Laudisi/C&D is making their play
- Thread starter BriarBrook
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Who owns 'Rivertown Tobacco Works Bulk Pipe Tobaccos' ? Will this help those who were worried about losing Sutliff? I have trouble keeping up with everything.
No. Altria; Inter-Continental Trading (mainly RYO); Japan Tobacco; Kopp, Gawith Hoggarth; Germain's; Gladora; other small players.
Laudisi / Cornell & Diehl are the last pipe tobacco blending house in the US. They are dipping their toes in raw leaf processing (what we call "having a primary") now.
Still under the $3/oz mark but just barely. Interestingly enough they're slightly cheaper than most of C&D's bulk blends but still a decent chunk more than their blending components. Meanwhile Low Country bulk is sitting pretty at $1.50/oz.
My only guess is they didn't want to undercut brick and mortars too much.
I'm only guessing here. But if they want to be a future proof tobacco manufacturer they will have to want to invest in new custom made machinery and staff. Tariff wars aside, we will see a steady increase of prices now for this reason, so buckle up. C&D was never set up for mass market production, but that's the position they are in right now and we are seeing the market demand it now.
There was a time, not long ago, when McClelland flakes were that price, just under $50 a pound, and most pipe smokers wouldn’t pay it.
Don't get me wrong, I love Cornell & Diehl, but I've yet to smoke any blend from them that I'd call "mellow". Even smoking their flagship aromatic Autumn Evening (which is 100% pure Red Virginia Cavendish) feels like Jeremy Reeves personally walked up, punched me in the throat, and called me a pussy by the time I get down to the last third of the bowl!
C'mon guys, Cavendish is supposed to be really gentle and easygoing stuff! What did they steam it with, rocket fuel? I'll always love C&D's Burley blends, and Haunted Bookshop may very well be my all time favorite pipe blend period, but I feel like they might want to leave the mass market brick and mortar bulk aromatics to Lane. They're gonna give some poor old codger who's used to smoking 1-Q a heart attack!
Sorry, I'm playing catch up on some threads.
As for C&D, I'd agree, as I don't think they have a "mellow" offering in their lot. I don't mind a strong blend at times, but a lot of their blends just hit me wrong.
I like a few of their tobacco's like Pirate Kake, Star of the East, and Star of the East Gold, and smoke those regularly but the others I've tried are just okay for me. For some reason I think a lot of their blends just hit me harder than others I smoke. The nicotine content just seems stronger in C&D blends for me.
I've had After Hours, 2023 Anthology, Bayou Morning, Billy Budd, Black Frigate, Bourbon Bleu, Briar Fox, Burly Flake No. 4 (knocked me on my butt), Corn Cob Pipe, Golden Days of Yore, Habana Day Dream (punched me in my face), Haunted Bookshop (punched me in the face), We Three Kings, Red Odessa, and Red Virginia Ribbon. I've yet to open Carolina Red Flake and Old Joe Krantz. Most of their tobacco's just don't do it for me, and others seem to over-powering.
Maybe I've just tried the wrong ones. Some were given to me as samples, and some I bought as tins or bulk, but maybe I just need to keep trying some blends, but I'm hesitant, because pretty much everything I've tried from them just hasn't wowed me and I find them to be stronger blends. When I sit down to have a pipe, I usually have 2 to 4 bowls, but that's hard to do with the C&D blends. At least for me.
I'd say you've definitely given them a fair chance
Not long ago somebody posted pics from some B&M of a bag of McC bulk collecting dust on the floor
Follow up:
I just tried Edisto for the first time, and I have to say -- I'm impressed. It's much better than I expected.
Does it have the depth and complexity of limited-release special-edition ultra-matured McNeil magic? Obviously not.
But honestly the flavor profile seems in the trajectory of the great reds -- just not at its musty, tangy, fermented maturity.
I'd go so far as to say that the leaf in Edisto has more potential than the leaf in TS1R.
TS1R probably would never get to that level, no matter how much time you gave it; whereas, Edisto? I don't know, I feel like if you put an unopened tin away for a decade or two, it would be in the ballpark of the really memorable reds (not so much like Mcc, granted, but in 20 years it might be something like Cringle). It has that discernable kind of profile.
I'll probably try to cellar a good bit of it, as able.
So I somewhat take back what I said. Really good Red is still out there. We just used up the really mature stock and have to give it time again.