Cornell & Diehl Autumn Evening

I purchased sixteen ounces of bulk on this. It cellared for almost four full years. The initial tin note smoothed out from the intense maple aroma I remember when I jarred it. But upon opening it was still a rush of delicious maple syrup. Typical Cornell and Diehl quality in the blend and leaf. No garbage stems and such. Just nice smokable leaf. The taste and smell is so much like a church pancake breakfast. That's why I bought it.

I've read a lot of reviews complaining of a heavy ash taste. Intentionally I smoked this very fast and hot. It produced this result. My normal slow approach and several light tampings produce the same favorable results every other time.

Cornell & Diehl - Autumn Evening.

I posted a review on this blend a year ago, when I read it I vehemently disagreed, so since it's become part of my aromatic rotation I decided to delete it and re-post.

The tin-note is sweet, maybe caramel-like, with a touch of fruit. I wouldn't call it Coarse Cut, the pieces are very fine in build, and from a fresh tin the moisture's faultless.

I enjoy the smoking, like I find with the tin's aroma, the sweetness wins. This sweetness is a kind of an amalgamation of honey, sugar and maple, with a slight creaminess from the vanilla. I don't recognise any whisky or rum, sure, the rum may be adding molasses to the sweetness, but any alcohol piquancy is absent. The fruit/citrus present the same problem, I can't identify any! The tobacco note is defunct of any fresh or sharp Virginia traits, like with the added flavourings, the sweet side wins. Due to the delicate build of the tobacco, a long smoke relies upon the bowl being fairly well packed, loose packing makes it burn too fast. It gives a cool, independent burn, with bite-free smoke.

Nicotine: mild. Room-note: great.

Cornell & Diehl Autumn Evening: a wonderful aromatic. Highly recommended:

Four stars.

(This review is from an aged bulk sample, so tins may vary to some degree - at least in moisture content and burnability)

Presentation is a dark, somewhat fine cube-cut. Jar note is overwhelmingly sweet and bursting with maple. The maple flavor is so intense as to make the blender's description almost comic ("delicate maple flavor").

That said, this is everything an aromatic should be, and everything the majority of aromatics are not. Takes a light from the beginning - no relights required. Burns well, and burns fast. But it's not overly hot. And burns surprisingly dry for such an obviously heavily flavored tobacco. Best of all, the flavor here, while not complex, is in fact maple. And delicious. With little to no heat. And no tongue bite or chemical taste. Amazing. I was most surprised by the lack of goop or dampness in the pipe after smoking this. It may have had to do with the drier, bulk tobacco. But I still expected some goop in the pipe. I would, however, have to assume that this would ghost a pipe and would be careful about smoking this blend in other than a pipe dedicated to aromatics.

Why more blenders can't seem to figure out how to make aromatics like this is beyond me. For the style, for what it is, absolutely four stars.

Warning: the maple flavor here is intense in the beginning. Almost overwhelming. Syrupy. If you don't like maple, skip this one.

I am writing this review as i am smoking this great offering from c&d. I just got this in the post today and was very excited to try it. Now i am a pure latakia junkie and really have no time for aromatics and tongue bite i usually get from them but boy was i surprised with this one. On with the review upon opening the tin i was hit with a very strong maple casing delicate it was not, i thought i was heading down a slippery road! Moisture was fine can do with a little airing out. I grabbed my meer and loaded it up first impressions was a sweet taste from the red va's but not sickly. I can't taste anything chemical at this point and my tongue is fine. Flavor is the same until half of the bowl and the room note very nice the wife was loving it and i was enjoying myself puffing away. And then it hit me pancakes and maple syrup thats what this stuff tastes like wow!!

After the second half all i could taste was a lovely pancake flavor and the sweetness now has died down but ever so gently in the background. Guys try this one out it really does deliver and great for a change of pace look its not complicated but it is what it is. I will be buying more of this just to liven things up. Well done C&d and thank you for this wonderful experience! I felt like a kid again and it brought back some wonderful memories.

Automn Evening is, simply put, a remarkable maple cased tobacco! The tin note was incredible, as if I had smelled an actual can of maple syrup. The tobacco is a dark brown Ribbon-Cut which is really small in length. Being 8 months old, the tin offers a slightly on the dry side tobacco that is perfect for immediate packing without any wait. It is wonderfully easy to pack my pipes and the small Ribbon-Cut is a charm to light up. The taste of the casing comes to me as a genuine maple extract. I cannot make out the other casings supposedly in there and, honestly, I don't care for them. The maple stands on its own and is just wonderful. Automn Evening is not complex at all. It will not develop a myriad of flavours. The Virginias used for this mixture are strangely similar in behavior than a Burley would be. It starts with the maple casing which slowly attenuates to make room for some tobacco taste once past mid-bowl, but retaining a bit of the maple flavour. It burns very easily and I have not experienced tongue bite once. The nicotine strength is mild to medium, pretty much right in between. I will be buying more. I am always seeking a top of the notch aromatic and have found very few over the last almost thirty years I have been smoking a pipe. Well, let me tell you this is one of the very few. I understand why this is C & D's top aromatic seller!

