Hey Everyone,
I am really grateful to all of you for the C&D love everyone has expressed. Thank you for participating in this Tobacco Crawl!!
And a really big Thank You to Rich of $ Noggins: Wow! Offering that sampler pack is super cool of him! What a deal! Rich, if you are listening, I thank you!
And another big Thank You to Brass, for facilitating all of this and for having such a cool idea and making it a reality. What a great hobby we are all a part of.
So I too, have a little of my own C&D love to share:
I have been smoking C&D for 12 years or so. And now I, for the last 6 months or so, find myself in a position where I get to work on all aspects of making a number of blends that have been frequently smoked in my pipes for most of that time. I count that as A. a real honor and B. a crazy and unexpected turn of events. I truly share the enthusiasm and curiosity about Cornell and Diehl that many of you have expressed thus far. Some pipe tobacco companies approach their repertoire with the intent to have one example of particular type or style of tobacco; i.e. VA Flake or Burley, English, Aromatic, etc. And there are very often good results associated with such an approach and very good reasons to offer very specific, and singular and hopefully unique specimens of each type that the brand chooses to offer. I like a lot of different brands, both domestic and foreign, that you would find in my tobacco cellar, and I smoke as diversely as I can, so please don't think I am criticizing a pipe tobacco company who takes this approach. I just think that Cornell & Diehl's approach to their catalog is interesting by comparison. What I love about C&D is that they have made a lineup that simply smoking through, is not only fun, but in my opinion, has the potential to be exhaustively educational to the smoker. The 200 plus existing blends, which I am so excited to be manufacturing, are, to me, a wealth of knowledge; these blends are like books on shelves, waiting to be picked up and read. The styles, approaches, and methods involved in producing these tobaccos are not only wildly diverse with quite diversely tasty results, but often they are innovative and unexpected as well. In such a large production list, as you might expect, there are blends, such as Autumn Evening or Pirate Kake, that are constantly being made, in order to keep up with the demand for them, and then there are blends that we simply don't have to produce as much of, blends that are not quite so popular. And ever the romantic and champion of the underdog that I am, I can't help but take note and seek out those blends, to see for myself what they are like, and I love it when think back on the number of times I have been pleasantly surprised or deeply rewarded. There are a lot of blends that I have been totally struck by or even moved by (Two Friends, Heritage and C&D Poplar Camp come to mind, as examples), that have not had much popularity but what they lack in quantity of adherents they make up for in the level of obsessive dedication that the few smokers who do regularly smoke them, have for them. Everywhere I turn in the C&D lineup, I find truly genius and excellent offerings to suit every taste I can imagine, and some of these blends have introduced me to a few tastes of my own that I did not know I had!! I am looking forward to continuing to further my education in this most pleasant way, and I see the Tobacco Crawl as an opportunity to unite with all of you who are participating, in doing so together. Fun stuff should abound from this!!
