Cornell & Diehl Red Carpet

Tin date 5/10/07

Nice presentation on the Simply Elegant series. Cool artwork. Unusual smell. Not offensive, not really attractive, just different. The flakes pulled apart like a pot roast with a fork. RC smokes beautifully for me, offering loads of tang and copious amounts of mature smoke that brings a smile to my face. The perique is nice and not overdone. There is enough there to feel the sharpness of it and some strength. Izmir adds seasoning. They all word together like the Three Stooges, playing off each other. Unique is the word that keeps popping into my head. Unique and good with coffee. I like this smoke in the morning.

Three stars based on aging beautifully, availability, character and price.

New tin to me, but bought with other C&D tins that were from 2009. Tin aroma is very strong fig aroma - almost overpowering. After airing out and aging in a tin a bit, there is no significant change in aroma, which is for some reason a bit off- putting.

The flakes are dark burgundy, dense, and leathery. They don't rub out well, but rather crumble into smaller pieces and individual ribbons never seem to flake off. The flake cross- sections reveal what look like A LOT of large stems, and rubbing it out confirms that. One of the larger stems had what looked like white mold in the pith. I cannot pinch a bit of rubbed out flake without getting a big stiff stem in there, which I have to remove or I can't pack the bowl. The texture and cut, and mold don't bode well for me. Bad batch?

I have managed to smoke one or two bowls in a cob that were enjoyable, but most of them whether in a briar or cob have been disappointing, especially since I LOVE Sunday Picnic and C&D in general.

The smoke starts off very earthy and mouth drying with a bit of bite. A little later I do get some red VA toasty-breadiness with a hint of sweetness but it doesn't last. I often get pleasant tingling with VA blends, but this bite is not as pleasant. The taste remains earthy-dry and spicy but the balance is out of whack. I try to adjust my draw, pack, tamping, etc to compensate and get some more sweetness or something else than this one- dimensional flat taste, but I only get a very infrequent reward for my efforts in the form of a blast of VA sweetness, then its gone.

It seems like this blend has quite a lot of Perique, which would account for the constant earthiness and major nicotine. I cannot smoke this without feeling a little queasy unless I have had a big meal. I love Perique, but it has to be in balance, and it's just not in this blend.

At the end of the bowl, when Perique rightfully takes center stage, it becomes overwhelmingly spicy and mouth-drying, and any already subtle nuances of flavor are gone. I usually can't finish this one.

Ironically, the aftertaste is wonderful and I enjoy the lingering VA sweetness and fig undertone taste in my mouth for hours.

I wanted to love this one, but I can't. The texture of the flakes and the sheer amount of large stems (perhaps accounting for the out of whack taste?) was troubling. I'm curious whether anyone else has noted this. My Sunday Picnic flakes are fluffy, springy and lively smelling, with no stems at all, while these are leathery, crumbly, and sort of stale smelling.

Is this a bad tin or do I just not get why this blend is great?

Ouf! When I saw the description for this tobacco, " The perfect blend of Red VAs and Périque with a touch of Izmir for interest", I went Yea Man, this is what I need to try! Needless to say, the proportion of Périque, plus the Izmir, makes it quite...interesting. This tobacco, in a broken flake form rather than a full flake like, say Erinmore Flake, is something I have never tasted before.

When I opened the tin, I was welcomed by a medium dark broken flake, with some strings of golden tobacco, with a very strong aroma of Périque and a very present earthy and oriental tones; I can't say I was pleased by the aroma at first, and the tobacco's moisture level was very high, too high for me to think about smoking it right there. I had to let it dry, sealed with the plastic top on it, for a couple weeks before I ventured into trying it. By then, the somewhat not very nice smell had cooled down, still dominated by the Périque, but the red Vas had started to shine through and the oriental had a better presence too. By then, the smell was way better than at first. Just the "plain" smell of strong Bakkie.

I usually prefer to fully rub out the flake, leaving some small flakes in to slow down the combustion, but this bakkie smokes slow, it needs some relights; but at the time of my review, it is because the tobacco moisture is still kind of high. However, it still smokes dry.

As I was saying, the lighting up takes a few retrys and right from the start, the Périque is dominant, letting the Vas and Izmir emerge every once in a while. The taste and strength are full but, despite the dominance of the Périque, it is still an enjoyable smoke. The room note is, by no means, strong like Irish Flake or Haddo's Delight. By mid-bowl, my tongue was slightly numb but the Périque settled down somehow to let the Vas emerge more, combined with a background of Izmir.

