Cornell & Diehl Riverboat Gambler

(3.03)
A Runowski/Tarler blend. In the tradition of the mysterious Mississippi riverboat gamblin' men, a flavorful blend of the South's tobaccos. Burleys, Virginias, and Perique with the exotic taste of Turkish leaf. The odds are with you when you smoke this blend.

Details

Brand Cornell & Diehl
Blended By Bob Runowski / Craig Tarler
Manufactured By Cornell & Diehl
Blend Type American
Contents Burley, Oriental/Turkish, Perique, Virginia
Flavoring
Cut Ribbon
Packaging 2oz Tin, 8oz Tin
Country United States
Production Currently available

Profile

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

Average Rating

3.03 / 4
14

9

5

4

Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 10 of 32 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
May 24, 2010 Medium to Strong None Detected Medium to Full Pleasant to Tolerable
C&D continues to impress when they take burley leaf in hand and begin to blend. Not that they don't do a great job with other tobaccos but burley seems to be their main strength. They have more classic burley blends than any other blender I've encountered. This is a strong case for the defense.

This is a fairly powerful smoke and demands respect. Yet, I look at it as OJK's more refined and gentlemanly sibling. The burley is at the forefront, the perique merely teases and the VA seems to be almost missing in action. I don't find any sweetness in this blend, and the orientals seem more piquant than sugary. This is robust tobacco at its finest... no nuances, no complexity, just a wonderful mouth-filling robust tobacco taste with a little additional spice from the perique. Those who enjoy the Burley Flakes with perique will probably love this offering. I didn't find it too strong to smoke all day but it did seem to behave itself better after a meal. Nice cigar notes in this one. Interesting how some C&D burleys do the "cigar thing" better than other blends that actually contain cigar leaf.

If you like OJK but find it occasionally too brutal, try this calmer but still somewhat "in your face" version. It sure worked for me!
18 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Aug 07, 2016 Medium to Strong None Detected Medium to Full Tolerable
By a happy accident, Riverboat Gambler was next in line to Briar Fox in my "to be smoked" pile. Both are basically VaBurs by C&D and I thought I'd make a comparison. On to it.

First I'll talk about both Burleys. The Burley in BF is a sweet and nutty little guy that has only a little earthiness to him. He's the kind of guy you could ask to hold your cash all day and you could trust him to give every penny of it back to you that evening. This Burley in RG is his bigger, stronger, uglier brother who would knock you in the head, steal all your cash and leave you lying in a ditch. There's nothing sweet about him. He's very earthy and slightly harsh. Now lets marry both of them to some sweet gals from Virginia.

The gal the BF Burley decided to marry is a sweet one that likes to roll in the hay. They make a great couple. The kind you might see holding hands in church every Sunday morning. The gal the RG Burley married is also a sweet one that loves citrus drinks. You might see her in church on Sunday morning, but Mr. RG Burley you will find at home drinking beer, farting and belching and watching football in front of his big screen tv that he bought with the money he stole from you earlier. She can tame him only to the extent that he's tolerable to be around every once in a while.

Heh..I had fun with that. To be serious though, This is a stout blend that is a bit rough around the edges. Even so, it's an enjoyable smoke that I won't mind revisiting once in a while. It's a rock solid 3 stars. I really didn't notice the Oriental or Perique in this.

Medium to strong in body and nic. Medium to full in taste with no added flavorings. A real kick in the pants.
Pipe Used: MM Marcus, Country Gentleman, Mark Twain
PurchasedFrom: pipesandcigars.com
Age When Smoked: fresh
14 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Aug 15, 2009 Medium to Strong None Detected Medium to Full Very Pleasant
I prefer sweeter tasting tobacco than this... and, tobacco with less Perique. Still, it was an interesting smoke and not altogether unpleasant. Recommended for folks who enjoy plain old tobacco taste with strength and Perique.

My tin showd more of a coarse cut than broken flake although there were sizeable chunks in the tin. It arrived at a perfect moisture level and burned dry.
11 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Dec 10, 2008 Strong None Detected Full Strong
We are all familiar with VAPERS but I call Riverboat Gambler a TURPER, i.e., a Turkish Perique blend. My palate did not like the dominance of these two tobaccos. The first third of the bowl was pleasant and even welcoming but as I progressed down the bowl it became increasingly strong, bitter and harsh.

There is nothing sweet about this blend. It even presented cigar-like undertones if not overtones. I was never able to finish the last third of the bowl in three smokes in different pipes on different days. It became overwhelming and, quite frankly, intolerable. C&D has many other blends that I enjoy much more.

For informational purposes and in fairness to C&D, my unfavorable experience with RG may be a bad blending run. My can was tinned in 9/08. I have cellared the remainder of the tin in the hope that it will improve with additional aging when I reluctantly revisit it.

UPDATE 3/19/2014 - Although burley blends don’t require the aging that VA blends do to improve them, six years in a Mason jar changed my mind about RG. But I suspect it has more to do with my tastes now: I like solid, no nonsense tobaccos that taste like tobacco and that are medium to strong in strength. And this is what RG is, and this is why I am now giving it four stars.

