Cornell & Diehl Captain Bob's Blend

I'm confused. The smell I get from the tin is of a Grape Nehi, not even so much as a hint of tobacco. My college roommate, upon smelling it, described it with a confused look on his face. "What the hell? That smells like grape cough syrup!". Initially that smell set off all sorts of warning bells in my head, telling me to stop before I even got to the smoke. Then I smoked it.

That is where my confusion comes from. The flavor of the tobacco is so different that if there were no grape smell I might assume I was smoking a lovely English blend. Very sweet Virginia dominant English but there is definitely some savory stuff coming from the Latakia and Perique. The grape soda smell is all that the room note consists of and only ever lets itself be known in the first few minutes of smoking and very rarely from then on. Cornell & Diehl has done very well in this blend, or at least for me they have.

I can totally understand why this would put some people off. The flavors and smells are so disparate that purists could write it off completely. I like it, and will be buying more when the tin is emptied.

Side note: Would be aptly called "The Indecisive Englishman".

Cap, I just tried this blend of yours and I have to say, it is the most interesting blend I have ever tried in 39 years. It smelled like grape Koolaide when I opened it and at first this really concerned me. I like some aromatics but I have never smelled grape scented tobacco like this. So, I loaded up my pipe to see what I was in for. The room note literally bloomed grape around me, not unpleasant but seemed so strange. I could taste more than grape though, I picked up other fruit flavors as well and as it burned down, I could pick up some of the tobacco tastes. I found that after smoking a whole bowl, it has to be the most gentle aromatic, and the flavor stayed with it all the way down. It was also the driest aromatic I've ever smoked, not a bit of gunk in my pipe and burned to a dark grey ash as the dottle, not a bit unburned. I found myself wanting to smoke another bowl very soon and as I am trying it I am finding I am enjoying this blend very much. My pipe does smell like grape Koolaide but what the heck, one bowl of Five Brothers burned that right out.

I have to recommend trying this blend! It is like none other you will try.

Has a grape/grape soda smell and aroma. Nothing terribly extraordinary. I ordered this because of curiosity from all the reviews I've read. I actually really enjoyed this. It's exactly as it's described, nothing fancy to it, and like others have said, either you like it or you don't. If you're very picky, move on, if you're looking for something new and interesting to try, go for it.

the smell from the tobacco does permeate so I suggest storing it in a jar, even though it is an enjoyable smell. And to also use it with a cob or pipe you don't mind if there's ghosting.

Like I said, either you like it or you don't. I enjoyed it because I like grape soda which is what you'll get with this. It's a blend all its own.

Wonderful, Bizarre, Unique, Flavorful, nothing and I mean nothing quite like this blend.

Yes, you'll either Love it or Hate it. This Aromatic English Hybrid is predominately Grape Flavored. There is a bunch of other flavors too that make an appearance during a smoke. I taste caramel, Walnut, vanilla and citrus.

Weird huh? But throughout the smoke there is a tasty English that just does it right for me.

Can't say this every day smoke - but I Love to have a bowl now and then.

The tobacco will ghost your pipe but burns off after a pipe or two.

If you want to try something unique - then give it a whirl. I am glad I did.

This blend is in my personal list of the few English Aromatics excellently crafted and conceived, truly for coinosseurs and adventurers. The advertising is correct so you should not claim misleading afterall. This is an English AROMATIC, caps rightfully included. I bought it because intuition told me that if Cornell & Diehl made it a product it must be good or at least something interesting. It is both. Besides, according to my taste this has all the characteristics necessary to fulfull a great English aromatic.

Now when we deal with this kind of aromatic you will prefer to reserve a pipe for it, use a corncob or a Meerschaum as this blend will easily ghost your pipe, it has a potent aroma and will spice anything else you add into it. With that in mind, let´s proceed.

This is a vanguard blend in which all the ingredients used are expected but the rule for aromatization is not, it is rather radical and to some degree extreme. The aroma of grape cola, sweet orange peel and citrics is rather evident, so this sends this aromatic into the league of the Heavy ones, rather ubiquitous taste with varying degrees of intensity with a partial smokiness from the latakia and other half of burley dryness-nutyness. Not sweet but rather sour-sweet and astringent on the palate, i think this balance is what made it really interesting for me. Virginias add the sour-sweet touch, burley and latakia add the balance and the pinch of perique push just a tad of intensity.

Now it is for granted that the grape-cola with citrics will not be for everyone, some people will find it overhelming, but as i said before, this is an AROMATIC, full time. An exotic English Aromatic in the quality or similar league of Sillem's Black, a masterful made blend only for coinosseurs and daring people. An English with a sour-sweet character and lots of aromatic confidence.

