Cornell & Diehl Black Dawg

this tobacco really took me by surprise the first time i lit up. there was an unpleasant creosote-like taste on the first few draws that nearly made me dump the bowl. the only thing that prevented it was the other good reviews i had read and the fact that it came from one of my favorite blenders, craig tarler. it got a little better later on, but seemed to burn hot. i put a humidor pouch button in the can and let it set for a couple of days. then i loaded it in my coolest smoking pipe(a striker). still got a touch of the creosote taste, but a big improvement after that. reminded me of a milder version of my favorite C&D tinned blend "bow-legged bear". flavor stayed consistent and burned down to a very nice fine gray ash in the bottom of the bowl with no wasted dottle. this is not a bad blend, but there are others that i like better, which is why i don't plan to keep any on hand. 2 stars, although a 2 1/2 might be more appropriate.

This is the first and only C&D blend I've had the pleasure to sample, but so far, the company is 1 for 1! Upon opening the box and finding the tin inside, I surveyed the thing. A nice black labrador dog on the front, so immediately, I began to think "aww, its a cute tobacco!" Curious, I crack open the tin and take a big whiff.... and nothing. No smell, No aroma.. Nothing. I look confused, and then notice that the tobacco is sealed inside a small vacuum bag! AH! This stuff wouldn't go bad anytime soon. Anyway, upon opening the baggie, I was treated to one of my favorite smells in the world; the tasty, leathery, earthen aroma of a high-latakia content tobacco. Packing was simple, its quite uniformly cut to what I call a "cavendish" cut, where all the tobacco is in small, quarter-inch peices. The bowl packed easily and since the peices are so small, much goodness fit into the bowl. With the charring light, I noticed something. It wasn't quite a normal latakia flavor, nor was it anything I'd noticed before. Something about the initial top-note of the latakia/mild cavendish/perique mixture really piqued my senses. Tamp, and final light. The first part of the bowl was dominated by that wonderful mixture of flavors I described above, but at the half-way point, something very odd happened; everything just sort of ran together. Not in a bad way, however, and maybe it was just my palate getting used to the flavor, but it definately got to be a smoother, more refined smoke in the middle to bottom of the bowl. As with most every latakia I've smoked, it was cool and dry when smoked in my large-bowled Nording freehand. Over the course of several bowls, no bite or unpleasantness at all. In fact, each bowl got more rich and tasty than the one before it. I can truly see how this would be an all-day english mixture!

Highly recommended to all latakia lovers, and to those that are moderately interested, give it a shot. I find it to be one of the best I've tried.