A cigarette is to be smoked. A cigar is to be enjoyed. A pipe is to be savored.

I rate this tobacco 9.0 out of 10.
10 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Oct 03, 2018 Medium to Strong None Detected Medium to Full Pleasant to Tolerable
Cornell & Diehl - Riverboat Gambler.

Firstly allow me to say how I love Cornell & Diehl's tin designs; my favourite to date being Exhausted Rooster! They always set the scene!

Anyhoo, forget the quirky tins, the tobacco:

Medium brown ribbons with just a few darker ones. The cut is quite fine, making for easy filling. My freshly opened tin was ready to smoke straight away.

The smoke is a lightly seasoned VaBur one. The Orientals and Perique take a definite back seat. Of the VaBur side the Burley leads, with a nutty, rustic, coarse flavour. I don't identify any Burley molasses-sweetness. Tongue bite is something which doesn't happen but the temperature can creep a little above medium when pushed; so I'd recommend you employ a gentler technique. But, although it can rise in temperature, the independence of a burn's good!

Nicotine: a little too much for me. Room-note: not the best.

Riverboat Gambler? A nice tasting smoke but falls short of a full house. Three stars:

Recommended.
Pipe Used: Neerup Gr 2 Bent Chubby Dublin
PurchasedFrom: Smokingpipes.com
Age When Smoked: 02/07/18
8 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Nov 30, 2013 Medium None Detected Overwhelming Tolerable
I took a gamble on this blend. (I actually doubled-down by cellaring two tins three years ago.) I lost.

I believe my first bowl may have been the most vile bowl of 'baccy I've ever had, a vomit of flavors that had nothing in common, no harmony, no balance, just a harsh melange of dry, sour, and bitter notes, like smoking stale dessicant in a deadmall vitamin store. I know the use of the word vomit is highly charged, but it was carefully chosen: I think this blend succeeds quite admirably as a smoky homage to gastric regurgitant. But I will say, in its defense, and with all sincerity, that it was quality vomit, having the piquancy of a five-star dinner churned with too much libation. To enhance my experience, after-effects included a sore throat, a mild headache, a sour stomach, and restless leg syndrome... Not due to the strength of the blend, which isn't nearly as strong as some of my favorites, it's that this blend doesn't seem to agree with me (like how certain liquors may disagree with someone). Later, adding insult to injury, I discovered that my briar was thoroughly ghosted with this stuff. The best thing about this blend is that it burns unbelievably fast, so that I didn't have to suffer for long.

Yes, I really hated it, like no other tobacco I've ever tried. But I wasn't about to give up. I didn't want to write a review after just one bowl — it takes time to get to know a tobacco (even though, in this case, the phrase “you don't get a second chance to make a first impression” comes to mind). I suppose I'm a glutton for punishment, like Steve-O snorting more wasabi. This blend is obviously prized by some reviewers I esteem, so I felt I owed it to them to try to see what they enjoy about it.

I smoked my second bowl in a cob. The cob seemed to suit it better. But the experience was largely a repeat of the first bowl, including the after-effects. I did a get a sense of the flavor profile that others may appreciate about it — the smoothness and strength of the burley, the sour plums of the perique, the hint of oriental spiciness, the complete absence of anything sweet -- but the way they're put together in this blend seems to me terrifically unbalanced, and even repellent. After my second bowl I decided I just couldn't do any more.

RG reminds me in some ways of SG's Westmoreland, which is also a very strange flavor and just as dry. But Westmoreland works because the condiments function as condiments, and the elements work harmoniously to produce a strange flavor that works. RG is just a cacophony of dry, savory, sour and bitter flavors, the Merzbow of tobacco blends (not to dis Merzbow, whose music I like). Basically, what RG has done is to make the condiments into a main course, which doesn't suit my taste buds at all. I may love capers, horseradish, and dijon mustard, but I wouldn't mix them together and call it dinner.

I definitely do not recommend this. However, these condiment leaves are of very high quality, and some excellent reviewers here attest this blend a winner. This could be a winner for you. My advice: read all the reviews before you put your money down on a tin. I would say the odds are against a win, but it seems that for some of us RG hits the jackpot. Your odds are improved if you adore burley and perique (and maybe oriental) moreso than virginia and latakia. Good luck!

UPDATE 12/03/13: I mentioned that the leafs used in this blend were of a very high quality, and that this blend really is more of a condiment than a main course. So I decided it might be worth a try to mix RG with a quality pure virginia and see what happens: I mixed some with (very well rubbed out) Solani's Silver Flake. It was promising, but the proportions were off -- RG has a very strong flavor profile that easily overwhelmed the delicate purity of the virginia. So I tried it again, with really only a pinch of RG... and what do you know? It worked beautifully!

So though I would definitely not recommend a bowlful of RG on its own, it functions very nicely as an excellent burley/perique condiment to give a pure virginia some spice. I think I'm going to keep it around after all. RG gets 4 stars as a condiment.

