Cornell & Diehl Dreams of Kadath

Whomever submitted this tobacco into the database claimed this blend to be a Krumble Kake. It's not. I tried to pull tobacco off the Kake and started getting whole leaves. It's a plug. I've changed the information above from Krumble Kake to Plug.

Update: Opened a 2 year old tin. Advice? Age it. It gets even better. The review below still holds true.

Dreams of Kadath is a plug of Virginias, with black cavendish, burley, Dark Fired Burley, Katerini, and perique. I swear there is a topping of some kind, but it's mild and adds to the overall sweetness. It's Almost like brandy... If this plug isn't toppped then the Katerini and perique are doing some wild things in the tin note department. DOK showcases the Katerini...Curry-like with a spice box feel, a little cinnamon bun at play with the virginias. At times I get a touch of burley and darkfired flirting around the edges, with a plummy perique, and sweetened with bready Virginias. The Katerini is the star player. The cavendish pops it's head out now and again offering a little brown sugar. This is a wounderful plug. It reminds me of GLP Temple Bar, but the dark fired and burley really take it away from clone territory.

I can say that this is in the "Smoke Exclusively" Deparment. It's complex at times and changes throughout the bowl. I've only smoked about three bowls. I will add on to the review if things change. 5Stars!!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, my favorite blending house channeled my favorite author (my favorite of his stories, no less) and came up with my new favorite tobacco. This is something of a difficult blend to describe, since my palate is rather unrefined and I've yet to find anything like it. But I shall venture to try... The first thing you need to know is that there IS a slight topping. A whiff off the tin reminds me of the "Rum Punch" topping from C&D's Cross-eyed Cricket, but much more subdued. It doesn't come through in the smoke or the room note, and only serves to heighten the mystery, calling out to one who would dare plumb its secrets. The Virginias are less citrus/sweet/tangy and more toasty. As such, it melds well with the nutty/buttery burley and the earthy/smoky spice of the DFK. The perique is at a perfect level, enough to lend some dark fruit and a hint of it's trademark "needling" sensation on the retrohale without searing the sinuses. I'm not familiar enough with Katerini to suss out it's contribution, but it may be that odd (but delightful) musty note that weaves in and out, like the breath of ancient, forbidden tomes. The Cavendish serves more as a buffer, smoothing off the rough edges of the other players while only rarely lending it's own molasses sweetness. The tobacco is presented as a loosely pressed plug, and I recommend cutting it into thicker flakes, then rubbing it out. This blend shifts a lot as it's smoked, and thicker ribbons help to emphasize those shifts. Add a little shake on top for kindling and to start it off with a representation of everything in concert. Smokes cool, dry, and slow, and never offers to bite. The room note might be something you will have to try in order to assess the tastes of your audience. My wife was at first puzzled that it wasn't an outright aro or a Lat-Bomb (both of which smells she likes), so she sat down and whiffed for a while, finally deciding she liked it. I have ordered four more tins, planning to socket them away to dream strange dreams in the cellar. I feel that (much like the abhorrent Necronomicon), it will lose none of it's potency with the passage of years, and only gain in it's tempting allure. A worthy tribute to the epic wanderings of Randolph Carter, full of it's own twists, turns, and Elder mysteries. Addendum 10/18: if you like this when new, I can heartily recommend giving it at least six months to age. The plug firms up a bit, making it easier to slice. Time has also altered the interplay between the topping and the tobacco's; the topping has become deeper, more wine-like, while becoming more integrated into the blend as a whole. It persists longer throughout the bowl without ever overwhelming the component tobaccos. It's still a rather dry blend, well-suited to those who like burley-heavy blends without a lot of sweetness. A drink is recommended, especially a nice Pu-erh tea.

Dreams of Kadath is a flavor powerhouse that packs a wallop of nicotine. It's a tightly-pressed plug (at least by C&D standards) which contains an amazing array of component tobaccos that all work well together. A beautifully variegated plug of average size for C&D plugs and cakes is inside the tin. The aroma of the fresh plug is strong and unique—like a Maduro cigar paired with prunes and currants.

Alongside the array of components, the very light added flavoring sets it apart from anything else. Though difficult to describe, this flavoring is somewhat similar to SPC's Plum Pudding, being ever so slightly fruity—not a fake-tasting fruitiness. There's just barely enough of it to taste and smell it. It's reminiscent of Plum Pudding without the Latakia, and with a strong presence of Katerini. The Perique is not super spicy, and instead is more like a dash of pepper, and adds to these "dark" flavors.

Several key attributes keep me coming back to this one. Firstly, the flavor is incredible and unique. Second, being a plug it can be prepared any way you like, and it holds a light very well regardless of how you choose to do so. Third, it's strong! Out of the 32 C&D blends I've had so far, this is one of the strongest. Finally, despite all of these strong flavors going on, there is very little chance of ghosting your pipe with a weird or foul taste.

