Cornell & Diehl After Hours Flake

Anyone that knows me knows I'm partial to C&D blends. Up until this point, Sunday Picnic was my favorite of their Flakes. Up till this point. Afterhours Flake is by far the best Rum Flake on the market. Open the tin and there are lovely, well cut flakes, and the smel of Rum comes on strong. At first this worried me, becuase in some blends this spells tongue burn-But not here. Full rubbed out is my favorite way to go- and this is not pipe specific. Takes to light well, and the flavor is a full, nicelt flavored Virginia flake. The Rum Flvor gives it a bit of spice and a deep flavor- But not what you would expect from the smell- It's more subdued. No hint of bite- the flavor stays constant and reliable. A Great Flake. If you like the thought of a Rum Flake-This is it.

Working my way through the Simply Elegant series, I picked up a tin of After Hours during a recent sale. Tin date is 6-18-20 so it is about 5 months in tin.

The tin note shows the rum casing to me. It was just a touch moist which is rare from most CD products. I gave it a half-hour to dry out some.

The broken flake is easily rubbed out or could be folded and stuffed. It was easy to keep going after a charring and first light. It puts out above average amount of moisture and wants to be smoked slowly or it can get warm. Required a couple of pipe cleaners during each smoke. The strength to me was medium and I "felt it" more than some other VA flakes.

I was surprised that the first portion of the bowls tend to be peppery which made me wondered if there is a touch of perique hiding among the Virginias. Below the pepper, there is a sweetness which is not overpowering and grows as I smoke through the bowls. It has a rich creamy smoke to me and my wife thought it smelled "decent". The flavor lasts through at least 3/4 of the bowl and it burns down to a nice ash.

It's a good blend, similar to some other C&D offerings. I can't see cellaring this to add to my rotation, but it's a good smoke. I smoked probably 1/2 the tin and jarred the rest to see what differences a few months of cellar time will make.

Very enjoyable smoke with a good nicotine punch to be smoked slowly ,good flavor burns all the way down to a fine ash smoke in a medium bowl pipe

A solid 3 star flake from C&D, already lots of fine reviews.

I think this much prefers being rubbed out a bit, but for whatever reason, the nicotine REALLY kicked me the second time I had it. I'd used about 3 flakes total, with one of those being unrubbed on top. Getting it started wasn't too bad, but abiut a third of the way into the bowl I had a decent flavor. Another third and I felt like I'd been drinking rum alongside it. I'm sensitive to nicotine, so it doesn't take a lot to get me buzzed. I definitely went too fast with it and once it went out for the last time (I'd reality maybe once or twice due to letting it sit) I didn't bother relighting. I was already above my usual nicotine comfort. It's bit a bad smoke at all, but it humbled me with a reminder to pace myself next time.

It's not a super complex flavor, but I'm not sure that's a bad thing. It's a reasonable, straight forward and honest smoke that I enjoy, in moderation.