Cornell & Diehl Organic Pipe Dreams

For reasons that not too many people here will relate to, I give Organic Pipe Dreams a 10 Star Rating.

Why? Because for a short period of time in 2008, Sun Butler of Organic Smoke Inc., and the Cornell and Diehl team busted their as$es, and jumped through all of the hoops to get a certified organic tobacco on the market.

You will never find a greater proponent than me for natural, non- toxic consumables.

The gods were looking out for me a few months ago when I found two tins of OPD at my local tobaccy-nist.

It's just Virgina. But there is nothing wrong with that!

Subtle and sweet. It has body with a decent bang. Good burn. Non- tox. I'm down with it.

I make efforts and try different blends, and different companies here and there. But my base tobaccy is anything that Sun Butler makes, followed by the work of Cornell and Diehl. Currently Organic Smoke Inc. produces Kentucky Select Organic Pipe Tobacco - which is essentially the same as Organic Pipe Dreams.

By the way don't let anybody fool you, if you stuff a giant pipe full of OPD or KSO, you'll get some whoop-a$s for sure!

I really enjoyed this mild blend, a flowery, citrus and honey tasting blend. The casing is very subtle, solid honest VA, last I heard it was no longer being blended which is a great shame. A must try 'just to see' blend for any VA lover.

While I never tried the young stuff I bought a couple sealed vintage tins of this recently, and just popped one open. I was worried it might be moldy, being organic and not having preservatives. However, the tobacco was in great condition. The tin smelled strongly of sweet fermenting plum/raisen mixed with something savory. A pleasing aroma. The taste has similar notes on top of sweet delicious Virginia and leacves a pleasant tangyness on the palette. It is extremely smooth, being able to puff it hard with no bite at all. It has a long finish that leaves a good taste in your mouth. Pleasing retrohale. In my opinion this stuff was great for aging and I will enjoy smoking the rest of my stash.

I've not posted any reviews of C&D blends over the past couple of years although I have nearly 100 of them in my personal tobacco log. So, I am running through them as I get time to transcribe here on my favorite place to hang out and blab with my fingers. (-;

This one is no longer in production as C&D worked hard to get the tobacco FDA approved as organic, but the effort proved to be a lot of trouble.

First off I love C&D tobacco in general. I mean absolutley no offense by what I am about to write. I don't know what happened, but it was not good tobacco to smoke. It is possible I got a tin that went sour or something but it tasted like smoking tea to me. It also made me very ill and I cannot stand to even look at it anymore.

Although I very much enjoyed smoking this tobacco, my tin went moldy after less than 4 months.

Perhaps something hinting at sweetness. It makes smoke. It burns when lit. Not too wet in the tin.

Taste? Not really any. This was a freebie tin. It may be stored until an interest to try it again arises, or it gets chucked. Wouldn't even consider buying more.

I have tried it 5 months ago and I was impressed by the fact that it was very dry when I opened it. I thought that the box was damaged. But I liked a lot its natural flavor of smoke.

After 5 months I opened the second box. It was again dry but with a better flavor of vanilla perfume and plum. It?s not heavy at all and of course it leaves the bowl clean and dry. I can?t say that I can easily smoke it on its own and this is why I tried to mix it with other smokes more humid and with intense flavor. Either Latakia or perfumed in order to have a better result.

It?s worthwhile to buy a tin just for the experience.

Absolutely wonderful smoking experience. Organic Pipe Dreams has virtually no flavoring added (it must have some since untreated virginias are very bitter) which yields a certain "rawness". Mid-bowl onward is my favorite time with this smoke when the natural sweetness of virginias shine through. DGT is great also. At the end, you feel you have a clean palette. I cannot wait for this stuff to age; it will be very sweet!

aj

I agree with the positive posts. My two (or three) bits-

1) The tobacco has to be dry to prevent mold as there is no preservatives or propylene glycol.

2) Minimal bite.

3) It ages great! After a few months, it becomes even more flavorful

I am glad that it is organic. I don't need or want artificial chemicals, flavoring agents, etc. Just give me good straight tobacco. And the Americans who grow it (and the land that it is grown on) are treated with respect. I will definitely buy more.