I simply can't say anything bad about Dreams of Kadath. Excellent aromas both in the tin and burning in my pipe, nearly zero potential for tongue bite, and a combination of flavors that just clicks. The H.P. Lovecraft theme is oddly appropriate too. If Lovecraft's short stories had a companion blend for pipers, this would be it!

Okay, here are my thoughts on this blend. This is a tobacco that you will remember for a long time after smoking it. It is the most unique blend to date that I have ever had. Dean Eric Rice review is very well written and should be looked up for reviewing. What I will add is when you do try this blend, sit back relax and enjoy. There is a lot going on from first light to end of bowl. I used a wooden match to start and because of the deep bowl used a lighter at the end. Really didn't need a lot of relights. To me it was fruity, plum, dates, alcohol, figs, spicy, woody, sweet, sour, Virginia, Cavendish, Katerini, you see where I'm going. There's a lot going on. The Katerini tobacco is the star of the show. Mild strength to start, medium at the finish. As Dean said not for everybody, but for some a must try. Sweet Dreams.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one.

A Kentucky gentleman, a Greek, a Cajun, a Virginia Squire, a Tennessee planter, and a guy with dark complexion who goes by ‘Dish(the others think he is Desi but nobody is sure or bothers to ask) walk into a bar. They get pressed together tightly in that bar for over 18 months and all sorts of drunken escapades ensue. This plug did come more tightly pressed than I would have expected and I was pleased. The tin aroma is all alcohol, like some kind of high proof fruit brandy. I would believe that the topping is pomegranate as others have suggested but I have no guesses myself. It lends an incredibly sour, fruity, and tart quality to the rich thick bodied smoke. The Kentucky gentleman is just that, he minds his own business at the end of the bar, drinking bourbon neat, and making the occasional wry comment. He lends a background smokiness that comes and goes, playing nicely off the sweeter/sour elements. The Squire, the Greek, and the planter all converse loudly for most of the session leading to some truly sweet harmonious moments. At other times, the planter gets bitter, the Greek gets fresh, or the Cajun drunkenly stumbles into the mix and gets spicy. It is quite entertaining and no true bar fights ever broke out, partially because ’Dish is successful at smoothing things out and keeping the peace.

In all seriousness, this is a beautiful mix of red, near black, brown, red brown, and yellow leaf. I cut thick 3-4mm flakes and rubbed these out revealing wide ribbon and some gigantic pieces of torn leaf. This is a remarkable blend in that virtually all areas of the tongue are engaged by the fruity, leathery, spicy, salty, sweet, sour, and bitter flavors that evolve over a bowl. It can be peppery and woodsy through the snork. The are sour plum and what I would liken to tart cherry notes at times. Others have said that this blend improves significantly with age. My fairly young tin had a generous coating of sugar crystals, and even larger mines of sparkle are revealed each time a new flake is sliced off. The topping seems a little heavy handed, but it works so damn well. This goes well with black coffee, or as I accidentally found out on one occasion after refilling the mug at the hospital, chocolate/mocha flavored coffee. No bite, smells great in the room. As one would imagine, not all kitchen sink blends succeed at letting all parties speak and fulfill distinct roles. This one does and it is complex, mouthwatering, mouth filling, and delicious.

As soon as you light a bowl of Dreams of Kadath, you will get a blueberry, cocoa, alcohol flavor that will draw you in mysteriously. After getting through the first third, you will find a lot of good character from the dark-fired kentucky and other pleasant tobaccos with the fading of the blueberry flavor. Overall, this is the best tobacco I have smoked for far.

Appearance: A whole lot of everything. It's a plug made up of lots of different small leaf tobacco. It's workability is about 95% plug and 5% krumble kake. Meaning that when slicing, chunks of leaves will just fall out of the plug and crumble. Not too bad. A couple of stems to discard and some unworkable sections, but overall a lovely presentation. The profile is gorgeous with a lovely distribution of leaf.

Tin Aroma: This was one of the harder ones to pinpoint for me. The first thing to hit me was a sweet, slightly sour liquor note. Like a fine cognac. The topping reminded me a LOT of GL Pease Sixpence. Which I also suspect is a cognac/brandy. So if you love that topping, you'll love this one. Beneath that it gets a little tricky. There's just a bit of everything coming at you. I could pick up the dark fired pretty easily but there were some interesting notes I just couldn't put a finger on. I'm guessing that's the katerini.

