Cornell & Diehl Haunted Bookshop

I have tried and tried to enjoy this but it never ceases to be simply too harsh for me. I’m certainly going to keep it and try again in a few years.

I think someone went to there hayloft, ground up a bunch of hay, and maybe a little cow shit, put it in a bag and called it haunted bookshop. This stuff is god awful.

I started calling this one "Haunted Stomach" as a joke. Truthfully, I think I'd have been better off smoking my belly button lint than this stuff.

Perhaps it is the Burley that is causing the problem for me with this blend but I found it disgusting. The first puff is pleasent enough but the second puff is where it hit me. It made my mouth water profusely and gave me a headache.

I wanted to like it but it just didn't work for me.

I smoke both cigars and pipes so I'm no noobie. Generally I smoke medium-full blend cigars. The pipe tobaccos I like are Larry's Blend, Black House, B & B, Ambassador Blend, Frog Morton. This stuff however was, ah, like having a bar of Lifebouy in my mouth.

You know the feeling you get when you open a new tin up and it's really bad? This is that feeling. Save your money folks, I wish I did.

I was shocked at the dryness of this blend upon opening, besides having nothing but a vague scent of dry straw on the nose. It's burley cut in large pieces, about its only plus. Even as I like a bit of a 'nip' in a tobacco, this stuff was about as bad as I've ever had. Nothing resembling any Virginia or Perique could be found. Maybe I got a bad tin?

I received a 2 oz. baggie of this in a C&D sampler pack. I did not read TR's ratings on this blend before I smoked it, because I wanted my impressions to be my own, not tainted by others' reviews.

As I was smoking this blend, I immediately sensed a bitter taste and smell. Less than halfway down the bowl, there was an increasing sensation I could only describe as "sour", and "old sweat socks". Imagine my surprise when previous reviewers mentioned these same characteristics!

I'm a burley man. I love Boswell's Premium Burley, Granger, and Mild Kentucky Club. I also enjoy Prince Albert and Carter Hall. But not this stuff.

I think I could blend this myself. Three parts dry leaves from the yard, two parts dry leaves from the yard last year. What is this? I find far to many blends from C&D that are pale and tasteless like this one. Sorry, C&D you ripped me off on this crap.

I had the same experience as Glorfindel, The 4oz bulk I received was dry like wood, the smoke was harsh, tasteless, old dusty and nasty .

maybe the tined package is better quality.

If want top quality strait burley: Aged Burley flake (tin only) from solani or Golden Blend (pouch tin and bulk) from Mac baren.

I am completely rewriting my initial review of this mixture. Originally, I was only barely lukewarm about it. However the tin I had been given had been open for awhile, so I thought in fairness I should order an unopened tin and try that.

I don't know what happened, but I apparently accidentally ordered two tins, so I definitely got more than I needed. On to the tobacco. I will first say that, whatever I had smoked before, was completely different in character and quality. Whatever is in this tin bears no resemblance to what I had earlier sampled. It is dry, bone dry; no, make that dry as ash. The tin aroma is non existent, and the tobacco looks like little bits of old cardboard; like something a rat might line its nest with. Had I been outside when opening this, and a slight breeze been blowing, the entire contents of the tin would have blown away on the wind.

Undaunted, I went ahead and filled a pipe, and lit up. Again, this bore no resemblance to my previous experience. The stuff in this tin is absolutely awful; it is worse than awful. It simply tasted of hot, dry paper. I don't know what the heck is going on over at C&D, but I've had identical experiences with some of Pease's blends, which they also make.

C&D should quickly re-evaluate their manufacturing and quality control process. I have now experienced five or six nearly consecutive tins of tobacco that they have made either under their own name or for GL Pease that have been well below the standard of quality one would expect from them. My final thoughts on this experience would simply be, stay away from anything made by Cornell & Diehl until they get their stuff together, and issue a public mea culpa.