Cornell & Diehl Bow-Legged Bear

Weird... I like the other C&D crumble cakes, but this one is not completely to my liking. It must be the perique's fault.

I find this tobacco very heavy in nicotine and "presence", but not equally tasty: all flavors seem a bit muddy and hushed, a bit similar to the latest versions of Nightcap.

The smell in the tin is earthy and musky, reminiscent of bitter cocoa. There is Latakia, but it is muffled by the other olfactive notes.

This tobacco is actually quite balanced as all the ingredients sing in a chorus and do not stand out immediately, but this is IMHO also a fault as the taste is quite dull too, compared to Pirate Kake and Longevity.

The nicotine punch is hefty (stronger than Nightcap, perhaps): after a few puffs, this tobacco leaves me nauseated and weak. But, as I said, this is probably due to my intolerance to large measures of Perique rather than because of the nicotine.

I guess you should try this tobacco anyway as it has many fans and it has plenty of potential to appeal to some smokers.

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.

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.

This tobacco is listed as an English blend, but to my palate it is no such thing. I am, admittedly a latakia lover, so my assessment comes from that perspective. For me the taste of this blend has much more in common with a VaPer or a burley, virginia, perique blend. The latakia is undetectable. It has much more in common with Night Train or Old Joe Krantz than with any of the well-known English blends. The burly is front and center; the perique makes itself known as does the virginia (to a lesser extent). If you are looking for a classic English blend, look elsewhere. If you like the aforementioned NT or OJK, then you will like this. It is full-flavored with some light natural sweetness, and, with attentive packing and puffing cadence, will behave without bite (though it may sport a rough edge or two).

I smoked nightcap for years, but in terms of knock your socks off nicotine...this stuff takes the taco! First third of the bowl is great, rich and dense, almost creamy smoke and then it hits you. The bear tears into you; nicotine, and ash/cigarette tasting remainder. It almost turns into a "who's gonna win" match, you or the bear. Good tobac, just not my everyday cup of tea. All others, Enjoy!

C & D's bow-legged Bear has a tin note that is sweet and smoky, not much else. The smoke is woody, smoky, earthy, with a little spice. Slightly sour in places but not much else in the first half of the bowl. In the second half, I pick up some tanginess from the VA's and just a hint of the perique below the other notes. It's not a complex blend by any means. The overall strength is solidly in the med. to strong range as is the nic. The room note is not the best. To be fair, the tin stamp indicated 12/27/23 and I opened it on 2/3/24 so it is a little on the new side, but not something I need to reorder.