Cornell & Diehl Orion's Arrow

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.

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.