I have not cared for Burley's before. This blend is sublime. I agree with other reviewers that it is harder to keep lit than a traditional shag cut. And yes, the cubed burley is a bit hard and makes some powder waste in the bottom of the bag.

Having said that, I don' care. I will reorder this stuff in quantity.

As Achille Savinelli says: "It is better to use a few more matches or a little more gas than to burn your pipe. Haven't you noticed that old smokers in general are those who let their pipes go out more frequently?"

The folks at Cornell Diehl told me that this has some molasses on it. That accounts for some of the pouch flavor. It never leads to a hot, goopy, sugary smoke though. On the contrary. It touches off the flavor of what is obviously a top quality burley.

That first light simply sings!

I can't be sure if the deer tongue adds to that sweet molasses/vanilla note or not...

I just know that the flavor is complex, it stays interesting throughout the bowl, and is thoroughly enjoyable.

Becuase the burley cubes are a bit hard, you can't really pack this down after smoking a little. I have found that you have to use a poker to break up the tobacco that is partially burnt in the bowl. This will enable an easier re-light and less dottle.

Trust me folks, this one is worth the effort, and at least worth an earnest try.

I have not yet tried leaving a bit of this tobacco out to air dry yet to see if it makes it easier to keep lit. I don't want to lose any of that subtle flavoring. I count it a fair trade to have to light this a bit more, and get such a pleasant smoke.

I really can not recommend this enough. I find myself not wanting to smoke anything else!

But, it will be an acquired taste for newbies, and old-timers should get a kick out of the burley. English blend lovers will find this a pleasant diversion. I will definitely order this again from C&D. Craig Tarler is a genius and his burley is the finest in the land. Bar none. Nuff said.

Four stars from the Tennbard!

Description---Herbaceous perennial plant, composite distinguished by a naked receptacle, oblong, imbricated, involucre, and feathery pappus, fleshy basal leaves obolanceolate, terminating in a flattened stalk. The leaves are used to flavour tobacco. Their perfume is largely due to Coumarin, which can be seen in crystals on the upper side of the smooth spatulate leaves.

Now I ask, is the above description going to make you head off lickety split for your nearest tobacconist?

The Burley in Crooner was top-shelf and burned easily. But the strange taste provided by the deer tongue just flat put me off. I don't know, maybe it was the "oblong, imbricated, involucre feathery pappus, fleshly basal leaves" that just didn't work for me.

And finally, Crooner is the only Burley based tobaccos where I had to rub out the chunks before loading up. Now I've got deer tongue all over my fingers....

I enjoy the flavor of this blend. It has the nuttiness of the burley and the deer tongue gives it a snappy, peppery taste. An unusual but intriguing flavor, on top of a solid burley base.

I smoked a pound of this stuff, and my only complaints are that it is difficult to pack and keep lit. The cube cut is hard and brittle, and prone to a lot of dust and waste in the bottom.

Flavor and smell - excellent. Packing, lighting and managing -- no fun.

A nice burley if you can tolerate the hassle associated with it. Edgeworth is a better burley cut, and with a little deer tongue would give it Crooner a run for its money.

A few other thoughts:

The quality of the burley seems quite good.

The pouch aroma will pervade a room in minutes.

Smokes cool, except at the very bottom of the bowl.

Does not seem to linger in the pipe after smoking. But you may want to dedicate a 'yard pipe' to Crooner, at least initially.

Deer tongue has a very distinctive aroma and flavor. My vocabulary skills aren't up to the task of describing it, save to say that it's "deer-tongue flavored". Generally I stay with unflavored tobaccos, excepting Mac Baren Navy Flake and Crooner.

Cubes of burley and green deer tongue; Crooner is a visually simple blend. It packs simply enough, although there's not much "packing" involved. Fill up a bow, press it down with a firm hand, and then sprinklesome slightly rubbed out Crooner on top...that's about it.

My orders of crooner have always arrived at a moisture level that's appropriate for smoking. It lights easily and rarely requires a relight. The Burley is top quality. (I have no idea what the quality of the deer tongue is as it's the only deer tongue I've ever seen. However, considering the high quality of the ingredients in every other C&D blend that I've smoked, I believe it's safe to assume that the deer tongue is high quality stuff as well.)

The nuttiness of the burly comes on first, but the deer tongue catches up quickly. The rest of the bowl shows little change for me, as the burley and deer tongue simply burn and give up nothing throughout the bowl.

This blend always smokes to a fine gray ash. The end of the bowl is little changed from the entire experience.

In the end, Crooner is a mixture of Burley and deer tongue. Nothing sophisticated, nothing challenging, no nuance to mention. The fundamental issue for any smoker will be, "Do I like the taste of deer tongue?" If you do, then this blend could easily find a place in your rotation. If not, then there's little point in ever trying a second bowl.

I smoke Crooner occasionally, but others with whom I've talked are split on their reaction to it. Some are like me, keeping it around as a nice change of pace on occasion. Others detest it, having emptied out their first and only bowl.

If you don't know whether or not deer tongue is something you'd like to try, get a sample bowl from a friend or a local shop. You'll know quickly if this is a taste for you. I have to knock my rating to 2 stars, given that many people simply detest this blend.

As to the diaphoretic nonsense, if you're a "tobacco purist" don't waste your time trying it. Duh! Unless you plan on filling your cookie jar with this and eating it by the pound while watching the latest edition of "Internet Arguments Gone Bad," you and your hydration should remain just fine.

http://www.scienceviews.com/plants/vanillaleaf.html

I love burley, so my view is from a burley lover's perspective.

