Cornell & Diehl Crooner

MAN i absolutely LOVE this blend! WAY different from anything else i have tried as this was my first Deer Tounge blend and will not be my last. Picked up a 1OZ sample since this blend gets some mixed reviews. After a few days and many bowls later i decided to order more Crooner and some of the other Deer Touge blends (Old Tartan, New Market). Wish there were more tobacco blends with this unique herb.

The Cube Cut is interesting and wish more tobaccos were offered with this presentation. It can be cumbersome to keep in the pipe so you have to be careful not to accidnetly dump the pipe. Stays lit quite well and doesnt bite unless you are being reckless.

The flavor is mild sweet and the Deer Tounge adds what has been described as "Vanilla Minty" flavor and could see that comparison but is very mild and not a typical "Vanilla:" flavor. The NIC HIT is STRONG and is the only other Pipe tobacco that has given me a buzz (besides SG 1792) but don't let that put you off this is a seriously nice blend that is quickly becoming one of my favorite blends. Great stuff!

Really enjoy this blend. Tin note smells of a nutrigrain bar, enjoyable. Dark Burley for the base with white burley and deertongue and some whiskey in there as well that gives a slight tingle to the tongue. Gravity fill with a light tamper and you're good to go. Cube cuts are medium in size, my go to blend for the smaller narrow bowl of the clay pipe. Rich earthy nutty at times chocolate burley and vanilla, along with herbal mint from the deer tongue. I dig it as a change up, not exactly rotation for me but nice to switch it up and definitely 4 stars just to have and try bc of its uniqueness and possible connection to Bing Crosby.

This is a love or hate blend. And that is due to the deer tongue. It seems people either love it...as in almost at an addictive level, or they just loathe it. Cant tolerate to smoke it at all. I am in the first category. Now, I tend to reserve burly blends for when Im driving long distance. Easy to keep lit and cool. One cant exactly smoke Blackwoods Flake while driving. Too much maintenance. So for me this is a great driving smoke. The taste is nutty burly with a good dose of that curious herbal minty (but not at all like peppermint ice cream or anything...closer to herbs like lavender) and vaguely vanilla flavor that is deer tongue. Whether Bing smoked this or not, its a great medium strength burly blend. The nic hit is medium...perhaps a notch past. And yes it can get hot if you puff too hard. Best smoked slow. But its easy to keep lit and burns down clean. Some have complained that it ghosts a briar. I have not found that, but its certainly possible. If you like Gentleman Caller, this is a more pronounced use of DT and a tad stronger smoke. I love GC but i think i like crooner better. Its worth noting that the old old old version of the classic drugstore blend Half&Half had deer tongue in it. Its an old school additive.

The quality of the cubed burley is awesome. The deer tongue isn't just floral, it has a spicy nip that's a bit like perique. What might seem like bite turns out to be just spice. Burley moisture level is perfect, but the deer tongue makes it seem dry; just light it and enjoy a trouble free bowl. My beard smelled a bit too pretty afterward hee hee. Initial light is a bit odd and I caught a whiff that smelled remotely of a less legal weed, but this passed very quickly. Very rich and effortless smoking comes quite quickly. Does Crooner ghost a pipe? Sort of, but it's such a harmless smell that seems compatible with Balkans, Orientals and any vanilla or fruity aromatic... it might even freshen up a sour pipe! But you may experience a troublesome ghosting of a different sort (read on).

On to my advice... I think anyone who is curious about trying Crooner should just get a couple ounces and try it because you really need to experience it. However, I did have a bit of a problem not related to the actual quality of the blend... Unfortunately, I ordered six other blends with the Crooner, including five rather expensive Gawith & Hoggarths and the very pungent Crooner saturated the entire shipment with it's floral scent. So now among other things I have a beautiful piece of Sweet Whiskey Twist that smells like Sweet Whiskey Crooner. I'm hoping that these other tobaccos will air out and lose that scent. Perhaps I will call smokingpipes? Anyway, if you do order some Crooner you might want to ask the seller to try to better isolate the Crooner from other blends in the same box.

Wow!

I have not cared for Burley's before. This blend is sublime. I agree with other reviewers that it is harder to keep lit than a traditional shag cut. And yes, the cubed burley is a bit hard and makes some powder waste in the bottom of the bag.

Having said that, I don' care. I will reorder this stuff in quantity.

As Achille Savinelli says: "It is better to use a few more matches or a little more gas than to burn your pipe. Haven't you noticed that old smokers in general are those who let their pipes go out more frequently?"

The folks at Cornell Diehl told me that this has some molasses on it. That accounts for some of the pouch flavor. It never leads to a hot, goopy, sugary smoke though. On the contrary. It touches off the flavor of what is obviously a top quality burley.

