Cornell & Diehl Sunday Picnic

(3.49)
Golden Virginias are combined with perique and Izmir Turkish for a delicious and memorable flake tobacco.

Details

Brand Cornell & Diehl
Series Simply Elegant Series
Blended By Craig Tarler
Manufactured By Cornell & Diehl
Blend Type Oriental
Contents Oriental/Turkish, Perique, Virginia
Flavoring
Cut Flake
Packaging 2 ounce tin
Country United States
Production Currently available

Profile

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

Average Rating

3.49 / 4
69

31

12

1

Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 10 of 113 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 09, 2010 Medium Extremely Mild Medium Very Pleasant
I do enjoy the spicy flavor of the famous Oriental Izmir leaf. Taken with a dose of Perique and Virginia in this blend, it is simply awesome!

This cool burning blend will pack some punch without jackhammering the palate. It also has a nice sweet, "herbal" type undertone.

A true bell ringer in my book!
60 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 24, 2014 Mild to Medium Extremely Mild Mild to Medium Pleasant
The golden Virginia has a strong hay flavor and very little tart and tangy citrus as the base of this production. The dry, lightly buttery sweet and very sour, mildly spicy, earthy, woody, herbal, floral Turkish/Izmir gives this blend what depth it has, and I can barely detect any spice, plums or raisins from the perique. The Izmir is the major player. Has a slightly sweet topping that doesn't sublimate the tobaccos much. The strength and nicotine levels are less than expected - a couple of steps short of the center of mild to medium. The taste is just past that center. Won't bite or get harsh, but sports a few rough edges. Burns cool and clean with a mostly consistent, mildly sweet, spicy, sour, and rather savory taste that translates to the lightly lingering after taste and room note. Requires some relights. Leaves little moisture in the bowl. Not quite an all day smoke as it does have a fair amount of punch for a manufacture that's below the medium threshold.

-JimInks
31 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 17, 2009 Mild Extremely Mild Mild to Medium Very Pleasant
From the moment I popped the tin, I knew I was in for a real treat. I love Virginia's and I smoke Two Friends-Heritage in my regular rotation. Well, this is different. It is a Flake. With a hurried rub and fold, I quickly packed it in the bowl and did a charring light. Awesome, I thought! Smoked it right down to the bottom. I was surprised that I had no necessity to re-light, as I did not take the time it deserves to rub out, fold and gently pack. I was in a big hurry to smoke this blend.

Smooth, dry, cool smoking, tasty Virginia with the compliment of Turkish and Perique. Perhaps it has a touch of honey to enhance the sweetness. Certainly a no-bite, pleasant, irresitable smoke of mild character and it was very pleasing to the bottom of the bowl. This pipe had been smoked a few times already today and I was surprised the bowl was absolutely dry at the conclusion of this smoke. As soon as the bowl cooled, I was filling it up again. This is really good tobacco.

Moisture in the tin was ideal. I don't like having to dry tobacco. Picnic burns beautifully and its presentation from tin to smoke shows the skill and excellence in preparation of this blend that I have come to expect from Craig Tarler. It is pressed and sliced into perfect portions.

This Golden VA is one you can really enjoy sniffing in the tin. I may just take the tin into a non-smoking environment and sniff it where I can't smoke it! It's really that good. If you like a VA Flake, you don't want to miss this one!
26 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jul 28, 2016 Medium Very Mild Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
This is a great smoke. A little hay, some dark fruit, a mild sourness, a good bit of spice and sweetness. The overall flavor is very pleasing. Not sure all the sweetness is natural, might be a little addition to this. That's ok. It works very well and wouldn't be as good without it. Top notch flake. Love it.

Medium in body and flavor. If there is added sweetness it's a very mild amount. Burns very well.
Pipe Used: MM Little Devil Cutty, Little Devil Acorn
PurchasedFrom: pipesandcigars.com
Age When Smoked: fresh
19 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 20, 2013 Medium None Detected Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
Another beautiful broken flake, this one with a very heavy scent of Izmir. Loaded easily in rubbed out form or nearly as easily folded and stuffed.

Looking at the reviews, I wonder if A) the tobacco blend in my tin was not Sunday Picnic at all, or B) if there is some QC problem at C&D, causing the review scores to deteriorate. My impression was that the oriental flavor was considerably too weighty, too overblown. The perique could have been amped up somewhat and the virginias tasted positively burley-ish... very dusty and murky and with very, very little sweetness. Nic content was high. I seriously wonder if the VA in this one was actually burley. No golden va sweetness, not even the tang or grass or hay usuals. This was deep and cloudy and cigarette-ish.

I'm saving the rest of the tin and my 2nd one to see how aging treats this blend. As it stands, two stars is a gift, and I can't help but wonder if the tin is holding the correct blend. I've had this happen before with C&D. Just doesn't taste like a predominately virginia blend.
19 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jul 07, 2016 Medium to Strong None Detected Medium Very Pleasant
Cornell & Diehl - Sunday Picnic.

Me and Gentleman Zombie have done a couple trades with one another up to now, and this is another beauty from one of them. To put it simply, I think it's brilliant!

