Cornell & Diehl After Hours Flake

You definately will smell the rum when you open the tin. that said, I find the taste when smoking less pronounced than the smell, although it is there. Nice broken flake that burns great, tastes just like the description, and lasts a good long while. No complaints. It is what it is.

I don't really care for this. That does not make it bad. I just don't find it up to the normally high level that most C&D and G.L. Pease blends are on. Even the best blenders in the world make something on occasion I don't care for. With the effort they make to produce so many blends there are bound to be a few that could be overlooked, this is one of those.

The rum is too much in this one. Not that it tastes strongly of rum, it just masks the tobacco flavor too much for me and the blend is overall too mild.

I can see how those liking lighter blends could enjoy it. Just not for me.

I honestly think it is a hit or miss with this blend and I'm sad to say I do not really reccomend it.

So it goes. Back to the ones I love.

I have to join in with the minority opinion on this one. The majority of what I smoke is either C.D. or G.L. Pease, with a scattering of other international blends. I have no fault with either Cornell and Diehl, nor G.L. Pease, and I believe these two houses are producing amongst the best tobaccos available today for the pipe smoker. That being said, I just couldn't get along with this offering. The rum seems to overpower the tobacco, and the tobacco doesn't seem to offer very much in the way of depth of flavor. It appears rather too mild and monochromatic, barely being able to peek its head above the rum on occasion. My opinion simply is that it is not a top notch offering from my good friends down south. The tobacco appears to be of the highest quality, but it just loses something in the translation here, and it doesn't get any better as the bowl progresses. I really enjoy Barbary Coast, Repose, and Pennington Gap, all of which add rum to the mix, but the rum seems to work better with the Burley. Nough said, and Happy Holidays To All!!

This my gang is one helluva good flake. Juicy red flakes spiced up with a bit of rum flavoring. Easy to fold and burn.

Burns steady and is not a wet smoke. I ripped opened a new tin and found it quite smokable immediately.

The red virginia is subdued a bit by the rum but the flavoring keeps it a deep, seductive, cool, and quite tasty.

Not as sweet as something like McCraines older Red Flake or G&H Ennerdale Flake or Rum Flake, but those vintage blends have lots of age. Seems almost like the same quality red leaf as Mc but the rum brings it to a different level.

The rum does not taste like an aromatic additive per se, and the flavor is deeply embued in the red virginia. It is slighty spicy at times too as noted below--like a dose of rum, but I regard it as smooth enough if you don't puff her fast.

For the red flake fancier who wants a note of something extra.

In normal times I would soak myself in rum, internally, and smoke a straight Virginia Flake.

We live in extraordinary times.

More great tobacco blended with exceptional skill. Needs a wee bit of drying and rubbing and the aroma of rum fades slightly. Lights and burns with ease. No muss, no fuss.

Very nice with a gin and tonic, and I will buy again when I'm not in the mood for rum in a glass.

C&D After Hours Review

The sea-faring swashbuckler in me heard Rum soaked Virginia flake? I was ready to set sail. It was not at all like that, but, that was ok, because this is an exceptional smoke.

I am a VA flake fanatic, PS Luxury is my all day, and I use blends like this for after dinner and special times. I have smoked almost a whole tin, and cannot say enough on how good this is.

Not a sweet blend, and if no one told me there was rum in, I wouldn?t know. So the last bowl I smoked I tried to stay in conjunction to the theme ?after hours? (a sneaky pete club) I threw on some Dean Martin, Frank, Tony Bennett and some of my jazz CD?s.

This is not Virginia Flake, this is Virginia Steak au Poivre

Top of bowl - Immediately you are met with a green & black peppercorn affect. It is Peppery and spicy. It has a good underlying fullness and aroma of good smooth Virginia. Not hard to get started at all, and allows you to settle right in.

Mid Bowl - The pepperiness backs off but doesn?t disappear and now it is just plain meaty. Yes, meaty, like NY Strip steak in your mouth. There are mouthfuls of smoke that smell very unique and have a very good taste. I swear it reminds of steak. I even smell and taste slight A1 sauce but not in a Latakia way, more of a open flame grill way.

Bottom Bowl - what? Huh? Where am I? Sorry, the CD changed to Sonny Clark and I got lost for about 30 mins. Oh yeah, I was in a back alley Jazz lounge, where you hear great music and drink gasoline. The Nic level is a good heavy-medium, and will make you relaxed, big time. Not strong, but a good fighting champ. I feel like I just ate dinner! Very full taste.

My compliments to C&D, this is the best blend I have tried from them in a looong time. Congrats to Mr. Tarler! A sure winner, can?t wait to see what aging does to this.

***** 5 out of 5 stars

The tin note is reminiscent of the sweet fragrance of my favorite chewing gum when I was a child, and I found it closer to the smell coming out of the freshly opened can of “Peace” cigarettes I often smoked when I was a cigarette smoker. When lit, the fusion of VA and the added flavoring is superb. I cannot detect ostentatious flavor of caramel & rum. A perfect fusion of natural sweetness and artificial sweet flavoring. As is often the case with flavored, scented tobaccos, inconsistency is a problem. After Hours, however, stays consistent, or precisely speaking, it unnoticeably loses the first sweetness and mildness within the tolerance range.

The Virginias are pretty standard, but their flavor hold up well throughout the bowl; the dark rum does as well, while being a bit understated, playing up the VA rather than covering the tobacco flavor in any way. The 'flakes' in my tin were pretty broken up, and packed easily. Not an outstanding Rum VA, but a very solid one, very pleasant under all conditions. Well worth trying if you enjoy the genre and want a good intro to it.

whelp, I guess this is technically an aromatic, but its probably more accurate to call it a semi aromatic or something. In other words its not a goopy syrupy blend, its closer to some of Gawith Hoggarth flakes or even Gawith's Kendall Cream. Its outstanding whatever you want to call it. Just one of the real surprises for me in the C&D line. Im not an aromatic smoker (except for the lakeland flakes if those qualify as aromatics) but this is a great change of pace. Its rich, and the tobacco flavor comes through start to finish. Strength is a solid medium in nicotine terms, and the flavor is medium plus. Very cool burning, and might need a re light or two. Its balanced and comes in the usual C&D broken flake form. Lovely stuff.