Cornell & Diehl Kajun Kake

Tin note of pungent sweet, vinegar and spices. The black and dark brown Krumble Kake breaks apart and rubs out easily. Tobacco is moist and may need a little drying. Burns slow with few relights. The strength is medium to strong and nic is medium. No flavoring detected. Taste is medium to full and consistent, with notes of mildly sweet dark fruit, dry earthy, bread, mild lemon, spices, very woody, burnt toast, mild raisins, bitter plum, a mildly sweet grassy background note, and a moderately peppery retro. Virginis Cavendish is leading with Perique closely supporting. Room note is tolerable, and aftertaste is great.

received a sample in my Tinsociety.com box.

Tin/Bag Notes: The cake was broken up in my sample mostly. Sample was dry to smoke without any more prep except to break up a little more. Smell was earthy and solid.

Smoke: Smoked in several different pipes. It seemed to like the bowl shapes that I usually smoke flakes in (flatter/shorter aka pot, etc..) and gave a great smoke in those. Easy to light, easy to tend.

The perique gave the bowl a spicy touch from start to finish. Similar taste to Bayou Morning, sometimes its hard to tell these C&D's from each other. The second half of the bowl seemed less spicy and just a bit bitter in a not bad way. Definitely feel the Nic in this blend.

Solid smoke but doesn't make it to 4 stars for me. I would like to get a couple of tins to age to see how it is after a few years.

This is my first review so take it with a grain of salt. When I opened the tin I saw a "brownie" looking square. It had an earthy sweet smell to it. I broke a pinch off and rubbed it out and then let it dry for about 30 minutes. Packed it into my Peterson Billiard and lit her up. This is about 30 days ago and it left no impression at all. Very bland. Placed in mason jar. I tried it about a month later and wow! It is now a very sweet, creamy smoke! I believe the perique adds a salty dimension in taste and a whole lot of nicotine! Can't explain where the nicotine was when I first tried it!?!

This will only get better with age. A very sweet creamy taste with enough nicotine to make your head twirl. What more can I ask for? 3 tins will be added on my next order for cellaring. I suggest you do the same!

I've recently ventured away from aromatics and this is one of the first half dozen or so Va/Pers I've purchased. With the start of the opening of the tin I knew I was in for a different experience. There were 2 nice little kakes that could (as you may have already read here) best be described as little brownies. Little brownies that had been stored in peat moss to give them an earthy aroma. I found this to be very pleasant. There was really no hint of perique in the notes coming from the tin of unburned tobacco.

I took a razor and shaved off a little and left it in the lid to dry, not that it really needed much of that. The very loose medium dark leafs didn't appear to have any perique mixed in with them. The mixture packed well and lit right up. Loads of cool rich smoke were obtainable (hey, there's the perique!) without the risk of any nasty bite. There's a nice bit of tang there but I detect no sweetness at all. Not that that's a bad thing. About half way through the bowl there's a bit of a taste you'd expect to get from an inexpensive cigar. The perique is a constant companion that never becomes overpowering. All the flavors complement each other well. Pretty earthy.

This is very different from any of the other Va/Pers I've tried. Not my favorite but it is nonetheless very good. Never gurgled in the pipe which is saying something for me because I usually set a pretty fast pace. Worth a try if you don't like a bowl heavy on the perique.

OK, a little truth here...my home town is New Orleans, one Parish away from St. James Parish (home of Perique tobacco) so I have to like this tobacco! Too dry when opened and one bowl a day is all my throat can handle but I do love the taste of this one. I wish I could smoke it as my all day tobacco but I just can't handle the potent mix.

This is a great after dinner smoke especially if dinner consists of boiled shrimp or crawfish! Kajun Kake seems mild after a bold spicy meal....

My first tin went up in smoke in about a week and I spent much of my time coughing afterwards. My new tin is a once a day party that everyone should attend if you can handle it. Much too strong for all day but a great way to finish a day.

Kajun Kake is a hard one to place. I do not find it similar to other C&D VAPER offerings. If you are thinking a darker Bayou Morning Flake, this is not it. KK is not sweet, and not as tangy as a stoved Virginia.

Dark in the tin and a bit brooding in the pipe. Along with its brooding nature, it is very cool, without edge and moderately complex. Still, it remains a friendly blend and is fairly tasty. Strangely, it has very little room note and moderate perique!

The closest comparison I can make to KK is Treasures of Ireland Limmerick by Dan Tobacco. Give both a try, as they are easy and companionable.

Apparently, I?m all about Perique. It seems that the tobaccos I like the most seem to have a least a hint of it in the blend I bought this because of the strength of the recommendations here, and I was not disappointed. I enjoyed the entire ritual, from crumbling to packing and, of course, the smoking of the kake. Wonderful. Unfortunately, in the dry summer desert air, it aged over time more like cajun rope. Once dried, there was noting I could do to reintroduce a bit of moisture and it became unsmokeable. Luckily, I had already lit up most of it . . .*whew* Definitely a colder season tobacco when the humidity is, like today, 24% and higher. Unlike other tobaccos, Kajun Kake did not cope well with 100+ days and 10% humidity. Best smoked on the bayou.

This is a new blend from C&D which was introduced at the 2006 Chicago Pipe Show. I've smoked alot of it recently and have concluded that it is very very similar to Bayou Morning Flake in most categories. There are subtle differences, for instance, BMF is a little more sweet and a tad less earthy. However, BMF and KK are almost identical. Earthy and peaty; kind of like the smell of a thick lush forest after a heavy rain. Group 1 or 2 pipe bowls suit both blends well.

aj