Cornell & Diehl Bayou Night

A full and rich smoke with a slight peppery note from the perique. No cigarish tones in this one. If you like a latakia blend with turkish and perique this one will please. A good smoke but certainely not a bell ringer.

I have to admit, I let this one sit for a while before I dared to try it. I thought 50% Perique was going to be way over the top.

When I finally got the courage, I loaded up a bowl and nervously lit it. I fully expected the Perique blast from hell? But no. It was so mild that at first I thought the bag may have been marked wrong. As the smoke progressed, it took on a slightly musty, smoky flavor. Not at all harsh with no real bite to it.

I have to wonder if this is actually St. James Parish Perique, or Perique flavoring. It just didn?t feel like the real deal to me. Not to say it wasn?t good?

This is a potent tobacco, both in the flavor and nicotine departments. The smoke is medium-bodied. It can be a bit hard to get lit at first, but once burning I found that it stayed lit easily. Not a bad smoke, but not something I would go out of my way for.

Everything that the above reviewers have said is right on target. This blend is a very smooth Perique & Latakia mixture with the Virginia adding just the right amount of sweetness to balance it out.

Someone would have to prove to me that there's 50% Perique in this concoction. If so, the other ingredients have really wedded with it to calm it down!

The only real problem that I have with this blend, is that it has a tendency to give me dry throat. I'd smoke more of Bayou Night if it were not for this.

I will start out by saying that I will likely revisit this review in a few months after a little ageing and trying it in another pipe. During the summer. Outdoors. I am left wondering if the difference in reviews is the age of the tobacco sampled. Mine was purchased bulk, and I assume it was recently produced. Usually I will fill one of the small pipes for my first sample of any tobacco. Having the time to relax tonight, and not having read the reviews, I filled a Barling ExExEl (extra, extra large) and settled in for an evening of Christmas reflection.

From the first light it had a taste of cigarettes. I have never smoked cigarettes and have no wish to begin. The flavor settled down, though it remained noticeably in the background for the bowl. A unique "nutty" note showed through for the first 1/3 of the bowl and there was an earthiness that remained accompanying and complementing the "cigarette" qualities.

The next 1/3 of the bowl became a sweeter, though less enjoyable smoke. I blame it on vitamin "N" as the nicotine became overwhelming at around the 1 hour mark. The last third was emptied into an ashtray. I love my full English blends as well as some Virginias and have never had any problem getting through any other tobacco: this is the first.

Upon reentering the house (the front door is at the opposite end from the den) I was immediately hit by a smell that I would describe as stale cigarette smoke. Usually I have to reach the end of the hall before I am able to smell even the stiffest English blend. This is the reason for the "room note" rating. If you don't mind that smell, it is not overwhelming. If you prefer the smell of a pipe- it is.

I can not imagine this as an "all day" smoke and unless something drastic changes when it is aged and placed in a much smaller bowl I will not be reordering this blend. It was my love of Frog Morton on the town and the bayou that had me experimenting with a few C+D blends. (Come to think of it, perhaps I will see what this is like with a little Cuban cigar shredded and added to it; this blend seems as though it might lend itself to a little "tweaking" with a cigar...)