Cornell & Diehl Epiphany

I bought 4 ounces of Epiphany about a year ago when I was looking for Burley-forward blends to try. This one is a blend of many different types of tobaccos and the balance of flavors is very equitable. There is both considerable depth and complexity to be found here; Epiphany has a cacaphony of tobacco flavors. The appearance is of mostly medium reddish-brown color with a fair amount of lighter leaf with some dark tobacco in the mix. The cut is mixed with some short ribbons and other random pieces. There were a couple of tough stem-like midrib pieces in the small portion that I pulled out for my bowls. I had jarred this tobacco in Mason jars a year ago and it was at the same moisture level as when it was when it was stored, which was just right for smoking. The initial flavor was Perique and Burley; the Latakia and Virginias kept a low profile. In mid-bowl the Virginias and Latakia made their presence known. The finish is pretty much like the middle third of the bowl, an almost perfect harmony of the four types of tobaccos. The high point of the bowl was the middle third when all of the tobacco flavors were in full array. This tobacco is of medium intensity, not overpowering but not a light blend by any means. The nicotine strength is medium as well. It is rich but not sweet; if there is any flavoring/casing, it is in harmony with the Virginias and Perique. Epiphany burns cool and dry. I smoked it in a Missouri Meerschaum Country Gentleman and a Comoy's Guildhall billiard.

It is going some distance for me to give any flavored blend three stars, especially English ones. I only bought this as I thought I could not think I had done the complete C&D Bulk English offerings and not taste it. At the same time I also bought a tin of Sutliff Private Stock R Blend (their version of Revelation) for comparison. Not having any idea of Einsteins favorite I can only test this and the Sutliff against each other and in my own biased way.

Opening the package and jarring Epiphany was a sensory assault - the unlit aroma recalled Bazooka Bubblegum and Wrigley's Juicy Fruit chewing gum from my youth. I prepared to be disappointed. In appearance it looked to be a standard English blend in the C&D style of ribbon cut. Not exactly elegant but it IS a bulk... Component wise it has all the goodies I like so I packed a Kaywoodie (with stinger) and fired it up. First light, bubblegum does not come through the smoke but some fruity sweetness does. It is considerably smokey in taste and heavier than the Sutliff in Latakia, much heavier. Flavor also reminds me of some light vanilla and maple with a berry base of some sort. For me at least the salty nature of this blend saves it.

For a non-aro guy it goes some for me to say I'll keep some of this around. My 4 ounce sampling is about gone, more to come soon, I'm sure. It is superior to the Sutliff (but that's another review).

Friend of mine sent this sample, with some others.

Pouch smells of an oddly familiar, yet completely unable to recollect fruit. I'd put it somewhere between grapes and plums, with a little berry as well. I can detect some smokiness but not very much. The blend smells very, very sweet.

Initial char is pleasantly spicy upfront, wait, this is an "English"? First few draws are spicy as well, with little-to-none of that fruity sweet aromatic smell coming out. I'm getting a little burley burp (the back of the throat lumping) but no bite other than the spice. A snork and french inhale tell me there is a topping, but I just cannot put my finger on it... again some strange plum/grape flavor that's really hard to pin down. The latakia is fairly subdued here, I get a hint of it early on and it does get a bit more pronounced as the bowl goes on, but just enough to be mildly smoky...

Midway through the bowl, I'm now getting a bit more lat and that unique fruit flavor... and it's actually got a surprising sweetness... I'm still scratching my head, waiting for that Epiphany of "name that topping", and it's pretty wonderful playing the guessing game with it. Oh, and it's still spicy. Even with the lat emerging it's not in the potency that I would put on par with Squadron Leader or Nightcap.

After finishing the bowl and letting my cob cool down, I sniffed it to try one last time to figure out the topping and came back with "fruit punch". Considering every kind of fruit imaginable is in fruit punch, it really didn't help me.

That's all I got. It's good, mildly complex, and pretty tasty. Not life changing, but a good smoke.

Update 11/23/2015

Well, I bit the bullet and paid big bucks for a sealed tin of Philip Morris Revelation from the 50's(?) I think. The tin was sealed with a red tape around the opening. Inside, it seemed to be in an envelope that resembled the texture of parchment paper. I am assuming that this was ideal storage at the time this was produced.

My point of stating all this is that the stuff was not that good at all. The topping had flashed, there was nothing much left in way of latakia and the blend took on that cardboard taste that old stale blends tend to take on. Having experienced this, I think that is impossible to actually compare this blend to what is being made for a match today.

I shared this with a couple of fellow reviewers here and they, in turn, shared some matches with me. One gave me the sutliff match, and the other, some Epiphany as it had been a while since I tried it. The Sutliff match was much better than the other blend I had previously tried by them. I think it was R Blend that is their other earlier match. However, the Epiphany was head and shoulders above all of these.

The sample I tried seemed to scream four stars to me and I can't decide if this is due to my taste and experience improving since I last tried it or a problem with consistency on part of C&D. In any case, I am not changing this from its three stars, but will definitely be buying more and may add a star to this one later as I really enjoyed the generous sample I just finished.

Original Review 10/7/2013

I never had revelation and likely never will. Not that it matters as this is a fine tobacco on its own. It must have been quite a blend to have inspired so many knockoffs from so many blenders. This is one of the better ones in my opinion. The Sutliffe version, Man's Best friend, is terrible by comparison.

