Cornell & Diehl Red Virginia Cavendish

Ribbon cut of mostly moderate to darker brown. Kind of a musty bag aroma and it came very dry but not crispy. My intent was to use it as a blender but I smoked a couple of bowls of it straight to get a feel for what it would bring to a blend. Unfortunately, it didn't do what I wanted, which was to create a mild sweetener to a more robust blend. It was a bit too robust on its own, with a bit of cigar flavor thrown in. Not very sweet.

So what happened is that for the blends I'm creating, this has yet to find its purpose. I tried it with a lemon VA, with dark stoved with and without perique and with latakia and/or orientals. It made everything worse, except when mixed with a light burley, to which it imparted a little thinning of the body of the smoke and a touch of additional flavor. But not enough to make this a staple of my blending table. I'll keep the rest around and try some things with it down the road, but for now it's hard to recommend as a Cavendish-based sweetener.

Fruity with just a slight sweetness. Can be harsh depending on moisture level and how hard you push it. Can burn a little warm. It's a decent smoke, but not something I'll reach for. Mixed it 75% RVC with 25% McConnell's Pure Latakia and got a pretty good smoke out of it. The very smooth Lat did a decent job cooling it and hiding some of the harshness. Overall impression is that other options for a Red Virginia should be considered.

Medium body and flavor.

Cornell & Diehl - Red Virginia Ribbon.

On arrival the moisture enabled imminent smoking, so after a week of sporadically dipping in and out here's my thoughts:

The leading flavour's sweet and bready, with a very subtle fruitiness backing it up. On the negative side the burn can become too warm and quick if the pipe's strained. The smoke has a heavy build which can deter other folks in the room.

Nicotine: medium. Room-note: not brilliant.

As an evening smoke to sit and sip I guess this isn't that bad, but I can't smoke more than a quarter bowl without wanting to go to sleep through boredom. Somewhat recommended:

Two stars.

As a blending ingredient, works well to add body and a lightly sweet, toasty, savory/bready note to brighter or sharper blends. Lights easy, burns slowly, and doesn’t bite readily. I rather enjoyed it mixed 50/50 with bright Virginia and sprinkled with Latakia. It’s not a must have ingredient, but it’s an interesting change of pace over traditional Red Virginia. The price makes it hard to justify buying more for the lack of “wow” factor. I prefer the C & D straight/unflavored black cavendish when looking for the benefits a cavendish can provide in a blend.

2.5 stars on its own, 3 as a blender

This is sort of a 'meh' tobacco all around. To me, it fails as a straight tobacco, is kind of useless as a blending tobacco and the reality of what I tasted was far from what I expected when I purchased this.

First what I expected. I ordered this for the express purpose of blending and I thought that I would get a mildly sweet and tempered tobacco, that would both add sweetness to otherwise dull blends and mellow some overly sweet or edgy blends.

This blend is mostly flavorless, which helped it accomplish the second of my objectives, but failed in any way I wanted to add sweetness. This is also why I state that it is a failure as a straight smoking tobacco, because who wants to smoke nothing but a flavorless tobacco. In fact, it almost has a burley character to it as it can actually get pretty harsh with little provocation.

I suppose it did accomplish the objective of mellowing or diluting an overly sweet or edgy blend, but this is something that many other more enjoyable blends can do as well.

As to mellowing an overly sweet blend I would prefer use a burley or even Carter Hall to this tobacco. On the point of the edginess, however, I did find this to work quite well. recently I used it with some Blackpoint and Westminster to make them more palatable in the summer months. I would even go so far as to say, I found I enjoyed both of those GLP blends better after the addition of this to the bowls.

With all of this said, there is no criticism I can give to the leaf itself. It is of high quality, burns well and, like all the C&D blends I have ever smoked, it comes at the perfect humidity level. Two stars for this one since it is not terrible.

525V - Red Virginia Cavendish

Star Rating = 2.75

Rating Scores - 10 is the Best and 0 is the Worst

Pouch Note = 8

Room Note = 8

Flavor = 7

Bite = 7

Burn = 8

After Taste = 8

Raw Score = 46

Rated Percentage = 77%

Comment = Strong Flavor, has a big Bite, This is not a very good smoke

Smoking now:

Comes rather dry, broken pieces of various small shapes and sizes. The taste is bready, a little tart, a little hay, little sweetness. Has some wood and spice too. Rather harsh at times. The retrohale has more tart and bread, a little sharp. Gets harsh if puffed too fast. It’s pretty straight forward. I got it to make my own maple blend à la autumn evening which this is the base for that blend. This kind of grew on me the more I smoked it. It was is ok. I’ll use it for blending.