Cornell & Diehl Bow-Legged Bear

Bow Legged Bear is a tobacco I have wanted to try for months. After reading the reviews about the legendary strength of this Bear, I wanted to see if I could handle it. I can. The strength makes my skin tingle. I love the Bear. It comes in large plugs, that remind me of plug chewing tobacco. It crumbles easy enough. It packs well, stays lit and burns to a fine ash. A smokey, spicy, and maybe a slight prune flavor. It left the taste on my tongue long after the fire went out. Which is a good thing. You can definitely taste the quality. For me it is not an all day smoke. I would not want to smoke this blend while reading the newspaper or mowing the lawn. It is a great smoke after a good meal. BLB is a good tobacco when you want some quiet reflection. Bow Legged Bear is like a bigger, and stronger brother to SPC's Plum Pudding.

Not a bad tobacco, by any means, but not one that I'll be smoking regularly. Its taste is full and vaguely interesting at times, but far too muddy on the whole. The components don't really gel for me, into anything sensible and pleasing. It's very confusing to my palate. Muddy is the right word.

Not an english blend, not an aromatic, not a burley blend, nor an oriental blend, not a VA-PER blend. I don't know what it is, but it's good ! Full taste, full pepperness, extra-full strenght. High complexity, every tobaccos play a role, no one everwelming the others. Aroma: smooth and smoky latakia and spicy orientals ( i think Izmir), a lot of plum and/or apricot cake aroma, pepperness from perique, nuttiness from burley. Burning qualities : wonderfull ! Easy to rub out, easy to burn, just grey ash at the finish. Full and genuine taste. A little overwealming and raw....

This is hard to classify as a traditional English for me because the Virginia and Turkish really take a distant back seat to the Latakia, Perique and Burley.

It is cigar-like, fairly complex, and dominated by Latakia and Perique. It reminds me of Dunhill's Nightcap, but more robust and it is a little like Mississippi Mud, but way more subdued and balanced for my tastes.

I enjoy this most by pinching a bit off the hard, dry "sticks" of tobacco and crumbling the blend with my finger tips, then lightly layering this into medium to large pipe bowls. Treating this like a flake to be folded into a bowl did not work well.

It lights with a single match and burns gently with consistent, mild tamping. Several times throughout the smoke I pour off the ash to keep things burning aright. Very cool and bite-free, even puffed hard outdoors. I enjoy it with strong dark roast coffee.

This is certainly best aged, as the "edge" and balance improved as I kept coming back to this over a period of about a year.

I'm so glad I bought this one. I've been looking for a full flavored, strong tobacco and this is one of those. When I opended the tin and saw the to square plugs I was almost tempted to try taking a bite out of one like my grandads old plugs of Cannonball but I resisted. I love the smell of this stuff and had fun breaking pieces of to stuff into my bowl. Man, it looks like fudge. You almost got to be careful with this one and try not to inhale to much cause this one's got a bear's strength. The Latakia's not overpowering, that's a plus and the Perique helps give it a spicey bite. The Virginas are excellent and the Turkish is a nice added plus. It has an awsome flavor from first light to the finnish and burns great. If you like a smoke with a kick this is the one.

Oh my. From sniffing the open tin, to the end of a bowl, this is delicious.

Yes, it is for Latakia mavens, but the sweet presence of the Virginias and warm undertones of Perique foil a Latakian overthrow of the mixture.

This arrives at a perfect humidity, crumbles into a fine square cut, and packs with ease. Although the first few minutes deliver a monochromatic hot-tar Latakia trip, the sweetness and stewey Perique start to unfold with a measured pace of puffing. The lower level of moisture does wonders for staving off the heat of the Virginia, and a medium-size pipe has always served well for this tobacco.

A tin of BLB is always amongst my order to the tobacconist, and this has served as a "go to" smoke after dinner since I first tried it.

UPDATE March 2005: This is still a fantastic smoke. I am positive that aging in the tin is necessary for the complexity of flavor to develop; and boy does it develop. BB is an English at first, but it unfolds, and unfolds and unfolds. About half way down the bowl, no two puffs taste the same. This is very complex.

My only advice to the detractors is simply: Lay down a tin of this for a few years. You will be rewarded with a very pleasant surprise. Although not as strong as Penzance, it has a complexity not unlike that blend.

I loved it before and I love it more now.

In my opinion, Bow-legged Bear is most suited for a certain class of smoker. Most likely the one that smokes aged Virginias as their regular tobacco. BLB has the potential to appeal to nearly everyone except for the cavendish fancier. Consequently, it has equal potential for putting nearly everyone off too. The smorgassboard of ingredients is the source of such a catch 22, but to those of us that absolutely love this blend, it's popularity among the majority doesn't even figure into the equation.

The appearence in the tin is somewhat reminiscent of the season old mulch one scrapes off the bottom of their lawnmower. But that's not what we smoke for anyway. And the aroma in the tin would have to be described as somewhat unappealing. But once you've filled your bowl, which by the way is as fun as it is easy, and you set this concoction to flame, wham! This is by no means a weak blend. The first thing I notice is the latakia; tangy, smooth, and biteless. But the latakia soon starts taking a bit of a bow to the other tobaccos, and one starts noticing the perique, virginias, and turkish in turn wafting in and out through the first half of the bowl. A nutty, almost warm aroma is preasent throughout, but it's the turkish that dominates through the last half of the bowl. The perique to me seems to be a tad defiscient, and would be the only improvement I would recommend. As for nicotine content, fear not. If you are one of the nicotine dependent among us, then BLB would definitely do the trick for you. Although this is a calm, cool, and well rounded blend with pronounced high and low notes, it is truly not for everyone. But, if it's tobacco you love, and strength is an attribute for you, then I'd say give it a try. This may be on your top five list.

Well, compared to C&D Pirate Kake, this one is mild, but then again, that is true about just every English blend. The perique makes the difference here. It is very pronounced in the tin aroma and comes out strongly in the flavor as well. The aroma is even stronger than PK (but not the taste).

I find Bow-Legged Bear a thoroughly enjoyable smoke. My tin was a bit moister than other C&D krumble kakes, which tend to be almost (but not) too dry. This did not seem to be a problem, other than the rubbing out process produced bigger chunks, like the tobacco was less homogenized before pressing.This is actually kind of nice since pipe clogging can be a problem with the seemingly pulverized consistency of the other C&D krumble kakes.

As noted above, component-wise this has a little something for everybody, and this is evident in the relative complexity (for a C&D English anyway) of this blend. The latakia/perique combination tends to dominate if smoked vigorously, but at a more smoldering pace, the virginias and turkish notes come out more. This is a good blend for those occasions where one has the freedom to really concentrate on the range of available flavors. I would not recommend it to anyone that has an aversion/reaction to perique.

Smoke it slow and feel the glow.

I really wanted to like this blend but unfortunately the perique in it made my allergies go crazy. I forced myself to at least try three bowls of it before reviewing so here goes: Ah, crumble cake! This looked promising. Crumbled easily, packed easily, lit easily. The perique immediately made its prescence known!!! argh!!! I forced myself to concentrate, the complexity of this blend was good, with a nice interplay as you smoke down the bowl. Close to end of the bowl the perique finally settles down and there is a nice rich smokiness that I love. The ash has a grey mottled appearance, no dottle, no tongue-bite. A little more nicotine kick than I care for. In ending, this is overall good blend but the perique makes me work too hard to enjoy. I much prefer "Longevity" for a crumble cake blend, or "Midnight Ride" for a blend with Perique that does not trigger my allergies. Ciao!