Cornell & Diehl From Beyond

The Izmir and Basma offer plenty of earth, wood, vegetation, floralness, some herbs, spice, creamy buttery sweetness and sourness as the lead components. The incense-like floral Cyprian Latakia provides plenty of earth, wood, smoke, mustiness, some sweetness, and light spice. It has an important support role, though it occasionally equals the Orientals. The aspects of the Eastern North Carolina red Virginias are a lot of tangy ripe dark fruit, earth, wood, bread, sugar, and slight touches of vinegar and spice as secondary supporters. Right behind the reds in terms of effect is the bright Canadian Virginia. It produces plenty of tart and tangy citrus, grass, bread, sugar, some floralness, sour lemon, light spice, and a little acidity. The earthy, woody, spicy, plumy, raisiny St. James perique is a step above being a condiment. The earthy, nutty, woody, sweet dark burley is barely a condiment. The strength and nic-hit are a rung past the medium mark. The taste level is just past the center of medium to full. There’s no chance of bite or harshness. Has some rough edges which is typical of blends in this genre. Burns cool and clean at a moderate pace with a lightly inconsistent sweet and more sour, floral, potent campfire flavor that extends to pleasantly lingering after taste. Leaves little dampness in the bowl. Requires an average number of relights. Has a pungent room note. Not an all day smoke. Three and a half stars due to the aforementioned small inconsistency.

-JimInks

I filled a bowl with this, and planned to do a side-by-side with the current Nightcap. After about 5 puffs in I decided it wasn't necessary. This isn't, in my opinion, very similar to Nightcap in flavor. That's not a bad thing, even though I love Nightcap. This one is similar in complexity, but I think the Orientals are almost tied with the Latakia to the point that it seems more like a Balkan. I taste a wee bit more perique than Nightcap. From Beyond's strength and full flavor are greater than blends like Presbyterian, Red Rapparee, and Early Morning Pipe, but it's not as Latakia-heavy as, say, GLP Odyssey, which has a different flavor but is similar in terms of strength and taste levels. Comparisons aside, this is a cool-smoking, fairly stout, tasty blend. It's fine now, but will probably improve with age. I'll miss this one when it's gone.

Presentation: Love the tin colors. Nice uniform ribbon cut. You can clearly see the constituents of the blend. Perfect moisture.

Palette: Since this is an interpretation of Nightcap, it is pretty darn similar, with a few differences. It indeed does smell dark and like nighttime. It’s musty, woodsy and incense like with a touch of spice. I find that the Latakia here is more subdued and the orientals shine a bit more than Nightcap. However the perique is on point with the VA’s supporting in the back.

Performance: Burns a touch faster than nightcap, but at a cool temperature. I’m smoking this in a tall billiard and I usually smoke my English’s in a wide shallow bowl. I feel that it would perform better. Nicotine is mild. Nothing too strong. Requires some relights

Conclusion: definitely glad I picked up 5 tins of this. While it is not an exact replica, it is very close to the Dunhill/Peterson blend. Can’t wait to see what a few years on this will do.

Tin number 3031 of 7600

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i have smoked 6 bowls of this outstanding English today. Tastes like the Nightcap of my dreams. Most C&D blends need a rest period of several weeks once opened but not this one. A true masterpiece of blending aged tobacco varieties into a tasty symphony of flavor. Needless to say i enjoy this one! And here i thought i was done with English blends. Oh well haha

Ribbon cut from a round tin. A large variety of colors. Mostly light colored leaves with some amber, chestnut, and black leaves mixed in. The aroma is smoky but not overbearing. It reminds me of GL Pease Spark Plug, or Presbyterian. It's less smoke, more pine or fragranced wood as opposed to Byzantium or White Knight, which in my opinion are smoke bombs. The tobacco is not sticky or goopy, it's actually drier than most C&D tins. To me it seemed ready to light straight from the tin with no drying. The latakia is gentle and bolsters the Oriental tobacco. It is tangy, creamy, with a noticeable pepper spice. This is like a more distinct Presbyterian with added perique. I saw that it was inspired by Night Cap, but I don't really see the comparison. The mouthfeel is similar but it is less smoky, and the flavors are not as mixed together. The tobaccos each shine through out the smoke. You can really catch bits of each component as you work your way through the bowl. The SmokingPipes listing shows Burley, but I don't think there is a lot and probably helps with body more than flavor. It needed a few relights, and once I actually lit it up, it was more moist than I originally suspected.

This is better than I expected. It's a fun blend, where everything has it's moments and nothing takes the lead. The #1 component is probably the Orientals. The latakia and perique balance each other and keep it earthy and spiced. This is not a latakia bomb, but you get some of the good qualities of the latakia, like the distinct creamy mouthfeel and almost milk like taste. If you didn't get a tin, you are not missing a true gem and there are plenty of other blends that match it. To get a similar experience you may just want to toss in a little perique to any light English and you'll be close.

I tried this one yesterday, with some friends in a meet. This is a good mixture, but nothing impressive. It reminds Dunhill Nightcap, in fact. But it's not as interesting as this one. In my opinion, this is a less impressive small batch of recent times. I really expected more from this mixture. 2 stars for me.

The arcane imagery and words on the label not with standing; what we have here is a light/medium and Oriental-forward Balkan mixture. Spicy from a modest amount of Perique yet Latakia starved, it makes for an interesting smoke. Habitual English smokers will feel deprived when they smoke From Beyond, however, light English and Virginia/Oriental smokers might find this blend an interesting variant. I enjoyed smoking this blend for it's spicy and Oriental presentation; especially the top third of each bowl. The middles always toned down in every pipe regardless of chamber dimension or shape. The bottom thirds consistently came back to life, now, with no hint of the scarce Latakia and smoked surprisingly stout for a nominally light blend. I liked this blend but want a tad more Latakia in my smokes. This yields a recommendation at three stars.

Picked up a few tins at the Chicago pipe show several years ago and never smoked them. I cracked one of these new tins and need to compare it to the older ones.
Standard tin note for an English blend, nothing remarkable. This is one of the most unique tobacco's I have ever smoked. The first few puffs on the pipe are very spicy! I have never had a blend hit me with this much spice. Both tingly spice but also exotic spices: cloves, cardamom, sandalwood are front and center. The Turk/Orientals offer some dry and woody notes. The Perique is the star of the show and the retrohale will clear up your sinuses. The Latakia is a distant second fiddle with some sweetness and cream. The base of Virginias provide some earthy and bready notes to round this out. I find this a bit sour and sharp, but in a good way. I attribute this to the SJP and the Eastern tobaccos>
Not going to be a regular smoke but I will return to it when in the mood for something....from beyond.

Tin note of pungent sour, sharply sweet and smoky. Tobacco is a ribbon cut of light brown, brown, dark brown and black. Moisture content is great. No drying/prep needed. Burns slow with a few relights. The strength is medium to strong and nic is mild to medium. No flavoring detected. Taste is medium to full and moderately consistent, with notes of tangy raisin, smoky incense, spice, orange peel, wood, toast, lemon grassy, leather, hay, sugar, savory, fermented sour vegetation, spicy, a herbal floral and tart plummy background note, and a peppery retro. Latakia is leading with Oriental/Turkish, Perique and Virginia supporting. Room note is tolerable, and aftertaste is great.