Cornell & Diehl Izmir Turkish

(3.50)
A spice blend known for its nutty, "sweet and sour" characteristics, Turkish/Oriental tobaccos are commonly mixed with Latakia (which helps mask the Oriental's own strong aroma), and are the main component of a traditional English blend. While most Orientals out there are generic admixtures of various regional tobaccos from around the Mediterranean, C&D's is pure Izmir.

Details

Brand Cornell & Diehl
Blended By  
Manufactured By Cornell & Diehl
Blend Type Oriental
Contents Oriental/Turkish
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

3.50 / 4
13

10

1

0

Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 10 of 24 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 23, 2014 Medium None Detected Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
As a stand alone smoke: Spicy, buttery, more sour than sweet, but both are present. Medium bodied with medium flavors. I really enjoy smoking this by itself. As the bowl progresses it acquires a fair amount of depth and smoothness. First third of the bowl can be a little edgy, not sharp, but close. Calms down nicely after that.

As a blender: I had a couple of mediocre VaPers lying around that I never seemed to reach for. I mixed this with them (2/3 VaPer and 1/3 Izmir) and they really woke up. It added another level of flavor and accentuated those flavors already present. Also added complexity. I was very pleased.

This is an outstanding Oriental and I highly recommend it.
Pipe Used: MM General, MM Country Gentleman
PurchasedFrom: smokingpipes.com
Age When Smoked: fresh bulk
17 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 11, 2014 Medium None Detected Medium Tolerable
A C&D-type cut of wide ribbon mixed with long cut and chop cut, yellowish in color and a musty, sweet/sour bag aroma. This one I decided I could smoke straight, as it was very tasty. I found a hint of a buttery taste but mostly this was kind of dry and spicy. Fun to smoke straight. But again, the point was as a blender.

I'm a big fan of C&D's Oriental Silk, but I've had a few people tell me that the perique content of that blend is too high. Smoking a single bowl of this tells me why they feel that way, as this has a kind of perique-y taste, but of the peppery kind rather than the fruity kind. I've always found the perique to be light in OS but the Turkish to be heavy. This must be the Turkish they use, as the flavors are similar (OS switches gears with the addition of VA and perique, of course). Good straight, but as a blender, this one can take over a blend if too much is used. It worked wonders for my oriental blend and also helped spice up straight burley and Virginia. Using a popular "latakia bomb" blend as a base, this helped tone down the latakia but didn't help out the dusty flavor I get with those blends (which is Me, not the blend!). For basic Balkans, I found this to be insufficient, as I suspect more or different strains of Turkish are used in Balkans. But in my preferred Scottish blends, this stuff sung like Harry Lauder (off-key at times, and with a humorously heavy brogue!). It seems to prefer a lighter dose of latakia, but then again, it's probably just me that prefers that. So this one delivered as expected! Really nice tobacco and I'm going to be using it a lot. Highly recommended.
Pipe Used: meerschaum and morta
Age When Smoked: new
14 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 30, 2019 Medium None Detected Mild to Medium Pleasant
Cornell & Diehl - Izmir Turkish.

Some straight tobaccos, like C+D's White Burley, I reviewed the other day, shouldn't be smoked neat. They need blending to enjoy them, properly. Yet, others, like this, can be enjoyed either way!

See the photo here: Izmir Turkish is presented as a medium brown, mid-size ribbon, with a few coarser strands, but nothing 'hefty'. Being from bulk mine had aired, and the moisture had lessened to perfection.

Due to the moistness I.T. lights easily and gives a top notch smoke; I enjoy it neat! There's a floral note present, albeit, the florals don't dominate the smoke. Behind the florescent note there's a buttery sweetness, which makes this a delectable smoke, on its own. A bowl of T' Izmir, smoked neat, does so in a cool manner, with bite only occurring if REALLY pushed.

Nicotine: medium. Room-note: I quite like it.

Izmir Turkish? I don't consider myself a steadfast fan of Oriental/Turkish blends; more of a VaPer or Balkan fan. But, smoking this has reminded me what a joy this leaf can be. Highly recommended:

Four stars.
Pipe Used: Ben Wade Albert's Theory
PurchasedFrom: Smokingpipes.com
Age When Smoked: New
11 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Mar 27, 2017 Mild None Detected Mild to Medium Pleasant
Izmir has more nicotine content than any Oriental I've smoked, and it was used to spice up old Virginia cigarette blends, particularly back when Camel was pouring out their specialty sticks. As for this Izmir, it sure has an odor in the tin and at the match the pungent spice really comes through. Izmir straight is just too much for me. I will try cutting some of this as smoking it straight is not getting the job done for me.
9 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
May 09, 2018 Very Mild None Detected Mild Pleasant to Tolerable
C&D Izmir Turkish is a perfectly respectable Oriental tobacco that's clearly intended for blending but is also enjoyable smoked by itself. I chose the latter route. This tobacco is cut in a fine ribbon (almost but not quite a shag) that doesn't burn too fast in a pipe and that I would suspect would work very will in a cigarette.

