Cornell & Diehl Black Frigate

Very nice Lat & Or blend with a nice twist. The krumble kake format makes it a slow burner. Smoky, spicy and the rum is present without being a detriment. It's not as strong nicotine wise as I expected; but not for mic whimps either. Black Frigate is a Latakia aromatic that works.

Very much licked this one. Some, or more, perique would held. It reminds a little of Seattle Pipe club plum pudding. Overall, very nice. The smoke is very creamy.

I was a little intimidated by this tobacco, a nice chunk of cake was a surprise to me. I failed to notice anywhere that this was a crumble cake. Ooops.

Anyway, I broke off a nice chunk and got it all rubbed and ready to burn in my new Brigham Voyageur Rhodesian.

Upon lighting I noticed that I should have broken it up a bit more than I had, there was one chuink that just kept expanding, like the blob, it was crazy.

Anyway, I wasn't too sure what too expect from this, but I wasn't disappointed.

I did notice that the nicotine content was relatively low, but the flavor was sky high. For some reason I wasn't getting heavy Latakia from this, which was one thing I did expect.

So far, I have smoked two bowls of it. One in the Brigham and one in my Dr. Grabow Omega and I found that this seems to smoke better and has more flavor in a smaller bowl, which is probably obvious, but hell, I'm still pretty new to this.

This one tasted great. I like cavendish, I like latakia, I like turkish... Black Frigate, perfect. This is very sweet tasting with that big latakia smoke, earthy taste. I liked it a lot. It is definitely "rough" around the edges but a very tasty smoke and I did not get any tongue bite.

This is a special occasion smoke for me. Friends around a fire type of thing.

It was brought to me as a gift from my friend karg at the pipeclub.gr meeting in June 2010 and I WOULK LIKE TO THANK HIM FOR THAT...

A mixture of Black Cavendish, Latakia and Turkish Oriental. A pure Navy blend a cube flake. Beautiful smoke which I would describe as American type since my favorite Latakia very noticeable. Heavy smoke with intense flavors from the beginning to the end of the bowl. It burns and leaves a fine white powder at the end. It needs little effort to start, because it does not light easily. Its scent can be rather annoying to non-smokers.

Generally, it has the sweetness that I look for in the latakioriental tobaccos.

Get your knife out for this one, comes in pressed flake just like they did it a hundred years ago. Cut off a piece and rub it out good, lightly pack it in one of your briers and put a match to it. Absolutely old English navy at its best. Latakia is very present in this fine blend along with a tad of unsweetened black cavendish and zesty turkish, rounding out a somewhat of a medium bodied but tangeful and delighting smoke. This reminds me of London Blend but without the campfire taste that lingers all through your tastebuds, very refined Latakia with just a tad of sweetened goodness along with a noticeable nicotine kick that makes this blend very different and surprisingly delicious. I will have to order some more of this solely as an aromatic escape route.

I can't taste any rum here. True, my tin is a rusty Ebay acquisition most likely from the end of the last century. The tobacco has held up in the little sealed plastic bag C&D used to use, but it's pretty dry. The Latakia stands out so much that I can't really tell what the nature of the cavendish is. Is there any burley in here? Or is it Virginia cavendish? Maybe I will have a better idea when I have smoked a few more bowls. This is to me a full yet not overwhelming English. My first samplings have left the roof of my mouth a little roasted, but I have been hitting the pipe rather hard in the last few days. It may be that when I cut down on smoking and smoke a small bowl of this-slowly, it will be more kind to me.

That said, it did not torture me too much, and has a nice flavor. I get more complexity from Dunhill Durbar (new version; that's all I've tried), but when I have had time to experiment with different pipes and techniques for smoking this particular weed, I will update with any further epiphanies. Presentation is perfect: while C&D has some trouble with flakes (consistency), their crumble cakes are marvelous. I wish they would use the classic-style tins which age so well for their products-seems they could afford to given the prices they charge, because their old metal tins don't seal well and the cat-food type containers don't quite cut it as well. Oh well.

I smoked the first bowl in a Marxman Jumbo, and that was a bit over the top, though this tobacco could work in a large bowl. I had more success in my little Jobey Stromboli 200, as this pipe calmed down the mouth-bite. I really sensed more of the Turkish in the Jobey as well. I still can't taste the rum, but the cavendish must be Virginia based, not burley. As the first reviewer of this blend noted back in 2002, flavors are not complex at first, but "build to a crescendo" in the last third of the bowl.

My tin came in a neat cake. The smell was very alcoholic. I always wonder what brands C&D uses for these alcoholic toppings and flavorings.

The cake comes moist and I preferred to do some drying to reduce the heat in the smoke.

Time in a jar, or in the tin, helped this one, in my opinion. The smoke is kind of alcoholic, tangy and juicy and woody, with the hint of leather and smoke one might expect. Its really an interesting flavor. It's a pretty strong taste towards the end of the bowl, and I enjoyed this most in a smaller bowl.

Strength is medium, maybe even strong. Nicotine is the same.

I would recommend this to the adventurous piper. I highly recommend this for its uniqueness in this genre of blends.

3rdGuy

This is one of those blends that I would smoke every other year for something different. While it didnt grab me like many others it is different enough to stand strong in the flavor department. My tin was 2 years old the the latakia I presume had mellowed just enough to give a very mild on latakia, very light on rum taste which I did enjoy. Just not enough that I would want this on a regular basis. Worth a try if you enjot latakia and also a mild rum taste in the side car.