Cornell & Diehl Canal Boat

Having now reviewed over 50 blends and having smoked a pipe for almost two years now I am really starting to discover what I like and this isn't it. In fact there are few blends that combine Lat and Cav that I like. The two leaves just seem to clash to me and this blend is a perfect example of that disharmony.

The only thing I despise more than bad tobacco is throwing tobacco out, so the best thing I can say about this blend is that I have finally finished it.

I am giving it two stars for the quality and presentation of which C & D never fails to impress and for the fact that some people really like it.

FUN WITH C&D SAMPLES, Vol III, No. IX (the Final Chapter in this volume).

It seems my amigo strongirish has scooped me on this one. His review accurately sums up my feelings on this. I think it's a fine blend for what it is but I simply did not care for the flavor. The components simply dumb one another down to the point where none of them performs as I believe they should.

I find this to be similar to Tinderbox's Sherlocks Choice, but I find that blend to smoke better on those rare occasions that I smoke it. This one appears to be of high quality but the flavor I get is not to my liking. Recommended perhaps as a crossover blend for those curious about latakia but still want a tobacco that is sweetened by slightly less than natural means.

It's hard to judge this blend...

The first bowls seemed quite full-tasted to me (lots of Latakia, and some robust burley presence) and not very complex, good and in-your-face. The cubed burley has its usual earthy, nutty quality you have come to expect from C&D. The black cavendish provides the sweet note that it's usually due to Virginias in traditional EMs. My wife likes the weird combination because she says it has a room note which reminds of a bakery.

After some days, the taste started to become smoother, but also less impressive, blander. The bitterish note from the interplay of latakia and burley becomes more evident, too.

I also suspect that this blend is guilty of making a pipe bitter: all the pipes I smoked it in have turned out very bad-tasting, almost unsmokable, in a very short period of time. I had to resort to a deep reaming and to the alcohol and salt method to restore them to a smokable state!

So, there is good stuff here but I'm not completely happy about it... I don't know if I will want to buy it again.

I was actually quite surprised with how much I like this recent addition to Cornell & Diehl's fine selection of pipe tobaccos. I've recently become more interested in burley based blends and I believe that Craig Tarler is doing some of the finest work out there with Burleys.

From a visual and tactile perspective, this tobacco is distinctly interesting. I love the way cube-cut Burley looks and adore the crumbly feel of the small cubes. Given the size of the cubes and the small cut on the Latakia and Cavendish, this would be a superb tobacco in a smaller pipe (as I review this, I'm smoking it in a smallish La Normandy Dublin). It is difficult ot visually separate the black Cavendish from the Latakia, so it is difficult to determine proportions before smoking the mixture.

The tin aroma is decidedly sweet, with just a hint of Latakia. Even in the tin nose, the origin of the Latakia is immediately obvious (Cyprian Latakia). The combination of the sweetness and the smokiness in the tin aroma makes for a decidedly unusual, and pleasant, smell.

The flavor is much as one would expect given the components and tin nose. However, the Latakia does become more pronounced in the smoking than it was in the tin. Nuttiness bubbles up from the Burleys and slight sweetness comes from the Black Cavendish as well as that overriding smokey, earthy flavor from the Latakia. The Cavendish doesn't seem nearly as pronounced in the smoking as it seemed in the tin. From the tin aroma, I had also assumed that there was a top note of fruit juice or a little bit of sweet liquour, but I can't detect it in the smoking.

On the whole, though it is not really my favorite style of blend, I think this would prove to be a superb mixture for the lover of mild Englishes or mild Aromatics. The crossing over between the two styles has become more common lately and I believe that this is among the better that I have tried. An excellent change of pace for either the smoker of Englishes or the smoker of Aromatics-- of which, I am neither.

I really like these types of blends, American style English blends that are light on the condiments and use them as one would salt or pepper. When you open the tin you are struck with a nutty and musty aroma, blacks and browns abound with a noticeable cube cut burley that just looks so delicious. The problem with cube cute and the reason I cannot give this blend more than two stars is that the little cubes burn like charcoal briquettes. They are never dried enough and smoke so darn hot. (for me) maybe its my technique but I have tried everything in the decade + that I have been smoking a pipe.. I love the flavor, I love the ease of packing (just scoop and tamp) and I love the aroma I just cannot stand the heat so I must leave the kitchen... YMMV and I hope it does but with so many other C&D blends that I like, Canal Boat gets 2 stars...

Smooth and easy, but nothing else. A pleasure in a sunny autumn day. A little sweetness smoked by latakia. The result is nice....but nothing else.

I usually love anything C and D burley as I think Craig makes one heck of a good burley. However, this one fell flat for me. Not a bad blend really but nowhere like the many other fine blends from this blender. I has a very smokey sweet pouch aroma and is a mix of dark and light rough cut tobaccos. It is on the dry side which I like, but it loaded easily into my pipe and was very easy to light and stayed lit well. It has a sweet latakia flavor to start with and the Latakia smokiness continues to build as it is smoke down. It burned well and dry and all the way down with no moisture nor dottle in the bottom of my pipe. Just a dark gray ash. but it was very one dimentional and never developed into anything that gave me pleasure. The black cavendish never added much of anything but sweetness and the burley was kept from adding it's flavor by the Latakia. To sum up, I would not buy again as Craig has too many better blends to smoke.

This blend is tailor made for days like today. As I am typing this review it is 90 degrees with about the same humidity. The blend is on the light side, and is best suited for a large pipe. Packed lightly it burns slowly and cool. The blend does not bite and doesn't clog up pipes. It has a nutty and sweet taste and adds just enough Latakia to keep things interesting. The ash is very fine and everything seems to burn at about the same rate. That was rather surprising to me. I could never smoke this blend all day, it is not strong enough and could use about double the Latakia. Otherwise on a hot as heck day, it is a great change of pace.

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.