That first light simply sings!

I can't be sure if the deer tongue adds to that sweet molasses/vanilla note or not...

I just know that the flavor is complex, it stays interesting throughout the bowl, and is thoroughly enjoyable.

Becuase the burley cubes are a bit hard, you can't really pack this down after smoking a little. I have found that you have to use a poker to break up the tobacco that is partially burnt in the bowl. This will enable an easier re-light and less dottle.

Trust me folks, this one is worth the effort, and at least worth an earnest try.

I have not yet tried leaving a bit of this tobacco out to air dry yet to see if it makes it easier to keep lit. I don't want to lose any of that subtle flavoring. I count it a fair trade to have to light this a bit more, and get such a pleasant smoke.

I really can not recommend this enough. I find myself not wanting to smoke anything else!

This was the blend that broke me from the goopy, extra-black-and-syrupy blends that I started with when just a pipe-smoking pup. This is simply what it says... cube cut Burley and Deer's Tongue(vanilla leaf) and nothing more. A bit difficult to pack initially, as I had never seen a cube cut before, but after a few tries I found gravity filling to work the best.

This was a very simple, very clean smoke that I found to be very flavorful. Nutty and cool, I could just taste a hint of vanilla. In the room, there's no quesion: people were asking me to refill my pipe shortly after I finished!

Crooner also offers a ready base for some interesting 'baccy blending at home. From time to time I like something sweet out of my pipe. A 50/50 mix of Crooner and either Butera's Sweet Cavendish or Hartwell's Evening Stroll leads to a nice desert-type of a smoke as the toasted cavendish, burley and Deer's Tongue come together in interesting ways. Definitely recommended, especially for pipe smokers looking to get away from the current batch of goopy aromatics out there.

Found it!! The exact smoke I've been searching for! I shoulda known Der Bingle would be the fella to lead me to it!

I was an exclusive aro smoker for all of the 30 odd years I've been an on and off piper, but I recently went down the old burley road after finally giving in to the sheer pleasure Matches 860 always displayed while puffing on some Haunted Bookshop (also a new love of mine!).

I bought a tin of HB, as well as a can of Prince Albert and suddenly, the shine was knocked clean off my beloved aros. I was an instantaneous burley lover. (neigh-sayers can pipe down. You've dismissal of PA as a no-goodnick OTC, codger blend will fall on deaf ears, here. I go through at least2-4 bowls if the stuff a day, as well as a smattering of Carter Hall).

A random web search while watching "The Road to Morocco" as to the old groaner's smoke of choice led me to Crooner and the rest was history. Got 4 oz to start, waiting on a whoppin' el-bee of the stuff as we speak.

The tin note was delicious and, oddly enough, reminded me of the slightly cinnamon, earthy nut smell of a freshly opened box of raisin bran or cinnamon Life cereal. Sounds odd, I know- but also familiar, homey and as comforting as a heavy down quilt on a cold winters night.

The nutty, smokey, leathery-sweet goodness of the top-notch cube cut burley with the floral, spicy, vanilla zing of deer tongue just swept me away as soon as I lit the first bowl.

The cube cut makes for a lot of expansion upon lighting, so keep it in mind to fill the bowl on the low side. I've read that some folks simply gravity feed and lightly tamp, but I did my usual three-step fill and it worked like a charm.

A char light, a gentle tamp and a light and it burned cool, creamy, long, dry and slow, requiring little maintenance and only one re-light. It burned to the bottom and left a fine, white ash.

I hear tell of ghosting, but none that couldn't be rectified by a full bowl of PA.

It's a bu bu bu beauty!

Im a Burley man. Im a Bing man. and now Im a Crooner man. This stuff is good. It's a little difficult to smoke because it burns so damn slow but it is worth the effort for sure. Something worth mentioning is that the pouch note is the best smell I have ever experienced in anything. I took the pouch out of my tobacco cabinet and put it on the bookshelf just to make my pipe corner smell amazing. I swear C and D needs to make a cologne out of this stuff.

It wouldn't hurt to mix in a little burley ribbon cut to speed up the burn.

I have been wanting to try out this deer tongue for a while so i ordered 1oz of Crooner. Many have said that you either love it or hate it. I will have to say that's not true. I'm indifferent. It was not the horrible thing I have heard it described by many. It does have an odd tin aroma, sort of a vanilla/mint. Crooner is a strong burley blend, which I like. I think the deer tongue burns off about 3/4 way through the bowl, leaving a nice cube cut burley blend. There is a slight ghosting, but nothing a couple of bowls of an aromatic or strong latakia should not take care of.

Changing this to 3 stars. It's becoming addictive.