Cornell & Diehl White Lightning

(2.33)
A concentrated mixture of red and bright Virginias is combined with a good measure of Perique, and spiked with a bit of applejack, followed by the flavors of raspberry and vanilla for an electrifying smoking experience.

Details

Brand Cornell & Diehl
Series Appalachian Trail
Blended By  
Manufactured By Cornell & Diehl
Blend Type Aromatic
Contents Perique, Virginia
Flavoring Alcohol / Liquor, Apple, Raspberry, Vanilla
Cut Ribbon
Packaging 2oz Tin
Country United States
Production Currently available

Profile

Strength
Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild -> Overwhelming
Flavoring
Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
None Detected -> Extra Strong
Room Note
Pleasant
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unnoticeable -> Overwhelming
Taste
Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild (Flat) -> Overwhelming

Average Rating

2.33 / 4
0

4

4

1

Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Aug 14, 2017 Mild to Medium Medium Medium Pleasant
The tangy, dark fruity, earthy red Virginia takes the lead over the grassy, citrusy bright Va. The spicy, raisiny, plummy perique is a supporting player, and I tend to notice it almost as much as I do the bright Virginia. The rich raspberry topping takes a little lead over the applejack (which has a slight alcohol note), and the vanilla underscores the other attributes. The toppings do sublimate the tobaccos to a moderate extent, and meld well to create a cohesive, rather deep and well balanced flavor. Except for the raspberry, the toppings do weaken by just a hair in the last quarter of the experience. The strength is just past the mild to medium level, while the taste is a step closer to medium than that. The nic-hit is just past mild. Won’t bite or get harsh, and has no dull moments or rough edges. Burns cool, clean, and slightly slow as the tobacco is lightly moist out of the tin, but it doesn’t need any dry time. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, and needs a few relights. Has a pleasant, lightly lingering sweet and mildly spicy after taste. Can be an all day smoke.

-JimInks
18 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Aug 25, 2017 Mild to Medium Mild Mild to Medium Pleasant
I wholeheartedly agree with JimInks review. While not a powerful aromatic, the flavoring is noticeable and present throughout the entire bowl. For me, the dominating performance here are the sweet, grassy Virginias. The way that they work with the raspberry is quite brilliant. The raspberry elevates the sweetness of the Virginias without taking them over. Rather than tasting the perique, I detect a little spiciness on the exhale that must be the perique. I got less of a plum flavor than JimInks did, but his palate is much more developed than mine. I think this could be an all day smoke. I think I could easily go back and forth between White Lightning and GL Pease's Cairo all day. Cairo is a different cut without the toppings used here, but similar grassy Virginias.
Pipe Used: cob
PurchasedFrom: Smokingpipes.com
9 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 27, 2019 Medium Mild to Medium Medium Tolerable
Cornell & Diehl - White Lightening (Appalachian Trail).

The mixture's far coarser than you standard ribbon. It's a medium brown, well broken flake, with a slightly fruity aroma. My tin had good moisture to it.

Fruity. This is a good summarisation of the smoke. The fruity-sweet red Virginia's take a leading stance, by a notch compared to the Perique. However, the Perique adds extra tartness, in the form of more dark fruit. The Raspberry topping goes hand in hand with these two flavours, and outweighs the apple liqueur. The apple flavour isn't the best feature; although being a milder addition, there's just enough apple-acerbity to lessen the rating. If I'm honest, unless I read WL contains vanilla I wouldn't identify it; that said, I've read it has vanilla in it but I still find it elusive! I have no problem with the burn, it's quite cool and steady. I do get a little tongue bite from it, though.

Nicotine: medium. Room-note: not great.

White Lightening? Although not horrendous, I won't give it any higher than two stars:

Somewhat recommended.
Pipe Used: Altinok Meer'
PurchasedFrom: Smokingpipes.com
Age When Smoked: 04/21/18
6 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jun 26, 2018 Medium Mild to Medium Mild Tolerable
Smoking my 2nd bowl of this now. I'm not a fan of perique, as the last perique blend I tried made me feel sick. This one is definitely better though. It is a sweet and spicy smoke with no nasty chemical tastes or tongue burn. The perique gives me a sort of pleasant peppery warmth.

I'm admittedly not the best at picking out specific flavours, so lightly sweet and spicy would be my best description. I prefer sweeter smoother aromatics, so I won't order White Lightning again. It's not a bad blend by any means, it just isn't my thing.
Pipe Used: Corncob
PurchasedFrom: tobaccoblends.com.au
Age When Smoked: Fresh
5 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jan 20, 2018 Medium Medium Medium Tolerable
I found my jar of this one which I had put away when I first purchased when it came out.

I'm agreeing with the other reviewers that the raspberry topping seems to overpower the Applejack which I was hoping to be the main flavor.

