Tobaccos Cornell & Diehl - Warped: The Red Hunt

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	JimInks (2760)	2020-06-23		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

The fragrant Basma and Izmir supplies earth, wood, herbs, vegetation, spice, a lot of floralness, light incense, mild buttery sweetness, and some dry, sour bitterness as the lead components. The red and mahogany Virginias provide a burst of tangy ripe dark fruit, earth, wood, bread, vegetation, sugar, light tart and tangy citrus, a few blades of grass, a couple pinches of spice, and a slight floralness. They take the second slot in the proceedings. The fermented, earthy, woody, mildly spicy perique offers sugary stewed raisins, dates, figs, and plums in a secondary role. The grassy, tart and tangy citrusy, acidic, lightly floral and honey-ish, slightly spicy, toasty, sugary bright Virginia is a condiment in terms of its effect. I don’t notice a topping. The strength, nicotine and taste levels are medium. There’s no chance of bite or harshness, but it does sport some rough edges. The broken flakes are mildly moist, and require no dry time. Well balanced and complex, it burns clean, fairly cool, and a tad slow with a mostly consistent sweet and sour, rugged, floral, spicy, savory, zesty flavor that translates to the pleasantly lingering after taste. The room note is a step stronger. Leaves little moisture in the bowl, and requires a couple more than an average number of relights. It’s not quite an all day smoke, but it certainly is repeatable. Four stars out of four.

-JimInks

12 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	StevieB (2019)	2020-08-08		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant

Cornell & Diehl - Warped: The Red Hunt.

What a delightful blend! I had to stock up on some after a few bowls!

It isn't too broken up. Don't expect a blend reminiscent of ribbons, it's easy to see it was a flake. The tin contains pieces of flake which are chunky, very coarse, but still broken. It has a good amount of moisture, can be smoked right off, and the Perique lends the unlit aroma a slight fruity nuance.

Smoking it? Blissful! Yes, the Orientals account for the prominent flavour, but they don't, by any means, render the other additions redundant. Behind these is a VaPer support which doesn't take, me, much effort to taste the fruity, rich, Perique; delicious. The Virginia, red, increases this fruity calibre, making for a succulent support. I don't want to be too vernacular, although not a basic blend I can't think of, without making things up, anything else to say! Apart from it's a lovely smoke!

Nicotine: medium. Room-note: quite nice.

'The Red Hunt? A great smoke; IMO. Highly recommended:

Four stars.

Pipe Used: Falcon Plymouth bowl

Age When Smoked: 04/17/20

Purchased From: Smokingpipes.com

7 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	moniker (213)	2020-06-15		Medium	Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

The reviewed tin of The Red Hunt is dated 05-19-20. Tin popped, one sees well broken flake/“ribbons”, mostly red-ish brown, with scant tan, and medium to dark brown. According to C&D this reflects a range of VAs, red, brown and pale, Turkish/Orientals, and Perique. The initial tin note is swamped by a topping, something like a deep chocolate liqueur that soon settles and allows some bran muffin/brown-bready tobacco and some orange zest to come up. The ribbons are not overly moist, but I dry it a little, and it handles, loads, lights and smokes down like a champ. There seems to be a fair percentage of Turkish/Orientals; in any case, it burns pretty fast. First up at the light is the topping; very floral and fragrant, although not so much chocolate as the tin note, more vanilla, actually, then lightly woody meadow grasses, then fragrant hay and distant brown bread muffin baking, then Middle Eastern baking spices, some dark fruit leather, then fresh figs, and some cayenne at the half mark. This is a complex smoke, sweet, sour, woody, herbal, fragrant and savory, with the parts available if you want, or it’s smooth and well melded enough to carelessly puff away, if you want that. Again, I prefer it dried, and from a pot, which keeps the tobaccos on top of the topping and it also ameliorates the aftertaste from combusted toppings. The toppings and the aftertaste from them come up when I smoke it in a smaller/narrower bowl. The spices are delivered in a higher register of the sort that may make for differing opinions on how strong this blend is. As for strength, I’m not sure I’ve tried a blend like this that did/does not include Cavendish, but the tobaccos in this case are smooth enough to do without it, spicy varietals notwithstanding. Anyway, I’m saying medium strength. Tastes are over medium. Room note is better than tolerable, because of the topping. Aftertaste is a longer-than-expected trailing off of the best of the smoke.

