Cornell & Diehl Orion's Arrow

Good smoke indeed. The combo of 2 Virginas with the Perique and Turkish is spot on for me. Excellent on the nose in the bulk bag, packs and takes the match like a champ. Sweet, sour and spicy all at the same time. Consistent throughout the bowl wilt little moisture and absolutely no bark or bite. Destined to be a regular here at the Dix Creek Smoke Emporium.

This one threw me. I am all over the boards with impressions of it. I go from sub-1 star status to nearly 4 star, sometimes in the same day. Quite obviously it must be me. The ingredient list shows what i assume to be 25% perique. I believe it to a degree. Others listed are Turkish flake, red Virginia ,and bright Virginia ribbons. I smoke daily just about C&D Bayou Morning which is 25% perique and 75% red Virginia (stoved, I believe). I thoroughly enjoy Bayou Morning but can't take to Orion's Arrow at all. I found this to be true no matter what pipe I used to smoke it. The flavors never marry, they fight. It must be the Turkish flake? This blend should be similar in a cousin sort of way of thinking to Bayou Morning which is spicy, sweet, and smooth. But for me OA is overly tart like biting into a fresh lemon, and sour. I can't figure it. Sometimes I must hold off before presenting a review as a new blend I must break each other in, so to speak. But with this, meh...Not pleasant, no improvement except in one instance.

All that said, when I smoke OA accompanied by a vodka martini, it is a great smoke. I cannot fathom this at all and am forced to chalk up my so-so experience to personal chemistry.

The tin note was very plesant, a little sweetness, a bit of pepper, all tobacco. I let this tobacco dry a bit before loading my new Rattray's Goblin to the top (virgin smoke in a new pipe), the tobacco was probably just a bit moist still. I am glad I left the carbon filter in this time. I went out to snow-blow my sidewalks and driveway, it was about 35-40 F outside and no wind, a perfect day to smoke a pipe. As a side note, I am a big aromatic fan and dislike/hate Latakia. This was a beautiful smoke. Spicy, sweet, great unadulterated tobacco. I had to relight several times owing to the fact that I have to remember to puff, and the baccy was a bit moist.....and...it was cool out. I have noticed that cool/cold weather smoking seems to create more condensation in the bowl for me. It still smoked to the bottom with a nice ash and no dottle and lots of white smoke. I made sure to smoke it to the heel in my new pipe. At the bottom, I caught a hint of the briar, and the smoke had a light blue tint. The bowl should be broke in now, rim to heel. I very much enjoyed this tobacco, and this Rattray's pipe. I have a Rattray's Chubby Jacky pipe that is an excellent smoker as well. Both tobacco and Ratttay's pipes are highly recommended.

Ribbon cut to almost a shag cut with the addition of some pieces of broken flakes. Overall color is bright. Bought in bulk, I received it a little dry but it smokes alright as is.

From the first whiff I can taste the Orientals, which are woody, spicy and sour, not very sweet. The Orientals lend nicely with the Virginias which add their sweetness here and there. Soon the Perique becomes evident, it’s also not sweet and does not have the dried fruit taste it usually does. Here it is peppery and in any case despite the high percentage it is not overwhelming. The smoke is not very complex but it’s not monochromatic either as the different flavours perform in an ever changing interplay, now the one component now the other dominating.

Very natural tasting, here it seems like no addition whatsoever is used to the tobacco. Combines the aromatic spicyness of Orientals with the peppery spicyness of Pewrique on a background of tasty bright Virginias.

This is not a typical Va/Per, it tastes more like an Oriental/Virginia mix with Perique added. It’s a style of tobacco I’m very fond of and there are not many Va/Or’s around… It’s sort of cigaretty in a good way and has a good nic-hit. Good for those who enjoy inhaling. Maybe not my first choice for first smoke in the morning due to the Perique but still a wonderful tobacco for early in the day.

I bought this bc I wanted to try something new in the range of va/per. I liked ajs va/per I tried recently and decided to branch out a bit more. I got two ounces, and it's almost gone three weeks later.

In the bag it smells nice, the perique is noticeable right away. It has a decent look to it, and has chunks of broken Turkish flake in it, which I have taken to rubbing out. It packs, burns and smokes well altogether. It does take a few re lights most of the time for me, but it may be too moist. It does taste very good and is easy on the tongue. It lacks balance in a good way, it is pretty forward on the perique end. The Virginias are sweet and the Turkish is smooth so it doesn't overpower with the spicy.

Defiantly smooth in the face of a good spicy kick. I would recommend this one and have shared a few bowls of it with my brothers, who like this one too. Not that we are experts, but I am a seasoned pipe smoker and they are new to it. This could be an all day smoke for me if it had a little more nicotine to it. So it should go well all around.

This is a blend I really wanted to like. Cornell & Diehl is an excellent company with a slew of outstanding blends. I like Turkish and perique (TurPer?) together. As a previous reviewer noted, it even had a cool name. Conceptually, it's a great blend. Taste-wise, it's a pepper pot. As much as I like perique, this one was just too stout for me. The peppery perique and the sharp, slightly astringent lemon Virginias overwhelmed the softer, sweeter Turkish and red Virginias. The perique numbed my tongue and, literally, left my head buzzing. I can't smoke this without adding some cavendish or Virginia flake to soften it up. I'm giving it two stars, largely in deference to my fellow reviewers, all of whom seem to have had a much different experience with it than I did. There are probably a lot of guys out there for whom this would be a great blend: just not for me.

I bought this blend thinking that it would be fairly similar to Oriental silk. There are quite a few component tobaccos that the two blends have in common. My thought regarding this blend was that with at least 25% Turkish flake, I would get a better sense of what Orientals were all about.

The component tobacco‘s are fairly easily to identify. The Turkish flake is partly rubbed out. The Perique appears to be long cut. The unlit aroma of this tobacco has some sweetness from the Virginia, but there is a definite funk (think dirty socks or body odor). I think we can safely blame the Perique for this.

In smoking, I found this blend is nothing like Oriental silk. To my tastes, this had more in common with a Virginia Perique blend. There Is some nice tang and light sweetness from the Virginia leaf. The Perique adds more of a stewed fruit note as opposed to pepper/spice. My experience was such that the perique overwhelmed and bowled right over the Turkish leaf. While the oriental leaf may have been present, I could not detect it, though I’m sure it made some mark by altering the behavior of the other component tobaccos. I would opine that this is a fairly accessible blend without too much nicotine. I would love to give this blend three or even four stars, but I found that every one in four bowls I suffered tongue bite, including one memorable incident wherein I could actually see the chemical irritation on my tongue in the form or raised, polypoid angry looking papillae. I have a feeling this one will improve significantly with age. The Virginia leaf used here didn’t taste particularly rough around the edges, but certainly fried my tongue badly on a few occasions.

Did you like three Friars? Think this should have been call 3 disciples.....Its a good variation on a theme. Nice perique virginia blend, swap turkish for burley. The differenece gives this a slightly more virginia sweet affect, Which I really like. Haven't tried three Friars? Like VaPers? Shame on you.. 🙂 Nice spicy through the nose, and that virginia taste. Great. Getting to be a pro on Cornell and Diehl, as I slowly work my way thought their blends. They must have been alchemists in another life.

Try it. there are no regrets in life.

This is not unlike J. Fox' Virginia-Oriental mixtures [Campanile; Provost] but, of course, much easier on the purse. Very nice indeed.

And I LOVE the name!