Cornell & Diehl Opening Night

This is the definition of all-day every-day straight uncased Virginia. Nic hit is on the stronger side. Smoke is completely hassle free. I usually manage to smoke the entire bowl without any relights. After-taste is short lingering and mild. The taste is mild-to-medium tilting towards the mild side. I get toasty oat flavors, very little sweetness and earthiness. This has a perfect place in a rotation between sweet VAs and spicy VaPers or DFK. Almost like a palette cleanser. The pipe smoking community asks for more uncased blends and I would like to see more myself, especially considering how good they can be as evident from Opening Night. Because this is a mass produced blend I have horded quite a bit of it. While I am more partial to full-flavored VAs, I have become fond of a robust rotation and Opening Night has a permanent place.

My experience differs from most of the reviews I read here, but I end up at the same conclusion. This is one of the best uncased Virginia blends, if not the best.

Tin aroma is very different from most straight Virginias. Very strong grape and plum notes, with some other pungent aromas I cannot place. To be honest I am not a fan of the tin aroma. However, the smoke aroma is heavenly. This is the best smelling Virginia I have ever smoked in my life, forcing me to take a lot in through the nose. This above all else is why this tobacco makes such a great case for being one of the best.

I put the flavor at mild, not medium or even mild to medium. The flavor is everything you expect from pure Virginias in a muted form. I have spent the past year smoking nothing but SPC Hogshead so that may skew my rating, but I just don't see this as a medium VA.

Zero tongue bit and burns cool which is incredible for an uncased VA. I was expecting to wrestle with this one, but there was no wrestling to be had. I agree with others that this may be the perfect tobacco for new pipe smokers to start with. Only possible problem for beginners would be the nic hit which I found to be on the stronger side.

Sometimes I need a mixture,Sometimes even looking for specific flavors that highlight the mixture, and now I need something low frequency and one-dimensional to meet the nicotine needs, and Opening Night does that.

I'm now taking him from bowl to bowl, looking for a suitable home for him,good stuff!

Note: When you open the tin, there are two beautiful rabbit ears. It is very ritualistic

I can't add much to what the brothers have written about this great Virginia flake. It, along with GLP Union Square are now my exclusive flakes. I'll just say this: Opening Night has every good quality of all the best Virginia flakes with none of the troublesome qualities. It packs and burns well, it won't bite unless you really push, it has a mild/medium nic level _and_ full flavor. And you can't really beat the price. I'm not an all day smoker but, if I were, this would be the flake I reached for. My only complaint is that I try to limit myself to two bowls a night and Opening Night always leaves me wanting another.