Cornell & Diehl Autumn Evening

I can see why people enjoy this blend, but I didn't like it at all. The maple comes through and definitely takes a front-row, center seat in this blend.

To my tastes, this blend tasted like someone found a 10-year-old freezer-burnt Eggo waffle, threw it in the toaster on Black, twice, soaked it in gas-station-tier "maple" syrup, forgot about it and left it on the counter for a month, then crumbled it into my pipe. I wasn't a fan.

This bowl dried out my mouth and I thought the tobacco under the maple syrup was harsh and dry. I definitely like this tobacco in the jar rather than out. One of the few blends I didn't get through the bowl.

2022-08-20 Update: I kept this jar in the back of my cellar, and I just pulled it out and put it in a cob. The three years on this blend did nothing to add any complexity to the blend, but it did mellow out the maple syrup. It was more enjoyable than the first time I tried it, but I still did not enjoy it. Maybe I moved from 1/2 star to 1 1/2 star.

I am satisfied that I have given this blend its second shot, and I'll be passing this on and making room in my cellar.

Great name. Great label. Great marketing. It ends there for me though.

There are a number of people who obviously love this blend, and I should note that I do enjoy a high quality aromatic, I am a lover of the autumn, and I enjoy maple syrup.

The problem for me is that this is not maple syrup in flavour; it's butterscotch, and there's a world of difference between the two. You can love the one and hate the other. The tin note is butterscotch and whatever flavour it might impart, maple is not the association I am particularly left with. (Nor do I have any sense of any citrus or alcohol flavourings.)

The biggest issue for me is that what this does remind me of, flavour wise, is a bitter, walnut shell kind of taste, with occasional, slight hints of butterscotch. I relish neither flavour. The bitterness is likely the chemical nature of the topping and it is there right from the beginning of the bowl and does not go away.

If I want an aromatic, I enjoy Cult Blood Red Moon's sour cherry flavour, or the chocolately flavour of Lane 1 Q, but for all its marketing appeal to me, I cannot imagine myself ever reaching for this tin other than to give it away. Shame. The idea seemed so promising to me.

When I first started piping,over forty years ago,tobacco offerings were somewhat frugal in England,which led me to Condor,St.Bruno or Clan.The first two left me dizzy,for want of a better description.Therefore,for many a year,it was the Clan that saw me through my early pipe years. Having tried it again last year,I cannot,for the love of Mike,comprehend how I survived.Take it or leave it,better the devil etc. So to Autumn evening,yes ,like Clan,an aromatic,but served up with a maple syrup pie,Alas not much like Dundee cake or Highland shortbread,yum....much more akin to Old Spice than Armani on the nose. Having purchased a large tin ...Why,God,Why! from the States and got clobbered with the tax..Grrrr! I gradually discovered that most,but not all,mass produced American blends are reminiscent of that unholy Clan offering.The maple casing is a bit like Raspberry Vodka.Who needs it.Not me taken in by it any more.Give me solid unpretentious fare like Germain , Gawith or Perretti any time,especially if you want a smoke lasting longer than it takes for the match to extinguish .Whoosh,If you get my drift,C and D. Aromatics,do have their place for those of a frail constitution,nagging wife or those who cannot source Penzance,but for me,Alas a no no.....Just tried some Peretti blends,cor blimey,that’s more like it .I-even got away with the tax...address withheld 😀

Based on the reviews, I'm wondering if I got a bad batch.

Aroma in the tin is delicious. Warm, rich, maple tones with maybe a splash of chocolate.

Not sure how this is classified as a "coarse cut." It was cut so fine, it was reminiscent of opening a can of Copenhagen. The tobacco felt great between the fingers--light and silky.

That's where the good ends.

Stuff lights easy. Burns like paper in a brush fire. A bowl lasted like 10-15 minutes. Taste is sort of like maple at first, but then burns so fast, it tasted like a generic cigarette. Room notes are ok.

Not sure if there's better batches out there, but based on this one, I was very disappointed.

This was my first venture into Cornell & Diehl tobaccos and probably the last one.

JESUS CHRIST! Could you flavor tobacco any more than this?!? You are literally smoking maple syrup! Ghosted my pipe, ghosted my mouth - for days after I was tasting maple syrup.

The flavoring is waaaay over the top. If they were to use 1/10th of the topping - it would've been a very pleasant smoke. Until then - you are better off just drinking some maple syrup instead.

I really wanted to try some of the other C&D tobaccos, but I am way to gun-shy now.

I love this stuff, sometimes I just like to open the jar and smell it and then smoke something else. I think it is one of the better aromatics out there. I have to exhale through my nose in order to taste it at times, but it is spectacular when I haven't been smoking much, this way I can really catch the flavor. This blend for me will always bring back memories of smoking in my college apartment during the fall with the sliding glass door open! It intermingles so well with those fall smells of leaves, smoke coming from peoples chimneys in the air, and of coarse pumpkin spice candles that some girl brought into the bachelor pad, haha! It is quite the mild blend and the toping is not to wet which I like, unfortunately it doesn't smoke quite as good as it smells, but it is tasty none the less!

Had to change my rating because, C&D has significantly altered the quality of the product, it is no longer worth smoking IMO, tastes like cigarettes.

Not for me. Amazing room note but it burns hot, bites the tongue and leaves an horrible aftertaste. Textbook example of why I am not a big fan of aromatics.

With all the hype, my expectations were high. I’ve been disappointed with most of Cornell & Diehl’s products lately, and this unfortunately continues the theme.

It smells fantastic when you open the tin, but that’s the best thing I can say about this. I don’t know if I got a dud tin, but I thought I was looking at the contents of a can of dip it was so finely cut and chopped. I’m not talking about just a fine shag, the cut is extremely fine and short. The entire contents of the tin are this way. Perhaps this is intentional, but it conveys a “what do we do with all these scraps?”-style presentation. In any case, I think this type of cut, any kind of shag cut when it comes to pipe tobacco, provides for a hot, fast and muddled smoking experience.

That delicious tin note does not translate to the smoke. It’s just a mildly sweet and mostly bland flavor.

More and more, I’m beginning to view Cornell & Diehl as the OTC blender of the premium tobacco realm. I’m glad they have as many fans as they do, and there are still a few Pease blends that I think they’re getting right, but the switch to the finer ribbon cut for many of their blends in the last couple years has been detrimental to their quality.

As it stands, I tried a few bowls of this over the course of a few days and threw it in the trash.

Oh, and the above picture of the tin and the accompanying tobacco is clearly from the pre-2016 era, before C&D switched to the ultra fine shag cut. I’m now of the opinion that most reviews of C&D produced blends pre-2016 have been rendered essentially useless, as most of their blends now feature a shag cut, and seemingly different leaf in many cases, and therefore bear little resemblance to what they once were.

Upon buying this tobacco, I was very pleased with the tin note. Very pleasant maple/bourbon note is present. However, once I actually loaded this up and smoked it, it became apparent to me that this blend is a very bland and stale cigarette taste. It burns extremely hot, and like most aromatics (cheaper ones) instead of the last 1/3 of the bowl being an ashy taste/aroma, the whole smoke was that way for me. I threw my tin away. I wasn’t impressed.