Cornell & Diehl Virginia Flake

Jar note of sugary spices, sharp hay and mild stewed sour fruit. Tobacco is a reddish orange broken flake. Moisture is good to go, Flakes rub out fairly easily. Burns slow with few relights. The strength is mild to medium and nic is mild. No flavoring detected. Taste is medium and consistent, with notes of sweet bread, wood, tangy citrus, orange peel/zest, floral, hay, mild lemon, spice, acidic, mild fruit, a sweet grassy background note, and a moderately peppery retro. Room note is pleasant to tolerable, and aftertaste is great.

Not sure if this is how C&D's Virginia Flake is supposed to be, but my 2oz shipped drier than a Popeyes biscuit. Trying to rub the thin flakes apart turned this into almost dust. This cant be.

Pouch aroma of sweet grass, hay, and best of all, toasted malt.

It's a bitch to pack, as dry as it is. It doesn't pack, it just lays in there. If you were to turn your bowl upside down, most of the contents would dump.

Lighting on the other hand, is a breeze. most bowls I smoked took a single light.

Flavors include that same toasted malt you smell in the pouch, along with sweet hay and graham cracker. These all remain constant throughout the bowl. Burns clean and cool, not a bit of moisture in the heel.

I honestly thought this would've smoked hot and airy without any moisture. But this turned out to be a solid VA flake! I'm going to give this 3 stars, and come back to it after rehydrating and a bit of age. Don't hesitate to purchase and cellar this one!

Bright broken Virginia flakes. Hay and citrucy aromas as expected. Tasty with a very natural taste, good on its own, if a little sharp, but equally good or better for blending. Similar to Opening Night though not as complex or exciting. It is what it says and it’s quite good.

It's not a flake in particular...it's more like chips. But that's obvious by the pictures. I don't mind though, it's thicker and packs well, and came dry enough to pack right from the package.

It smells grassy and oaty and slightly sweet. Tastes the same and smoked dry and cool. It's very mild and great for any time of day. The aftertaste leaves you with a pleasant oat taste and you don't smell "smoky"

The price is cheap for what you get but it's overall a great product.

Another so-called flake from C&D bulk. Looks like fish food flakes. Pretty good Virginia. Has good potential as a blender.

I found Virginia Flake to be rather unusual in that there was only a very faint sweetness to it. The predominant flavor note to me was hay or dried grass.

The taste and aroma were very mild. Actually faint might be an even better description.

By itself, I suppose the blend would work for someone who wanted a very light tasting smoke. For me, the taste was too light and definitely not very enticing.

Virginia Flake probably shines as a blending component. And I suspect C&D use it in their Virginia Gentleman.

If I could, I'd give this 2 1/2 stars. As a blending component, I'd say it's a 3. As a go-it-alone smoke, I have to give it a 2. It's not terrible. But it's definitely not my bowl of tobacco.

I like a Straight Virginia flake a few mornings a week. This one’s what I’m looking for as it’s fairly mild, yet has plenty of flavor so as not to leave me wanting. C and D has a nice combination of dark and bright leaves so you can expect some complexity with some malty bready sweetness and some tart citrus balance to keep the tobacco in check. This smokes cool and never bites and a bowl last through several cups of coffee.Whenever I smoke straight Virginia this one is my go to……This would be a good mixer with a few I could think of right off hand like Perique, several kinds of burley and Oriental Silk and I think C and D sells these by bulk.

Edited 7/31/2020

I've been letting this cellar in a large jar for the last year. I decided to try some to see how the aging is working. The sweetness has gone up significantly from what I remember a year ago. The nic level is still hiding in there. The flavor now though makes it worth a smoke on its own without needing a blend to be tolerable.

I made up a small sample of this plus 15% Perique which has been sitting for several weeks in a jar. Makes a really decent basic VaPer at a great cost point especially if you can find this bulk on sale.

Original - 6/26/2019

Picked up a pound during one of Smoking Pipe's regular CD Bulk sales for a great price.

Big broken flake pieces similar in shape to some of McC's bulks. Bag was from late 2018 so it has about 6 months of age on it before going to sleep in the jars.

Kept out a few bowls to smoke and glad I did. Easy to pack and light. Good moisture level and was able to go without a charring light. Wants to burn warm so slow and steady is the trick. This is NOT a very sweet VA. As others have said, it has a bready/earthy taste with just a touch of sweetness in the retrohale. I found it pretty consistent through the bowls and it smokes down to a good ash with little/no moisture.

I think this one will age well and I plan on using some granulated perique to make my own VaPers when I get the time. Room note reminded the wife of a cigarette.