I suspect the Bakkie needs to dry a bit more, and most certainly some aging to allow the three bakkies to merge together more properly. I believe this flake has a lot of potential but needs some time of aging. So I will certainly update my review in a couple months. I'm pretty sure the Vas and Izmir will be more dominant by then. Strength wise, it is comparable to Irish Flake so, if you don't have hair under your chin yet, you better pass on this one. It is a very nice tobacco, but certainly not a daily smoke for me.

The nicotine kick is absolutely guaranteed. Also, it took me approximately 2 hrs to get through a medium size bowl.

Overall, a different bakkie, strong and tasty, beautiful leaves but that needs some time for the bakkies to mix together and mellow down.

For now, I recommend it for those who like a good dose of Périque. If you don't like it, this Bakkie is not for you!

Update - 24 JUL 07

I needed to update earlier than I figured, because because the Bakkie has settled down a lot in the last week.

The tin aroma is now of pure tobacco, not unpleasant as it was at first to my nose; but the smell of good tobacco, mostly composed of the Oriental and Red Va, while the Périque has cooled down even more, but remains present.

As for the smoking, the change is very interesting, the red VA and Izmir are now in the "avant-scène", creating a nice mixture of sweet/earthy/spicy flavors, backed up by the tasty Périque which wraps it up beautifully without trying to take over. I have to change the strength to medium to strong, instead of strong and the taste to medium to full, instead of full, for they both diminished as the tobacco dried up a bit more and the leaves had more time to merge in.

Red Carpet is a wonderful smoke because the addition of Izmir changes the traditional relationship between VAs and Périques, bringing it a new, zesty dimension. This brocken flake is worth the try, Lads.

Highly recommended, I am sure that with a couple years of aging, this bakkie will become a classic.

my first ( and will be my only ) tin.--sharp,a little heady...eachtime i refill my pipe i get atad woozy, too much perique for me. but oh, what a wonderful tin aroma. if i could just smell the raw tin and not smoke it. i continue to search for a replacement for samuel gawith st james vaper which is so often out of stock.

Love at first light ! Nice fruity pungent smell from the tin . Stuffed this right into a GBD pot out of the tin . Love these red slightly sweet and fruity like a light red wine Virginias . I get a little catsup and vinegar and the Perique is just perfect spice and slight fig and date . A little more vinegar at the bottom of the bowl but not too sour . As good as it gets for me ! Very natural tasting .

This tastes like opening night with a big punch of perique. One of the best c&d va/pers in my opinion.. the g l pease va/pers are subtle and graceful.. c&d is a little more rough and ready.. but absolutely what the doctor ordered.. the perique really pops in this although it is probably not an ultra high percentage.. it melds with some kind of natural red Virginia tart spice.. an overall tart experience. Sweetens and calms as the bowl progresses... mellow dry raisin quality but still plenty of spice.. seems like a perfect cellar blend. Interesting how this somehow reminds me of regents flake minus the oriental leaf.. with all the blends c and d produces there has to be a lot of overlap.. but it is nice to get slight variations..

Considering that this is definitely a non aromatic blend, your nostrils will probably activate your taste center, as the tin aroma shines with vinegar, spice and earthy hints. As a va/per, the perique is mostly dominant on that one, in a way that makes it really pleasant. Was the nicotine content higher than that, I would have given it a 3 star. Still I cannot do so otherwise, simply because this blend smokes better and better as combustion progresses, but smoking fast might leave a sour effect on your roof. To me, not an all day smoke, but I would definitely purchase it again. Hint; Try your churchwarden.

Red carpet differs from typical Va/per blends not only due to the addition of izmir orientals.when the tin opens a tense smell of vinegar notes and spicy earthy notes comes out.the flakes are dark brown,moist and seem to be aged.rubbing is easy and i do not recommend the folding method.while smoking the flavours differ from what might expected from the tin aromas..the virginias are dominant being tangy and sour mostly.dark fruits and some citruses are present.the perique is following being spicy,with plum and vinegar notes.also some fig notes come out rarelly.the interesting addition of izmir orientals offer sweet spices and some earth notes.generally the flavours are pleasant and complex.burns cool and slow without chance of tongue bite.the nicotine level is medium and the room note tolerable.not an all day smoke.i recommend it for va/per lovers who wanna try something different.not an ideal blend to insert the va/per world.

Nothing very surprising about this blend, but in this case, that wasn't a bad thing. It was tinned just this past January, so I probably opened it too soon. If you've smoked much Red VA, you know how this basically tastes, as it is a nice standard example, perhaps a tad more sour than usual. The Perique adds a bit of peppery middle to the blend, but there is a bit of a cigarette aftertaste.

This particular tin was all broken flakes, easy to pack, light, and keep going. Moderate burning, no tongue bite, a nice solid blend. The first half of a bowl usually seemed a bit light on N, but it caught up to just past medium by the end.