Cornell & Diehl Warped: Saint Espresso 2023

The steamed and toasted three cavendishes are in order of their prominence: lightly sweetened Dominican cigar, Eastern North Carolina red Virginia, and unsweetened one sucker blackened Kentucky burley. The red Va. is almost a supporting player, and the one sucker blackened Kentucky burley is close behind that. The cigar cavendish is a tad more noticeable with a couple more smoke notes than last year’s production. The coffee takes a little of the lead over the walnut and creamy vanilla toppings, The creamy vanilla seems lightly richer this time. They moderately tone down the tobaccos. The strength is just shy of the medium threshold. The taste level is medium. The nic-hit is a couple of steps below the overall strength level. There’s no chance of bite or harshness, and the rough edges are slight. Well balanced with nuanced complexity, it burns cool and clean at a reasonable rate with a very consistent creamy sweet, tart and tangy citrus, tangy ripe dark fruit, coffee, nuts, floral, mild vanilla, spice, smoke, grass, tea, herbs, leather, vegetative peat, light bitter sourness, cocoa, savory flavor. The after taste pleasantly lingers a mite. The room note is pleasant to tolerable. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, and requires a couple more than an average number of relights. Can be an all day smoke. Four stars.

-JimInks

Tin note of cocoa, black coffee and creme. Tobacco is a mixed cut of black, dark brown and brown. Moisture content is ok. Some pipe smokers will want to dry it a bit. Burns slow with a few relights. The strength is mild to medium and nic is mild. Flavoring is mild to medium, with notes of cocoa, vanilla and creme. Cocoa and Creme are most obvious in the beginning but moves to a background flavor soon after. The Vanilla seems to start and remain in the background. Taste is medium and moderately consistent, with notes of semi-sweet dark fruit, bitter cocoa, peaty herbal vegetation, mild vanilla, toast bread, coffee, spices, mildly floral, mildly spicy, molasses like, slight fermented sour, mildly savory, a semi-sweet toasted nutty and grass background note, and a mildly peppery almost smooth retro. Cavendish (Cigar, Kentucky and Virginia) are leading with the Flavoring supporting. Room note is pleasant, and aftertaste is good.