Cornell & Diehl Red Virginia Cavendish

(2.81)
Blending Tobacco. Red Virginia Cavendish.

Details

Brand Cornell & Diehl
Blended By  
Manufactured By Cornell & Diehl
Blend Type Cavendish Based
Contents Cavendish, Virginia
Flavoring
Cut Ribbon
Packaging Bulk
Country United States
Production Currently available

Profile

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

Average Rating

2.81 / 4
5

3

8

0

Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 10 of 16 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 20, 2014 Medium Very Mild Medium Tolerable
It can be smoked straight, but it works better as a blending component. It's lightly tangy and moderately tart dark fruit sweet with some earth and wood, a few spice, toast and sour, acidic notes along with a rugged, mildly sharp quality. The strength and taste levels are medium. The nic-hit is a couple of steps past the mild mark. Won't bite, but may get a little harsh if puffed fast. Burns fairly cool and very clean at a reasonable pace with a distinctly consistent flavor from start to finish. Leaves a little moisture in the bowl, and requires an average number of relights. The short lived after taste is plain. Can be an all day smoke.

-JimInks
10 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 11, 2014 Medium Very Mild Medium Tolerable
Ribbon cut of mostly moderate to darker brown. Kind of a musty bag aroma and it came very dry but not crispy. My intent was to use it as a blender but I smoked a couple of bowls of it straight to get a feel for what it would bring to a blend. Unfortunately, it didn't do what I wanted, which was to create a mild sweetener to a more robust blend. It was a bit too robust on its own, with a bit of cigar flavor thrown in. Not very sweet.

So what happened is that for the blends I'm creating, this has yet to find its purpose. I tried it with a lemon VA, with dark stoved with and without perique and with latakia and/or orientals. It made everything worse, except when mixed with a light burley, to which it imparted a little thinning of the body of the smoke and a touch of additional flavor. But not enough to make this a staple of my blending table. I'll keep the rest around and try some things with it down the road, but for now it's hard to recommend as a Cavendish-based sweetener.
Pipe Used: meerschaum
Age When Smoked: new
8 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jun 22, 2015 Mild to Medium None Detected Mild to Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
C&D lists this as a "blender". To round out my blending stock I bought 4 ounces and smoked some straight to get a handle on its character. While I smoke few if any aromatics I could tell this is no aromatic. I do smoke straight Virgina flakes of various brands from time to time and all those, while pleasant always leave me with a aftertaste, sometimes lingering for hours, that I do not like. This does not display that at all and in fact I found it, alone, quite nice. Smoother than some other's descriptions below, in my opinion.

I did contact C&D and inquired as to why this is priced 125% of the normal bulk price level and 225% of their other blenders. I learned that this is the base tobacco used in their best selling blend, Autumn Evening, that it is extremely labor intensive to produce, and requires a long process. They struggle to produce enough for their own blending purposes.

I am able to pick this up as the Cavendish in Tuggle Hall, too. No doubt it is in others. I will be buying a full pound shortly.
Pipe Used: Briar billiards, corncobs
PurchasedFrom: smokingpipes.com
Age When Smoked: current production
6 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Mar 04, 2015 Medium None Detected Medium Tolerable
Fruity with just a slight sweetness. Can be harsh depending on moisture level and how hard you push it. Can burn a little warm. It's a decent smoke, but not something I'll reach for. Mixed it 75% RVC with 25% McConnell's Pure Latakia and got a pretty good smoke out of it. The very smooth Lat did a decent job cooling it and hiding some of the harshness. Overall impression is that other options for a Red Virginia should be considered.

Medium body and flavor.
Pipe Used: MM General
PurchasedFrom: smokingpipes.com
Age When Smoked: fresh bulk
5 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Nov 02, 2017 Medium Very Mild Mild to Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
Cornell & Diehl - Red Virginia Ribbon.

On arrival the moisture enabled imminent smoking, so after a week of sporadically dipping in and out here's my thoughts:

The leading flavour's sweet and bready, with a very subtle fruitiness backing it up. On the negative side the burn can become too warm and quick if the pipe's strained. The smoke has a heavy build which can deter other folks in the room.

Nicotine: medium. Room-note: not brilliant.

As an evening smoke to sit and sip I guess this isn't that bad, but I can't smoke more than a quarter bowl without wanting to go to sleep through boredom. Somewhat recommended:

Two stars.

