Cornell & Diehl Shandygaff

(2.59)
An unusual old Atlas Blending mixture C&D acquired the rights to, Shandygaff combines Burley, Turkish, and Perique leaf to produce a smoke often described as carrying flavors of ginger and salty sea air.
Notes: This was an Atlas Blending Corp. mixture. Cornell & Diehl bought the rights of all their old recipes.

Details

Brand Cornell & Diehl
Blended By Craig Tarler
Manufactured By Cornell & Diehl
Blend Type Oriental
Contents Burley, Oriental/Turkish, Perique
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
Pleasant to Tolerable
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unnoticeable -> Overwhelming
Taste
Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild (Flat) -> Overwhelming

Average Rating

2.59 / 4
9

8

3

9

Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 10 of 29 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jun 02, 2015 Medium Very Mild Medium Tolerable
The burley is toasty, nutty and kind of bitter with a dull card board taste. The Turkish is sour, smoky and woody. In a supporting role, the perique has a very light spice hit, and has some raisin and fig notes. The topping is apparently a lightly applied ginger, but it doesn't do much for this blend. The percentages of the tobaccos dull the effectiveness of the burley, and the overall sourness is unattractive, especially when a noticeable tone of cigarette becomes more obvious in the final third of the bowl. The raisin and spice from the perique doesn't do enough to off set its short comings. Burns well and fairly cool, has a little nic-hit, and leaves no moisture in the bowl. Needs few relights. The after taste is no different than the actual flavor of the mix.

-JimInks
21 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 15, 2015 Medium to Strong None Detected Medium to Full Pleasant to Tolerable
I just bought an ounce to try before stocking it. Bag note: cinnamon raisin bread. Moisture level: perfect, ready to smoke. I'm not a big Turkish smoker, because I tend to associate Turkish with cigarette flavor. But this blend is amazing! It's the sweetest non-aromatic that I've ever smoked. It tastes like Old Joe Krantz dipped in corn syrup. And these flavors are natural, not some sugary topping. Shandygaff behaves very nicely in the pipe; it's easy to light, stays lit well and it burns cool and reasonably slow. This blend tastes like I want Five Brothers to taste like after it goes nuclear (about two minutes into the bowl). I'm very impressed! Smokes to a fine ash, leaves the pipe clean and dry.
Pipe Used: MM DIPLOMAT COB
PurchasedFrom: smokingpipes.com
Age When Smoked: Fresh bulk
21 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jan 21, 2012 Medium Very Mild Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
Cornell & Diehl have created blends I loved, blends I sort of liked and blends I have not liked. With this one, they've created a blend I find characterless (although this supposedly is an Atlas blend they picked up).

A mostly mahogany brown mix of what appears to be pencil shavings and twigs, this has a heavy tobacco bag aroma with a very faint citrus note. Based on the definition of Shandygaff, I would guess it to be ginger but that very slight taste was more 7-up than Ginger Ale to my taste buds. It was very much to the rear. Up front was the "flavor" of non-descript burley with a perique overcoat. Whatever flavor this is supposed to have was garbled and confused. Mostly the effect was warm air with the full spectrum of nicotine.

Recommended for cigarette smokers looking to move to the pipe. Other than that, there's really no point to this one. One star ratings are usually for those blends I hate the taste of but this one earns one star for being a waste of time.
17 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jan 16, 2015 Strong Medium to Strong Medium Tolerable
What an interesting tabaco. I just got two ounces from SP.com and It is real good.A burly perique that has something else going on.Came ready to smoke as far as moisture and took flame real good.It is kinda a cross between OJK and briar fox in my opinion.Not a smoke for a hard puffer, just like Briar fox You need to sip and take your time or you will get bit.There is a fine sweetness and a nice nic hit like OJK.I did not get a ginger taste or salt like others but it did leave a pleasant after taste. A good smoke if you like Burly.
Pipe Used: Some briars
PurchasedFrom: Smoking pipes.com
Age When Smoked: pretty new I guess.
14 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jun 20, 2004 Mild to Medium None Detected Medium to Full Pleasant to Tolerable
Shandygaff certainly lives up to its description when they say it is unusual. Honestly, I'm not sure if I would have purchased it, the combination of tobaccos didn't sound too promising to me. I knew I had to try it though when 'chaplikc' handed me a sample and said "You have to try this!" I'm glad he did.

This blend is full of surprises. Frankly, I had my doubts when I got home and looked up chaplikc's review. Salty? Yes, kind of. It does remind me of the sea air.

In a medium sized bowl, the Perique started off a bit strong for my taste, but soon settled down to a very pleasant level. In a narrow bowl, the Perique was much better behaved.

Burley is the base, and it forms a very sound foundation in this blend. The surprising thing, to me, was the way the Turkish supported the Burley without becoming overbearing.

After the first 1/3 of the bowl is where I feel Shandygaff really begins to shine. The nutty/bitter Burley is in full bloom with the Perique doing a little dance in and out. The Turkish is seasoning things ina very enjoyable manner.