Taste: The cognac topping from the tin aroma barely transitions over to the taste. It's a VERY mild addition. The perique was noticeable for me right away, with dark fruits and pepper, as was the earthy, smokey dark fired. And while the virginia presence was obvious, I'd say the main highlights of this blend were the perique and dark fired. So I'd classify this as a BurPer with virginia for body and sweetness, cavendish for smoothness, and katerini for a floral, woodsy complement. There's also the faintest of cocoa in there. The retrohale was mostly peppery while the sidestream was dominated by the dark fired. If I had to smell the sidestream blindfolded I'd have sweared it was a cigar. Or semois. Very woodsy, earthy burley. But maybe that was the katerini. I don't know. I normally save these rambling thoughts until after I've smoked something at least four or five times.

Closing Thoughts: To date, this is the most impressive Cornell & Diehl blend I've ever smoked. It's complex, it's flavorful, it lights and smokes well, and most of all it's just plain interesting!

Not sure what Cornell & Dielhl were aiming at with Dreams of Kadath, but I’m pleased to report they’ve hit the bullseye in terms of the smoke! It’s nothing if not “different” from the many tobaccos I’ve smoked, and in this case, that’s mostly all to the good. Like it or not, this is a complex, multi-faceted, “kitchen sink” blend, and I find myself thinking it through again as I type this review. To begin with, my tin of DoK was filled with a very loosely pressed block or “mat” of chewed up, partial leaves (including veins and stems) that look like rejects and leftovers from other, more serious efforts. Colors range from golden tan, to British khaki, to dark brown, all very “natural”, as though the usual processing was interrupted mid-process. The leaf remnants pull off the mat quite easily, but they are tough, so they don’t easily tear into smaller pieces, and I’ll address this, anon. I was immediately smitten with the tin note, which starts as something like an exotic, fruit blossom brandy - maybe plum or pear - that I hoped would come through in the smoke. The proof-y part of the topping soon evaporates, and the tobaccos come up some, but the ethereal, plum/pear blossom thing hangs on. For my first smoke, I just ripped up some roughage as best I could to stuff a bowl. After that, I tried to have serrated utility scissors on hand, to cut the leaves into manageable pieces. Although I followed my usual protocol and smoked my first bowl right from the tin, and it can be smoked like this, I dried it out a little after that, and the actual smoking notes in this review are based on chopping, re-blending, and some drying. Chopped to size, dried some, and loosely packed, DoK lights and burns fine, and it smells and tastes great while it’s burning. Indeed, the liqueur is even more fragrant when it’s smoked, and the butt ugly leaves smell and taste like heaven, right from the match. My first few smokes were all good, also each was different from the previous smokes, owing, I supposed, to the “variety of varietals” I happened to wind up with for each smoke. Despite all the smokes were good, I finally decided to cut up and “re-blend” all the DoK before I put it into jars, “reasoning” that would “best represent” “what the blenders had in mind” (like I could know that…). Since then, I’ve dried it to suit myself and stuffed it loosely each time, in deference to the Katarini, which is always important, through all the twists and changes as other varietals rise and drop back during each smoke. For all the listed tobaccos, they speak together in tongues rather than separate or individual voices, even as the blend entire establishes its own overall character. Think, kaleidoscope. Mainly, the Katarini plus the Perique and the liqueur come across like exotic, spicy, slightly musty, woody meadow flowers and exotic fruit, both sweet and sour, with just a little meadow grass and wood resin, along with some salted, slightly smoky meat from the KY. The Burley adds nuts, butter, and some bitterness. The VAs are both smooth and piquant, quite fragrant, and sweet, and they certainly provide some needed structure to DoK. The Cavendish is both sweet and sour. The lot has some soft baking spices from top to bottom. There is tons of smoke. The most notable variable is the KY. It comes on pretty strong from time to time, adding both depth and ultimately power to the smoke. Strength is stealthy, rising slowly to strong. Tastes rise faster or slower to full. The room note strikes me as divine when I smoke this, but I know better, based on feedback on Turkish, KY and Perique. Aftertaste is the best of the smoke, lingering on and on, which I suppose owes mostly to the VAs and KY.

I guess the main thing I want to say in closing is that I recommend an open mind and some patience in dealing with what is actually – in “practical” terms - sort of a weird pipe tobacco. If good weird is something you might like, give Dreams of Kadath a try. Some have mentioned that DoK is like GLP’s Temple Bar. I agree, and I’ll add that Temple Bar is to Dreams of Kadath as Thoreau is to Blake! 4 stars, and keep ‘em coming, C & D! For what it’s worth, I am betting that DoK will age very well.

Im still a relative newbie at 18 months, so my palate is still very much a work in progress. This blend though is so very complex to me. May I just suggest to new smokers like myself, give this a try, it’s worth the effort just to try to identify the myriad of flavours. A wonderfully contemplative exercise. And isn’t that what pipe smoking is all about? A note of thanks to all the other more experienced reviewers here, too. Your reviews really help us newbies to find these surprisingly lovely blends.