Cornell & Diehl Crooner

I have been smoking Crooner now for more than a week. I must say that I enjoy it very much. The Deer Tongue is ever present. The burley is top drawer.

But, it will be an acquired taste for newbies, and old-timers should get a kick out of the burley. English blend lovers will find this a pleasant diversion. I will definitely order this again from C&D. Craig Tarler is a genius and his burley is the finest in the land. Bar none. Nuff said.

Four stars from the Tennbard!

This is a cube cut Burley with deer tongue. Smells good in the bag and has a wonderful room note.

I enjoy the flavor of this blend. It has the nuttiness of the burley and the deer tongue gives it a snappy, peppery taste. An unusual but intriguing flavor, on top of a solid burley base.

I smoked a pound of this stuff, and my only complaints are that it is difficult to pack and keep lit. The cube cut is hard and brittle, and prone to a lot of dust and waste in the bottom.

Flavor and smell - excellent. Packing, lighting and managing -- no fun.

A nice burley if you can tolerate the hassle associated with it. Edgeworth is a better burley cut, and with a little deer tongue would give it Crooner a run for its money.

The phrase 'occasional treat' describes my usage as well. Am enjoying some in a Pete System right now. It's a real throwback to childhood, as a dear family friend (we'll call him Mr. I.) smoked something like this. It had deer tongue, for sure.

A few other thoughts:

The quality of the burley seems quite good.

The pouch aroma will pervade a room in minutes.

Smokes cool, except at the very bottom of the bowl.

Does not seem to linger in the pipe after smoking. But you may want to dedicate a 'yard pipe' to Crooner, at least initially.

I was a little surprised. Never having tried Deer tongue- I felt it was time. Besides how can the man that defines X-mas for me every year steer me astray? Cubed burley and deer tongue. Its simnple and tasty- But one does need caution. It comes across to me as a nice nutty, Vanila/saspirilla/ I don't know what, but its sure darn familiar tase. My wife likes the room note, which is that similar yet can't put your finger on it taste. It mild in Nic. and taste- so its pretty no nonsense. I liked it. So why my word of care? A friend went on to smoke bowl after bowl- being a die hard puffer....and I believe the medicinal effects came into play. Evidently- Deer tongue promotes sweating and alledges to promote clearing on the mucus membranes- I think he had the reverse effect and got a sore throat....So use a bit of caution. I had no ill effects at all- and go recomend it.... 🙂

Thanks Talon ol' Friend!! Yeah, very weird thing, overnight after smoking this, My voice aged 30 years. it took 3 days just to enjoy old Joe again. As Talon explained below - Great smoke - but each person's chemical make up may be different. I do not know if it is possible to be allergic to Deer Tongue but I have unfortunately stay away. TOO BAD though this would have one of the "iching" smokes I was looking for in the never ending journey through Arcadia.

I highly recommend this. Good Cubed Burley, great unique smell and taste, perfect NIC HIT. A nostalgic smoke. If you do start a scratchiness in the back of the throat or in the nose - stop smoking it immediatley.

Hey, if it was good enough for Bing, I gotta see what he saw in it. Being cube-cut burley, packing is a no-brainer...gravity feed, and tamp it down a little. My 4oz bag arrived fairly moist. Rather than wait and dry it out, I filled up and lit it right up. The deer tongue, as has been described are little green threads sprinkled throughout the burley. There didn't look like much of it, but they do come through in the smoking. I did note that there was a grassy note to it too, but that description doesn't really do it justice. It adds a unique flavor and body to the burley which I enjoyed. It won't be a daily smoke for me, but I don't have a blend that is. I have decided to dedicate a Bing-style Wilmer to this blend though, and will come back to it with some regularity. This stuff is off the beaten path, but it is unique, and I did not find it over the top or offensive in any way. If you were looking to try something "different" but not weird, I would be comfortable recommending this.

I have seen and smoked cubed burley and blends containing cubed burley but never have I come across a blend such as Crooner where the cubed burley is 3 to 4 times the size I was accustomed to seeing and smoking. The burley cubes in Crooner are HUGE comparatively speaking. As a consequence, you may find frequent relights are necessary no matter how you pack it. It may be advisable to make smaller cubes using a food chopper or nut chopper.

Regarding the deer tongue, it is light green in color and visually present and interspersed throughout the cubes. The deer tongue is at the forefront at all times and it presents a very unusual but not a disagreeable taste that I would call musky and mildly herbal. This taste is not reminiscent of any other tobacco I have smoked. If you are inquisitive, you will just have to find out for yourself what this deer tongue is all about. I think the Indians smoked this stuff. If the cubes were smaller, I think I might smoke it more often. But all in all, it really is not a bad smoke. It is mild with no bite and just a heck of a lot different.

A cigarette is to be smoked. A cigar is to be enjoyed. A pipe is to be savored.

I rate this tobacco 7.9 out of 10.

Being a dedicated phile of all things odd - I had to try this herbally based burley blend that has received so much...attention.

The odor in the one ounce sample dominated the box of my last C+D order. The scent carried strange nostalgia of the tobaccos my grandfather smoked... I am sure he smoked half and half - and other popular burley blends, but I now wonder if he had ever dabbled in deer tongue mixtures.

The pouch aroma is exceptionally pleasant, light and floral. Not in the lakeland tobacco way, but in the same sense as a grassy summer field.

This was by far one of the strangest tobaccos I've ever rubbed out - sticky clumps that seemed almost seed like. The green leaves emitting their vanilla aroma. Quite a bit of moisture and a number of relights necessary to get going. I suspect this sample will do well with some drying and aging.

Upon lighting and smoking - there is distinct nose of anise, vanilla, basil, and evergreen. This balances out to a fairly straightforward smoke with only hints of the herb coming through. I've never smoked straight burley, and will have to do so to determine whether or not the deer tongue "ruins" the burley taste and aroma.

Perhaps it is my inheritence of "generation X", but I seem to be among the dissenting number that much prefer Bing's choice of tobacco to his music.

While likely not something I'll smoke every day - this provides an interesting and naturally aromatic smoke that I'll more than likely return to in the future. 4 stars for daring.

I've smoked a pound and a half of this stuff since 2000 or so and it's okay but nothing super. The first pound I bought from C&D was excellent. The burleys were top notch and there were plenty of green flakes all through the blend. The second pound was only similar in the list of ingredients. The Burley was very wet and sort of clumped together in lumps instead of a cube cut. The proportion of deer tongue might have changed too, because it was harder to see it. At this time, C&D announced they had to find another distributor for some of their Burleys and this blend came from that batch. It wasn't the same blend as the first pound and I hadn't bought anymore, so I don't really know how today's blend actually is.

When good, it has perfect burning qualities, gets a little hot and bitey and has a fabulous aroma in the pouch and room. When bad, it gets really hot and bitey and the burley taste becomes just hot air that will fry every corner of your mouth. It will also turn to mold without adding any water or doing anything to it. I've still got a bunch of the second batch left over and I occasionally smoke it thinking age will help it some, so I'll give it the recommendation that I did. Otherwise, I would never buy a pound of it again until I was sure it was similar to the older stuff.