Cornell & Diehl Bridge Mixture

This blend is like none I have ever tried. For style points this one is a winner. As for my personal taste this one gets two stars. The main reason that I am not in love with this blend is the extreme peppery taste at the top of the bowl. It is not a Perique pepper more like a strong cigar gone wrong. Once that wears off the blend is fairly decent. I would not say great but decent. The afore mentioned peppery taste was enough to make my eyes water and my nose tickle. I have tried to decide whether the pepper comes from the Perique or the 20 year old dark fired Kentucky burley, but have concluded that it is probably a combination of all ingredients. This was enough of a turn off to not try it again, but I think all adventurous smokers should try it.

Masterful! My favorite blend. I recently opened a 2 year old tin, #81, of the first 200 I think. I have several of these tins from the early production and they have swelled all that they can swell without bursting open, or deforming. Makes you wonder what is going on in there.

Age mellows the blend a bit. Still plenty of strength. The flavor is milder. All those insteresting tastes are still there. What is a fantastic blend fresh, is still fantastic. A slight cigar or rope taste. I assume that is the 20 yo dark fired Kentucky. But there is a fermented taste or scent, that I just love. Not sure which component of the blend adds that, but it's great. This is not a latakia blend, so those folks with that aversion should be aware that it is used as a condiment.

This is not a bitey blend either. A nice sweetness from the Virginia's. As good as this blend is, I would have thought that it had a lot of burley. There is just so many right things going on in this blend.

Enjoy! Carlos

This blend had a definite cigar taste to me, even more so than some of the "supposed" cigar blends. The blend itself is a pleasant enough latakia/burley blend that smokes cool and gives a good dose of nicotene. I personally just didn't get into it, but I can certainly see how others could love this!

The tobacco is high quality and the smoking qualities reveal this. It smoked the same in small to large bowls, albeit more intense in smaller pipes.

That being said, this blend seems simply strong and blustery and uninteresting: sooty, peppery with solid nicotine hits and that's about it. More ingredients than Mississippi Mud, but this is less complex and less flavorful.

It just doesn't fill any flavor profiles for me, and I won't be making a place for it.

This is what I imagine Escudo with Latakia would be like, though C&D uses better quality tobaccos in my opinion.

Bridge Mixture is unlike any other tobacco I have tried. There are a lot of tastes in there, and they work together in a unique way. It really is difficult for me to describe, but I liked it quite a lot.

Of course, the physical characteristics of the tobacco were excellent as they always are with Cornell and Diehl blends: properly dry, attractive in appearance, and clean burning to a dry ash.

The only reason I won't smoke this all the time is that it is just too distracting. There's too much going on for me to ignore it and read or listen to music; I usually prefer calmer pleasures. But make no mistake: this is a good one and I will be enjoying it again in the future.

Liked it more than I thought I would. This is one of those eclectic blends like Revelation (which I have never tried) and the various flavors meld together without a single element dominating. I smoked it in my Marxman Jumbo, which has a large capacity yet tends to smoke fast. This seemed right for this blend. I wasn't sure about it at first, but it really improved halfway through and towards the end I was puffing heavily, producing clouds of smoke and sucking hot ashes into my mouth! No bite at all despite this, and a unique flavor. Rustic, a little soapy, but not perfumed soap-more like Ivory. My tin was also bulged out like a full can of beer that has been rolled down the street, so there must have been some fermentation going on in there over the last five years.

This is a good hearty smoke that is fullbodied and at it's peak striaght from the tin, an interesting change of pace. The flavor developed very nicly throughtout the bowl,it is now in my roration.

Burley and Perique, seasoned with Latakia? Who'd'a thunk it?

Well, fortunately, C&D did. The Burley/Perique combination is a nice change of pace from the standard fare, and the Latakia just kicks it up a notch.

If you like English and are not adverse to Burley, definitely give this a try.

A good smoke.

I will second the esteemed and renowned Morleysson below me in these reviews. The (many) tobaccos in Bridge Mixture play in harmonious concert. This is a great blend! You just have to try it to see (read ?taste?) what it is all about.

A cigarette is to be smoked. A cigar is to be enjoyed. A pipe is to be savored.

I rate this tobacco 9.9 out of 10.