Cornell & Diehl Yale Mixture

What I like about Yale Mixture is that it is one of the few medium English blends that it doesn?t suffer from an Oriental overload. Just a straight smoke that is very enjoyable from time to time. Those of you looking for an all day tobacco or one that?s not intended for sitting and contemplating might appreciate this one.

Appearance and Tin Aroma: Beautiful broad-cut ribbons of browns, yellows and ocassional black. Smells earthy, musty. The ribbons are pliable and oily.

Packing and Lighting: Packs easily and moisture is perfect. 2-3 lights max.

Initial Flavor: Dry, cigar-like initial flavor. Not bad, but surprising.

Mid-bowl: Just as the description blurb states, full, but not sweet.

Bottom of Bowl: a decent increase in strength, no bitterness. Ash is dry and grey.

Overall: this is a high quality blend, but it is in a flavor spectrum that I don't like to venture in. It is a very dry blend, not in moisture level, but in flavor with cigar-like overtones. I won't be purchasing any more, but if someone offered it to me, I probably would not turn it down...

I will state right up front that this tobacco is my own personal Arcadia. I have found it, and so far in the 10 years or so that I have smoked it, nothing has managed to unseat it. The Virginia and latakia are perfectly balanced for my palate. It is a very consistent smoke that tastes pretty much the same throughout the entire bowl, and the latakia isn't strong enough to drive away the neighbors. I put some of this stuff away several years ago (along with Pirate Kake, see my other review), and have recently finished off the aged stuff and had to buy some fresh. This one most definitely improves with age, so much so that the fresh stuff almost seems like a different blend. Buy some and smoke a little. If you like the fresh stuff, put some away for a few years, and I promise you will love it.

I smoke Yale any time of the day, any kind of weather, any time of the year. However, I seldom smoke it outside. The room smell of those wreaths of smoke around me is so nice I don't want to dilute them by smoking it outside. In my opinion, this is Mr. Tarler's finest recipe.

Yale Mixture is not available in the UK, but anyone who likes this kind of thing is well provided for by tobaccos that are. My palate is not all that refined, I know, but I can't detect much, or any, difference between this and Gawith & Hoggarth's No 25 Mixture or Exmoor Mixture (see my reviews of those). It's a pleasant enough smoke but, it certainly isn't a clone of Craven Mixture; Craven Mixture had orientals in it. If any currently available tobacco resembles the old Craven Mixture, it's Samuel Gawith's Skiff Mixture.

This is the kind of offering that I'm inclined to damn with faint praise. It's a decent enough tobacco, but it's not outstanding. A comparison with Squadron Leader, Skiff Mixture or Peterson's My Mixture 965, does not flatter Yale Mixture. Yale Mixture is all right, but ... meh.

I was looking for a lighter English that was not a total "Latakia Bomb", and was served up with Yale Mixture. I must say this is nice, and exactly fit the bill for me. I could see this as an all day English. Just the right amount of Latakia, which does not overpower, but complements a sweet, never spicy Virginia base. If you are looking to ease into the world of English/Latakia blends, this is a good entry.

This is the 7th of 8 tins from a sampler I bought some time back. I just really can't say this does much for me but wastes my time in smoking. It just seems to taste more like smoking cigarettes than pipe tobacco. It does have some redeeming qualities: it comes not too moist in the tin, some would say dry. It burns down to a nice fine ash in the bowl. It seems to be lacking much in the nicotine area for me. I cannot recommend this at all.

Too much nicotine for me and it burns hot with a bite. Maybe it's better after a big dinner but not as an all day smoke.

My first latakia experience. This was an incredible tobacco full of tastes.I detected a hot pepper note, light frankincense/myrrh notes, at times sweet, and smooth and velvety from start to finish. I thought the taste could be described as full and complex. I can see why people enjoy English mixtures and I enjoyed this one throughly.

A nice all-day full english. My all-day blend (multiple pipes a day). The third of my top three- no bite, no bark, just superb!