The Grape aroma is very strong in this one (as Yoda says). Here's the rub (Shakespeare). The smell is strong…the flavor…'not so much' as Jerry Seinfeld would say. This is another quality tobacco. Mild but with a definite push to ‘spicy-hot.' As many others have noted the Grape aroma is strong, but the smoking quality is very mild. I did not get the ‘citrus' that many others have noted, nor did I detect the maple and vanilla. The Latakia and Perique give it that nice ‘quality salsa' spiciness. It's not tongue bit or tongue burn but just a nice tongue-sting. I puffed a bunch, left the room, inhaled from my nose several times, walked back into my ‘shop' where I smoke my pipes and did Not smell any grape, honest swear to the Buddha. Here's where it gets interesting. Puffed up a ‘storm' went into the kitchen, washed some grapes, yep grapes, ate a few, went back and WOW! Nice flavor to this pipe tobacco. I have absolutely no idea why this did what it did with the grape fest. This is a mild pipe tobacco, BUT, it has some ‘spicy-hot' and some very subtle sweet, probably the VA. I love Burley and smoke a lot of it, quality burley usually like C&D Crooner but honestly I did Not taste the Burley in this one. I got the VA, most certainly got the Perique (spicy-hot), the Latakia is subdued and the ‘sauces' are so subtle to me to be way in the background. This is a wonderful blend. When I was smoking it I thought, “Ya know what? Someone (Captain Bob and Craig Tarler et al) really put a lot of thought into this, I can taste it.” This is a really good change of pace pipe tobacco.

I am very surprised at how well this blend turned out for me. I knew that coming from C&D, this blend would contain quality tobaccos, but I wasn't sure how I would respond to the particular flavorings, especially grape. This has to be the most unique tobacco I have tried, so far; and I view this particular uniqueness as a good thing.

The presentation of the tobaccos in the tin is very impressive; it contains quite a colorful array of tobaccos. The moisture level is just right, and the cut of the ribbons was a good choice. When I first opened the tin and smelled the unique smell of good tobacco and grape, I knew I was in for an interesting experience.

Part of what makes this blend so appealing is that it is such a full-bodied, complex blend of tobaccos, yet it seems to take the flavorings in a very "natural" way. Obviously, with the inclusion of Virginia, Burley, Oriental, Latakia, and Perique, this is a full-flavored, English-style blend, but I don't think I've tried such a heavy blend with flavorings like this. The description on the tin states that this blend is "finished with a refreshing flavor." I have to agree with this; for some strange reason, there is something refreshing about this blend, especially the added flavorings.

Throughout most of the smoke, the only topping I detect is the grape flavoring, although I'm sure that the other topping flavors contribute to the overall taste as well. Despite the unmistakable presence of grape, the wonderful tobacco flavors are not drowned out by the flavorings--this is clearly an English-style blend with flavors added to enhance the overall taste. Again, I think that this is what is so remarkable about this blend; the natural tobacco flavors are present throughout the smoke.

As with some aromatic blends, the flavoring slowly fades into the background throughout the bowl, while the natural tobacco flavors become even more prominent. This blend definitely changes characters as the smoke progresses. One thing that is particularly interesting to me is how the other flavorings (other than the grape) become noticeable later on during the smoke, albeit in a very gentle, subtle way. When the bowl is about 3/4 of the way smoked, I notice a bit more of a creamier flavoring. I suspect that this is some of the vanilla, maple, and walnut making themselves known.

In regards to room note, I don't know what to say about this. Although many pipe smokers can't easily smell the room note of their own smoke, I do find that certain aromatics do lend themselves to being noticed even by the smoker. With this blend, the aroma of creamy grape is evident immediately upon lighting the bowl. However, I'm not sure how this blend would smell to a person passing by. It seems as though the blend has a pleasant scent like most aromatics, but I would think that the presence of Latakia would make the room-note a bit less sweet than a typical aromatic.

After some contemplation, I decided that this blend would probably be better smoked in a pipe dedicated to aromatics. While it has the component tobaccos of a full, English-style blend, the added flavorings make this blend more suitable for a pipe used solely for aromatics. This blend truly defies typical classification of pipe tobaccos. It is, of course, an aromatic, but I think this is the only aromatic I've had that contains Latakia and Perique.

Well, I think that about sums up my impression of this blend. C&D has really given me a greater appreciation for the art of quality aromatics. This is a very smooth smoke, and unlike some aromatics, it smokes dry and does not leave a goopy mess in the pipe. I can certainly see Captain Bob's Blend as being a blend that I would want to keep in stock.

Captain Bob's Blend

Just a little background on myself first. Maybe it'll make this review make more sense. I grew up in a Baptist tea totaler family. My grandfather smoked and drank himself out of a liver and bladder among other things. So, these types of libations were rather frowned upon. That being said, we never seemed to much mind a pipe smoker although there never were many of them around. I don't think my family did me a disservice, on the contrary I think it gave me a healthy respect for moderation. As I got older, I started to get a little suspicious of the anti-smoking movement for various reasons. A couple years ago I got very interested in pipes (one of my favorite bands in High School - a Christian band called The Newsboys has a guitar player named Jody Davis, the one who lives in AZ and makes REALLY beautiful pipes) and started doing some research. Long story short, I dived headlong into pipes and pipe tobacco.

