Cornell & Diehl Golden Ash

Cornell & Diehl has a rather solid line-up of tobaccos with burley, orientals, perique, and just a dash of latakia, and this particular blend falls quite nicely into this category. In this case, no perique or orientals are to be found in the formula, but the spirit is the same. The burley leaf adds a roast and meaty dimension, the virginia brings zesty and sweet notes, and the latakia a slightly spicy note that will leave you wondering. I had a few bowls so far, and it seems to evolve quite nicely as well, which is to be expected all things considered. It seems to perform best when used in a corncob pipe, but it likes briars as well. I cannot complain because no perique or orientals are added as CD has other blends at hand that contain this leaf, so this tobacco should be taken for what it is. The good thing about these components is how you can tweak them, adding and subtracting as you like. In its simplicity, I am finding this blend quite rewarding for a medium blend. The room note is a bit off, but I personally do not mind because what really matters is the smoking experience. I cannot detect any tongue bite and it can be smoked all day. My only complaint is I cannot find any comparable advantage to choose it over other similar blends, so 3 stars and a half.

This is my first review, so I thought it only appropriate to start with a glowing review of my current favortie tobacco. I have only been smoking a pipe for about five months so far and have yet to attain the expertise as many of my forebearers here, but I must give thanks to all of you. For if it wasn't for this site and the many insightful reviews and accompanying gems about technique, I would have abandoned this hobby within the first few months of burning money on garbage tobaccos and pipes.

My adventure in pipe smoking started with the local B & Ms of which, in my area, are nothing but roll your own and cigar pleasers with but a smattering of lousy tobacco for pipe smokers. This coupled with blank looks when I would ask about pipe smoking led me to the internet. Knowing really nothing upon entering TR, I merely clicked on 4 star ratings read the reviews on this one, All 4 Stars, and just called up C & D and ordered a pound.

The folks at C & D are great, as has been repeatedly mentioned on this site. As I told them this was my first order with them, they welcomed me to the family and included 2 complimentary samples of which I will leave for their respective reviews later.

My first puff of GA was heavenly. At this point I had read several reviews and realized, with my little experience, I should wait to review. I have now tried several other tobaccos and I find myself continually going back to this as a kind of comfort.

This tobacco was also my first experience with Latakia and I find I love it although blends with too much I find hard to pallet more than a bowl a day.

I should probably end this review now as I have likely already made you read more than you intended, but I must say that if you are looking for a transition from sweet tobaccos, I highly recommend this pure unadulterated tobacco bliss, but puff slowly or you will fail to appreciate its glory. Yes, this mantra has served me well with all tobaccos I have smoked.

8/26/14 EDIT

Well 2 1/2 years have passed since I reviewed this one and what changes have happened over that time. Tobacco Reviews has a much different (and Improved IMO) appearance and you can no longer call C & D up and talk to the owners as the owners are now in partnership with SmokingPipes (probably another improvement for C & D, but certainly less homey.)

With the latter change, many of their blends have fallen the way of the dodo bird and no longer exist. This one, fortunately, has survived the cut. It is no longer my favorite blend, but I still do enjoy it from time to time. My tastes now favor more the Perique laden blends and I still enjoy a lat blend from time to time.

I am removing a star from this one, but will leave it at three stars and recommend the blend for those who want to try something a little different in a burley. So with that three stars and If you want an example of something different in a burley that I would consider a four star, try John Patton's Storm Front.

This is a nice, natural blend with a small amount of Latakia. I had recently stayed away from burley blends, but now enjoy a few. This is one of those few.

The burleys used are so well chosen and blended. They provide an underlying sweetness that is, to me, different from the sweetness of a Virginia-dominated blend. There is some golden VA in this mix, and it adds to the experience...sort of like supporting the burley base and giving it a different dimension.

I got this directly from C & D. It is one of their bulk blends. Initially unimpressive, I thought that burley just shouldn't be in any type of English blend. But Golden Ash emerged from a 6 month nap in a mason jar as an interesting tobacco. It has put burley-Englishes back on the map for me. When I want a lighter latakia-influenced blend, I tend to smoke Golden Ash.

This is an exellent tobacco. I can't believe no one's reviewed it yet. The balance of burley and virginia is perfect, and the latakia is present without being overpowering in any way. This is just so much better to me than regular English blends. I hope others will try it, it has my highest recomendation.

Golden Ash is an American style English that I would recommend to lovers of burley and mild to medium English blends.

This mix of ribbon and cube cut is something of a sleeper that gets little fanfare despite its place as one of the oldest blends C&D produces. Pre C&D in fact. There is a nice sweet/smoky barbecue pouch note. The tobacco comes fairly dry, and indeed burns clean, dry, and easily. Quite notably, very few relights were needed with this blend.

Golden Ash yields a clean, natural tobacco experience/taste. The burleys are earthy and nutty. While this is a burley dominated blend, the Latakia asserts itself. It appears to contain 3-5% Latakia, and while this seems like a truly condimental amount, the smoke tastes as if it contained double the amount. I cannot say that I noticed the VA much, per my experience it was nearly undetectable. This reminded me of a much milder take on C&D’s big n burley. Having sampled morleys best recently, I can also say that GA and MB have quite a bit in common.

This is another one of those blends that could be a burleyphile’s EMP equivalent. While there is much less Lat, and no oriental to speak of, this fills the same sort of “first pipe of the day with black coffee” role.

I love burley blends, and many of my favorites are from Cornell and Diehl. I find Golden Ash to be a very light, pleasant experience. Perhaps, the lightest of the C&D burley blends I have tried. I find it very nice for a change.

And, it burns smooth and dry all the way to the bottom of the bowl. I think I'll go have a bowl of it now...

The balance of latakia in this blend is spot-on. It doesn't cover up the burley, but is definitely present in every puff. This tobacco seems to be stairstep down from C&D #106 (Epiphany) in terms of latakia content.

Interestingly, it seems to burn--not hot--but very fast.

Very well balanced, burns well, doesn't bite. The taste reminds me a bit of Dunhill My Mixture 965. Still probably not quite an everyday smoke for me, though it probably could be for many.

Four stars.

I mostly smoke straight VA flakes and ready rubbed. But occasionally, I get an urge to dip into the burleys that I started with because they were cheap and readily available when I first started smoking a pipe 40 years ago. Golden Ash is my go to on these occasions. It's stood the test of time with quality burleys, a hint of latakia (The latakia comes though a bit more strongly for me than it probably would for would for someone who regularly smokes latakia blends.) and enough VA to keep it from overwhelming my aging constitution with nicotine. Sometimes I mix it 2/1 with Sir Walter Raleigh to get the FGE (full granddad experience.)