Cornell & Diehl - 968R: Red Odessa pipe tobacco reviews

Review

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Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Showing reviews 1 through 7 of 7 reviews of this tobacco
tleek	05/04/2013	Medium	None detected	Medium to Full	Tolerable
Yet another cornell and diehl bulk english. I have smoked more of these than I have reviewed, and many are similar. Not in the sense that many taste similar ( although many do since they are spinoffs of each other) but because they all give a similar feel when smoking them. For some reason when I smoke Cornell and Diehl blends I feel like I am smoking an old timey American tobacco (okay maybe its just the names and the artwork). The tobacco is dry, sometimes bone dry, sometimes just dry enough. It is not nuanced like many tinned blends. They are, at least in my opinion, simple, high quality, good tasting tobacco blends. Anyway,Red Odessa is definitely a worthy tobacco. I have smoked a little over half of a two ounce sample over the course of 6 months to a year. When I first smoked it, it was fairly sweet. Not a cased type sweetness, but a red va type sweetness. However, it was also fairly "rough". Like Many C and D blends it is not very refined. It is a "manly" smoke. However, I am nearing the end of a large bowl and the several months of aging have tamed it a bit. It lost much of its sweetness and developed a more woodsy flavor. Still relatively sweet compared to other Cornell and Diehl english blends, but it has changed quite a bit. Overall a pretty good smoke worth trying.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
potam	10/13/2012	Mild to Medium	Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
Very sweet Virginia combined with nice amount of Latakia. Turkish makes this blend more tasty, and Perique gives a spicy touch to strain the taste. I'm not good at English, so I say just one word. Yummy.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Mr. Big	05/10/2012	Medium to Strong	None detected	Mild to Medium	Tolerable
I purchased this because the burley in "Orient Express" was replaced with Virginia , expecting a sweeter smoke, it's really not. The latakia is way in the background, the Virginia tastes like Burley. This reminds me of a smoother OJK, better, but not by much.Real old school. This isn't real interesting ,kind of blah and nothing like Orient Express!
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
cakeanddottle	11/21/2011	Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Pleasant
My initial impressions of this one have held up over many bowls. This is great tobacco. This is NOT an English or Balkan, not in the strictest, traditional sense. Rather, this is a great blend that just happens to contain Latakia as a major component. It's more like an American blend than an English, except there is no Burley and it doesn't taste like an American blend. That make sense? This is Red Va, Turkish, Perique and Latakia. Sounds familiar, right? It's not. This is a genre busting tobacco. Not like any of its contemporaries. Do you like blends like OJK and Three Friars? If you like Latakia as well you will love Red Odessa. I know I keep calling this one Three Friars with Latakia. It's the best I can do to describe a tobacco that is like nothing else. It's sweet, it's smoky, it's got a fruity tang from the Perique. I bought two pounds already. This won't be for everyone, but everyone should order at least an ounce for the experience. I love Lat blends. This is not like other Lat blends. I don't care, I still love it.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
strongirish	04/02/2011	Medium	None detected	Medium to Full	Tolerable
This is truly an unusual blend. I find the flavor of the Turkish tobaccos dominate this blend and the perique adds a nice spice to it. The Latakia is way in the background, more a spice than a dominent player. The Va adds it's sweetness to the blend, but is also a background player in the blend. My first taste upon lighting up was the sweetand sour flavor of the Turkish tobaccos, it is full bodied without being harsh and it has little bite to it. Moist it is hard to keep lit and is a bit overwhelming but when allowed to dry out, it becomes a sweet and creamy blend that rolls off the tongue and leaves a great flavor in the mouth. TRhe room note is a little atrong and spicey but otherwise it is not going to make enemies as the Latakia is not dominating and lends little to the aroma. In the pouch the tobacco is a rough ribbon cut in various shades of brown with the occational dark leaf and here and there a greeen color. it is strong and sweet sour smelling in the pouch and dry it loads and lights well so I have to say one must let it dry to get the most out of this blend. It smokes clean down to a grey ash rimmed by a dark grey to black. It leaves very little dottle in the bottom of the pipe. Towards the bottom of the bowl, it loses some of the Turkish flavor and the VA and Perique comes to the top. All in all this is a pleasant smoke and I recommend trying it.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
DK	08/21/2010	Medium	None detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
Excellent take on the classic "balkan" style of tobaccos... er... with the addition of perique. I seem to be finding more and more latakia blends with perique these days. In this one, the perique seems to be more for smoothing out the burn rate than for flavoring. This one tasted mostly of latakia and orientals to me, which was fine because that's what I was after when I bought it! The tin is about a year old. A reasonably harmonious blend, this reminds me of a somewhat calmer version of Pease's masterful Charing Cross. The flavors are similar, but more relaxed here. Interestingly, I thought I was after that very thing when I first smoked CC, but I prefer CC to this. This is very good but less forceful. The latakia speaks loudly and clearly and meshes well with the oriental piquancy and sour-sweetness. The VA is robust but does tend to leave the arena at intermission, after which the Turkish strains are left alone to mingle. Nice wide-cut ribbon, easy to load. And now for the downside. I could not keep this stuff lit! It was unimaginably reticent to hold a flame and the extra lights caused it to heat up to unacceptable levels. There is no reason I can see for this but it was consistent despite varying the moisture content. I like my balkans a bit on the moist side and it was here that it tasted its best, but dry is when it stayed lit. Odd. Still, this is a good one to try if you're a balkan fan. Hopefully, you'll be able to keep it burning.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Exedwardsguy	07/24/2008	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
968R or Red Odessa is a lovely tobacco in appearance. C&D gives us a ribbon cut mix of medium browns with a stray black strand of long cut perique and a very rare dot of greenish Turkish. The latakia is used very sparingly here it seems. No great wads of blue-black leaf are present in the tin. The aroma on opening the tin is soundly ?Balkan?. I would guess that a good portion of the brown leaf is not red Virginia, but a Turkish variety. The cut packs quite easily and the light is just as simple. Instant gratification. On first light I notice the Orientals with a slight undertone of sweet from the red Virginia, kind of like Fox Campanile if you?ve tried that, but sweeter. Then the latakia walks in quietly. There is no harshness or heat. This is a cool exotic smoke. As the bowl progresses the perique begins to add spice, but the Orientals and Virginia keep the foundation solidly consistent. By mid bowl the perique is pushing too hard for me, tingling the tongue and soft palate. Honestly it is detracting from the early promising lushness of the Virginia and Turkish. By end of bowl the perique has pretty much taken charge. The Virginia has given up and gone home and the Turkish is trying to give all it has left with its usual ending sour mustiness. So I feel what is left is stinging spice, a hint of latakia, and the not-best-part of the Turkish. I would never presume to claim the experience and knowledge of C&D?s truly paragon blenders, though having done a bit of blending in days gone by, I think I follow the logic: Perique slows the combustion and makes a great moderator for the otherwise hot Virginia and Turkish. Same with latakia, but I think C&D (admirably) didn?t want to lay it on with too heavy a hand ? so used more perique. Unfortunately, the thermal solution may have undone the intention of the taste. If perique disagrees with you, or you expect a sweet red Virginia experience, you?ll probably be digging this out of the pipe around mid bowl. HOWEVER, overall, this is a very elegant blend. Not big on nicotine, this is about flavor. Quite pleasant and cool smoking with a complex interplay of flavors tending toward the namesake oriental.
Showing reviews 1 through 7 of 7 reviews of this tobacco