Cornell & Diehl Blockade Runner

Bone dry, rum soaked and different, Blockade Runner is unlike any Navy flake I have ever encountered. Not a super star, but very flavorful and surprisingly punch strong as its foreboding, dark appearance would indicate. It crumbled and packed nicely.

I'd purchase another tin and enjoy it.

Cornell & Diehl - Blockade Runner.

The 2oz tin contains a whole, unbroken, kake, with an unequivocal smell of rum emanating from it. Filling a bowl is easy, a smokes worth can be easily pulled away from the block, so there isn't any necessity to have to sit for fifteen minutes or so crumbling the whole thing.

For the initial part of a bowl the rum's a lot sharper, with more actual alcoholic traits. After about a third of a bowl it develops more of a molasses sweetness, and becomes soft as opposed to sharp. The temperature and burn are good: cool, and slow. The smoke has a nice texture, being thick and palpable, and at no point in a bowl does it bite me.

The room-note scores 5/10, and the nicotine's just below medium.

I love a good krumble kake, I think it's a nice way of presenting a blend, but when the mood takes for one me I'll stick with Cornell & Diehl's Back Frigate. That's one star better!

Recommended.

Strange I thought I reviewed this back in 2004 when I first tried it. I can remember clearly driving down the Garden State Parkway with my Father as we were buying our first boat. I was smoking it in a mini meerschaum, you know the ones with plastic stems that look ridiculous compared to real pipes. Well back then even in that tiny tiny pipe I got kicked by the nicotine. Fast forward to 2014 and I am smoking a fresh tin, still next to dad, in a MM Country Gentleman and the strength is perfect. Amazing what a decade does to the ability to handle Nicotine. Anyways BR smells like Myers dark rum, has the most ingenious cardboard container inside the tin that keeps the block intact. Red and black Virginia is evident. Burns easily, is a little spicy through the nose although no perique is present, must be the Spiced Rum I taste in the snork. 3+ years make this blend a 4 star event. Fresh its tasty but the Virginia has not had time to relax and get sugary, so I did what I learned over the last 10 years to do: buy two tins to age while I smoke a third. Smoke in a narrow pipe like a MM Country Gentleman, slowly like every breathe and you will be rewarded with butterscotch and baked bread flavors. I'm thinking buttered croissants Mmmm! Roomnote is not terrible, I love it, bystanders say its not that bad. Whats not to like, the cuts great, black and red V - A+ and all held together by dark rum... O btw it never bites.. the spicyness might seem like bite but its not. Enjoy Me Hartys!!!

The VAs are nicely balanced and form a good structure, but for me, the rum is the slightly stronger player here. It's not a sweet smoke, but there is no doubt about it being flavored (although it is not as strong as the tin note suggested). The crumble cake certainly crumbles, sometimes into too fine of particles, so this is one blend that would be easy to over-pack, esp. if too moist, and sometimes it needs a relight. Overall, fans of the flavor of a Navy flake who aren't fussy about the form should give it a try.

Upon opening the tin I get a nice blast of rum. The kake crumbles easily. First few puffs after lighting seemed a bit harsh, and bowl heated up fast. After a bit it calmed down (or I just slowed down) and the sweetness from the Virginia and the rum comes through. Usually with flavorings I notice they fade as you smoke, but with this one the rum flavor seems to become stronger as I went along. That was the impression I got (maybe it's just the rum talking). Stayed pleasant til the end of the bowl. Recommend for any pipe smoker.

A square block of old school navy cavendish, heavily cased with Rum. Stout and full-bodied. I really like this in the evening after I've spent a day smoking sweeter Virginias. I like the tactile feel of breaking off a chunk of this tobacco, rubbing it out, and seeing the dark patches on my fingertips. I usually smoke this with a sweet liqueur like Jack Daniels Honey or Cuarenta y Tres. Definitely recommended for anyone looking for something off the beaten path.

Nice solid compressed cake. Mostly light brown intermixed with golden brown. Aroma of light rum out of the tin. Crumbles easily into small pieces. For me this tobacco likes to be lightly packed and lightly tampered. Cold draw it is sweet rum and nice bright tobacco flavors. Tangy. Background of dried fruits. Takes a couple lights and tamps to get going, probably because I enjoy a light pack on this one. Charring light flavor is grassy, citrus and rum. Needs to be puffed slow or the tobacco gets harsh and single noted. Slow puffing rewards with an extra sweet Virginia smoke. The rum disappears and just comes across as a sweetener to the tobacco. Real simple and basic VA flavor, the extra sweetness really helps it for me. Room note is light tobacco. I plan on buying another tin and letting some age get on it.

Cornell & Diehl make some very good tobacco blends. Im not sure this is really a winner....but, it gives you a good hit of Rum taste in a krumble cake and even when you reach the bottom of the tin and its dried out a lot, the rum doesn't go away. Its not the most complex navy flake out there, but perhaps its not meant to be. But I can understand those who become huge fans of it. Smokes cool(ish) and once dried just a bit it wont need relights. I buy it regularly but its not in the pantheon of all star blends. Aging will probably help cool the smoke I suspect. There can be a tendency to get a bit hot at the bottom of a bowl, so sip this one.

A very nice krumble cake. Gotta love those krumble kakes from C&D. This one is a tightly packed, strong to the nose tobacco. The cake breaks off in little pieces that are readily put into the pipe. Usually when it breaks off, fine 'unspent' dottle falls on the table. It's a strong tobacco, plenty of nicotine. My wife hates the smell in the tin and in the smoke. This one is an outsider. It reminds me of what I think they might have smoked on a navy ship for sure. The cake is a dark and light brown flake.

I tasted a bit of casing, not much though, comes and goes, mostly just a nice hardily stoved Virginia. Stout, nicotine, nice kake.

Doesn't that sound appealing, try some. If you like it a bit strong, you'll like this one.