Cornell & Diehl Sunset Harbor Flake

My third of four reviews today and none will get more than 2 stars. This blend hung around as an open container for me for nearly three years. This is less an indication of what I thought of it and more an indication of how many open Latakia blends I have at present. This one was just forgotten.

This blend has a lot of latakia and its presence is nearly overwhelming in the blend. At least it is to me. C&D makes several blend with a lot of latakia. Pirate Kake, Mountain kake and Billy Budd come to mind. The difference of SHF to those is there is something more to the latakia that makes each bowl interesting. With SHF, all I get is smoke and the dreaded Lat tongue rendering nearly everything I smoke within a few hours after to be tasteless.

I don't have many good things to say about this blend, but will add this. It does have a lot of nicotine. This is something rather uncommon with heavy lat blends. If this is something that you desire then this may be the blend for you, but I would still recommend GLP Key largo over this to accomplish the same end as it will just deliver a better sensation on the palate. This one lies between 1 and 2 stars, but I am bumping it up to 2 stars, perhaps out of my bias to C&D blends which I enjoy so much. It does have their quality leaf.

Sunset Harbor Flake has a strong flavor and decent ingredients but lacks any real depth or complexity. I keep coming back to the tin every so often hoping that it was the wrong pipe or I was in the wrong mood the last time I smoked it. Nope. Just a very mediocre blend where the components never seem to get on well with each other.

I am continually unimpressed with C&D offerings and this one is no exception. It has all my favorite ingredients but, like the half dozen other C&D blends I've tried, it just has little to recommend it over much better offerings from other blenders. (Which is odd because Low Country's Cooper Flake is made by C&D and it is outstanding).

I wouldn’t call this necessarily bad, but the dusty spice flavor wasn’t my cuppa. The tobacco was a quite moist broken flake and upon opening the tin and each bowl required 30-60 minutes drying time to be smokeable. I didn’t care for the smell upon opening the tin, the smell reminded me of a bad Mediterranean food joint. The taste was actually a pretty bland English with occasional puffs of that unpleasant spice note, which must have been the Izmir in retrospect. Not awful, but I won’t be finishing the tin.

Quite dry blend which burns almost to quickly (maybe it was just my tin...). Anyway, it is good tobacco, but without any thrill. Cornell & Diehl has better mixtures.

I you would like to try Cornell & Diehl's version of the McClelland Blakeney's Best Latakia Flake ,this is it. Draw your own conclusions.

A decent, competent blend, but nothing special and typically C&D/Pease. Earthy, sour, sometimes sweet and sour, burns and packs well, moderate vitamin N. There's others which put the wind in my sails more than this one.

Fun to try; however, I shan't purchase more.

Sunset Harbor has been a difficult blend for me to rate. It's Latakia forward, with a rich smoky flavor, and backed up by other Orientals with a floral essence. Perique is not overpowering and just gives this blend little extra spice. No difficulties with lighting, or tongue bite, and perfect moisture out of the tin.

I enjoy the richness of the Latakia, but just doesn't have the wow factor I've enjoyed in other English/Balkan style blends. I can really only give this a somewhat recommended as I don't think it's for all pipers.