At the end, I often got the usual "flourish of Perique" as the bittersweet Burley retreated. The bowl was bone dry with nothing but a powdery ash.
10 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jun 27, 2018 Medium None Detected Medium Very Pleasant
This baccy is actually really good. It reminds me of some the great American OTCs. I cannot detect any toppings at all, but the base tobacco seems to be pretty much in line with Half & Half, Carter Hall, etc. The smoking experience is very nutty and chocolatey, and it never gets harsh on the palate like other Burley blends. As you open the bag the Oriental leaf cannot be missed. It is grey in colour, and this is in contrast with the brown Burley leaf it contains. The tin note is very OTCish as well, and would indicate the addition of a flavouring of some sort, but like I am saying this does not show in your smoke. Also, I usually find Orientals quite boring when they are not being paired with a pinch of Latakia, but in this particular case I am finding this blend quite balanced and down to the point. As for the salty/sea air flavour it reads in the description, it kind of shows ever so slightly in the background, and I must say this is a feature I have been wondering about before I could lay my hands on it. Do I like it? Yes I do, and this is perhaps the reason why this tobacco could be just perfect for the summer season, sipped in your porch with a glass of unsweetened ice tea or lemon water. In true honesty, I would have given this review a rating of 3 stars, but this time is gonna be 4 to offset the unwarranted bad reviews, which I do not think it deserves.
9 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jul 01, 2017 Medium Very Mild Medium Strong
Cornell & Diehl - Shandygaff.

I've wanted to try this for ages, and I'm not ashamed to say the reason why was the funky name! As every time I checked the usual suspects for a sample size pouch just to try I'd been constantly met by 'out of stock', I threw caution to the wind and bought a bigger pouch from Cup O' Joes!

Unlike one of my favourite reviewers DK my blend is free from twigs and unappealing pieces, but like DK I don't rate it too highly.

At first light it isn't too bad a smoke, the Burley tastes richer than the subsequent smoke. The Perique doesn't require much work, at all, to notice, and unlike the rich Burley quality, the Perique holds its formidable stance throughout a bowl. I'm not a fan of the topping, although it's lightly added it's not pleasant. I find it has a slightly sharp, zesty, gingery flavour, but it tastes almost bitter, as well. Shandygaff burns fast, even when I'm deliberately gentle it's far too zealous.

The nicotine: medium. Room-note: tolerable.

Shandygaff? Not recommended:

One star.
Pipe Used: Brebbia Fat Bob
PurchasedFrom: Cup O' Joes
Age When Smoked: New
9 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Oct 19, 2015 Medium to Strong None Detected Medium to Full Tolerable
I was given a sample of this from a forum friend with a bunch of other samples and about 4 ounces of Ennerdale Flake that was not to his liking. The samples sat in a big bag with the ennerdale for about five months before I got to them.

My first bowl was odd as I figured that I was using a pipe with a Lakeland ghost. It seemed to calm down later and the burley and Perique really took over and gave a pretty good and stout blend. It wasn't until I smoked some follow up bowls and reached further in the bag that I realized it wasn't a ghost in my pipe it was the scent from the ennerdale that pervaded my leaf. This was confirmed when a bowl of Morley's Best had the same scent to it.

So what to do, I can't in good conscience give this four stars as my sample was flawed, but the base tobaccos of shandygaff were quite enjoyable. I found it to be a lot like several C&D blends in composition Light on the Virginia, heavy on the burley and Perique. It was tasted a little like OJK to me, but not quite as overwhelming. A little like haunted bookshop, but more enjoyable to me.

There is no doubt that I will be reordering and in the interests of giving Shandygaff a fair shake on TR, I will leave this at three stars for now.
7 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 30, 2015 Medium None Detected Medium Tolerable
**My girlfriend and I had tasted several different Virginia blends to add to Shandygaff to give it a little more sweetness (she prefers her blends much sweeter) and we settled on McClelland's Virginia Woods. While McClelland's has the best Virginia's on the market (IMHO), they have almost no nicotine, C&D has all the nicotine and great Burleys but their Virginia's are not as rich as MCC. So we tried several variants and settled on 4oz of Shandygaff mixed with 2oz of Virginia Woods. Man the VW elevates Shandy to a whole nother level! We both really love this mix and she has started labeling the Ball jars as "Summer Woods". We wish C&D and MCC would combine forces on a blend or two, C&D Burley with MCC Virginia making a Two Friends type deal. I think it would be a huge hit...**

This is not a review based on 30 year old notes I had written in a notebook on a pre Viagra night in 1978, blends change, manufacturers change hands and tobacco crops differ year to year, because of that I only review a blend if I have smoked it in the last 6 months or so. Saying that you loved 3 Nuns since it contained perique doesn't help the guy that wants a review of the Macbaren version with Kentucky, see what im getting at? 🙂 I asked Rich at 4Noggins to get this in stock for my Dad so if you have wanted to try this blend now is the time since he just got it in stock this week and it is very fresh! I love the cedar / #2 pencil / salty taste I get from Shandygaff. I mostly agreed with the positive previous reviews. This blend is much closer in taste and cut to the John Patton blends than the traditional C&D blends since it is far from harsh or rough and the cut is also much finer than most C&D bulk blends. I was wary not ever having a blend without Virginia or Cavendish to sweeten and smooth out a blend with Turkish and Perique but there is some sweetness present perhaps from the Burley? Really really tasty and the closest thing to an all day blend from C&D that is not an aromatic. No dottle or wet pipe cleaners and the room note while not Apricots or Vanilla did not provoke violence from the ladies in the room so that's a plus! A nice Nic hit but not overbearing at all.

PurchasedFrom: 4Noggins
Age When Smoked: Fresh Bulk
7 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
May 14, 2006 Medium to Strong Mild Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
Ok, I'm not an aromatic Guy. Really don't like the stuff- Seems the taste is always kinda flat. If your anything like me, You'll probably like Shandygaff. Not unlike Spice nut, It has a great tobacco flavor, with a touch of something else. Mr. Dottle says ginger- and I won't argue. By definition, Its Ginger if the name is accurate to what it is. Whatever- I dig it. Great burley, Turkish tase. Throw just enough perique to make it spicy, and throw that flavor.... Its exotic, Tasty- and can throw you a mean head buzz if your not carefull.... Give it a shot.....Its worth it.
7 people found this review helpful.
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