The deertongue is readily visible and it adds an herbal-vanilla essence to the experience. I've had deertongue before in Old Tartan. Here, it is far more prominent and I find it compliments the burley in a delightful manner.

I have never had any difficulty in lighting Crooner. I purchased mine in bulk. I merely dip my pipe (both cobs and briar) into the tobacco and fill up the bowl in one pass.

I find the blend effortless to ignight. Perhaps this is due to the reason I allowed Crooner to dry out a bit. Over the past 4 ounces, I've had numerous times where the char light burned on its own down 3/4 of the bowl. A tamp, a light and it's down to briar. I am a pipe sipper; a small pipe dedicated to Crooner (a Hardwick straight) will go for 25-30 glorious minutes.

Overall, the flavour is sweet and woody. Chocolate notes interplay with soft nuttiness. There is no bite. I draw on my Crooner pipes through the front of my lips, much like a goldfish blowing kisses. I've discovered this brings out the sweetness of the blend.

Of all the blends that I have smoked, Crooner is one of the few tobacs that I will smoke down to the bottom of the bowl. There is no dottle, no gurgles, nothing but a comfortable, laid back experience in the bowl. I have not yet dumped or shorted a bowl of Crooner.

For me, its a keeper.

Recommended to those with an affinity to burley predominate blends.

I highly recommend this. Good Cubed Burley, great unique smell and taste, perfect NIC HIT. A nostalgic smoke. If you do start a scratchiness in the back of the throat or in the nose - stop smoking it immediatley.

This was a very simple, very clean smoke that I found to be very flavorful. Nutty and cool, I could just taste a hint of vanilla. In the room, there's no quesion: people were asking me to refill my pipe shortly after I finished!

Crooner also offers a ready base for some interesting 'baccy blending at home. From time to time I like something sweet out of my pipe. A 50/50 mix of Crooner and either Butera's Sweet Cavendish or Hartwell's Evening Stroll leads to a nice desert-type of a smoke as the toasted cavendish, burley and Deer's Tongue come together in interesting ways. Definitely recommended, especially for pipe smokers looking to get away from the current batch of goopy aromatics out there.

Really enjoyed the aroma of the tobacco, a light semi-aromatic (only because of the DT). Usually a Virginian lover but hey, It's Bing! I let this bled sit for about 3 months before I acutally got around to smoking it. I hear it packs nicley, but I decide to break it down a little bit. I Loded up a small bowel grabbed John Eldridge's "Wild at Heart" and as per my wifes request headed outside to the rainy Jacksonville morn. Pre lite was nice and smokey real dence gray smoke. Which I really like. The taste was nice a little flat but not bad. I set er down and grabbed a pipe cleaner and proceeded to begin my session.

About 30 minutes int the bowel, It started to change, hot and wet. SO I let it sit threw a cleaner through it and dried it out. It was still good, but started to grow board with it. I fineshed it off with this conclusion

6.5 out of 10

Nice but a little bland twords the end. Got wet fast. Nice room note. I cant see smokeing a large bowel. Stick with a small one. Good in small doses. Definitaly unique. Somewhat of a novelty.

While I find so many of the C&D blends masterful and I'm a good customer ... this wretched weed actually managed to get me angry. While the burley is magnificent and it can be noticed a bit through the smoke, the olfactory assault of deer tongue was vicious. Of an in itself, this is a very pleasant herb, probably suitable for room freshener or rug cleaner but in my honest opinion I found it to be vile.

I'm honestly quite baffled about my shortcoming in appreciating this tobacco blend as so many of you do. Perhaps I'm just allergic. My tastes run the spectrum but not this far off the beaten path. Not for me, even the tin aroma gets me steamed.

Again no offense to those who cherish this blend, you have collectively been so reliant and diligent in your accurate appraisals, I fear I am missing the Crooner gene.

Cheers, VC

Crooner is a piece of work. It's the best looking and tasting Burley I've ever come across. Dark, giant cubes, soft to the touch, and easy for the packing. And dried, broken, olive colored leaves with a stem here and there. It's an intimidating batch to look at, and when I sampled it for the first time, I was careful to only pack half a bowl in a throw-away cob.

My expectations were something along the lines of 1792--a robust tobacco with a strange, overwhelming vanilla-like taste that would pervade the entire experience. Although that might be the characterization of some, my actual reaction differed quite a bit.

The Deer Tongue wasn't as strong or out of place as I suspected. It's in there alright, and it does have a kind of vanilla quality, but it's muted. I found the Burley to drive this blend all the way through, and I am a convert in many ways. This is the first Burley blend that I didn't have any problems with. It's such high quality stuff, it almost takes on other characteristics that I don't typically associate with the leaf. Because Burley is low in sugar content, the Deer Tongue makes an excellent compliment--they work so well together that I didn't bother to question their coexistence.

Would I smoke this every day? No. But would I buy it again? Certainly. And I will be sure to keep some on hand for those moments that I need to question why I have no idea who Bing Crosby might be. Seriously. He directed movies, right?

Well, maybe they didn't create it. As is well known, this was Bing Crosby's private blend, and I must say that the man was more than an American cultural icon: he also had fantastic taste in tobacco.

Crooner is rich, cubed burley with deer tongue added. Very simple, but astonishingly flavorful and satisfying. It smokes cool and dry, lighting with ease despite the uncommonly large cubes of tobacco. I have never been bitten or even had mild mouth irritation from a bowl of Crooner; it is always well behaved.

The deer tongue has an herbal, spicy-sweet scent, reminiscent to me of mild vanilla and cinnamon. It complements the natural tobacco flavor of the burley beautifully.

As you can see, I love Crooner and cannot recommend it highly enough.