In the country gentleman cob, it provided a consistent flavor from light until the end. I can taste the Virginias predominately in the tobacco, but the perique seems to add a little "spice" to the combination.

It is a nice change from my normal smokes, but I don't really feel motivated to buy another tin.
Pipe Used: Cob
PurchasedFrom: SmokingPipes.com
Age When Smoked: 6 months
3 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jul 21, 2019 Medium Very Mild Mild to Medium Strong
This one was subpar. While smoking I couldn’t pick up the VA very much. The perique was strong which I don’t care for. Room note was not good. I couldn’t pick up the applejack or fruit notes at all. One bowl and I’m shipping it off to someone else. I found it needed frequent relights even with drying time. The tobacco wasn’t wet or goopy out of the tin. I’m a hard pass on this one.
Pipe Used: Savinelli 673 Roma Lucite
2 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Sep 12, 2023 Mild to Medium Mild to Medium Mild Pleasant
Appearance: the 2 oz tin released in 2018 had a discreet yellow and white label with gray lettering. The cut tobacco is a wide ribbon of varying lengths. It looks as if someone sliced the flakes from a kake and then crumbled them. When I found a piece of kake unbroken, my suspicion was heightened. However, the quality was good - the tobacco is a blend of light and red Virginias with a moderate amount of perique added.

Flavor: After five years in the tin, the tobacco has matured quite a bit. The virginia notes blended well with the topping, and the perique added a spicy zest to it. As a result, the light virginia notes of herbs and citrus have become much softer and faded into the background, while the bread and woody notes of red virginia combined with the smell of applejack play first fiddle. Perique keeps in the shadow, giving only a slight spicy-raisin hint to the flavor, and raspberry and vanilla have weathered out definitively over the years. The overall bouquet gives reason to classify the tobacco as aromatics, but the tobacco notes are only complemented by the topping notes, not replaced by them.

Taste: Typical Virginian blend, which, according to grandfather's precepts, a foolish novice pipe smoker added a slice of apple to slightly ennoble and moisten. Hay, a little bit of dough, sour and slightly yeasty flavor of apple souring in tobacco. The perique is safely hidden under the main bouquet, acting only as a light spice on the retrohale and giving some strength to the blend. The tobacco smokes well and easily, burns smoothly, slowly, cool and dry, practically not changing its flavor and taste at any moment of smoking in any shape pipe. Like most Virginia and perique blends, it doesn't like overheating too much, starting to get bitter. The strength of the blend is slightly below average, but it is possible to get a slight nicotine hit in a very large pipe. The aftertaste of the tobacco is woody and fruity, but very weak and unstable.

Smoke from tobacco reminds the smoke of good old cigarettes, which, alas, are nowadays practically not produced. It dissipates easily.

What's the bottom line? As in the case with Bluegrass, we have a good everyday tobacco. Light, but peculiar flavor is a bit boring for an experienced pipe smoker, but this tobacco fills you well by vitamin N. There is no sense to demand more from it - there are much more interesting blends for dessert in Cornell & Diehl's portfolio.
Pipe Used: Peterson 69, 106
PurchasedFrom: Online
Age When Smoked: 2018
1 person found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Mar 03, 2021 Mild to Medium Medium to Strong Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
Raspberry is definitely the lead flavor here, with a spicy zing from perique close behind. Sweetness from the Virginia is there, and some tangy flavor from the applejack. I don't detect much vanilla or any creamy undertones that much. Enjoyable aromatic. No bite, and didn't need to relight much until the end of the bowl. The cut is almost a cross between ribbon and broken flake. Recommended aromatic.
Pipe Used: MM Cob Country Gentleman
PurchasedFrom: SmokingPipes.com
Age When Smoked: 3 months
1 person found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Oct 04, 2023 Medium Medium Mild to Medium Very Pleasant
Perique in an aromatic is a hard one to pull off. It often clashes instead of melding, but this applejack, raspberry, and perique combination really works. I find that the applejack flavour comes off strongly at first, and then gives way to more raspberry halfway through the bowl. There is a nice tartness to the blend, and a spiciness from the perique that really gives a kick — but feels light and airy compared to a heavier perique blend. This simply tastes great, and is an excellent aromatic for those who prefer something with a more tobacco forward flavour. The blend also has a surprising nicotine kick despite being an all day blend. The roomnote is particular sweet and pleasant, certainly one of the best I've encountered. White Lightning deserves your consideration and highlights the dexterity of C&D's blending.

3.5/4 - This might be a 4/4 for someone who likes aromatics more than I do, but I cannot rate this a 4 up with my favourite blends.
Pipe Used: Chacom Tacon (Acorn)
0 people found this review helpful.
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