Cornell & Diehl Golden Days of Yore

(2.55)
Every year Cornell & Diehl produces a Christmas blend inspired by a classic Christmas carol. For 2015, they've hearkened back to those "golden days" with Golden Days of Yore — a festive mix of red and bright Virginias, black Cavendish, dark-fired Kentucky, and Katerini... and more. A unique aromatic mixture, it's all married together with hints of ginger, nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon, and chocolate and topped with a dash of the best dark rum from Santa's secret stash.
Notes: For a short video on the making of the sauce for this blend... https://youtu.be/y30FA7MD3fM

Details

Brand Cornell & Diehl
Blended By Jeremy Reeves
Manufactured By Cornell & Diehl
Blend Type Aromatic
Contents Black Cavendish, Burley, Kentucky, Oriental/Turkish, Virginia
Flavoring Alcohol / Liquor, Cinnamon, Cocoa / Chocolate, Ginger, Licorice, Nuts / Beans
Cut Ribbon
Packaging 2oz tin and 8oz tin
Country United States
Production No longer in production

Profile

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

Average Rating

2.55 / 4
6

12

3

8

Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 10 of 29 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Sep 11, 2020 Medium Mild to Medium Medium Very Pleasant
The smoky, woody, earthy, herbal, lightly sour and sweet, floral, mildly spicy Katerini takes a light lead overall in this 2020 version. Tag teaming for the top spot is the tangy, dark fruity red Virginia. It provides a lot of earth, wood, bread, some sugar, light floralness and spice with a touch of vinegar. The floral, sugary, grassy/hay like, tart and tangy citrusy, toasted bready, vegetative, mildly spicy bright Virginias are secondary players. The spicy, woody, earthy, floral, herbal, lightly nutty dark-fired Kentucky is a slot above being a condiment. The sugary black cavendish are condiments. The nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon and ginger spices are the lead toppings. The chocolate is close behind them in terms of effect, and the dark rum is almost as potent as the chocolate. The toppings moderately sublimate the tobaccos, but they also cohesively work with the varietals to create a homogenous, deeply rich sweet, holiday very spicy, floral flavor. The strength is medium. The taste is a step past the medium mark. The nic-hit is a notch below the strength level. Won’t bite or get harsh, and has just a few small rough edges. Burns cool and clean to the finish. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, and requires an average number of relights. It has a pleasantly lingering after taste, and room note. It’s not quite an all day smoke, but it is certainly repeatable.

-JimInks
13 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Sep 29, 2015 Mild to Medium Medium Medium Very Pleasant
Well, looks like I get to crack the seal on this one. The tin note on first opening was not overpowering. Kind of put me in mind of Epiphany. Thick ribbions and chunky would describe the cut to me. Not overly moist, good condition to smoke. Tobacco appears to be of good quality, packed and lit well. Burnt well with few relights. Upon smoking the first bowl I should say I was not overwhelmed. The blend was not bad or good just run of the mill. Decided to let this one set for a week before trying again. A week did make a great difference. The tin note did seem stronger and put me in mind of egg nog with rum, to me that is a good think. Loaded up an old Grabow and fired it up. The quality of the tobacco came through this time. Again it burned well, not too strong but had a bit of nic through the last half of the bowl. Good solid Aro for my part. Have smoked numerous bowls with good satisfaction. I will most definitely jar some of this to age a bit. This blend like Yule fruitcake and egg nog will either hit you with love it or hate it. Advice is not to evaluate it too quickly.
Pipe Used: Square shank Grabow Starfire
PurchasedFrom: Smoking pipes
Age When Smoked: new tin then week old and beyond
13 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Dec 25, 2017 Mild to Medium Medium to Strong Medium Very Pleasant
Cornell & Diehl - Golden Days of Yore (Christmas 2015).

Disclaimer: I don't normally drink any alcohol but being as it's Christmas day my wife put a splash of brandy in my morning coffee. This may explain why I'm perplexed at so many one star reviews! Albeit, I'm not too sure as to whether or not one tiny jot of brandy would make much of a difference, maybe it's just me?!

Unlike a lot of Christmas editions the blend's medium brown with just a couple of black specks. The aroma complies exactly with Christmas: spicy, alcoholic and rich. This tin's stamped 07/05/17 and the moisture's perfect.

The Burley, Orientals and Virginia offer far more than the Kentucky and black Cavendish. The Orientals are the first leaves to come through clearly, dissipating to allow the Virginias and Burley in. The red Virginia gives a fruity note, it's sweetened by the bright Va's and the Burley has a toastiness. I find the Kentucky only displays a pinch of flavour and the black Cavendish is almost redundant. The cinnamon and liqueur (probably eggnog) are the strongest of the false flavours, the others are much lighter. The ginger waits until the last quarter before some hot, zestiness comes forward. It burns consistently right the way through, maybe a touch fast if not sipped, cool, to a light grey ash.

Nicotine: below medium. Room-note: lovely.

Golden Days of Yore? This was one of the blends my wife included with a few Peder Jeppesen pipes as my Christmas present and I used this to 'break in' one of the pipes! Four stars:

Highly recommended.
Pipe Used: Peder Jeppesen Free Hand
PurchasedFrom: Tammy, my wife.
Age When Smoked: 07/05/17
12 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Dec 15, 2015 Mild to Medium Very Mild Medium Very Pleasant
Tis the season....Opening the tin, as another reviewer stated, reminded me exactly of Epiphany. Didn't smell the typical sweet aromatic aroma. The ribbons were perfectly ready to load and light. Stayed lit without too much trouble.

