Cornell & Diehl Riverboat Gambler

I prefer sweeter tasting tobacco than this... and, tobacco with less Perique. Still, it was an interesting smoke and not altogether unpleasant. Recommended for folks who enjoy plain old tobacco taste with strength and Perique.

My tin showd more of a coarse cut than broken flake although there were sizeable chunks in the tin. It arrived at a perfect moisture level and burned dry.

Cornell & Diehl - Riverboat Gambler.

Firstly allow me to say how I love Cornell & Diehl's tin designs; my favourite to date being Exhausted Rooster! They always set the scene!

Anyhoo, forget the quirky tins, the tobacco:

Medium brown ribbons with just a few darker ones. The cut is quite fine, making for easy filling. My freshly opened tin was ready to smoke straight away.

The smoke is a lightly seasoned VaBur one. The Orientals and Perique take a definite back seat. Of the VaBur side the Burley leads, with a nutty, rustic, coarse flavour. I don't identify any Burley molasses-sweetness. Tongue bite is something which doesn't happen but the temperature can creep a little above medium when pushed; so I'd recommend you employ a gentler technique. But, although it can rise in temperature, the independence of a burn's good!

Nicotine: a little too much for me. Room-note: not the best.

Riverboat Gambler? A nice tasting smoke but falls short of a full house. Three stars:

Recommended.

Tin note is sweet Virginia and Burley flake. Rustic rough cut with a wide range of ingredients. It's a good idea to preen this stuff before packing. Perfect moisture level; ready to smoke. Behaves very well from charring light to the bottom of the bowl! Slightly fast burn, but not for a Burley blend. Cool and bite free. Leaves the pipe clean and dry.

Impressions... I had a disappointing first experience and felt that RG was surprisingly one note, so I came back to it the next morning and had a great time with it, so I smoked it all day. And this leads me to the following thoughts...

This blend accomplishes what Night Train and Haunted Bookshop do, only to a slightly less successful degree. And that is, it creates a complex flavor experience with natural tobaccos and a level of sweetness not all non-aromatic smokers are looking for. You might think I'm crazy, but the overall melded flavor is sort of like Dunhill Royal Yacht, which can be a bit one note. But there's more to RG than that... On a quiet morning, by myself, I discovered the true flavors of the blend. There are very nice and mildly detectable pockets of flavor here. We have sweet, spicy, nutty, and the homogenized flavors drifting in and out as we smoke. The blend is at it's best during the first half of the bowl. The melding of flavors becomes more prominent and things get a bit less interesting toward the bottom of the bowl. I highly recommend smoking RG somewhere quiet, without distractions, so that you can better appreciate the mild complexities. Also, a strong flavorful drink will likely detract. Simple things like coffee, black tea, pale beer, or water work well.

I can't give Riverboat four stars, but I can definitely give it a solid three stars. One other thought is, if I were traveling and had to choose one blend to take, I might choose RG as a compromise from the extreme and bland. N level is medium+. Hope this helps, happy piping!

DK compared this to be the gentleman sibling to OJK.. I haven't smoked original OJK (only the blue label), but smoked and love the Haunted Bookshop which is said to be very similar to OJK. From the first bowl on I had the feeling that Riverboat Gambler is a more nuance version of Haunted Bookshop! It has the same woodsy and earthy Burley tenor with the same zing and fruity, peppery edges as Haunted Bookshop (from now on "HB") has.

First off the tin note...its very natural, tobacco-ey, earthy and woodsy with a slightly sour-fruity backbone. Actually very similar to HB! Mahagony colored tobacco. Reddish, brown, few bright streaks and a moderate amount of black Perique leaf (I'd estimate it about 10% maybe).