Overall, The Red Hunt is a right nice blend, if you like significant, refined spices along with a medley of well-chosen VAs. It’s worth noting again that there is no Cavendish here to “smooth things out”, so TRH might not be everyone’s idea of smooth. Also note that this blend can be manipulated with one’s choice of pipe, which I happen to like. C&D say it will age well, and I’m betting that will be the case, in the sealed tin and in a jar, too. 4 stars.

Pipe Used: various briars; dedicated pot preferred

Age When Smoked: fresh from young tin, then rested a little

Purchased From: smokingpipes.com

Similar Blends: Compare/contrast to C&D Innsmouth and John Marr..

5 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	DrT999 (307)	2020-08-25		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant

Nice chunky broken flakes, which burn on the slow side (might need some touch-up relights, at least now). The prelight draw is pure red VA heaven; the smoke itself is nicely balanced between the VAs and Orientals, giving the best of each, with a little Perique tang underneath giving it a bit more body. Right now 3+ stars because it's still a little rough, but it will likely improve with age.

Pipe Used: cobs

Age When Smoked: 4 months

Purchased From: smoking pipes

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	LiterarySmoker (107)	2021-07-17		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

Getting to the bottom of the list for Warped blends is The Red Hunt. This is the only tin of the lineup that doesn't contain any cigar Leaf components, but it does boast one of my favorite Orientals: Basma. I fell in love with Basma by smoking Petersons Old Dublin. The tin gives me some Game of Thrones vibes, and is very interesting. Opening up, there is a broken flake that is mostly dark browns in color. The tin note smells of dried fruit, plums, hay, tangy Orientals, fermented sweetness almost rum like in character, and a slight breadiness. I think the flakes come at a perfect moisture level to stuff and light, but your mileage may vary.

When I light my pipe, I get some very interesting flavor combinations. The perique seems to be up front like it was for Kings Stride and it offers a lot of fruit, plums, and spice on the retrohale. The amount is definitely less than Kings Stride, but more than a typical VaPer. Next I taste the Orientals, they add herbs, tang, and incense. The Virginias are a mix, and I can taste citrusy and haylike bright Virginias, and the soft bread like Reds. I taste something slightly rummy in character and I'm not sure if that is a topping or just the interplay of leaves in this particular blend, but it is nice and slightly captivating.

The taste is a medium. I don't ever feel overwhelmed smoking this blend and it produces a fair amount of smoke. The strength is a medium. Even with the amount of Perique I think this is a regular affair for Lady N. The room note is typical of a VaPer and I fond it interesting. This blend tends to burn slow and cool. I could easily smoke this all day long.

Pipe Used: Savinelli Oceano 616

Age When Smoked: New

Purchased From: Smokingpipes.com

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Antonius Blok (119)	2021-04-15		Medium	Very Mild	Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

The aroma that comes off when opening the tin is spectacular, similar to the one that comes out of a box of chocolates filled with cherry liqueur, with a touch of orange. Makes you want to eat it ... At first I am skeptical that the flavor can be similar to its aroma, since it is something that does not happen in many of the blends that I have tried with such outstanding aromas. The tobacco comes a bit wet but can be loaded directly from the tin without any problem.

When I light the pipe, I am pleasantly surprised that the initial cold aromas are reproduced exactly after smoking, especially in the first third. It seems that this mixture contains two types of oriental, Basma and Izmir, and yet I have the impression that they have been applied discreetly, just to give some aromatic and spicy nuances typical of these tobaccos. Towards the last third of the pipe an earthy, chocolatey flavor, similar to burley, lingers on, surprising me again, as this blend is not supposed to contain burley. And yet this would explain the presence of those marked chocolate notes.

Coincidentally, a couple of weeks later I opened a Redwood tin -Two Friends-, which has some similarities. The most notable is that aroma of chocolate when smelling it in its tin and that is also reproduced later in the flavor during the smoke. This tobacco that I mention does not have burley either. It is made up of Virginia, Perique, and Black Cavendish. So the only thing that could add that chocolate note would be a slight added topping. Either that, or I don't know anything about tobaccos, or both at the same time ...

Returning to The Red Hunt, I see it highly recommended to try it because I think it is difficult not to be surprised and that already seems important to me as an experience. Of course, in my case it is not a tobacco for every day, since it can get tired.

I give it three stars because it fills my mouth with too much flavor.

Age When Smoked: 6 months

Similar Blends: Redwood (Two Friends), which is much softer.

1 person found this review helpful.