Cornell & Diehl Cross Eyed Cricket

This is my second english blend and upon opening the tin, the aroma set me back because it smelled so strong. I almost dreaded lighting my pipe, but I did and found the tobacco to actually be quite smooth. I picked up some very light latakia, but the perique is definetly there. Overall the flavoring is very light and will become a break from my usual aromatics.

Summer 2003 the hottest I can remember, all those latakia blends did,nt seem right. Routing in the closet I found a tin of crossed eyed cricket been in their for a while. Light rum punch it said . Just the job I thought. On opening the light rum punch nearly knocked me out and I had not even put it in a pipe. Thought I better use the rum blend pipe. Upon lighting the rum punch again dominated then it settles down to a great english with full rum punch top. Great just the thing for those long hot summer days.

Next day I got in from work and the whole house smelt of the "light "rum punch flavour. Pop Pourri forget it . Get a tin of this stuff. In 24 hours the "light" rum punch had contaiminated the Barbary coast in the rum humidor. I know burly soaks up flavours but cross eyed cricket smothers everything. It was then banished to a jar in solitary confinement.

This is a great blend for summer heat . But it has taken a good 20 bowls of strong VA to rid it from the rum pipe and it still haunts the solitary confinement jar . With a half life longer than plutonium an unforgettable blend.

Wow! This is a unique tobacco. Schizophrenic comes to mind. Of all tobaccos in my collection, this is heads above all others in intensity of aroma. It makes other "strong" aromatics like Erinmore pale in comparison. I typically store several opened tins at once in larger quasi-airtight containers. In this case, I had to quarantine Cross-Eyed Cricket by removing it from its tin and storing it in a baby-food jar with a tight fitting lid. The plastic lid on the flimsy tin could not contain the intense aroma. I also put some X-eyed Cricket in a film cannister for portability purposes and it perfumes the whole drawer I keep it in. Also, it seems a lot more "punchy" than "rummy", kind of like snorting Kool-aid crystals with perique, God forbid! What a weird combination.

But this is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a true aromatic. It also has a strong english style. I have a hard time finding a pipe I want to smoke this in, because it would contaminate either a pipe dedicated to aromatics or a pipe dedicated to latakia mixtures. I end up using a kind of wierd, off-brand briar that I am not that attached to.

Now, my issue with this blend is not that I can't tolerate latakia/perique or aromatics. Indeed, I thoroughly enjoy both. I have approached this blend several times thinking I could get both appetites met at once. My problem is that this is just too dang intense! Since others have not commented on the intensity of the aroma/flavoring, I wonder if I got a double-dosed batch or something. Must be that the cavendish really soaks up the flavoring. I know that I could leave open to air out, but it is already fairly dry, and a lot of the good tobacco flavors would also volatilize at the same time.

At any rate, I will not replace this tin when I finish it, unless I happen to sample someone else's tin and it comes across differently. It would be interesting to try this blend without the perique, which is the element that seems to clash most with the added flavoring. This product suggests strongly that you cannot have it both ways.

Let me start off by saying that this is by far my favorite tobacco... err, NAME. I just love the name Cross Eyed cricket; hell i like it even more than Bow-legged Bear. If you promise not to tell anyone, I'll tell ya a secret. Ok, ya promise? Good.....I even considered (ok, very briefly) getting the damn stoned cricket tattooed on my butt. Alas, sanity returned and I am very grateful I didn't do that prior to smoking this crap. Ok, ok,so it's not crap...it is a quality tobacco and I can see how some people could be very into it. I'm just not one of them. Let me say that, due to my being enamored by the name and tin image, I really, REALLY wanted to like this tobacco. Even after giving it several tries I just can't do it. Sure there are some qualities I like. first it has a wonderful burning quality, as do many of C&D blends. It also looks pretty, a dark tobacco with some wonderful shades of tan, brown, black and substantially an odd blue-ish tint. Unfortunately, to me it tastes like that children's shampoo that comes in the Winnie the Poo shaped bottle, er, or at least what I'd imagine that stuff tastes like. Even though I know there is some fine tobacco in this blend, I just can't seem to get past the soapy/shampoo taste. It also seems to leave a bit of a ghost in my pipes. I had to run a few bowls of Old Ironsides through the two pipes I smoked XEC in to excorcise it's demons.

My advice is: definitely try this stuff. Really. It is unique (to say the least) plus that tin looks pretty cool (especially when empty -LOL). Hell, you may even like it.

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TIN NOTE

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The run flavouring is overwhelming, but you get the latakia pushing through.
The orientals and perique are hard to smell.

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SMOKING NOTES

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This is a decent aromatic. I get the creaminess of the Cavendish, and the rum topping. Right behind there\'s the woodsy, smokey Latakia. The oriental leaf and perique are background players.

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MECHANICS

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Had to dry it out before smoking. I was expecting a goopy, gurgling mess. But to my surprise... it actually smoked well.

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SUMMARY

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This is a good aromatic. If you\'re into that type of tobacco, grab this tin. It\'s a nice crossover English. While it seems to have less Latakia than Sutliff\'s Eastfarthing, the perique and oriental leaves make it more interesting.

I would not buy it, but if someone gave me a bowl, I would have no issues smoking it.

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[T][W][O] [S][T][A][R][S]

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If you love aromatics, you might like this. If you do not like aros, steer clear!!!

It is not a crossover like the tin will tell you. Maybe it is a crossover in a sense that I do not understand such as production technique, but it is an all out aro in flavor.

I only bought this because it was on sale. I would normally not try anything that I thought might be an aro except Autumn Evening which is the only aro that I have liked.

Lifes a journey right? So Cross eyed cricket is one of those truck stops you have to visit from time to time.... on blaze up, The room turns into a jamacian tourist trap...Very rum punchy. The flavor is there too- but not as strong as you might think considering the note. All in all its a fun smoke- I keep some for going out to dinner. Its fun to light up before your meal with cocktails and watch people look for the source of the smell. Not in a bad way- most people I have encountered smile and go back to what they were doing once I'm discovered. Its fun and its tasty- Like an ice cream...Try it...

I was given some of this to try from a friend. My initial smoking experience with this was not good. For some reason I smoked a couple more bowls of this and it grew on me a little. It is definately worth a try for those seeking something totally differant. I could smoke this once in a while but I probably wont keep any more on hand when it runs out.

General Comment for All C&D Blends. So far, all my samples have burned clean and dry. They contain quality ingredients. If purchased fresh from C&D, I find that I must adjust the moisture content, and let them rest for 3-6 months before sampling. They change flavor dramatically in just a few months.

In my first review of this blend, I found it to be too aromatic. I could not taste the tobacco as the rum addition overwhelmed the blend. I have since let the blend rest for a few more months, and let it get almost bone dry. Then I re-moistened it. Most of the "cricket" had evaporated, and now it tastes more like an English blend with a rum addition rather than a bowl full of rum with something in it. If you can get it to this state, it may be of interest to those looking for an English crossover with an aromatic. I would not mind smoking this now and then, but I prefer other crossovers from C&D like Pennington Gap which uses bourbon rather than rum.