Cornell & Diehl Night Train

Summary: Looks like a granola bar, tastes like a granola bar, and provides a flavorful sweet smoke that has enough strength to be interesting.

"Night Train" takes a familiar mixture of Virginias, Perique and Burley and makes good use of the brighter, sweeter Virginias to create a wholesome flavor with moderate nicotine. The cake, flecked with gold and tan speckled in brown, gives off the fruity smell of Perique merged with the sweet hay scent of bright Virginia.

When lit, this smell intensifies along with a spicy, sweet and broad flavor. The guiding force behind this blend is complementary flavors, and the Virginias and Perique work together to guide this like the raisins in a granola bar. The Burley, like scattered nuts and grains, rounds out the flavor while the bright Virginia takes on a honey-like role. It is delicious and wholesome like the best of the health food turned confection that a good granola bar can be, but also, like all earth grains type foods, has a single dimension: sweet grain and fruit.

For this reason, "Night Train" -- while delicious -- serves best as an occasional smoke. It is not all that interesting because of its singular dimension, but for the pipe sipper with an all-day task, creates a wonderful background aura through its gentleness and outright deliciousness. I wish this came in flake form, as the crumbly and dusty cake seems onerous to me, where a rubbed-out flake being in leaf and not partially sawdust form lights better and burns more consistently.

As I am trying to go alot of C&Ds burley blends, I found this one lacking in Burley. I typically enjoy Latakia blends, but recently started to enjoy the earthy robust taste of Burleys...the blend just has to deliver in the Burley dept. This one unfortunately does not. This is much more a Vir/Per...and in this category, there are much better choices. If you are searching and experimenting to find why C&D is so well known for their Burleys, you might want to skip this one. I am giving it 2 stars, because it is smokeable...on the sweeter side with a mild to medium taste profile (again, I like bolder blends). Wife found the room note OK.

I'll give it two stars because the tobacco is high quality, but tastes like high-quality shredded rubber tires to me. I love most C&D blends I've tried. Some are my very favorites, even heavy perique blends such as Cajun Kake and Exclusive. And I like their burleys, too, but somehow the combination of everything in this is just not my cup of tea.

Strong tobacco, High nicotine level, sweet, spicy and little fruity, presented in pressed block.The smoke flavor is excellent; it remind me the flavor of Briar Fox,

Night Train requires an advanced (very slow) smoking technique. I would highly recommend this tobacco for veteran pipe smokers who enjoy nicotine overdose.

Aromatic and new pipe smokers will not enjoy Night Train. same with me since I cant absorb that much nicotine in one bowl.

Virginia dominant VaBur with a healthy dose of Perique. Smoking this, I always think it'd be better as a Burley dominant blend, but that tobacco already exists and is named Old Joe Krantz.

Spongy, leaf pancake bar you'd expect from C&D. I feel the strength of Night Train is oversold and rate it medium to strong.

It's useful mixing with Burleys you feel need more backbone, but then you could just buy better Burleys and save the time and money.

It's ok. That pretty much sums up what I feel about C&D's whole catalog. They occasionally get one right, but their Virginias just aren't very good and most of their blends are dull.

Ok. Night Train is a blend that is not for everyone. I'll say that first.

When i first got my little cake of this bad boy, i packed a bowl and smoked some. At first note, i got some nutty, tangy, and spicy flavors in this.

If you would have asked me what i thought of the Night Train when i first tried it, i would have said "It's not that great".

However! I've smoked more of it, and it really does grow on you. The more i ride the Night Train, the more i like it.

The amount of nicotine packs a powerful punch, so if you don't like nicotine buzzes, or a high amount nicotine i wouldn't recommend this blend for you. You can taste mostly the burley & perique in here. However, at the end i have to say it's a very good blend that has a very natural taste with no added extras etc.

I would recommend you at least give this a shot!

UPDATE 2/10/09: I've found this smokes wonderfully in a 1950's vintage Kaywoodie 1/4 bent meerschaum prince. For some reason the shallow, wide bowl brings out the flavor for me a lot better than a tall narrow bowled churchwarden that I had originally started smoking this in. Try a few different shapes out for yourself, there is a noticeable difference.

ORIGINAL REVIEW 1/27/09: When I first got the 1 oz chunk of Night Train I was skeptical. It really didn't have a specific smell to it other than tobacco and maybe a hint of sweet spiciness. At that point I had set myself up for disappointment. I was impressed with the way the "block" rubbed out into larger flakes. The moisture was perfect. Those two facts don't make a good smoke.

When I first placed match to tobacco then all that predetermined disappointment chugged away with each puff of smoke. This is an absolutely flavor packed smoke that really gives you a good punch of perique that melds with the virginias. A wonderful spicy tartness developed as the bowl progressed with hints of sweetness here and there. One thing I must caution is that the nicotine kick will have your stomach doing flip flops if you don't have at least something in there to fight off the Vitamin N. I'm not very sensitive to nicotine but even this one had me wishing I had a snack before the smoke.

This is not an every day smoke for me but it has left enough of an impression that I get a hankering for it every now and then. This is my first tobacco I've tried from C&D and if this is a portent of their other offerings I will be stocking up with all I can.

A four star smoke that would be a perfect after dinner smoke especially after Thanksgiving or Christmas. If you enjoy perique this would be a wonderful place to step aboard. I wouldn't recommend this for the novice. If I had tried this while I was new to pipe smoking I probably would have quit right then and there. Now that I've got some years under my belt it helps me to appreciate this blend that much more.

Great looking crumble cake, wonderful pouch aroma. Doesn?t need any time in the drying pan, just break it and pack it. As other reviewers have noted, it does benefit from ?sipping??smoaking this full-throttle like you would McClelland?s St. Jame?s Flake or Sam Gawith?s FVF will make your head reel (from the nicotine) and tongue burn into the bargain. Excellent for those late working nights?better than caffeine?or when you don?t have time to stop and eat. As a Va/Per, however, it?s not the tangy soul-mate experience my **** ne plus ultra (the McClelland St. James Flake). Night Train?s perique is there and the Virginia is there, but both are several cars down from the burley. The room note also has that (to me) unpleasant burley cigarette smoke reek. In fact, it reminds me alot of my overnight trips on AmTrack twenty years ago?a bit of mystery and a bit of discomfort. Probably not a trip I?ll make again.

A spicy and tangy citrus on first light. Some occasional lemon-grass with a tart/floral retro. Flavors and strength build and build. Definitely not mild. Perfect last smoke of the day. ☆☆1/2

-Spiral Out