Cornell & Diehl Bayou Night

Great taste and a little spicy. This blend can be peppery by about mid-bowl all the way to the finish. It is otherwise quite smooth and smokes cool. Bayou Night is easy to light and stays lit well. The room note is not especially enticing but certainly not objectionable. There are some pleasing, dark flavors that mix well with occasional light notes. A very nice smoke that does not go overboard one way or the other. Although some might find the Perique content a little strong, Bayou Night can be quite nice in the evening after supper. I would not consider it as a blend to use throughout the day.

Strong in nicotine and strong in taste. I could not taste the oriental components, but no doubt they are the coolants. Perique in the proportions alleged stays, surprisingly, tamed. An oddity. I enjoyed my tin but it is unlikely that I will go back to it.

Perique, first and foremost, with a cast of minor characters floating about in the background that twist and change the nature of the smoke in subtle ways as they ease into the foreground from time to time. The perique is constant, but slowly nuanced by the interplay of the other components.

The nicotine content is a little above "just right" for me personally, but Bayou Night certainly keeps an even keel and delivers solid, musty perique flavor without ever becoming harsh or biting.

This blend on first whiff (a habit of mine, I think I enjoy smelling tobacco almost as much as I do smoking it, sometimes more so) is rather stout and strangely sour. Has to be the perique content. I wonder if this is the genuine article in reguards to St. James Perique. Cirtainly I have not smelled others as noticable as this, but then again I am a relatively new piper.

However I do not find the aroma unpleasant, in fact it harkens back to the old days. Or at least what I tend to think of as old days, hot dry barns, rocking chairs, and honest sweat from a hard days work. Coming off as odd, but true. "Old" is the word I would use to describe it. I would also like to point out the room note is pretty similar.

Everything in this blend harkens me back to the word "Old" of my Uncle for one, for he smoked a pipe, and this smells similar to some of the blends he smoked.

I find the taste absolutely delicious, however my one complaint is it tends to burn a wee bit hot. Then again I am inpatient puffer so it is probably more me than anything. Other than the one quibble (that keeps me from smoking it all the time)I cannot find fault in this blend. It keeps the nostalgia factor up there, and packs a nice nicotine wallop that will please the most grizzly of smokers. This is a fantastic blend, and I could not recommend it enough for you gentle reader. I am unsure if it is a tinned blend as I found it in bulk and very reasonable at that. So give it a try.

The only reason I rated it 3 stars is the fact that it tends to roast my tongue a bit too much, but having said that, it is still a very worthy smoke and worth the slight discomfort associated with it.

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

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.

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.

A very nice EM, with the right amount of Latakia but not too much. The deep rich sweetness of the Virginias perfectly balances the spice of Perique. Burley adds a lot of body, for a full and rich smoke: not to be smoked regularly, but for an evening relaxation bowl it's great. Luckily the bittery and musty cigarish note that sometimes poisons the non-cubed-cut burley from C&D is not overwhelming, contrarily to Yale Mixture. Quite a heavy mixture, and certainly not for the nicotine haters, but better and more tolerable than Dunhill Nightcap (at least the crap that Dunhill sells nowadays).