Cornell & Diehl Bayou Night

Wonderful! (But I'll go on) So glad I tried this wonderful stuff. Bag note = chocolate covered raisins? Slightly moist high quality ingredients. Smokable in a hurry, but when properly dried, delivers a full flavored rich creamy smoke. Behaves nicely in the pipe as one would expect from a well balanced blend. Burley, Perique, Latakia, and Virginia are easy to detect as distinct flavors and come together as a sweet spicy, then smoky zing (Latakia is carefully kept under controll and doesn't dominate; something I especially appreciate. Turkish hides from me, but I often find this is the case. Not overpowering, but respectfully strong medium bowl for those who like N. I will surely stock this incredible blend! I'd like to try this with a shot of coffee liqueur, or better yet, Cream De Cacao.

I'll have to echo Ducksbreath's review. It's right on for me. The analogy to Nightcap is perfect. I smoke this anytime during the day or night. My score for room note is a guess. I don't smoke indoors.

This is one great smoke if you like perique. If you will permit ... this is like Dorisco Mixture with kick, and a delightfully tasteful kick. As Exedwardsguy noted ... you really don't want to smoke this first time out in a tapered bowl. The concentration in the last third may be a bit overwhelming and you'll miss a great deal on the maiden voyage - perhaps tainting your impression.

The strength of this tobacco, unlike some other delightful soapy English VA's, is not halting, but rather very enjoyable. A great full flavor that's complex and interesting. Of course, if one doesn't like perique as the star of a quintet but prefer it as a condiment you may not share my enthusiasm. Just like it's sibling, Mountain Camp, where the latakia is the star and the perique in the background, this is a substantial mixture that should be savored slowly or you'll miss a lot.

It packs easily and smokes to a clean dry light gray ash. Surprisingly despite the full flavor of the tobacco, it smokes to the bottom of the bowl very well behaved. Very impressive.

It's wonderful with a nice nut brown ale, stout or a big oaky California Chardonnay.

Cheers, VC

Having just enjoyed a brief sojourn to the once booming riverport town of Jefferson, Texas, and spending a good part of a Saturday night in some of the most remote swamps and slews of nearby Caddo Lake (which spans the Texas-Louisiana border), I was seeking a tobacco that might recall and act as a mnemonic of this almost mystical experience. Bayou Night serves perfectly in this capacity.

On opening the pouch, full of a really rather inconspicuous mélange of red, tan, and black tobaccos, one is greeted by the sudden rush of fermented leaf, similar to opening a cigar humidor. The perique is unquestionably the foundation of this blend. In my days blending for Edward's I was thoroughly familiar with the granulated form of perique, which is very potent and concentrated. If C&D had used this in such a high proportion, the mixture would have been unsmokable. I believe they are using here the lighter more expensive short thin ribbon cut variety, quite possibly the stuff grown in the dark alluvial soil of St. James Parish.

Packing is easy, and the charring light goes without a hitch, releasing an initial aroma that is both sweet and earthy, much like the fragrant smell of the lotus and water Lilly blossoms coupled with the natural decay prevalent in the cypress choked swamp of my recent visit.

My first bowl was smoked in a tapered Peterson Dublin, which I don't think I'll try again, as the shape tends to intensify the spice and strength too much once mid-bowl is passed. Later attempts in more round-bottomed bowls yielded wonderful subtleties in the first two thirds. The play of the red virginia and turkish against the bon tabac fermenté produced a nice variety of flavors ranging from sweet to flowery to earthy. The smoke is dense and satisfying. The ash is unusually fine and light gray. Since we have two tobaccos known for their cooling propensity - perique and latakia, the result is, well, cool smoking, though due to the cuts involved, not real slow burning. The last third is like having a bowl of gumbo with way too much filé in it: pleasant, but one-dimensional. That dimension - spice!

