Cornell & Diehl Eight State Burley 2021

My tin is numbered 3780 out of a total of 7,500.

In my opinion this mix is not being treated fairly, so I will try to help raise the grade a bit.

In its tin it has a delicious smell of slightly vanilla biscuit, that reminds me of Virginia Cream by G.L. Pease, although in VC this aroma is much more noticeable. The ingredients, predominantly burley, are not overshadowed by the mixture's light coverage, but rather softens and complements them very well, which can make it more accessible even for non-burley fans. Under this cover a very good quality tobacco is shown, with a flavor like that: a tobacco. Recently I was smoking some pipes of Le Petit Robin, by Tabac Manil, and ESB brought back some reminiscences of that mix. I like to smoke it in pipes with the medium to small bowl, as I think it works a lot better.

What prompted me to quickly order this tobacco when it went on sale was the fact that I had smoked Carolina Red Flake, from the same Small Batch series, and I loved it.

Luckily I ordered two tin of ESB, since I smoke a pipe almost every day, and in the rotation I have now it is usually the most pleasant.

I'd love to see how this one ages.

About 3 weeks into smoking C&D’s Eight State Burley, I was ready to throw in the towel when I finally tried it with “the right pipe”. In case anyone cares, the pipe’s about a #6 billiard that’s almost, but not quite, short enough to be called a pot, with a very open draw. While the pairing hardly transformed ESB it did make the most of it, in line with my ongoing quest for nothing but 4 star blends, and my recommendation here is conditioned on the use of “the right pipe”, or at least a sincere effort to “find the four” in this blend. In the tin (dated 04-21; #1,643 of 7,500) are mostly mid red-ish brown ribbons, with some lighter and some darker. Initial tin note was a little boozy, reminding me of rum and maple sugar. This faded fast, but artifacts (including cocoa, molasses, and a trace of vanilla) have remained for another 2 weeks now, and they are mildly present in the scents and tastes through every smoke so far. The tobacco handles, loads, lights, and smokes down to a little black soot just fine. I load it loosely, and it burns like Turkish tobacco, which is to say, pretty fast. I temper the burn with easy draws. The combusting scents start for me with a mosh of soft, aged Burleys and toned down Turkish, fragrant, wet wood followed by more and more fragrant wood , then the VAs come up, with some wheat sourdough and dark, fragrant silage, then savory, only faintly spicy Turkish spices come up and hold to the end. The lot is more bitter and sour than sweet. It’s consistent top to bottom after the rest it’s had. Strength and tastes are medium. Room note is not bad. Aftertaste is a trailing off of the best of the smoke.

I had high hopes for ESB, to the point where I came close to rating it lower when it didn’t live up. However, in fairness, this is high quality tobacco, done in a more-or-less classic American style. The blend seems best suited to experienced Burley lovers who also like aged Turkish varietals. 3 stars, awarded only after staying with it as long as I did.

Yep, this is not like Aged Burley Flake or Big n/ Burley. But it's a C&D time machine in a tin.

I have smoked about half a tin - about 12 bowls in a new, small Om Paul. Confusing for first few bowls. Sharpe. Sweet. Stronger. Did smell similar to light vanilla in tin.

Thin ribbons, dry, easy burning. Fairly cool.

After first 5 bowls or so she calmed down a bit. Mild earthy burley with a soft, fragrant, floral taste. Somewhat sweet but Virginias not a strong palyer.

I found the florals not as minty but in line with Deer Tongue blends.

I believe the orientals play a role in the floral taste, similar to Dunbar.

It may have a casing. But as stated it smokes dry to me.

A take on burley, and apparently somewhat controversial. But I think it is a good blend to wake up old timers. Recommended for burley puffers. A step up from OTCs.

If this blend is judged against the manufacturer’s description it fails miserably. If tasted blind with no preconceived idea of what it might be, it’s a pretty darn solid burley.

Upon opening the tin, I first noted the nearly perfect consistency of the evenly cut ribbon. There are 8 different shades of leaf: tan, gold, red, brown, bright yellow, beige, dark brown, and black. None of the advertised constituents should be black, should they?! I then became super concerned about mold, but plucked what seemed to be a piece of pocket lint off the very top layer. F%#ked up, but at least it wasn’t fungus. There is a strong sweet vanilla scent that gives way just a bit to honey after breathing a bit. The topping scent does not fade appreciably with time, but it does disappear over the first third of each bowl. The aromatic is most notable in the room note and in the snork.

