Cornell & Diehl Visions of Celephaïs

The woody, earthy, toasty, floral and incense-like, spicy and clove-like, mildly grassy, vegetative, citrus sweet, cigar-ish Indonesian Kasturi is the lead component. The tart and tangy citrusy, grassy, lightly spicy, toasty and floral bright Virginia is a tad more obvious than the tangy ripe dark fruity, bready, earthy, woody, slightly floral red Virginia. They are supporting players. The sugary black cavendish tames some the rough edges as it adds some creamy sweetness. The nutty, woody, earth, floral, spicy, dry, sour and lightly sweet dark fired Kentucky is a condiment. The potent grape and spice toppings have a wine-like essence as they moderately sublimate the tobaccos. The strength is medium, while the taste is a step past that line. The nic-hit is a slot below the strength level. No chance of bite or harshness, and barely has a hint of a rough edge. Well balanced and complex, this blend burns cool and clean at a reasonable rate with a very consistent, deeply rich, spicy sweet, floral and incense-like, lightly savory flavor that translates to the pleasantly lingering after taste and slightly stronger room note. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, and requires an average number of relights. Despite its depth, punch and body, this aromatic mixture can be an all day smoke for the veteran and easily repeatable for the less experienced. Three and a half stars out of four.

-JimInks

Visions of Celephaïs: A complex grape aromatic

Well then...this blend definitely pushes the genre of an aromatic blend. The most prominent flavor in the tin note and smoke is the topping. I pick up mostly grapes (leaning towards an artificial flavor) and some wine with a hint of ginger or some other baking spice. The topping permeates the entire smoke, yet the subtleties of the tobacco are still discernible.

The Kasturi leaf is the next most noticeable ingredient—adding a pleasant depth, earthiness, and spice. The Virginia varietals are grassy—adding a crispy edge to the smoke—and slightly tangy. The dark fired leaf mostly lurks in the background but adds a little nuttiness and slight oak smoky undertone. I did not find any black Cavendish in my tin or in the smoke, though the content list on Smokingpipes includes it.

Visions of Celephaïs definitely fits in with the other blends in the Old Ones series in terms of flavor profile and use of Kasturi. While I will not hoard this blend, it is a pleasant departure from my normal rotation.

N.B. 1) The casing is quite strong right out of the tin. If you don’t like grape flavored tobacco, you probably won’t like this blend. Letting the ribbons dry out for thirty minutes lessens the intensity of the grape flavor and shifts the overall flavor profile of the smoke from the topping to the Kasturi.

2) The grape topping will ghost a pipe like no other tobacco. I now have a cob dedicated to this blend.

Cornell & Diehl - Visions of Celephaïs (The Old Ones).

Oh dear.

Many blends from Cornell & Diehl do justice to a high recommendation, with ease. This isn't one of them.

The contents are cut as a mid-size ribbon, mostly medium and darker brown in colour, the moisture's good, and the aroma's perplexing: 1980's bubble gum.

This blend's all about the aromatic side. The toppings easily subconrad and bully the tobaccos. Sure, the Kentucky gives strength and the Virginia gives sweetness, but the casings make it difficult to differentiate between the other leaves. This added flavouring? A draconian insult to my palate! I don't identify it, particularly, as grape. As I found with the aroma, to me it's VERY reminiscent of 80's bubble gum; Hubba Bubba. It simply doesn't work, for me. On the plus side it burns steadily delivering a medium temperature smoke. And, despite the heavy flavouring, I don't get bite.

Nicotine: medium. Room-note: tolerable; at best.

Visions of Celephaïs? A complete anathema of a blend. I had a few pipes then it went in the bin! So, not recommended:

One star.

My head spun, mind boggled, and my legs went weak. Was it the tobacco? No, for the first time in my 48 years of smoking, my wife spoke the words, "That smells good." And it smoked like a dream. The tin note is a bit overwhelming at first. I thought, "Oh, I don't think I'll like this." Boy, was I wrong, wrong, wrong! This is a fantastic aromatic (and I've smoked many, many aromatics). This Vision of Celephaïs is one of the best. Upon lighting one gets slammed by the grape casing. But, I didn't let that stop me. Slowly as I smoked, that intensity mellowed and the tobacco really came through nicely. A perfect balance of the tobacco and the casing was found. This is a blend that I would buy by the pound. I wouldn't consider this as an all-day tobacco, though. One might tire of it. I bring it out in the evening when my vert tolerant wife is home. She loves the scent!

Damn Mr. Reeves, what rituals did you do to divine this amazing Mixture?

Tin note is musky ancient incense, Cyclopean minerals, and grape musk. The tobacco smokes well, no real hang ups that come with aromatics. The Kasturi takes center stage behind the topping, with a spicy ginger and clove note. The Virginias add some sweetness around the edges. The dark fired provides an earthiness that creates the illusion of burning wood upon which the incense is thrown. Black Cavendish propels the topping, and adds a splash of brown sugar from time to time. VoC is an amazing tobacco, that works as a palate cleanser between Your favorite blends.

