Cornell & Diehl Billy Budd

Package note of sharply sour and smoky. Tobacco is a ribbon of dark brown, brown and light brown with a little black mixed in. Moisture content is great. No drying/prep needed. Burns moderate with few relights. The strength is medium and nic is medium. No flavoring detected. Taste is medium to full and mostly consistent, with notes of smoky, sour peaty vegetation, bitter incense, floral spices, pine wood, earthy, toast, dry herbal grassy, spicy cigar, a pine nut and tart citrus background note, and a very peppery retro. Latakia is leading with Burley, Cigar and Virginia supporting. Room note is tolerable to strong, and aftertaste is good.

A fine blend of english ingredients plus a paper clip and what may be shag carpet. there is cigar leaf as well. I,m not getting much of that. Perhaps overwhelmed by the carpet. Old woman has the normal reaction : i hate everything: smell ,the fact that I smoke in the garage , pipe tobacco exists, I exist. Yer talking to the pipe baby! I did discover that i,m not a very fast runner(I,m 54) Wish me luck. good bit of smoke!

This is the first factory made cigar leaf pipe blend I've tried. I've made my own using the clipped cap of an 1964 anniversary padron, pirate kake and oriental silk, but never a factory rolled one. The pouch smell was what you'd expect from an english blend, plenty of smoky latakia, a bit of VA sweetness and spicy orientals. In this blend the spicy scent was the cigar leaf.

I was disapointed, not repulsed. The cigar leaf seemed to dominate the flavor and it was lower quality cigar leaf than I am used to. I'm hoping cellaring will help.

I smoke cigars. I have high regard for C&D. My three stars are optimistic that when I revisit the blend it will live up to three stars.

It's not like I only smoked half of a bowl and tapped it out in disgust, and I did use a very reliable, well seasoned Castello Collection that has never steered me wrong.

I think there is something to this blend and am willing to give it a chance, but it wasn't as pleasurable a smoking experience as I was hoping for.

Cigar leaf and Latakia are the dominate players in this blend being held up by the Burley and Virginia like they where crowd surfing, oh yeah this is in your face poking you in the eye balls. Makes a good late afternoon smoke for me with black coffee.