Cornell & Diehl - 972: Three Friars pipe tobacco reviews

Review

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Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
< PREVIOUS Showing reviews 41 through 47 of 47 reviews of this tobacco
The Keeper	07/16/2004	Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium to Full	Tolerable
Update 16/07/04 This has become one of my favorite blends. There is a consistency, comfort and warmth here that I haven't found in any other smoke. When I feel like something "homey" yet with some kick and personality, Three Friars is it. ----- Having never tried Three Nuns, I can rate this tobacco without comparision. So far I've discovered tastes reminiscient of toasted filberts, a vague sweetness, earthy grassiness, and of course the peppery nip of perique. The smoke is generally smooth with a bit of heat/harshness only if you are very careless or allow excessive moisture to build in the stem. The fullness and body provided by the Burley, the sweetness of the VA and very subtle topping (which I only think is sometimes there), balanced by Perique has made this blend creep towards the top end of my favorites. I've smoked quite a bit of Three Friars recently in various bowls - encountering a substantial variation in flavor and nuance. I never thought I'd get into burley heavy blends, but C+D does this well enough to warrant the niche they've carved out. I agree that this compliments Bayou Morning exceptionally well (with Three Friars being my evening/afternoon blend). These two blends could probably make up my Perique mainstay.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Paddy	10/19/2003	Mild	Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
I like this tobacco a lot. It is a lightly sweetened Virginia/burly with a nice touch of Perique. I do not get a distinctive burly taste from this tobacco. This is especially good on the front end as you initially taste the smoke, lightly sweet tobacco and tangy. Smooth with no bite. This tobacco burns nice and slow. The only negative is that for me it is a bit bitter in the aftertaste which is not a problem with a lot of tobaccos, but with this tobacco it does not seem to harmonize with the initial front end taste. This aspect of the smoke is a bit distracting, but not, I think, a serious impediment to enjoying it. A cup of coffee at hand complements the bitterness and refreshes the palate for another sip of smoke from this fine tobacco. Highly recommended. Paddy. __________________________________________________ 10/18/03 I have been a bit too harsh on this tobacco. With aging this tobacco becomes exquisitely tasty. Place it in a sealed jar in a sunny window and let the tobaccos marry. C&D Perique/Va. par excellance, except for, perhaps, Bayou Morning.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Inquisitor	07/19/2003	Medium	None detected	Medium	Pleasant
Don't look for a Three Nuns clone here. This is very tasty stuff, with satisfying strength without being overpowering. The flavor is solidly in the middle range, with a decent amount of bottom range activity. Not especially complex, but delightful in its straightfowardness.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
tony_coronado	04/15/2003	Medium	None detected	Full	Pleasant
The description says simply "A combination of Virginia ribbon, Brown Virginia burley and Perique." It is my understanding that this blend was created with the legendary "Three Nuns" in mind. Pouch aroma: Grassy, nutty scent that is more akin to peanuts than cashew or walnut. Composition: Mostly light brown and blonde (nearly white) flecks of short-cut ribbon. There only seems to be a 5-10% composition of dark ribbon, which I will attribute to the perique. Taste: I chose an Ashton XX-sized prince that has only seen VA/Perique as the initial bowl. Flame hits weed and my pallette is very happy. Vegetal sweetness from the VA's are the first taste, the perique does not really announce itself, but it would be apparent if this condiment was missing. I can not help myself but to compare it to the best bowls of Three Nuns that I have experienced. There is little if any bite from this blend, the moisture content is spot on. After the Virginia sweetness subsides, a rich, cigar-like body tickles the nose and begs to be rolled about on your tongue. The Virginia's were complex and sweet, it was only towards the end of the bowl did some considerable strength build up that forced me to slow down. For some people, this gathering of strength is the best part. :) The finish was clean with no gurgling and a fine, fluffy ash is the end result. I do not care for a large portion of perique (but many of C&D's blends cater to those who differ from my preference), but the balance in this blend is just right. Given that most C&D blends are created "on the spot" I can not wait to see how this tobacco improves with some age to it. Whether or not this blend compares to Three Nuns is irrelevant, it stands well on its' own as a fine Virginia-Perique blend. A solid nine out of ten stars for this masterpiece.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
wayno	03/07/2003	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
3 Friars is a neat looking tobacco, lots of light colored leaf mixed with cocoa brown and black. The tobacco fills the pipe easily, small bowls may have a harder time with the wide ribbons but it will work. Easy to light, and easy to keep lite. It tingles your tongue at first, and you think oh boy hold on. But all of sudden you get a sweet and pleasent taste and the pepper stands back and almost goes away. Then mid bowl it comes back and mingles with the sweetness which I really liked. You get plenty of smoke to watch curl away and give you that satisfying feeling. Smokes right down to the bottom of the bowl, and leaves a nice dry ash. I have decided to add this one to my regular smoke list and will see how it ages with time. Its going to be a good every day smoke. No Buzz either, just enough of nic to soften your day without putting you away.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Eulenburg	01/18/2003	Medium	None detected	Medium	Pleasant
There is nothing as cagey as gustatory memories: as ephemeral as a ballerina's pirouette, and not liable to being filmed, either...The very strong tobaccos that I enjoyed as a younger man I no longer enjoy as much, and have stopped using many of the large pipes that I favoured then. A Charatan full of THREE NUNS was a peak experience of the popinjay and coxcomb I once was...but my taste buds, like my temples, have become grayer. Nothing and nobody tastes as wonderful as it once did. This hommage to the beloved old blend does pretty well, as far as my fading brain cells will allow me to be certain. The old Nuns probably had some burley in it too, and C & D has handled the Périque?top quality?very adeptly. I will certainly keep some of this around, gladly. And the ribbon-cut makes it easier to use, particularly in a smaller pipe. If only this was available in an elegant tin.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
prestonmarkstone	10/01/2001	Medium to Strong	Medium to Strong	Full	Pleasant
Three Friars has been one of my occasional smokes for over a year now. It's a very blonde-looking blend, with alternate bright and dark ribbons and the occasional broken flake, and smells spicy sweet with a slight candied overtone. Perique clearly asserts its presence in the tin aroma. It packs and lights easily, and like most C&D blends, smokes consistently. Upon first light, the immediate impression is one of bright spiciness; there is a peppery quality that tickles the nose and the tip of the tongue, and a slight lingering sweetness. This sweetness soon burns off, leaving a medium-bodied flavor of Virginia acutely punctuated with perique. Three Friars smokes consistently from this point, finishing cleanly and leaving a slightly coarse salt-and-pepper ash. It is, in fact, this stalwart consistency that bothers me most. C&D blends tend towards this; there is little development after the first half of the bowl, and as a result Three Friars has something of an impoverished finish, though it isn't completely unsatisfying. Overall, Three Friars is a pleasant occasional smoke that might improve substantially with age.
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