Its flavor is lightly woody, more than a little bit peppery, and just fruity enough to keep things interesting. I was honestly hoping for a more tangy/piquant flavor (though as it is, Izmir Turkish is certainly not too sweet). The body is definitely a mild one with little in the way of a nicotine hit.

It's really more of a 2.5-star tobacco for smoking on its own, but I imagine that it is a solid 3 for blending.
Pipe Used: MM cob
PurchasedFrom: SmokingPipes.com
Age When Smoked: new
6 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Aug 13, 2016 Medium None Detected Mild to Medium Tolerable
Finally! A C&D tobacco that I can smoke. I'm a virginia smoker and I really don't smoke for nicotine, so I'm S.O.L when it comes to C&D blends as they are mostly the opposite of what I prefer. This Izmir is a wonderfully spicy, sour/sweet Turkish tobacco that is what appears to be in broken flake form. Go ahead and try it on it's own, it won't bite., you can definitely spice up some mediocre blends with this or use it in your own blending. Very reasonably priced and well worth it.
PurchasedFrom: smokingpipes
6 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 21, 2018 Mild Very Mild Mild Pleasant
I really wanted to like this. I bought 4 ounces. I thought "how can this not be amazing?" especially with a cumulative 3.7 star rating.

I ought to clarify: I bought this bulk, sometime late 2017, early 2018. Maybe the quality has changed lately, since the other reviews are 2016 and earlier.

The pouch note has an interesting dried apple aroma. I like to squeeze the bag to catch a good whiff. Smells good.

It's a decent tobacco smoked on its own. No formidable nicotine content (this alone is incongruous with earlier reviews). It's a good cigarette-type pipe tobacco. I say good (not great) because, for example, I think that Drum shag would be a tastier cigarette-turned-pipe tobacco than this. It's not bad, it's just rough around the edges and lacks depth.

Also, I tried blending this stuff every which way. Any combination of various Virginias (Red and Lemon) and/or Latakias and/or Periques, all sourced from various companies. I just couldn't come up with a blend that had this stuff in it where it didn't detract from the quality (it always somehow became LESS than the sum of the constituents).

I sure would like to try what all the other reviewers had smoked. I know it can be impossible to source the exact same leaf, so a product is certainly bound to change. My advice, which I'll be following from now on, is to buy ONE ounce until you form an opinion and decide to buy more.
Pipe Used: billiards
Age When Smoked: fresh? (bulk)
5 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 14, 2016 Medium None Detected Medium to Full Pleasant
This is an absolute pleasure to blend with. It is such an exotic, spicy, well tempered tobacco. It is much more tolerable to smoke straight than a bowl of just Latakia or just Perique though still slightly overwhelming for my palate. As a blending component it offers spice, sourness, and some cedar woodiness. I also find that Izmir is a great tool in reducing tongue bite. Pairs wonderfully with Perique, Virginia, Latakia, Burley, everything really. 10% Izmir is the sweet spot I've found. Any more can dominate the blend and any less leaves you asking for more. Major kudos to C&D for offering to consumers!
5 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jun 22, 2015 Medium None Detected Mild to Medium Tolerable
C&D taunts this as a high grade Izmir. I do not doubt that in the least. My initial few ounces purchased for blending, both outright personal blend and tweaking other blends was used up rather quickly. I reordered in greater quantity at which time I tried it straight. Expecting a sourish smoke, I got a very pleasant sweetish experience with some tang showing through from Izmir's base Virgina pedigree.

I found it does not take much of this to yank a mediocre tinned blend from other houses into much better territory.

An incredible value price-wise as well.
Pipe Used: Briars, corncobs
PurchasedFrom: smokingpipes.com
Age When Smoked: Current production
5 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 08, 2014 Mild None Detected Mild to Medium Tolerable
At the moment this is the best Oriental tobacco I have tried. Very good aroma and taste. The scent of the raw tobacco is scent of tea, pleasant. It is a true natural aromatic. My mark is 7/8.
PurchasedFrom: SYNJECO'S PIPE SMOKER'S HAVEN Brissago, Switzerland
5 people found this review helpful.
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