I wouldn't class the flakes as being either broken or whole: they're breaking apart just enough to enable easy filling, yet they still have the rectangular shape of a flake. The moisture in the tin's just the right quantity to mean that it's fresh, yet not soaked, what's that word?: PERFECT!

With Cornell & Diehl, there are many things that I love, i.e. the art designs on them. But the main characteristic that makes C+D one of my favourite manufacturers is the actual smoke. This one's great: I don't find it gives to many Perique qualities at first, there's a Plum-esc taste, but not a great deal of spice. It takes a quarter of a bowl, or so, for the Perique to wake-up! A steady flavour throughout would be the Oriental/Turkish: from this, I get a good foundation for the smokes profile. This gives some more oomph to the smoke, it fills in for the lesser hit of Perique. The Virginia seems lightly added compared to the other two, it just gives a bit of build to the smoke, rather than actual flavour.

The nicotine's just above medium (to me), and I enjoy the room-note.

Franck, you've done it again, you've sent me something special!

Highly recommended.

Pipe Used: Peterson #03
PurchasedFrom: Traded with Gentleman Zombie
Age When Smoked: New
14 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 26, 2014 Medium None Detected Medium Tolerable to Strong
Excited to try this. Opening Night is a personal favorite so I wanted to try something that was in the VA ballpark but a bit spicier. Sunday Picnic is the distant cousin from Louisiana who likes it spicy and likes to mix it up when visiting the Opening Night city folks.

At first I didn't know what to make of it as it was a unique flavor, so I held off on the review. Now the tin has been opened a while and the flavors starting to settle down I can say it's quite tasty and can for see it becoming a favorite. Its VA smooth, cool and tasty but has a ZING and a PING to it. It's more than the Perique that adds a POP of pepper.. its the Turkish and Izmir that throws the "different" into this unique mix. The Nic will put hairs on the chest for sure. Love it. I believe the room note will be a bit hard for others so its best to find some alone time or you could be in the doghouse. Smoke it slow and savor the flavor of this unique blend from Cornell & Diehl. It's a winner. Cool… tasty… Zing and a Ping!
Pipe Used: Selected Straight Grain.
PurchasedFrom: JR Cigars.
Age When Smoked: May 2013.
10 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Aug 03, 2016 Medium None Detected Medium Very Pleasant
This is a masterpiece. Simply Elegant is the right description for this blend. I think VA/Izmir/Perique is one of the finest tobacco combinations possible and this blend nails it. The Izmir is often forward here. It is sour with a mild spice. I get a wonderful pine needle aroma from the smoke. The bright Virginia offers its usual hay notes and the Perique is figgy and peppery. On the whole the blend is more savory than sweet. It pairs delightfully with a morning coffee. Strength is medium with a bit of a kick but can be smoked any time of day.
Pipe Used: Cobs, Briar
9 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Mar 20, 2016 Medium Extremely Mild Medium Pleasant
A go-to flake for me. If this was the only tobacco I had to smoke, I would be happy.

Very nice on a spring or summer day. Puts me in the same mind as a citrus-y drink with some bitters, like Campari and grapefruit/orange or something.

Just prior to opening my current tin of SP and writing this, I calibrated my tastebuds to the taste of Izmir by smoking a tin of McClelland Smyrna No. 1, which includes a leaf in the tin. Sniff, sniff, Izmir is very herbal and aromatic and I have to say that being strongly so, it is best used as a condiment. It works amazingly well with perique, as in Sunday Picnic. In fact, being a little overwhelmed by the strength of the Izmir in the McClelland blend, I mixed it 50/50 with their Top Hat (a VA/Per with a good amount of perique) to create a facsimile of Sunday Picnic/Red Carpet, which worked really well, but not nearly as well as how C&D does it.

In sum, the Izmir in Sunday Picnic is quality and in perfect proportion to the other tobaccos, and did I mention that I love Izmir and perique? It adds a balmy, herbal taste that ramps up to nuttiness and spice towards the end of the bowl, joining with the spice of the perique and the virginias.

C&D's bright virginias are some of my favorites, I like the light citrus notes and solid earthy tobacco taste here.

Have smoked tins of Sunday Picnic of different age, from about five years to fresh. Always good, but aged like that it is completely sublime. Best with a minimum of six months or so of age.
9 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jul 07, 2021 Mild None Detected Mild Pleasant
To me, this is a mild Virginia (broken) flake with a sprinkling of Orientals for some nuance. There is a softness to the blend - both the texture of the tobacco and the flavor - which reminds me of an expensive towel. If you lay that towel down on the grass under the shade of a tree you can enjoy this unassuming blend on a hot summer day. Maybe with some lemonade, or the honeyed ice tea my wife makes. Actually, there may be a touch of honey in the blend - cannot tell if it was added or is just naturally suggested by the Virginias (which are on the brighter side). Regardless, everything about this brings to mind "just a touch" - of this, that, or the other thing people here usually read into nice Virginia blends. I would just add "toasty."

Do not smoke this if you're expecting an alluring interplay of Turkish spice (see Embarcadero for that) or a study in the subtle complexities of Virginia (Opening Night). Maybe this will change with age, but I doubt it. It's nice.

P.S. There is apparently perique somewhere in this blend.
5 people found this review helpful.
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