Old Joe Krantz

[atboth]

I popped open a tin of Old Joe Krantz by cornell and Diehl that had been sitting on a shelf since autumn of 2007 recently. It had puffed up to the extent that it was destabilizing a stack of tins, which seems to be the case with many of the C&D tobaccos I purchased that long ago.
Pretty darn good stuff. Took a little drying, presents a nice range of Siena and light umber hues. Smells fabulous in the tin, slightly fruity - musky/musty - nutty. Very much a tobacco odour.
A very pleasant Burley, which if puffed gently provides a semi-full and infinitely satisfying smoke. It can give a bit of a nicotine wallop if you're not careful. Goes well with coffee and tea.
Can't say what the roomnote might be; I haven't asked anyone.
It's more enjoable than Haunted Bookshop, but not dissimilar.

Halfway through this tin at present.

Recommended, for Burley aficionados.

And other fifty three year old men.

 

[fnord]

Good review, Atboth. Love the link in your sig file, friend.
Fnord

 

[gray4lines]

I picked up a 2009 tin a couple months ago, and it was just as you described! I really enjoy old joe, but I hope that a new batch tastes just as good as the aged tin I found.
(It looks as though I'm 30 years too young for it, though, by your recommendation!)

 

[waymon]

Does a good smoke for this 55 year old pipe smoker!!

 

[deathmetal]

Update to my review of C&D Old Joe Krantz:

2017 update: some time during this year, Old Joe Krantz changed, and it is a mixed bag. The original blend used giant fistfuls of the dark Burley that C&D also sells as a blending ingredient, slightly mediated by the white Burley that is available a catalog page over. As a result, it produced radically different estimates of its strength. Burley people like myself did not find it particularly heady, but those who are sensitive to Burley reported it as a hefty dose of Nicotine. The truth is probably in the middle... there is something in dark Burley which is like eating green fruit in that it makes you feel a bit queasy and gives you the spins if you have too much as a Burley susceptible person. The new Old Joe Krantz is ribbon cut instead of rough cut, uses more of the white Burley by my taste, has more moisture, and is a true medium strength tobacco thanks to the lower count of dark Burley. On the plus side, this burns a lot better than the original; on the downside, it lacks some of the delicious Nicotine of the older blend, and is heavier due to moisture that does not really enhance the flavor. Looking at the bright side, it really feels like the "best OTC you have ever smoked" now, and seeing how C&D are following the Sir Walter Raleigh and Captain Black model with now three total variants of Old Joe Krantz, it would not surprise me if this started showing up in drugstores as "Old Joe" in a few years. I miss the stronger original blend, but this is still a fine smoke and now is even easier to puff it all day; I shore up mine with some thin-sliced "Brown No. 4" hidden among the golden-brown shreds.

This is an addendum to the regular review, which per my love of this blend, is somewhat fawning:

If Dr. Who ever visits, I'm going to toss him a Barling pipe and 2 oz sack of Old Joe Krantz and ask him to go back in time and find my 18-year-old self and instruct him in their usage. Old Joe Krantz is exactly what tobacco should be: rich natural flavors, a subtle blend, high power for people who think their way through life as opposed to simply munching cheeseburgers, and enough variety to be tasty if smoked fast, slow or in-between. The predominant flavor here is C&D's savory dark burley, with added red Virginias to calm and sweeten it, with Perique scattered throughout to add texture and dimension.
Our nickname for this is "O.D. Joe Krantz" because of its relatively high nicotine content. This makes it a perfect "work tobacco" when a solid problem needs to be reduced to a quivering mass, and I can imagine Sherlock Holmes crouched on his armchair burning three pipes of OJK before leaping up with the name of the murderer. However, the strength is overstated. If you are new to pipe smoking, start with half a bowl. The speed at which you smoke it depends on how much nicotine accumulates in your person. If you have never smoked before and blaze a full bowl of OJK in ten minutes, you might find yourself on the floor with the spins. If you have smoked cigarettes, this is a dose similar to Dunhill cigarettes: a solid blast of nicotine, stimulating those synapses and nudging the neurons.
Liking natural tobaccos is both a strange and extremely normal thing. The many flavors that can be coaxed from tobacco render almost infinite interesting blends, and the drenching of sugary flavoring that makes aromatics resemble so much of the other insincere plastic mass-conformist junk out there pales in comparison. With OJK, I think it is time to demystify this one: it is a quality Burley blend and one of my favorites, but a simple blend, which means (paradoxically) that it holds the interest longer because its appeal is a few fundamental ingredients in contrast. In contrast, highly-detailed tobacco constructions have too many contradictory impulses and end up in that chaos losing depth and complexity. OJK reveals its many possibilities with repeated smokes where you have the time to appreciate it, much like a summer day with a fast breeze and high cloud cover will always be a calming experience. It may not be as mature as the Dunhill blends, and it has a slight bitterness reminiscent of fresh-cut plants, but its depth of essential flavors makes this one a perennial favorite.

Glorious stuff. Hope they make it brutal again however.

 

[ray47]

I used to smoke OJK on a daily basis but the perique in the blend became too much for me to handle. I switched to C&D's Three Friars which is kind of in the same ballpark but with less perique.

 

[deathmetal]

Will check that one out. The Perique never bothered me, but regular tobacco tends not to. Add sugar water or alcohols and it's a different story however...