Blend of the Week #22: Cornell & Diehl Cordial
The tin note on this one is quite different than the previous English blend we just looked at! The Latakia dominates with it's pungent leathery aroma, though you can smell a good bit of incense spicy Orientals as well. They're both quite strong scents and the Virginias get lost behind them. The tobacco comes in an unusually dry rough cut mixture of various ribbon sizes, broken flakes, and irregular chunks of the various components. It's a bit of a kitchen sink mixture and rather messy looking, with a gritty sandy texture when rubbed between the fingers as well, though how it looks and feels is a lot less important than how it smokes so let's load it up and give it a try!
The Latakia is the lead component and it's pleasantly campfire'y! In a bit of a surprise considering the tin note there's no leather or mustiness here, just pure autumn campfire flavor and quite strong. It has a bit of a tongue numbing quality as well. The Orientals are just behind the Latakia in terms of flavor strength and are exceptionally spicy and floral tasting, which pairs well with the acidic citrus flavor of the bright Virginias in the background. Altogether it's a very potent combination of flavors in that very bold and rough around the edges style that Cornell & Diehl is well known for. What unsweetened Black Cavendish is in here goes fairly unnoticed and doesn't seem to provide much in the way of body or smoothness to the blend, it's still a rather brash mixture.
Cordial doesn't have the rich smooth creaminess of Balkan Supreme, it's just here to punch you in the mouth with some very intense smokey Latakia, spicy Oriental, and lemony bright Virginia flavors! That punchiness carries over into the retrohale as well, which I could best describe as, "Fire in the hole!" It's one that'll really put a zing through your sinuses and make you sit up straight! I wouldn't recommend retrohaling this blend with any regular frequency.
The nicotine content is towards the lower end of medium. Noticable but easygoing. It's fairly easy to pack, light, and keep lit in spite of the irregular texture of the blend and requires only a few relights here and there. The room note is surprisingly light for an English blend, especially one of this much flavor strength. It's a bit campfire smokey and not overly offensive, with a pleasant "bread baking in the oven" side note. The family didn't mind the room note on this one as much as most English blends, though they still weren't overly thrilled about it.
Getting down to brass tacks to work out my final opinion on Cornell & Diehl Cordial, flavor wise I really enjoyed it... at least at first. I liked the spiciness of the Orientals and the bright lemon citrus flavor of the Virginias, but the sheer strength of the Latakia was just overwhelming for my palate and left me with a numb and leathery feeling tongue that had trouble tasting much of anything else for a good chunk of the day after smoking it. After smoking Cordial 4 days in a row my stomach churned a little at the thought of having to smoke it again. It's just too much Latakia for me!
I also found that with Cordial the bright Virginias really stung up the roof of my mouth, and the Orientals just about set my sinuses on fire every time I retrohaled it. Taking all that into account, while Cordial would make an eye popping change of pace for those with a particularly strong affinity for Latakia, this one just wasn't for me.
On a related note, I think this week was a really good lesson on why you shouldn't judge a blend by the first smoke, or even the 3rd or 4th smoke. While I initially enjoyed the smoothness of Balkan Supreme and the strong Latakia flavor punch of Cordial, the heaviness of the Latakia in Cordial and the burnt coffee note in Balkan Supreme really wore on my palate as the week went on and by the end of the week I had no desire to ever smoke either of them again. However, mid week I did return to my longtime favorite English blend that had recently been removed from my keeper list because I thought it didn't have enough Latakia in it. That being Peterson Early Morning Pipe.
When I first smoked Early Morning Pipe again I couldn't taste the Latakia at all, because my tongue was so Latakia bombed from the Balkan Supreme and Cordial that it was all out of whack, but after a couple days my taste buds recovered; and when they did I remembered exactly why I always loved Early Morning Pipe. The pleasantly tangy Orientals and citrusy bright Virginias are at the forefront and the campfire'y Latakia is a condiment used sparingly, so the overall flavor profile stays light and fresh and never gets bogged down by the Latakia. Yeah, the retrohale still stings my sinuses something fierce, but in terms of flavor I'm pretty doubtful that I'll ever find another English blend I like nearly as much as Early Morning Pipe.
So, back on the keeper list EMP goes and it's into the sell/trade bin for Balkan Supreme and Cordial!
Looking ahead to next week, I think I'd like to smoke something I'm already quite familiar with and have fond memories of. There's two blends I always like to smoke in the fall every year, and while one of them has been recently discontinued (Sutliff Pumpkin Spice) the other is still widely available and I imagine it will be for quite some time. It may be a few months out of season, but nevertheless next week's blend of the week is...
Cornell & Diehl Autumn Evening
