Cornell & Diehl Bailey's Front Porch

I won't go into detail as I usually do in my reviews. This is simply a Americanized version of an English blend. The components of this blend are of high quality, but just didn't do anything together to keep my interest. It is not a bad blend, but it is neither an excellent blend IMO, of course. One could do much worse I suppose. After 4 bowls gave away to a fellow BOB. I won't be purchasing any more, but I wouldn't turn it down if I was out of tobac (fat chance! LOL!) I much prefer Pirate Cake, Haunted Bookshop, Longevity (the original), Santa's mistake, SOTE, etc...

This is an odd blend. Like many C&D blends the burley is the main player and thats fine, but here the other elements, in particular the latakia, seem to lose character somehow. The whole is somehow less than the sum of the parts. Its fine but id not buy it again.

There's nothing particularly wrong with this blend specially if you like burley blends, but for all the ingredients listed on this blend I was expecting a consistent blend during my smoke, at first you get citrusy virginia along with a very mild latakia and very high quality perique,but after the first half of the bowl all I could taste was the burley a very hot prone to tongue bite ashy burley, now this would not bother me if it was for the sole fact that this is been advertised as a american style english. In my humble opinion this blend would benefit more if they switch out the perique and added orientals to the mix. Personally I don't think that aging does anything to this blend.

I go back and forth on this blend. It's considerably more complex than most of the American/English blends on the market, with almost enough perique to make it reminiscent of Nightcap. Another reviewer mentioned that it's like smoking all the colors of the rainbow, and I'm inclined to agree. It's a nice smoke, and I've got some cellared to see what aging does to it, but it's not quite as good as other C&D offerings in the same genre. On the plus side, it has good burning characteristics and doesn't bite unless provoked.

There is neither anything spectularly wrong with this, nor anything outstandingly good. There are so many characterful English or Balkan mixtures of high quality around that Bailey's Front Porch leaves an impression of insipidity. The presentation is attractive, and the burn qualities good.

I rate this only somewhat recommended simply because, compared to the other tobaccos in this series (most notably Old Joe Krantz), BFP is just not strong enough. Compared to Morley's Best there is very little Latakia taste. I did detect the Perique, barely, and the overall effect is quite quite smooth and nice, with a charming sweetness from the VAs. I can see many a pipe smoker loving this. I ,however, usually gravitate toward more robust mixtures.

I do think this is more refined (smoother, higher quality Burley) than similar offereings from other manufactuers, but without any topping.