Cornell & Diehl - Simply Elegant Series: Opening Night pipe tobacco reviews

Review

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Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Showing reviews 1 through 20 of 47 reviews of this tobacco NEXT >
O'Confrère	03/03/2013	Medium to Strong	Extremely Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant
Am happy to sing along with the esteemed Pipestud, DK and all in the choir on Opening Night! Dang! Here is tang, sweetness, rich depth and the prickle of nicotine in one fine bowl after another. In the tin: tantalizing! Is that a note of chocolate (from casing?)? If so, it is not directly noticable as such in the smoke. Velvety and cool from first light to the last puff, this is one surprisingly rich Virginia (with a bit of burley?) flake! Too much nicotine for the novice or for the mornings, but a superb offering from C&D! Highly recommended! P.S. This tin was from 2008. It has aged very well!
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Revolted	01/27/2013	Strong	Medium	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
This was my first flake and it was a nice experience. When I first bought it it was a little moist, so I had to dry it for a while. I tried to smoke it on various pipes, but in my shorter pipes it would burn my tongue. Now I'm smoking it on a Peterson Churchwarden, and the smoke is much cooler, so now I can take full joy from the tobacco. It has a nice dried fruit, with an hint of sweetness, taste, and it feels to me a little spicy. It's a very nice tobacco and I would recommend it to anyone but the most inexperienced pipe smoker.
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Mesh	07/29/2012	Medium	Very Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
Good stuff. There is a nice aroma of orange peel in the tin and the tobacco is dry enough to smoke pretty much right off the bat. The smoke is medium-sweet and some pleasant sour notes are present throughout the bowl. Being a bit on the delicate side (even for a straight VA), disregard for gentle puffing can produce a harsh smoke fairly readily.
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Hurrian	04/22/2012	Medium	None detected	Medium	Tolerable

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StylesSharpman	02/22/2012	Medium	None detected	Medium	Pleasant
Opening night is there pinnacle Virginia according to me and one I smoke often. Highly recommended!
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SiChange	11/17/2011	Medium	None detected	Mild to Medium	Tolerable
Did not find a progression or deepening of sweetness and flavor as I smoked it down to ash. Tried it in various pipes and rubbed out to different degrees, concluding it was a respectable but not outstanding Virginia smoke.
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Kokinhenik	10/10/2011	Medium	None detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
Very nice Virginia. No big fireworks for me but clearly a step above many other Virginia blends. Pure and clean grassy tobacco flavor.
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derlict311	07/20/2011	Mild to Medium	None detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
A straight virgina which pales in comparison to the beloved FVF. Maybe it need some age as the tin was only a couple months old. Did I mention that it is strong for some reason?
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Mr. Big	05/20/2011	Mild	None detected	Mild	Pleasant
A pure Virginia, sweet hay without being sickening . Not as heavy as McC "Red Cake 5100",this one doesn't have the raisin flavor ( which I also like at times). A little spicy upon initial light . Don't think you can just fire this one up and pay it no mind, it will bite if you don't slow sip it. I found that it burns a little better if you rub it out and let it air for an hour or try the microwave for 5 seconds . It is a good smoke for when you want that light smoke between Latakia blasts. I personally like McC's Virginia's better and find this blend stuck in "no mans land" as it is not real sweet nor real mature. This is very one dimensional and I won't buy again ,not because it is bad , just because there are other Virginia's that I like better.
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ap	05/18/2011	Medium	None detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
A sublime straight Virginia smoke, if this is your kind of tobacco, look no further
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nitekrawlr	04/24/2011	Mild to Medium	None detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
Great blend of Virginia leaf, tinned as broken flake. Smooth, flavorful smoke, with no bite. For me, a close second, to my favorite, MacBarens Navy Flake.
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rewozz	04/20/2011	Medium	None detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