To me this is good, but not great. It is reliable and can be smoked all day without a problem and will also fill a contemplative itch quite well. Like many of the C&D blends it relies heavily on their fine burleys. The perique is prevalent and the Lat is but a whisper in the background. The topping is light enough not to encroach on the natural tobacco flavor, but strong enough to make an impact on the blend. There is great balance amongst the components in this blend with none really stealing the show.

My hunting buddy loves this stuff and is more responsible for finishing off my 8 ounces than myself over the past few hunting seasons as he just can't get enough of it. He is in for a disappointment this November as I don't intend to buy any more any time soon. Just too much of other stuff in the cellar.

So I do recommend this one, particularly as a crossover to those looking to get into english blends. So three stars as it just doesn't jump in to must have territory for me.

After several tins of this stuff, I'm just now going to try and shed some light on this baccy. Epiphany is something special but odd. Like an earlier reviewer stated it is a smoke that will at first have you feeling a bit annoyed, but after a few more bowls you will begin to warm up to it and then feel like its something you need to keep around. The tin presentation is typical C&D well balanced and top grade leafs, the smell is a bit different, sort of like a kids cereal with a hint of smokiness lingering in the background (Toasted Lucky Charms comes to mind). The vitamin N is there throughout and should be respected b/c it will jump on you fast. Experienced 0 tongue bite, but did notice it like to heat up just a bit. I found around mid bowl this baccy really begins to shine and seems offer moments that kept me coming back for more. Overall a nice smoke that gives you a little something different.

I like this blend. Bob Runowski did a great job recreating the Philip Morris Revelation. I have some to compare it to! ..Anyways, The taste is almost SPOT ON...BUT...and a very BIG but...the room note is different. Revelation has a nice sweetish/earthy room note. Epiphany is lacking it. I really wish he could have captured that. Other than that, I love it. Good all day smoke.

I heard about Einstein smoking Revelation and how Epiphany is similar. I've seen Epiphany before at my LTS and decided to get it for the novelty. After smoking one bowl in a hardwood pipe I really liked it. Being new to smoking pipes, this was way different for me when comparing this to a full English Blend and would recommend others to give it a shot if you have a few dollars to give it a go.

Even buying it in bulk, it was fairly dry but smoked really well. No tongue bite and the flavors are very enjoyable. I could taste perique with very little latakia, which seemed to be a secondary characteristic which made this blend very balanced. The virginia and burleys were also evident in the flavor, adding a sweetness and nuttiness with the perique adding a pepperiness and very little smokiness from the latakia. Overall quite sweet in flavor for the overall mildness of this blend.

I'll probably keep this on my normal rotation of pipe tobaccos until something else is found to replace it, which will be hard to do, I've also purchased another tobacco from the LTS from the clerk who recommended it, since it was similar and said it was better in his opinion. Well Epiphany won out for my taste so it could be hit or miss to some people depending on their palate.

I don't often review tobaccos but I feel I should comment only because of some comments and part of the description that refers to Revelation and Einstein. I suspect Einstein smoked other tobaccos but Revelation was his favorite. I've seen pictures of him at his desk with a large tin of Revelation in front of him. I smoked a lot of Revelation in the late 1950s and early 1960s and unless my memory is completely shot, neither this nor the House Of Windsor recreations are much like the old Revelation. The original Revelation was produced by Contenental Tobacco and then sometime about 1940 Phillip Morris acquired Revelation at the same time as Bond Street. I've seen some comments about Einstein smoking HOW Revelation which was impossible of course. The HOW version was produced after 2000 and Einstein died in 1955. He smoked the Phillip Morris Blend.

Having said all that, this is a good blend, though heavier in Latakia than the PM version. Its essentially an American English with a Burley base. At first light, the Latakia aroma is prominent then fades somewhat. This tobacco shines at about half bowl when the nutty flavor and aroma of the Burley begins to dominate. It can get a little bitter at the bottom of the bowl. Someone commented that it is a good transition tobacco for those who want to move from aromatics to English or a more natural blend and I would agree. Its certainly worth trying.

I called in to C&D, and spoke to a gent about switching into their English blends from some other light english, and a few lingering aromatics. I ordered a sample pack of 6 blends, and this led the list. Being that what little they've forgotten about blends is probably more than I know, I simply asked the gent to pick out 6 of the "light english / all day" variety to sample (C&D sent 015, 068, 101, 412A, Bed & Breakfast, and Good Morning)

The order on Monday morning arrived on a Wednesday afternoon via US Priority Mail. The sample packaging was in heavy duty ziplock bags with a Cornell and Diehl label, see uploaded photo.

I gave this tobacco it's first firing in a good sized meerschaum that was well cleaned prior to smoking, to attempt to narrow down the flavor, etc. to this blend alone. (this is what I prefer, for a first go with any new tobac)

The taste was decent, the smoke appealing, and like the other quality tobaccos I've used the ash was fine and gray. Tongue bite for me was noticeably absent at my standard relaxed pace, though I did not attempt to mindlessly huff it to see if I could get the bite.

The aroma was certainly tolerable, the taste was decent to my palate. I have no experience with either of the two variants that inspired this blend. I will continue with this blend . . .