Cornell & Diehl Plantation Evening

Cornell & Diehl - Plantation Evening.

Mostly, the blend's a fairly well rubbed ribbon but on looking closer a few broken flake pieces can be highlighted. The colour's mainly medium brown with a small amount of black flecks. My moisture's perfect.

I like the smoke from it. It's what I'd call a Middle-Weight English. Also, it's rather flavoursome! The Latakia's a sure addition, but is pretty light compared to a lot of English blends. The Virginias, Turkish and Perique ALL have their say! The slightly tart and sweet Virginias take first place, tasting very ripe. The Turkish leaf gives a solid support, bringing a creamy character to the smoke. The Perique, although quite light, can't be missed throughout a bowl; I notice a touch of sharpness from it, but nothing too ardent. PE burns wonderfully, at a medium pace, cool, causing no tongue bite.

Nicotine: medium. Room-note: not nice.

Plantation Evening? Forget the bad 'note, it's a lovely smoke! Highly recommended:

Four stars.

Cornell & Diehl - Plantation Evening

This is a nice, solid english blend towards the medium - light area of the spectrum.  Nothing stellar really, just solid.  I'd compare this one favorably to GLP's Chelsea Morning, but whereas that one tends to have a kind of dusty mouthfeel (to me at least) this one has more of a neutral-to-spicy mouthfeel.  The cut is also less chunky, closer to fine ribbon.  Latakia is condimental at best - just enough to taste.  Neither too sweet, too sour nor too smoky, favorable price point and availability (bulk).  Nicotine is what I'd call medium or just a shade less. Just like Chelsea Morning, I don't feel especially strongly about this one, but it's still a worthwhile blend.

Another of the bombardment blends I recieved.

I guess this one is considered a med/full English blend, but it's not very heavy on the Latakia. It's very well blended for what it is, but I think it leans more towards medium. It has some nice sweet flavors that pop up from time to time in it. It burns well enough with exception of the Turkish flake bits I found in it. Unfortunately the only drawback I have with it are those flake bits. For some reason they burn my tongue. Orion's arrow comes to mind, as it has those bits in a slightly larger form that bite me as well.

Not a bad blend if the Turkish doesn't give you issues. 2 1/2 stars.

Mild English with nutty/burley flavor tastes like a blend of 50% Carter hall and 50% early morning pipe. Wife hated the room note and it has no qualities I would consider worthy of rebuying.

I guess you could call this a light English, but that would be missing the point, in my opinion. Here the blend is far greater than the sum of its parts. My tin was aged over 4 years.

Upon opening the tin the aroma was a mouth-watering sourness that I don't believe I've ever experienced before. I suppose you could attribute that to the perique, but I've opened lots of perique blends that were aged longer than 4 years that never produced such an exotic aroma. The range of colors goes from golden to brown to black with an occasional green leaf thrown in for good measure.

I dried the tobacco for several hours in my gas heated house during the winter and it ended up a perfect smoking humidity. It loads easily, and seems to perform best using the Frank method. I have smoked it in a variety of pipes and a wider bowl really brings out more of the amazing flavors. The tin note is smokey, sweet and herbal. Its flavor is smokey, but the other tobaccos are allowed to shine throughout the bowl. The perique appears to bring all the flavors forward, and it even shows itself once and a while. In my opinion, it's the perique that makes this blend so exciting, even though it's probably present in small amounts.

Can a light English be exciting? I don't know but this is an exciting blend that ages well and could very well be an all day smoke. I find it appropriate for any time of day or night.

The description of this blend is right on target. Some very good weeds were used in the making of this fine blend. Upon opening the tin, a real nice aroma comes forth and there seems to be a nice range of color. Room note is, to me, on the border of pleasant and tolerable. The wife didn't complain when smoking in my usual outside perch. It does seem to grow on you as far as the taste goes. It does produce a nice amount of smoke and burns to a nice ash at the end of the pipe. All in all, I would recommend this blend.

I obtained a 2 ounce tin of this bulk blend at the end of Nov and just cracked it open two weeks ago - mid Feb. I tried it based on the reviews here and C&D's own description as a medium English. At first sight the blend obviously had a lot less Latakia than other C&D English-style blends I've tried before. This observation carried through into the pipe as I kept drawing, and drawing , and drawing trying to coax more traditional (by today's standards) of "English" out of the smoke. I finally concluded that the Latakia and the fact that the blend is a non-aromatic must qualify it as an English. I say this because had I not read these descriptions I would have taken this to be an "Orientalized" VAPer with the Latakia just being another oriental component. Actually, I DO see this as more a VaPer (or Balkan/Perique - BalPer?) blend than what we usually call English.

All that said, I enjoyed this blend a lot, at least the half tin I've thus far consumed. It seems to do very well as an everyday or any-time-of-day smoke. I enjoy it even as a first of day smoke almost as much as I do their Bayou Morning. The orientals work well with the Virginias, the Perique is up front and spicy and the Latakia is more of a seasoning.

The only draw back for me personally (and something that may just be my personal chemistry) is a rather lingering wicked ashy aftertaste that I do not like and which keeps this off my "all day smoke" short list. But I would not hesitate recommending this "English" to Latakia-shy fumadores - a sip or two of scotch went a long way to palate cleansing.

3 stars (so far; subject to change). Update 12-03-2010: After nearly finishing my entire 2 oz. tin I must re-rate Plantation Evening. While my opinion that it is a tasty Orientalized VaPer with a Latakia kicker still holds true , that aftertaste I mentioned has become intolerable for me. Now, several of my friends smoke this and like it very much. However, for me the last half of the bowl turns decidedly acrid. I have tried varying my draw frequency, the depth of that draw, and the pipe smoked. No relief. Last night I was awakened twice by it; I had to go to brush my teeth each time.

For me, when I have a yen for a "medium" English I will stick with C&D's Stratfordshire

Update July 30, 2010:

I must be losing my mind, or my palate. One of them to be sure. After several months of laying in my long term storage cabinet I smoked the remainder of this tin this week. All of it, bowl after bowl, until it was gone. NOW I really like this stuff. I am going to reassess my entire review paradigm and tasting procedures. I need a formal protocol. I just might begin ignoring my own opinions. Either my tin was not well mixed (doubtful), the blend aged quickly and well (possible but not likely[?]), or....??? I am buying some more soon.

Plantation Evening (bulk) is a "full British" blend, but not a rich one. It has mild to medium strength and possesses good balance and integration of leaf flavors. It would be an excellent choice as an introduction to the genre. No single component dominates this blend, but you can taste all of them, and they get along well.

The flavor of the Turkish has a certain brilliance that is ephemerally suggestive of a Balkan blend. The Latakia and Perique play only condimental roles, and I find that so refreshing. In a world where blenders use condiment leaves to clobber their blends with flavor, Tarler uses them here only to compliment the tobacco. I should note as an aside that the Perique used by C & D in general, and this blend in particular, is the best I have ever tasted -- lush and figgy, not rough and peppery.

In sum: no issues with packing, lighting, burning, or bite; good smoke volume; great mouth feel; classic British blend taste -- but no "plum pudding" orgasm; fairly weak nicotine hit; tastiest Perique I've had; reasonable price; good candidate for aging.

After cracking open a 3 year-old tin, I think that the C&D ad copywriters are being very modest. This is hardly a 'middle of the road' blend, particularly when one experiences the interplay of the Latakia, Turkish and Perique components of this tasty blend. The Va's contribute a restrained sweetness throughout. Perhaps not as full as Yale Mixture (or Engine 99, for that matter), this is a hearty tobacco worthy of your attention.