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Tom Servo	03/29/2011	Mild to Medium	None detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
The tin aroma of this stuff is lovely, like a hayloft on a hot day in July. Add to that the smell of fall fruit and the delicious smell of hard apple cider, sniff a little more and find dried apricots, prunes and raisins, dried grain and curing hay, and after a day or so of the seal being broken, a delicious aroma like white wine develops. A beautiful Virginia blend with an extraordinary aroma in the tin. Practically rubs itself out. Lights OK, burns well, only a few relights. Nice balance, warm flavors of well cured Virginia fill the mouth. The bright Virginia provides sweetness with a little tangy note. (It also makes this blend bite a little if you rush it.) The red Virginia seems rich, sweet, and warm. I wish I could try the red Virginia in this stuff by itself, bet it would be interesting. A bit middle-of-the-road, but still a tasty little VA blend, another fine example of the style, complex on the nose - more straightforward in the smoking. I like this series from C&D, so far my favorite is “Sunday Picnic”. This one is very good too, if you enjoy a descent straight Virginia - this is the a good example.
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rintrah	03/24/2011	Medium to Strong	None detected	Extremely Mild (Flat)	Tolerable to Strong
Decent leaf.
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Pipe-arazzo	02/08/2011	Medium	None detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
I would describe this as the tobacco-lover's pipe tobacco. It just tasted to me like generic tobacco, not in a bad sense, but in the sense that I could imagine a (pretty good) cigar or a cigarette tasting more or less like this as well. Good mechanics, nothing offensive. A nice starter blend, or one to go to when you don't know what you want, just tobacco.
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TK Pipe	01/15/2011	Mild to Medium	None detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
C/D Opening Night… Basically an all Virginia broken, rather long and heavy flake, the pieces are a bit large for bowl packing, so I found some further breaking up is in order. The (larger 2 oz) tin aroma is of only luxurious tobaccos. My tin had a perfect moisture level straight out, so into my pipe it went. After the easiest flake light up, I have yet to encounter. I was off and running. It took but a few pulls to notice its soft richness and friendly nature, I felt I had a winner for sure, and for me it is. So far I tried this stuff, in several different briars, and found the same great smoke in each. I can’t at this time find anything to complain about, and for now I find this blend a truly outstanding smoke, loaded with great flavors, and gentle enough (But expensive) to be an all day smoke. If you love Virginias, don’t pass this one up… 4 stars
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Sweetbriar	12/16/2010	Medium	None detected	Medium to Full	Tolerable
this one is becoming a favorite. Got a few tins stashed too. everyone owes it to themselves to give this one a whirl. whoa, good.. 10/10 *'s.
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quantumboy	12/15/2010	Medium	None detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
This is simply an excellent tobacco for Virginia enthusiasts. It is rich, tasty, forgiving, does not require strict attention to technique but of course benefits from it, and leaves one wanting more. This is in my top five straight Virginias, no contest.
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Unsal	10/10/2010	Medium	None detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
An excellent tobacco. Highly Recommended.
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DK	09/14/2010	Medium	None detected	Medium	Pleasant
Part of what determine's a blends greatness for me is how quickly I finish a tin. I finished this one in record time, and ordered several more. This may become my new reference blend in the straight virginia genre. Yes, it may just unseat FVF, Blackwoods Flake and a few other well-known favorites. And this appears to be somewhat of an unknown! How does such a thing happen??? This is an excellent smoke - sweet but not too sweet, spicy but not too spicy, and complex as any straight VA out there. Nice broken flake of dark brown goodness with a tin aroma that made me salivate. As do most excellent VA's, this improved as the bowl progressed and was a medium-bodied but rich and mouth-filling smoke. It was also easy to smoke - no tongue bite or other aberrations such as an overabundance of moisture. It smoked very cleanly and down to a fine gray ash. Can't wait to crack my next tin! If you enjoy straight virginia blends that provide the sweetness of lemon VA along with the richness and coolness of red VA, this is definitely one you should try.
Showing reviews 1 through 20 of 47 reviews of this tobacco NEXT >