Cornell & Diehl Canal Boat

Canal Boat is basically cube-cut burley with generous helpings of Latakia and Black Cavendish. It smokes cooly with little bite even in new pipes and, in fact, might make an excellent smoke for breaking in new pipes. It is a midly sweet, stout blend with a great deal of "bottom."

As with all Cornell and Diehl offerings, the tin is crammed to overflowing with a fairly dry tobacco that needs some rehydration to smoke at its best. This tobacco also does well with some age--I found it markedly improved after about three months.

Canal Boat smokes best for me in a meerschaum or a cob. In some, not all briars, the underlying bitterness of the blend was a bit much for my tastes.

Overall, this tobacco works best for me as a basic "manual labor" smoke to chew on in a cob while you're clearing brush or otherwise employed as a manly-man. I also found it a good companion for woodworking, where the focus can't be on smoking technique and the pipe is often set aside.

Not at first blush a tobacco I thought I'd like, I wound up smoking the entire tin in a wide variety of pipes and formed some affection for this fairly odd blend. Having never smoked Barking Dog, or some of the other classic "American English" blends, I wonder whether this might be a modern attempt to provide a similar smoke.

All in all, well worth a try and a good, honest smoke, well-made and an interesting spin on the Burley experience.

The tin note is nutty, oaky, slightly sweet and smells strongly like traditional Chinese medicine. It's off-putting to the point I was afraid I had made a mistake in ordering two tins. Boy was I wrong.

At first light it smokes exactly how it smells, like if burley was a slightly sweet cough medicine. It soon mellows down to a more normal burley blend and adds in notes of cocoa, coffee and the caramelized char of a good sirloin steak. The medicine flavor and aroma fall to the background, but hang on the entire duration of the bowl. It smokes cool and dry down to a fine mottled gray ash.

Canal boat is a very good marketing name, but this blend could've easily been called Train Wreck; like that one Facebook friend who's life is a series of self inflicted disasters, you know you shouldn't like it, but you just can't stop watching. There's something in my mind that tells me I shouldn't like this blend and I should just get rid of it, yet I just keep relighting, smoking and enjoying.

I recommend this tobacco to anyone looking to try something that's unlike anything else.

This is not a bad mix, just not great. Somewhat lacking in total character and on the light side of flavor. For me, there are better choices.

All I can say is this is a winner, the Burley and Latakia taste great together and the Cavendish add's alittle sweetness. Good job!

This is a chunky cut, but is never a problem to load. I tend to pack this one a little on the loose side and dont have any problems. This is a sweeter blend with the addition of the sweetened cavendish. The nutty burley is in the forefront with the sweet cavendish following close behind. I didnt detect very much latakia but it does seem to be there in small amounts. I like this every once in a while and would recommend it!

This is for the crossover smoker. It combines the best elements of an Aromatic/English blend.The Burley is nutty and the black cavendish sweet. It is the Latakia that adds that certain something to the blend. This can be described as a COMPLEX aromatic. It stays naturally sweet with an English edge to it. A great all day smoke. You must be careful puffing though, the cube cut burley heats up the pipe quickly if not handled properly. 3 of 4 stars.

Revised 04-14-2005

I really enjoy this blend from time to time. When you open the tin, you are greeted by wonderful cubed burley, medium-cut latakia and cavedish. The tin aroma is nutty and smoky. Packs easily, I prefer it in Group 5-6 bowls. At first light, you get the typical grassy odor common to burley. After relight, (which will probably not need anymore lighting due to the perfect moisture)it settles into a nice smooth, semi-sweet smoke. This is could be an all day blend. Towards the bottom of the bowl,a nice interplay between the sweet cavendish and nutty burley intensifies with the latakia as the background.One last note, puff slowly as this can nip the tongue. Aging this blend smoothes out the bite as well.

I've been smoking this one in a couple of contexts, while driving about in commuter traffic (with a pipe cape on) or on breaks at work. My intention was to have a vacation from the black cavendishes I often use for casual smoking. I found it pleasant, and the latakia a welcome addition of some spice. My feelings on burley blends run towards neutral, I don't have an emotion about that type one way or another. I won't make a judgement about what a burley lover should think about this, I wouldn't be qualified, but I did find this a nice smoke, easy to pack, the flavor comes on consistently and fast (when I'm only packing a partial pipe). I did remark on an earlier version of this review that I would just finish the tin and not buy another, but as I've smoked this one, I've found it has it virtues, and is a good short coffee break smoke, or to smoke while traveling. If you like burley based blends, this isn't bad a t all, and for someone like me, it almost convinces.

I recieved a 1 ounce sample of this when I bought a few pipes online. I was realy kind of taken by surprise on this one in that it had some elements that I was not expecting. From the description I thought this would be more complex, while not very complex in layers of flavor I must say that the overall "flavor" of this blend is good. Very odd but good. There is an odd play off the burley and latakia and the aromatic agent. The aromatic agent in this is odd as well, maybe a fruit punch of some sort? This blend is in its own category as I don't realy know how to classify it. I guess the best I can think of is an odd latakia crossover blend of sorts. This is very good though. It smokes very cool and left the walls of my pipes clean. While this is not an every day smoke for me I do very much enjoy it when I am in the mood for something totally differant. Highly recommended for the adventurous or those interested in trying high quality, unconventional blends in that this does not fall into a typical genre of blend.