Cornell & Diehl Star of the East Flake

I need you guys to help me here. I have a pound of Penzance and it can't outperform The Star of the East... initially. Let me explain: this tobacco has a creaminess that just soothes the soul. It is the closest thing to a Latakia putting. Slightly sweet, just a little spicy, and leathery full. HOWEVER, I'm puzzled at its behavior half way into the bowl. It consistently switches from Penzance killing goodness to a strong ash tray /cigarette butt flavor as if there was a line drawn midway into the bowl. Never fails. It ruins the moment. I can't sip it, so i dump it out. What's going on here? My pipe is a deep bowl grabow. Is it that?

I was expecting an instant classic and instead I got a bland, nondescript mixture. Quite a shame actually, the name, the tin artwork, the cut, the smell off the tin and the reviews were really promising.

Smoking it off the tin, I was ready to drop it in a trash can. Since I almost always give second chances, I packed a second pipe and left the tobacco to dry for almost two days. This time it fared better, the Latakia is the main player here and the Red Virginia and Oriental only manage to change its taste from time to time. The smoke is overall dry and mellow but not creamy, bland when puffed fast and mild when sipped.

The Latakia is smoky and leathery but surprisingly for a 50% mixture, it's quite mellow. The Red Virginia attaches itself to the Latakia in spades and gives it some very subdued brioche accents. When the Virginia recedes, the Oriental gives a slight sour and floral note. All this happens by mid bowl, the best part. The last third rejoins the first part as a bland and nondescript mixture.

I somewhat recommend it because the leaf is of decent quality and it has no topping I can taste of. Maybe good for a beginner with Latakia mixtures but there's better to be found. Disappointing but no matter, G.L. Pease Kensington awaits.

Virginia lover

The tin description says, it contains 50% of Latakia, plus Turkish and Red Virginia. The cut is that of a Broken Flake. Very easy to loosen and load your pipe.

I am a fan of heavy English mixtures with a lot of Latakia and ample Orientals. I love aromas of leather, horse-stables and campfire. Having this in mind, this blend is not really for me. This blend is mainly a game between a smoky (not woody/campfire-y/leathery) Latakia and the Red Virginias. The Turkish is definitely on stage too and donates a spicy twist, not consistently throughout the bowl though.

No matter in which pipe, it always needs several re-lights. This mixture does not keep me interested enough. I will not buy it again. I have other Latakia and Oriental favourites. Giving two stars I still call it “somewhat recommended”.

If you don't like latakia-heavy blends, then stay away. Containing 50% latakia, this tasty blend will give you the kind of campfire-mouth that will ruin your palate and repel your wife for HOURS. Smoking this one in the house is also a major no-no.

I always think broken flake cut tobacco is some of the easiest to pack - you pretty much cannot pack it wrong. I find that I enjoy the first half of the bowl more than the 2nd half with this blend. The strength and flavor are just right from the start, but by the time I get down to that last 25-30% of the bowl it seems somewhat harsh. I don't know if it's that it's less flavorful, or just that I can no longer taste it (or anything else) correctly.

I've heard it said that the flake version is better than the ribbon cut version of this blend, and I've also heard this blend compared to Penzance. At the time of this review I have not smoked Penzance, so I cannot attest to the accuracy of that comparison, but it's worth mentioning. YMMV.

While I enjoyed the 2 oz tin I had, this is not an all-day smoke, and not likely to ever be an everyday smoke for me.. I *would* buy it again, however, I feel like I've had my fill of it for now, having fired this up in over 50% of the bowls I've smoked in the last month. I'm ready to take a break from it now - I might revisit it in the future, but I'm in no hurry to place an order.

I thoroughly enjoyed smoking this blend, for the first five minutes. After that, things went south really fast.

Maybe I just had a bad batch, but my experience with this blend was very mixed. At first light, this blend was hearty but not heavy, spicy but didn't bite. Lots of good, full VA/Lat flavor. Then it soured, and hard! Once the honeymoon was over, I didn't want to continue. The flavor just kept getting worse, to the point where I had to put it down, about 2/3 way through the bowl.

I may try more of this in the future, just because the first part of the bowl was so good. YMMV

This blend seems to be similar to the bulk star of the east. The difference is that the Flake form makes the flavors marry a bit better. The Latakia while prominent is not exceptionally stout. The Oriental tobacco gives this blend a tang that really pushes the blend into a recommended category. What I wished this blend had was more complexity.