My daughter says the room note smells like a mixture of Cheese, and candy. *Shrug*

I had begun to worry. I had, in my short foray into pipes thus far, yet to try a tobacco I hadn't liked. Sure I've loved some, while others have elicited little more than a shoulder shrug, but I had never truly been put off by a blend as of yet, and i've explored with abandon since my start.

Not a bad problem to have, in the grand scheme of things, so perhaps worry was too strong a word, but I had begun to wonder if my palate was either hopelessly indiscriminate, or simply not yet adjusted to the endless nuances of pipe tobacco. In stepped C&D's Visions to allay my concerns. Admittedly purchased for aesthetics and literary allusions alone, the tin note was the first troubling sign. Have you ever been curious what aroma would result, were you to soak grape-flavored White Owls in Welch's grape juice for a year, and then leave those soggy stogs out to dry? Of course you haven't, but a tin of this will surely help you if you now find yourself intrigued but want to skip the mess.

I'll admit, I did not do research of kasturi before purchasing, and perhaps that's the culprit of the unpleasant smoking experience which followed.

The bowl did not taste like a grape-soak blunt, and I'm still debating on whether or not this was a turn of fortune. What i did get was an incense & floral bomb which combined to create an overall taste akin to how i'd imagine a badly perfumed bar of soap to be received by the palate. I'll admit, the bowl burned well, until i dumped it out 5 minutes in. Glad I smoked it in a cob, bc I'm considering just giving the pipe a toss along with the remainder of the tobacco.

This stuff is absolutely terrible, but so bizarre that I can also imagine it being some other oddball's favorite. Certainly not for me or my apparently discriminating palate.

This tobacco needs no drying time. It can be left to air out a little but I had the best experience smoking it straight out of the conserving vessel.

The smell is like grape aroma. It doesn't have a lot of actual grape smell but it smells like sweet stuff that's supposed to taste like grapes if you know what I mean. I for one like that aroma.

Underneath the 'grape' aroma I smell interesting sweetish, spicy and earthy notes that could be a mix of liquorice and marshmallow (the plants) and maybe a little cinnamon and cardamom or rose. Hard to say after weeks in the jar the aromas fuse together. No tobacco smell.

The smoke is very reliable and rather fast. The taste is like the smell but more mellow and the spicy tobaccos become increasingly prominent but at no point subdue the toppings. Leaves no moisture and hardly any dottle ( in a cob.)

It has an unseen potential for ghosting.

I recommend this blend to people who enjoy this 'grape' arome and have a spare pipe to dedicate to it.

I will offer the same review that I posted on smokingpipes.com about this tobacco.

"Allow me to begin by saying that C&D offer a staggering selection of excellent pipe tobaccos! Visions of Celephaïs is not one of them. Topped with grape or not Celephaïs is horrible! Tin note smells like a couple of incense sticks were ground into a fine powder and mixed with the blend. Or like a wet, stinking dog that was sprayed with cheap perfume. After one bowl the pipe I used may not be salvageable. The sickly stench is locked into the cake. I have been smoking straight cigar leaf in the pipe in an attempt to exorcise the demon this tobacco left behind in the bowl. Be careful about what you order because you just might get it!"

Any flavored blend will elicit negative reviews. This is not a "traditional" PG aromatic. If you dislike flavored blends categorically , then you do everyone a diservice by giving a negative review. I do not enjoy PG soaked aromatics and don't review them as there is no useful point. I do not see how that serves this community. I really like this blend. Yes there is wine and "spice" but it also has bright and red Virgina, some dark-fired, and some Oriential. Some of the reviews say the Kastani is the main player. For me it is more harmonious and not really sensing any dominant component. The wine and spice are evident, but a positive for me. Moisture good out of tin. Burns nicely. No bite or harshness. I tend to give any well blended tobacco a chance to prove itself. Visions of Celephias has proven itself to be a four star blend for me. Unique blend that is worth trying if you enjoy variety.

Before trying this one, I had smoked a few other aros that had some kind of grape flavoring: Bagpiper's Dream and Pembroke have cognac, and Edward G. Robinson has whatever that grape flavor is. The amount of grape flavor in those 3 is pretty restrained, but that's not the case with VoC. When you open the tin you get a blast of grape. When lit, you taste plenty of grape for sure. But the earthy, spicy, incense-like taste and aroma balance it out very well. Maybe I'm a little biased because of the Lovecraft theme, but this unlikely combination works for me. I wonder how this would be with Latakia.... C&D had to know that all this grape would bring polarized reactions, so the last half star that bumps it up to 4 is for having the cojones to make it anyway.