Cornell & Diehl Plantation Evening

The Cyprian Latakia is a light addition that provides a little smoke, earth and woody sweetness. The perique adds a slight spice, raisins and figs and mainly lurks in the background. The woody, earthy, herbal, vegetative, dry, slightly buttery sweet and sour, lightly spicy Turkish is a condiment. The aged Virginias are nearly the star flavor: slightly earthy, grassy, with a little tart and tangy citrus and a tangy sweetness from the red Virginia, which is the more prominent Virginia by just a step or two. The strength is just short of the center of mild to medium, while the taste is just past that level. The nic-hit is a step past the mild mark. No chance of bite or harshness. Burns clean and cool at a moderate rate with a very consistent flavor from top to bottom. Requires few relights. Leaves little moisture in the bowl. Has a short lived after taste and stronger room note. As per C&D's description, this is a "middle of the road" blend designed for the novice English smoker, and a decent change of pace for the experienced one. Two and a half stars.

-JimInks

I was really excited to try this blend and even bought enough to cellar, to try it at different times. The tin note is a deep, woodsy, leather with a incense like quality that peeked my interest. Yet in appearance, there is tons of virginia and oriental, and not as much Latakia as the scent gives off.

On first light I got a very burley like flavor, completely unexpected. It had a cigarette/ashy quality that concerned me quite a bit. Then the perique kicked in. At this point all I could get out of the blend was spice. Half way through the bowl I was about to give up paying attention on account of the spice, but then, when least expected, the bread like flavor of the virginia came waltzing in. Now this blend was starting to shine. I could discern the orientals and virginas within the spice. Still, I couldn't get everything I was hoping for out of the blend. It was a bit to one dimensional for me personally. I want to experiment with it a bit, try some different conditions and a different pipe before I put it away for awhile.

Mechanically, it was very well behaved. One light and it smoked down to a fine white ash. No bite at all.

So it may be a blend for you if you like a spicy English that behaves well, but it is rather plain.

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.

Although this is a nice smoke and one that should satisfy as an all day straight smoke, it just lacks character. Prefer C&D?s Yale Mixture to this one. And the fact that there are so many good English blends that one might choose, cannot go better than two stars.

This is exactly as it is advertized: "A middle of the road English" It really did not do much for me. With so many good ones out there, I can't see purchasing any more of this one. Much prefer Star of the East, Longevity, Pirate Kake, etc... Oh yeah, good quality leaf, perfect moisture, good burning qualities, blah, blah, blah. Who knows? It might be your Arcadia...

I'm one of those people who strongly believes that Perique and Latakia should never be mixed. Unfortunately, this is one of those blends that mixes them. To me, each has a distinct taste of its own, and to mix the two together marrs the flavour of both. This blend is a lighter English blend, and has a strange taste because of the combination of the two spice tobaccos. Its predominant flavour is sour, and it seems that's all I can get out of this one. I can say I definitely do not prefer it, and would only recommend it to those who enjoy mixing Latakia and Perique.