I’m an equal opportunity smoker, but aromatics are probably my least visited pipe tobacco genre. I’ve been disappointed too many times by great smelling tobacco that turns into a bitter steamy mess once lit. Autumn evening is one of the few aromatics that passed the test of combustion.

The tin note is awesome. Sweet maple syrup, with a touch of vanilla. There’s a hint of bourbon as well, which adds an “adult” component to an otherwise “kids cereal” aroma.

This cavindish is unlike any I’ve smoked before. Reddish color, not sticky or oily feeling. The thin ribbons pack easily without worry of over-compressing like most aromatics.

The smoke is very mild, with a light cinnamon vanilla flavor. The maple is heavy in the room note. The pipe burns well, very little moisture or dottle left over, but definitely a ghost in the pipe.

If you like natural tobacco flavor, you won’t find it here. If you want a quality aromatic, this is hard to beat. Not something I would smoke often, but it’s one of the best in its class.

This is my first review on Tobaccoreviews.com or any pipe tobacco site for that matter. This is also my first aromatic from C&D, yet I am a huge fan of their other tobaccos. Autumn Evening is the first aromatic that I have experienced that is not "goopy" or wet with some sort of humectant and can be smoked straight from the freshly opened tin. I quite enjoyed these properties.

The tin note smells like warm maple syrup. The reason that I added the word "warm" is the maple smell is very forward. I loaded my brand new "Bones" bent billiard from Morgan Pipes with Autumn Evening and mouth some fire to it. This blend was rather receptive to the flame and only needed additional ignition twice after the initial light. The taste of the smoke aligns well with the tin note. My study smelled like the hot maple and brown sugar oatmeal with extra maple syrup that I frequently have for breakfast.

My tongue seems to be a bit sensitive to bite on occasion, however this blend did not offer to irritate my palate. Autumn Evening also made my mustache smell of maple syrup which my wife liked much more than some of the other blend that I smoke.

Stay smoky my friends....

Tastes just like it smells in the can - maple syrup.

I don't love many aromatics but I do love this one. A rich, sweet, smooth tobacco with not a trace of harshness or bite. Has a great smell for bystanders and a cool illustration on the label.

If this is indicitive of the quality of the rest of C&D's tobaccos, I will be smoking them a lot.

As I don't live in the Land of the Free I have had to order this (and others) over the internet from US based tobacconists. All of the companies I've dealt with have been very reasonably priced and quick to dispatch the packages. I've kept the orders small (200-300 grams total weight of tobacco in sealed tins) and had no problems with UK customs.

Cornell & Diehl - Autumn Evening

Well.  Clearly a blend like this won't be for everyone, but I'd like to share a couple what I feel are keys to doing this blend.  A little background: I've bought this both in tin and bulk formats over several years, and I smoke it in a smaller straight long stemmed Grabow acorn that's dedicated to maple aromatics, no idea how it would perform in a larger bowl.

Key 1 - pay heed to your cadence.  No need for super close attention, but if you go at it too hard obviously it will get hot.  It probably won't bite but it will start to taste ashy.  You'll get the best flavor keeping it cool.

Key 2 - unlike most aros this is virginia based rather than black cavendish based.  The virginia has been cavendished to remove bite potential.  But, the virginia hasn't been rendered a tasteless vehicle for artificial flavor delivery, so you'll taste tobacco too.

The flavor as I'd describe it is mainly maple, with chocolate and vanilla.  I don't really catch the others.  The room note as I see it is a pleasant maple - vanilla, but also can have something of a slight cigarette type note, still an overall pleasant scent. I was once told it smells like a vanilla cupcake...this instance was outdoors.

Key 3 - buying in the tin, you may find the flavoring overwhelming for the first week or so after cracking a fresh tin.  The flavoring will start to mellow out after a couple weeks, even if you jar it.

Not the goopy, glycol laden mess a lot of aros typically are.  Glycol free, made with quality tobacco that has tobacco taste and a little bit of kick.  One of the more quality aromatics available today.