Cornell & Diehl Pipe Tobacco Billy Budd (Melville at Sea) in Review
CATEGORY: Cigar leaf-based
BLEND: Burley, Cigar Leaf, Latakia, Virginia
FLAVORING: no
BLENDER: Craig Tarlar
MANUFACTURER: Cornell & Diehl
CUT: Coarse cut
PIPE: Old German Clay no. 15
INTENSITY: Medium-Full/Full
NOTES:
CATEGORY: Cigar leaf-based
BLEND: Burley, Cigar Leaf, Latakia, Virginia
FLAVORING: no
BLENDER: Craig Tarlar
MANUFACTURER: Cornell & Diehl
CUT: Coarse cut
PIPE: Old German Clay no. 15
INTENSITY: Medium-Full/Full
NOTES:
Leather | Wood | Pepper-spice
I love Latakia! I love cigar leaf! However, I am cautious because I also love tuna fish and chocolate ice cream--but wouldn't stir them together and dive in with a spoon. I digress. Have you ever taken the remains of the previous day's last cigar and packed it into the next morning's first pipe? C'mon, live a little. Be a person. It's acrid. This is a much paler shade of that phenomenon, but it is t/here. I'm a bit hesitant to smoke this around my special lady friend for fear it'll put hair on her chest. THIS IS A WHALE OF A BLEND LOL (a little bit of Melvilleian humor). Big chewy smoke. Smoky and meaty and bittersweet out ahead with a salty leathery back-end. Fuzzy pinewood.
Cigar smokers looking for a point of entry into pipes have at this. That odd grassy note is Virginia leaf, and it lemony-cleanses some in the mid-section here. The burley blends in smoothly enough but does add a bit of ashiness as the bowl burns-down. I think it lends itself to the structure-some. Woodsy like timber and charred but not scorched, mainly. [I'm put in mind of Fig Newtons.] The whole profile seems wrapped in leather and via progression, it roughs up, softens--gets worked in. The worse it looks, the better it feels. Buckwheat and a tick of molasses. Baking spices and black pepper. Fusty and dusty and could use some more focus.
This seems like one to cellar well. The cut is hearty chunks that pack and burn well. Sweetens toward mid-bowl, almost to buckwheat honey, then that acrid tendency re-rears up near the heel. Big smoke out-put sits somewhere between English blend and mild-medium cigar; not a terrible room-note but definitely one for a smoke-friendly environment. Seems a bit dry out of the tin, but as mentioned burns well. Ash is powdery but in the end does dottle-up considerably-so. Ultimately, I find it lacking (strangely) in oomph, a napping strongman? (Under a damp blanket, come the end.)
TASTE: B+
AROMA: B
BURN: B
FINAL GRADE: B
A 90-100 B 80-89 C 70-79 D 60-69 F 0-59
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