Cornell & Diehl Crowley's Best

Cornell & Diehl - Crowley's Best.

It's not really any coarser than a standard ribbon, the blend includes a few coarse-ish pieces but nothing that would appear out of the ordinary should it have been grouped as just a ribbon. The moisture's as I want from a bulk blend: it's breathed to perfection.

I admit, the first few puffs didn't exactly enthral me. But when I had to do some chores around the garden with a pipe loaded with Crowley' it made more sense; a simple, basic, 'working smoke'. I find the most activity comes from the nutty Burley, then the woody Lat's notable with ease, but the Perique gives the least taste. I detect no added flavourings, it's a natural tasting smoke. The burn's mid-temperature, but crikey it's fast. I get no tongue bite.

Nicotine: more than medium. Room-note: a bit strong.

Crowley's Best? Good for when 'on the move' and haven't the time to sit and savour. Likewise, there are plenty of better blends available when there's loads of time to sit, enjoy, and ponder. With that in mind two stars seem fair:

Somewhat recommended.

As stated, this is an American blend with Latakia, Burley and Perique. I bought this back around Labor Day during an online sale for C&Ds bulk tobacco. This has a mild Lat note in the jar and is comprised of a mixture of medium ribbon, some cube cut and some really fine leaf like you would find at the bottom of a tin. But this is probably just due to the fact that the bottom of my bag became the top of my jar. Next time I will probably mix the tobacco of what I buy before jarring it. A mild smoking mixture, with a little wisp of Latakia in the beginning and pretty much Burley for the rest of the smoke. I could not pick up much Perique not to say that it may be lingering in the background. As I have heard others say this blend would be okay for putzing around the yard, mowing the lawn etc. Not a blend that I would smoke to relax on the porch contemplating the universe. I could not find any reference to a Walter Crowley of Fordham fame but did find some info on Wikipedia about Jim Crowley, “James Harold "Sleepy Jim" Crowley (September 10, 1902 – January 15, 1986) was an American football player and coach. at Fordham University from 1933 to 1941. ln 1939, Crowley coached Fordham in the first-ever televised football game. Maybe a typo on the name.

Crowley's Best is a good enough blend. I would really place it at 2.5 stars (3 or more would mean I would buy it again hence the 2 star rating here). The burley is nutty and earthy, the lat is woody, smoky, and sweet. the Perique is way in the background and adds some depth with a slight sweetness and a very faint spicy note. There seems to be a detectable top note (licorice would be my best guess). While this is a good blend it really lacks a depth found in others and in the end it is a little boring. What I get with the first puff is all I get throughout the bowl. On the one hand this can be a good thing if a blend is complex, on the other if it is straightforward like this one and offers nothing really unique it becomes boring. Certainly recommended for those who enjoy American style English blends or of those looking to try one.

Perfect moisture level, packed well, perfect charring light (didn't need a relight, but I always do one) and took off wonderfully! Nice salt/pepper ash, very fluffy. Over all, not a bad smoke. Nothing to get excited over, but a decent experience. I don't know about calling it "Best". Perhaps Mr. Crowley should refine it a bit more. It was, well, boring. Nothing to keep me smoking it, but as I said, nothing really bad about it either.

I wouldn't recommend this to someone unless what they said they were looking for was this specific type of smoke, but I wouldn't NOT recommend it either, if that makes sense.

This was definitely a unique blend, although I didn't particularly care fore it. I think the burley threw me for a loop, it just didn't mix well to me with the Lat and the Per. I only had a small sample, but I don't think this is one I would go out of my way to get more of...

I don't get this one. Tastes an awful lot like a relit cigar to me. Bitter and rough.

Someone said the latakia overwhelms. Huh. I can barely detect it.

I don't find this to be an "English" blend either American or otherwise. Tastes much more like a cigar than some actual cigar blends I've smoked.

I can understand how some might like this one as a dark ruffian of sorts, thus I'm "somewhat" recommending.

But for me blehck.

This struck me as being a fairly middle-of-the-road English blend. The latakia overwhelmed most everything else, as I could barely taste either the burley or perique. This really isn't all that bad, but I can think of much better tobaccos in this genre. It does burn well, doesn't pose an extreme bite risk and is clearly appreciated by many -- this just wasn't something I enjoyed all that much.