I joined an online smoking community called My Pipes Community and met a lot of really great people there. One fellow in particular, Bob Coffey. Somewhat of an informal mentor, and a really great guy who also happens to have developed several blends of his own pipe tobacco. Shortly after I started smoking a pipe I received a sample of Captain Bob's Blend. Being a noob, the stuff was WAY out of my league but I could tell it was a high quality tobacco.

Over the course of the next year and a half I tried all kinds of pipe tobacco. My sense of smell and sense of taste are very acute and I tend to gravitate towards fuller flavors (very dark red wine, Guinness, well seasoned steak, maduro wrap cigars, English type tobaccos, etc…) and I gained an appreciation for very high quality, mostly non-aromatic pipe tobacco.

When the opportunity to really sit down and write a review on a bowl of Captain Bob's Blend, well, I jumped as quick as I could. I remember gaining a deep appreciation for it but beyond a few memories couldn't really tell you all that much. So here is my in depth review on Captain Bob's Blend, by Cornell & Diehl.

In preparation, I sat down with the list of ingredients. Tobacco: Red Virginia, Flu cured Kentucky Green River Burley, Carolina Virginia Brights, Ismir Turkish, Perique and Latakia. The topping (sauce) consists of grape, vanilla, orange, caramel, black walnut and maple. The pipe I chose to use was my Peterson Silver Cap straight billiard.

The first thing I did was take a whif of the jar, since smell and taste are so closely related. A lot of the reviews I have read on this blend concentrate on the grape scent/flavor. That is the predominant smell, but the first thing that hit me was the citrus. A nice little tang. The citrus and grape were tempered very well by vanilla. The blend is great to look at, it is very colorful. Each type of tobacco has its own shade and in some ways reminded me a little bit of a Picasso cubist-style painting. Unlike most topped tobaccos, this blend was not in the least goopy. It packed very easily.

The beginning of the bowl brought about some typical Virginia characteristics. Light, sweet but no tongue bite. It had another dimension, enhanced no doubt by the Turkish tobaccos. A very well rounded smoke for a light flavor, and the topping in no way overwhelmed the taste of the tobacco. I appreciated this aspect very much. As far as the aromatic properties are concerned, the grape and vanilla really complimented each other. Vanilla can be very bland by itself and grape can be just a bit “vertical” (for lack of a better description) in flavor. The orange seemed to stand alone while the other three combined to fill out the blend. The result is a very round scent - ball shaped if you will.

Room note is predominantly grape, enhanced of course by vanilla and maple.

I didn't have to re-light until I was well into the mid bowl. That was kind of nice as seeing the humidity level was about 2000% here in Southern Indiana. The burley starts to make itself known in the taste and nicotine content. Burley can be a bit thick for me sometimes but this was just enough to give the Virginia some balls, for lack of a better term. The English character started to make itself known but not in a typical, tangy Latakia sort of way. It gradually came into the room, unobtrusive and unannounced and *very* sophisticated. It started to make me wonder what the unsauced blend tastes like!

At this point it was apparent, this tobacco would most certainly be a crowd pleaser when walking on the river front. At the same time it will satisfy a pallet that needs a fuller, more complex flavor. I would also compare some of the flavor and aromatic properties to Autumn Evening (also by C&D) but not overwhelming in the maple and burley department. AE was a bit much for me.

Later in the bowl, the English tobaccos had made themselves very well known but again not in a moldy socks sort of way. The taste broadened in a way I've not experienced with pipe tobacco (some fine cigars perhaps) and at this point my analytical efforts took a hike. I sat back with my pipe and my beer and thought to myself “now THAT is what a well rounded, multi-faceted pipe tobacco SHOULD taste like!” Every puff made me forget what I was out there to do.

I should add at this point that cleanup is a breeze. No gooey dottle left to scrape out as with many aromatics.

Conclusion, this is a MAN'S aromatic tobacco. A lot of effort and a lot of thought went in to creating this blend. It is almost four dimensional.

Years ago I thought I had given up on aromatics. Like others, I found that either they never tasted as good as they smelled, or were mainly hot, sweet steam with little to no nicotine. Finally, I'm happy to say that I stand corrected. Captain Bob has managed to blend up a tobacco that has both a flavor to match the smell, and still has room to provide a decent tobacco satisfaction. While I would never have thought that grape would be anything I was interested in, I was gladly proven wrong. There is so much more here than a simple, flavored cavendish. This is a top shelf blend that I plan on stocking up on. Thanks, Cap!