In the pipe the smoke is richly earthy, decently woodsy with a nice, yet mild aroma of nuts. Very(!) reminiscent of HB in the Burley department, this nice earthy-woodsy, tart-dry aroma.! BUT - and this is where Riverboat Gambler satisfies me - the Turkish/Oriental adds its very own, special charme to it. It adds a mild, buttery and somewhat woodsy, mildly ethereal note to the smoke, that make it very pronounced and refined. It harmonizes perfectly with the very slight caramel-y sweetness from the VAs. RB is a tad sweeter than HB, but still rather a spicy smoke and makes for an excellent All-Day-Smoke - be it sipping consciously on the porch, or doing paper-/gardenwork.. Riverboat Gambler will deliver!

Burley in front, with delicate Perique zing, exotic Turkish spice - a very harmonious blend of richly flavored tobacco leafs! Good Blend!

The bold, rough burleys offer plenty of earth, wood, nuts, light cocoa, sugar, and spice as the lead components. The very floral Turkish produces a lot of earth, wood, dry sourness, spice, vegetation and herbs in a support role. The spice from the earthy, woody perique combines with the spice from the Turkish, so it’s hard to gauge its impact. Plum is its most obvious aspect as the perique is just above being a condiment. The Virginias provide a fair amount of tart citrus, grass/hay, some vegetation, bread, mild sugar, floralness, and a touch of acidity. They form the base of the blend. The strength and nic-hit are a couple of steps past the medium mark. The taste is in the center of medium to full. Won’t bite, but fast puffing may result in a harsh, cigarette note. Burns a tad warm and clean as a moderate pace with a very consistent sour, nutty, floral, spicy, mildly sweet, rugged flavor that extends to the long lingering after taste. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, and requires an average number of relights. The room note is pungent. Not an all day smoke.

-JimInks

A Coarse Cut with irregularly sized bits in different brown shades and a few black spots. The scent in tin is rather unpleasant, sort of sweet-sour Ketchup. Moisture is perfect. Good stuffing and lighting properties. It burns quite dry and fast, leaves back grey ash and a clean pipe.

My preferences of pipe tobaccos are Perique forward Va/Per blends, and heavy English Mixtures. Now, I like Perique, I like Orientals, I like Latakia, but I generally don’t like the combination of Perique with Orientals or Latakia. That’s why I wanted to give this mixture a try, for a change and new experience, and because my 87-year-old father likes it. Here we have Virginias, Burleys, Perique and Orientals.

Over all I find it interesting and not unpleasant, in fact I find it a very harmonious mixture of these different tobaccos. Complex, yes, but not deep digging. The most prominent here is Burley, slightly earthy and nutty. Then there is a pleasant, spicy, peppery Perique that donates power to the mixture. The Virginias are present with notes of bread and yeast. The Orientals are subtle and give a cushioning body to this blend. There is almost no sweetness, and absolutely no flavouring detectable, something I like about this robust mixture. The nicotine level is quite high, unfortunately. But, as always, YMMV. Definitely recommended, it’s out of the ordinary and offered me a new terrain to explore, although I will not buy it again.

This tobacco has a harshness and non-sweetness to it that I like. I suspect these qualities hark back to the increasing number of cigars I consume daily. Not that this blend tastes like a cigar, it is just a far cry from the Capt. Black Vanilla this hobby (addiction) started out with twenty-five years ago. It comes in the tin with a humidity level I like for immediate packing. There are some big pieces of tobacco in the tin that may need some trimming. Minimal preparation needed. I have had no problem with tongue bit and love the turkish/perique play on this rich burley flavor.

A definitive cousin of OJK, but with much more power. Tin aroma has a cinnamon spice smell quite similar to that of the cigar line Triple Ligero from La Flor Dominicana. Appearance is mostly dark brown ribbon cuts with some larger rough cut leaf and a smattering of perique.

Initial light was quite strong in both flavor and aroma. Similar to OJK, maybe a bit more well rounded. You will be notified that this bowl means business. Spicy, hearty burley comes to the forefront, followed by the perique playing around in the background.

Not sweet, just a hearty tobacco flavor that lends a big dose of vitamin N as you progress. DGT works wonders with this blend. Save it for an evening of reflection. Use caution if this will be your breakfast smoke.