Great Tobacco taste with just the right amount of holiday aromatic sweetness offset by some spice. The room note is great and I had many compliments when smoking it. I enjoyed the hint of cinnamon, cloves and rum. This can bite just a little bit, might be the spices in it, but overall can be puffed or sipped. I really enjoyed this blend and it's my favorite Christmas blend by far. Other blends are usually too highly cased. This is a perfect balance between tobacco and aromatics with a decent kick.

Love it!
Pipe Used: Cob & Billard
PurchasedFrom: Pipesandcigars.com
Age When Smoked: 6 months aged
6 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Dec 04, 2020 Mild Mild Mild to Medium Very Pleasant
C&D- Golden Days of Yore

Great tin note, hits the Christmas note quite well. Smokes alright upon first and true light. Gets hot quickly, I really want to enjoy this one. I still like jolly st nick more.

If you are a seasoned aromatic smoked this will be up your alley, I have an extra tin maybe next year I’ll enjoy this more.
Pipe Used: Cob, Rossi 626
PurchasedFrom: Tobaccopipes
Age When Smoked: Couple months
4 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Oct 14, 2015 Mild to Medium Medium Mild to Medium Pleasant
I enjoy this one very much, I like that there is enough tobacco flavor mixed with the topping. What really drives me to grab this one over any other aromatic I have is the Oriental leaf, it works so well with the spices in the topping. This was my first holiday blend, lead me to look into more of the C&D aromatics.
Pipe Used: Cob, Savinelli bent brandy
Age When Smoked: Fresh
4 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jan 07, 2021 Medium Medium Medium Pleasant
Surprisingly complex and enjoyable. The flavors are all over the place and are pretty punchy and distinct. Every puff, I get something completely different than the last. One puff I'll get something sweet like cherries jubilee and the next I might get a satisfying blast of something smokey and woodsy. A roller coaster for your nose. A slight harshness keeps this from being a perfect smoke, and I found myself having to take a break every now and then because of it, but this is still highly enjoyable and festive that I hope comes around next year!
3 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Nov 27, 2020 Medium Medium to Strong Medium to Full Very Pleasant
Cornell & Dielh's Golden Days Yore is a festive holiday blend with many awesome flavors, without being too overpowering. It has a standard ribbon cut that comes at the perfect moisture for me - a little on the dry side. I am used to aromatics being pretty wet and borderline goopy at times, but GDOY was pleasantly not like that at all. The aromas that I initially smelled were eggnog, cinnamon, nutmeg, light ginger and rum, all with the sweet hay like aroma from the VAs in the background. The sweetness coming from the toppings are separate from the sweetness comming from the VAs, and they both work together quite nicely. Packs easy, and lights well.

Upon lighting I was surprised to find that there was a strong natural tobacco flavor. The Bright VAs had notes of sweet hay, grass, and lemon, as the Red VAs gave alot of fruit notes. There was what must be the Katerini playing neck to neck with the Dark Fired Kentucky, The toppings were present from the first light however and I actually became more noticeable as the smoke went on, instead of the toppings burning off. The toppings that I picked up on my first time smoking this blend were eggnog, nutmeg, and cinnamon. After a few times smoking this blend, the rum and chocolate became much more noticeable. Throughout the smoke each puff was a little different. Sometime I would get a lot of one topping, and other times a different one. The flavor notes jumped back and fourth. The Kentucky picked up a bit at the halfway point.

What is amazing about this blend is despite all the many different flavors, you can pick them all out individually, yet they don't over power one another or the natural taste of the tobacco. This is a fairly complex blend that never lost my interest. It required a few relights, and although it never bit it could nip at the tongue a little if pushed too hard. This a great seasonal blend and despite being an aromatic, I think has the potential to age nicely.
3 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jan 03, 2018 Medium Very Mild Full Very Pleasant
I'm surprised this one got so many 1 star reviews. This is a man's man aromatic blend, lightly topped with plenty of tobacco flavor, no goop and perfect moisture level to smoke straight out of the tin. I really enjoyed this stuff and I think Jeremy Reeves is really proving himself to be a fine blender. Nicotine is medium which is nice to see in an American aromatic as most are usually nearly void of any nicotine. Great Christmas blend through and through. If you were hoping for a 1Q style blend repackaged as a Christmas blend then I could see how this would be disappointing, otherwise I thought this was a truly unique and tasty blend

Wow! I thought this one was no longer in production, it's good to see that it's available again!
3 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 28, 2017 Very Mild Mild Mild Unnoticeable
If the post-apocalypse were to ever arrive and I find my cellar running out of all my other tobaccos, maybe then I might actually get around to smoking the rest of this tin... maybe.

More likely though I'd just press and ferment a cake of oak leaves, ferns and cedar shavings topped with a some cardamom-soaked hooch and smoke that -- it'd probably be a better smoke.

You might like this better than I, and perhaps better than me.
Age When Smoked: 1 yr
3 people found this review helpful.
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