The tobaccos are earthy and even a tad muddy, in a good way. There are nice but subtle notes of clove, nutmeg, and allspice. The flavor takes on a cigar like quality at times, especially with DGT or after long delayed relights. Dark chocolate and a faint note of licorice dance in the background towards the end of some bowls.

THIS is exactly what comes to mind when I think about the smell of pipe smoke in public as a kid. Furthermore, when I would envision ideally what pipe smoke would taste like (again as a kid/non smoker) this is approximately what comes to mind. 3.25 stars

I'm another voice in the chorus of disappointment over this blend. Opening the tin it has this piercing sweet note like white cake frosting. It's not heavily cased but it initially seems so potent despite being a dry and flat smoke. Drying it out for 24hrs help to tame it a bit. I didn't find this appealing. Also, the tin aroma has a bit of a cigar note like a mild Dominican. I couldn't detect the other components in the blend; Maybe it's the overwhelming casing or they are so sparse in the blend?. It's a lot smoother than C&Ds typical burely blends but there is still a tad harsh note there. This so utterly fails to deliver on it's tin description, whatever it was trying to be as an extraordinary and rare composition.

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me... you can't get fooled again."- W

The last time I buy an experimental tobacco.

OK - This really is a great blend, but it was marketed incorrectly by C and D. I think the reason for the mixed reviews here is that people were expecting a more natural BURLEY forward blend, but what we have here is a lightly cased codger OTC burley style blend. Which is fine, its good! Just as the others have described it has nice leaf in it, good cut, and the top dressing is sweet and flavorful. So if you like Carter Hall, Prince Albert, etc etc, you will really like this one, its in that vein as opposed to a natural straightforward burley. If you are ok with a top dressing and some light sweetness....you will love this. I got lucky and found some still in stock at a brick store after buying my initial 3 tins on line. CIRCLE H has the most spot on review thus far Id say.

I seen an ad saying "Small Batch Eight State BURLEY".. and I Like some good Burley.so it was off to get me some of this blend.. I have to say..it is no Solani 656 or Wessex burley slice.. not even close...

I expected burley and it is there.. it is the main taste.. but unfortunate to me.. the citrus in the Virginia kinda killed the pleasure... its "ok" but I wouldn't go out of my way to get more..

to make it more clear.. I noticed Prince Albert was back in stock since last quarter of 2020, when I went to purchase this... I wanted to make sure they didn't change the Prince.. and I enjoyed the new batch Prince more than this... I actually purchased 2 tubs of the Prince, which taste like the old Prince..and I am not disappointed in that purchase... maybe they should have used Cavendish with the Eight States like the Prince...

Don't let the score fool you, this tobacco is outstanding.

Tobacco cut is thick and the smell from the jar is somewhat intense vanilla. Packs, lights and stays lit easily. Flavor is excellent, at the beginning you are welcome with a vanilla flavor that, in my opinion, doesn't overwhelm(and I don't specially enjoy aromatic tobaccos) and slowly transitions to a more burley natural flavor that stays present until the last third of the bowl where an excellent selection on orientals awaits you. Transition between the different flavors are the smoothest I've seen, I'm really impressed, congrats C&D.

I believe the enjoyment of this tobacco is strongly related to ones capacity to tolerate a bit of aromatic flavor and how much one agrees with the selection of orientals made. Also, I believe this tobacco has been terribly advertised by C&D alongside SP who compared it to other more or less burley straight blends like Solani Aged Burley Flake and Wessex Burley Slice with which this one shares nothing in common. So, to those hoarders who bought 20+ tins and didn't like it, joke's on you. I'll wait till next year to taste this marvelous blend once again.

Recommended to those looking for an american styled aromatic burley with high quality orientals in the blend.

Four solid stars.

There is no point in reviewing this blend because it was a limited run and it's already gone. If you have some, share it. If you didn't get any, you're not missing out. (No need to pay 3x the price to some bonehead hoarder who bought 50 tins using multiple accounts the second it was dropped.)

It's nice. There is a very slight topping, but the flavors of the tobacco are ever present and enjoyable. It's what I wish a quality bulk burley or over-the-counter burley blend was: good quality tobacco with a touch of a sweet topping (vanilla, chocolate, that kind of thing, the kind of mélange that amplifies the natural flavors of the leaf). It's a simple aromatic burley for any smoker that still likes to taste tobacco in their aromatics. I know, it's not an Aromatic, officially, but to a veteran burley or even Virginia smoker, it basically is.

This is an example of a simple, fine blend C&D is capable of when it wants to be - I just wish they would cut the hype-drop approach and just focus on making a few high-quality blends regularly, instead of 100,000 mediocre blends with the occasional gem you'll miss if you blink.