UPDATE 12/18/13: I've mixed it with a couple of other blends. RG definitely makes a most delicious condiment. However this stuff leaves a truly supernatural ghost that I pray can be exorcised from my poor, possessed Chacom Monza billiard via the sacred salting ritual... :{
8 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jul 16, 2008 Medium to Strong None Detected Medium Very Pleasant
Bob Runowski and Craig Tarler have created another very special and unique blend. It could be an all day smoke. It is smooth. Aroma and taste rates right up there with the best of the non-aro's I have ever smoked in my 42 years of puffing.

My wife took one sniff of the tin and said "I like it". She liked it when I smoked it, too. She is a non-smoker. That says a lot for a non-aro.

It has an exciting taste brought out by the condimental leafs of Turkish and Perique while at the same time forming a perfect marriage in flavor with the Virginia and Burley. I prefer traditional loose-cut tobacco such as this. They pack beautifully and easily in any pipe. It lights well and burns slowly and evenly to the last puff and the wonderful tobacco flavor of each leaf is absolutely present all the way to the last puff. A truly "Premium" tobacco. Another "winner" from these guys.

I am truly thankful for their efforts. It will give me great joy to smoke the entire pound I ordered. And then, I'll order it again.

***UPDATED 4/4/09***

Been smoking this in regular rotation for quite a while now. I have also smoked Old Joe Krantz and Haunted Bookshop. In my personal experience, I believe that Riverboat is all that OJK and HB have to offer and then some. For me, this is the winner of the three.

***UPDATED 7/24/09 This tobacco has been in my daily rotation for more than a year. I have smoked four pounds, have two pounds on hand and am ordering two more pounds. It satisfies me very much. I would not want to be without it.

***UPDATED 04/16/10 I Can't say enough for this tobacco blend. It is still my go-to Burley based tobacco. Exceptional in every way that I judge tobacco. It is honest and true while being exceptional in its class. I can't recall how many pounds I have enjoyed. But it is a keeper in my daily rotation, that is for sure!
8 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jun 28, 2014 Medium to Strong None Detected Mild to Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
Tin note is sweet Virginia and Burley flake. Rustic rough cut with a wide range of ingredients. It's a good idea to preen this stuff before packing. Perfect moisture level; ready to smoke. Behaves very well from charring light to the bottom of the bowl! Slightly fast burn, but not for a Burley blend. Cool and bite free. Leaves the pipe clean and dry.

Impressions... I had a disappointing first experience and felt that RG was surprisingly one note, so I came back to it the next morning and had a great time with it, so I smoked it all day. And this leads me to the following thoughts...

This blend accomplishes what Night Train and Haunted Bookshop do, only to a slightly less successful degree. And that is, it creates a complex flavor experience with natural tobaccos and a level of sweetness not all non-aromatic smokers are looking for. You might think I'm crazy, but the overall melded flavor is sort of like Dunhill Royal Yacht, which can be a bit one note. But there's more to RG than that... On a quiet morning, by myself, I discovered the true flavors of the blend. There are very nice and mildly detectable pockets of flavor here. We have sweet, spicy, nutty, and the homogenized flavors drifting in and out as we smoke. The blend is at it's best during the first half of the bowl. The melding of flavors becomes more prominent and things get a bit less interesting toward the bottom of the bowl. I highly recommend smoking RG somewhere quiet, without distractions, so that you can better appreciate the mild complexities. Also, a strong flavorful drink will likely detract. Simple things like coffee, black tea, pale beer, or water work well.

I can't give Riverboat four stars, but I can definitely give it a solid three stars. One other thought is, if I were traveling and had to choose one blend to take, I might choose RG as a compromise from the extreme and bland. N level is medium+. Hope this helps, happy piping!
Pipe Used: MM DIPLOMAT COB
PurchasedFrom: smokingpipes
Age When Smoked: 9 months
6 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 27, 2010 Strong Mild to Medium Very Full Pleasant to Tolerable
Top strong burley, with the other leaves just making it all work. If you like burley and you like it with a good does of nicotine, look no further, close to perfection, albeit a robust perfection...lovely stuff.
6 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 12, 2021 Medium to Strong None Detected Medium to Full Tolerable
I'm glad I stumbled across this blend. It will occupy a spot in my burley-based blend batting order for sure. I'm a fan of HB and OJK, and this blend sits nicely in that niche, offering a little less strength than OJK but perhaps a bit more than HB. Flavor-wise it is similar, however the addition of the Basma oriental leaf in this blend adds an extra dimension that peeks through now and again. It packs, lights, and burns with little fuss, and does not seem to bite or smoke hot with a normal cadence. All elements are detectable in the smoke, the dry nuttiness of the burley, the hay/grass note of the virginia, the woody tang of the oriental, and the spiciness of the perique. There is a hint of sweetness detectable at times coming from either the virginia or the perique, but this is a piquant smoke overall. I ordered another tin after my first couple of bowls. IMO, this is an under the radar blend that all fans of the aforementioned blends should try. Three and a half stars....rounded up to four for all intents and purposes.
Pipe Used: Briars/Cobs
PurchasedFrom: Online retailer
Age When Smoked: Less than one year
5 people found this review helpful.
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