One can almost picture emerging slowly from behind the lovely thick fog this tobacco produces, the towering wall of dense cypress as one enters the cathedral like swamp with its soft gray curtains of Spanish moss for decoration. The hypnotic symphony of millions of frogs ? the basso of the bullfrog giving a random beat to the chirping, barking, and shrieking of the multitude of other frogs as the ghostly heron glides across the clear moon and stars from treetop to treetop? or is it just? too much perique. Top-notch tobacco from C&D! Only possible through the application of creativity and talent.

UPDATE: After sitting in my cellar for about a year, BN has become dry, yes, dry, but I loaded a bowl and smoked it anyway, expecting the worst. I got a surprise! Whatever ethereal hand forged this blend endowed it with the ability to weather the worst abuse! It is even better than before. The flavors have gotten even darker and richer. Beginning with a flood of sweet molasses flavors, lasting through the first two thirds, then morphing into a heady, unmistakably cigar-like mellowness and mouth deadening perique wallop at the last third, while maintaining a smooth, cool composure all the way... laissez les bon temps roulez!!!

All of the reviews above sum up the qualities of this tobacco very well. There isn't much to add as far as technical description but I will also also note that I was surprised at the smoothness and richness of this blend. The combination seems that it could easily be disasterous - but instead it is a nutty, smooth, smokey and sweet mixture complimented nicely by the earthy frutiness of the perique. This element is handled very adeptly - adding flavor and spice instead of the "raw heat" often associated with perique. This seems to hit the spot when I want a shot of latakia smoothness, yet a bit more spice and toasty flavor compliments of the Perique and Burley. Good with coffee in the afternoon. To date, the most nearly perfect cross over of traditional english components and traditional "americana" tobacco flavor I've tasted to date.

This is my favorite blend. However, I cannot smoke this every day. This is a very relaxing and reliable smoke for me. I am always searching for other blends that give me the same satisfaction. So far, no other has been to my liking like this one has.

This blend has a rather rich taste which almost causes me to smoke it a little too hard at first, but once I get my rhythm going I always have a very relaxing smoke. It smokes very cool and the perique is surprisingly understated given its prevelance in the mixture.

I love this blend!!

One odd thing I have noticed about BN, and which sets it apart from most C&D blends, is that it seems to retain its moisture much better. The sample that I had of this, I smoked seldom--not because I didn't like it, but because I like it so much that it is a sort of special smoke, and I wanted to preserve it. However, even though I made no special precautions to keep it well sealed, it never seemed to need rehydrating.

The strong, fermented tang of Perique is noticeable almost before it's even fired up. This is one you will want to fill the room with, so even when you take the pipe away from your mouth for a second, you will be breathing this intoxicating smoke.

This tobacco is on the strong side, have no doubts, and some people experience some dizziness or "swimming head" until they build up a tolerance. I have never had any "tickling throat" problems like some of the other reviewers, but I do sometimes find myself snorting a little to get the thick fumes out of my nose.

Once when I was on the road I ran out of everything but Bayou, and I frequently smoked 4 or 5 bowls straight through an old Kaywoodie, sometimes without even letting the bowl cool. It's just that kind of tobacco. This one will also benefit greatly from the DGT technique. If you only manage to smoke half the bowl, just put it down and fire it up again a few hours later. Man oh man.

The old Kaywoodie is now dedicated solely to Bayou Night--I smoke nothing else in it.

Since we've been able to buy some tobaccos from C&D and G.L. Pease here in Germany, I've been trying out the range. This one was still missing from my collection of strong tobaccos. What an experience! I don't even want to talk about all the nuances, that has already been sufficiently covered. Just the right tobacco for me. Strong, spicy, full-bodied and yet extremely mild on the tongue. To be fair, I don't notice anything of the Latakia, but that could also be because my taste buds have already been spoilt by years of Latakia consumption. But that's completely okay for me here, as I really like the dominance of the Perique.

One of the top three in my rotation. If this burns hot, you're doing something wrong. Like all C&D blends (for me) this does best decanted from the can into a glass humidor. It gets even better with cellaring (again, as all C&D blends have done for me). Superb with a single malt or with Pussers rum. Five stars plus!