good as a dominant condiment, 30-50%+ it becomes - for me - a tire fire bomb, and then for some reason it seems to mellow out, all the way up to 100% Latakia which I found became a sweet, smokey oriental. GLP wrote somewhere that the effect of Latakia depends heavily on the other leaf in the blend.
Don’t like C&D blends, but it Byzantium is one of only two that I enjoyed.

 

[Bwana Kiko]

I love it.
I am literally smoking it right now looking out over the water.

 

[kcghost]

I knew a guy once who used to smoke straight latakia. I'd say he was tough but he died.

 

[TheDesertPiper]

I love it. View attachment 119624
I am literally smoking it right now looking out over the water.

That is an interesting pipe you have there.