Pipe Used: Wallenstein Freehand
PurchasedFrom: 4noggins
Age When Smoked: One week
4 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Dec 27, 2020 Mild to Medium None Detected Mild to Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
As a blending ingredient, works well to add body and a lightly sweet, toasty, savory/bready note to brighter or sharper blends. Lights easy, burns slowly, and doesn’t bite readily. I rather enjoyed it mixed 50/50 with bright Virginia and sprinkled with Latakia. It’s not a must have ingredient, but it’s an interesting change of pace over traditional Red Virginia. The price makes it hard to justify buying more for the lack of “wow” factor. I prefer the C & D straight/unflavored black cavendish when looking for the benefits a cavendish can provide in a blend.

2.5 stars on its own, 3 as a blender
Age When Smoked: Fresh from bulk
3 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jul 08, 2020 Mild None Detected Very Mild Tolerable
This is sort of a 'meh' tobacco all around. To me, it fails as a straight tobacco, is kind of useless as a blending tobacco and the reality of what I tasted was far from what I expected when I purchased this.

First what I expected. I ordered this for the express purpose of blending and I thought that I would get a mildly sweet and tempered tobacco, that would both add sweetness to otherwise dull blends and mellow some overly sweet or edgy blends.

This blend is mostly flavorless, which helped it accomplish the second of my objectives, but failed in any way I wanted to add sweetness. This is also why I state that it is a failure as a straight smoking tobacco, because who wants to smoke nothing but a flavorless tobacco. In fact, it almost has a burley character to it as it can actually get pretty harsh with little provocation.

I suppose it did accomplish the objective of mellowing or diluting an overly sweet or edgy blend, but this is something that many other more enjoyable blends can do as well.

As to mellowing an overly sweet blend I would prefer use a burley or even Carter Hall to this tobacco. On the point of the edginess, however, I did find this to work quite well. recently I used it with some Blackpoint and Westminster to make them more palatable in the summer months. I would even go so far as to say, I found I enjoyed both of those GLP blends better after the addition of this to the bowls.

With all of this said, there is no criticism I can give to the leaf itself. It is of high quality, burns well and, like all the C&D blends I have ever smoked, it comes at the perfect humidity level. Two stars for this one since it is not terrible.
2 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Aug 18, 2009 Very Strong None Detected Mild to Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
Bulk: Smells natural, like sweet grain; not really a red hue, but varying hues of light brown; quite dry but not crispy. A standard, slightly stiff, medium to long ribbon cut.

Packing & Burning: A slight bit of care is needed when packing, due to the slightly stiff ribbon. An easy one-match affair. Smokes more friendlier and cooler if it is smoked slow enough to require relights. RVA smokes fast and the bowl stays cool.

Smoking: Refreshing, smooth; cool, almost menthol cool, not in taste but in feel; biteless, biteless, if smoked at a leisurely pace.

Not much taste, but something like sweetly smooth. The taste actually reminds me somewhat of burley. Towards the bottom, there is a mild grainy taste.

Nicotine: Rather quite strong even for a small bowl. Extra strong maybe, heavy buzz in 1/2 of a bowl.

Room Note: Natural grainy, clingy VA; pleasant for a piper, tolerable for an innocent bystander.

Overall: The Cavendish processing has banned the bite--not even any salsa sting, smooth--but diminishes the taste. An indoor smoke but way too strong for all day. 3.6 stars for what it is, a blending agent, 3.8 stars for what it does.
2 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
ATW
Nov 28, 2019 Medium None Detected Medium to Full Pleasant
Red Virginia Cavendish is by far the best Cavendish/straight Virginia I've had in a while. Its sweet, spicy, with a tang depending on the pipe I smoke it in, has a slight creaminess with a medium to full character. A very bold red va. Since I am terrible at blending, I have only smoked this straight. It does have a slight harshness but nothing a little humidity and age cant take care of. Due to its Cavendish process, it should be a good candidate for a casing like molasses or honey to really add another dimension of dark sweetness. I'm not a big fan of aromatic toppings but any kind of a good casing really opens up a good virginia. I highly recommend this as a straight smoker. Since Autumn Evening is made off this with infusions. It will definitely be next to try out.
1 person found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jun 30, 2013 Strong Strong Medium Tolerable
525V - Red Virginia Cavendish

Star Rating = 2.75

Rating Scores - 10 is the Best and 0 is the Worst

Pouch Note = 8

Room Note = 8

Flavor = 7

Bite = 7

Burn = 8

After Taste = 8

Raw Score = 46

Rated Percentage = 77%

Comment = Strong Flavor, has a big Bite, This is not a very good smoke
1 person found this review helpful.
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