Cornell & Diehl White Lightning

Smoking my 2nd bowl of this now. I'm not a fan of perique, as the last perique blend I tried made me feel sick. This one is definitely better though. It is a sweet and spicy smoke with no nasty chemical tastes or tongue burn. The perique gives me a sort of pleasant peppery warmth.

I'm admittedly not the best at picking out specific flavours, so lightly sweet and spicy would be my best description. I prefer sweeter smoother aromatics, so I won't order White Lightning again. It's not a bad blend by any means, it just isn't my thing.

I found my jar of this one which I had put away when I first purchased when it came out.

I'm agreeing with the other reviewers that the raspberry topping seems to overpower the Applejack which I was hoping to be the main flavor.

In the country gentleman cob, it provided a consistent flavor from light until the end. I can taste the Virginias predominately in the tobacco, but the perique seems to add a little "spice" to the combination.

It is a nice change from my normal smokes, but I don't really feel motivated to buy another tin.

Appearance: the 2 oz tin released in 2018 had a discreet yellow and white label with gray lettering. The cut tobacco is a wide ribbon of varying lengths. It looks as if someone sliced the flakes from a kake and then crumbled them. When I found a piece of kake unbroken, my suspicion was heightened. However, the quality was good - the tobacco is a blend of light and red Virginias with a moderate amount of perique added.

Flavor: After five years in the tin, the tobacco has matured quite a bit. The virginia notes blended well with the topping, and the perique added a spicy zest to it. As a result, the light virginia notes of herbs and citrus have become much softer and faded into the background, while the bread and woody notes of red virginia combined with the smell of applejack play first fiddle. Perique keeps in the shadow, giving only a slight spicy-raisin hint to the flavor, and raspberry and vanilla have weathered out definitively over the years. The overall bouquet gives reason to classify the tobacco as aromatics, but the tobacco notes are only complemented by the topping notes, not replaced by them.

Taste: Typical Virginian blend, which, according to grandfather's precepts, a foolish novice pipe smoker added a slice of apple to slightly ennoble and moisten. Hay, a little bit of dough, sour and slightly yeasty flavor of apple souring in tobacco. The perique is safely hidden under the main bouquet, acting only as a light spice on the retrohale and giving some strength to the blend. The tobacco smokes well and easily, burns smoothly, slowly, cool and dry, practically not changing its flavor and taste at any moment of smoking in any shape pipe. Like most Virginia and perique blends, it doesn't like overheating too much, starting to get bitter. The strength of the blend is slightly below average, but it is possible to get a slight nicotine hit in a very large pipe. The aftertaste of the tobacco is woody and fruity, but very weak and unstable.

Smoke from tobacco reminds the smoke of good old cigarettes, which, alas, are nowadays practically not produced. It dissipates easily.

What's the bottom line? As in the case with Bluegrass, we have a good everyday tobacco. Light, but peculiar flavor is a bit boring for an experienced pipe smoker, but this tobacco fills you well by vitamin N. There is no sense to demand more from it - there are much more interesting blends for dessert in Cornell & Diehl's portfolio.