Cornell & Diehl Pirate Kake

Compared to other Latakia-rich mixtures, I found Pirate Kake to be a flavorful yet monochromatic smoke. This blend is a perfect example of how tobacco mixtures can be full flavored but still fall flat due to lack of nuance & slight to moderate shifts in complexity.

I enjoy latakia immensely. So much so, that I feel it’s only fair to profess that Pirate Kake has a number of admirable attributes that fellow latakiaphiles will most certainly applaud. For instance, there’s plenty, and I mean “plenty” of dark lush tasting latakia leaf here. It burns surprisingly well for a big latakia mixture and it smokes so cool you’ll wonder if your pipe is even lit. Pirate Kake is very smooth and it produces copious amounts of fragrant smoke with consistent flavor. These traits usually go a long way towards making for an excellent tobacco mixture, but Pirate Kake just doesn’t quite do it for me.

In my opinion, Pirate Kake is missing the added character, or that little bit of something extra that's needed to elevate it to the status of other top-shelf blends in its class. Pirate Kake does have a rich smoky flavor, but it lacks the compelling subtleties of blends like Odyssey, Penzance and Lagonda. It does have a slight spiciness to it, but it's missing the punchiness of Ten Russians, the depth of Bill Bailey’s Balkan, and the spicy sweet subtleties of Plum Pudding. When put up against any of these blends, even C&D's Star of the East, Pirate Kake just isn't as interesting.

This C&D offering does at the very least beg one question. How much latakia is too much? Frankly, I am not sure, but I do know that somewhere this one crosses the line.

A friend sent me a large sample of Pirate Kake a few months ago. It looked so strong and foreboding in the pouch that I refrained from whittlin' a chunk for quite some time. My Boy Scout knife was recently located but I really didn't need it. This powerful, Latakia laden stuff breaks up easily.

Pirate Kake is distantly similar in taste to CAO's Old Ironsides, but the Latakia content here is much more overwhelming. I really tried to like the taste, but not being a regular consumer of Latakia, I found that exotic leaf to be simply "over the top" in this instance.

The best way to describe the taste is by saying that if someone stuffed a salty piece of old leather in a pipe and set fire to it, you'd be smoking something akin to Pirate Kake. This blend burns slowly and is exceptionally cool. Remember to use a pipe reserved for Latakia blends, too.

Let me say, up front, I'm a Latakia fan. Or, at least I thought so. I purchased this because I wanted to experience what a Latakia "bomb" is. Now I know, and don't like it. I'll stick with more basic English/Balkan blends that use Latakia as a secondary player; not the only player. This stuff is, well, out of line. Mind you, I don't regret trying it—the tobacco's were good quality, it's just that this blend is not for me.

Cheers!

I love Latakia. It's one of my favorite ingredients in any blend. In Pirate Lake it dominates and it's good, its smooth, smokey and peaty. It's just too much of it to the point of making it monochromatic. The oriental come up for air but just barely. The nuttiness of the burleys barely come through. It strikes me that this is a good blend to build off of and I'll report back when I do but for now it's just lacks the depth to be interesting.

I've smoked a decent amount of pirate Kake but realized I have never done a review. It's smoky but honestly not as strong as you would believe being 75% Latakia. The Turkish and burley add a good amount of body. With age the body increases along with a dark sweetness.

10-13-2022. With a total of almost 9 years of age on my batch, the Latakia really tones down into something similar to Syrian Latakia. It has a herbal/ clove undertone to the smokiness that I get in Syrian Latakia. The blend becomes so smooth that it's almost like smoking nothing. Unfortunately to entire flavor profile deminished. Ive had straight Virginias with a stronger flavor overall, therefore I'm dropping pirate kake to two stars.

My goodness...now this is what I think of when one runs for cover from the...LAT BOMB!! The smokiness is cool and mellow, very nice, but I failed to really see how this was a team effort. Had a little bit of a time getting this to light with the high latakia content, but it worked in the end. I almost felt as though I was smoking a straight bowl of latakia. This was fine until I hit midbowl and quite honestly grew tired of it. PCALHO

I got a free sample of this from smoking pipes with a recent order. I'm NOT a latakia smoker. I smoke only virginias and perique blends. I've had english blends once or twice for fun but don't really like them. This blend seems to be great quality and the latakia seems to be better and smoother than i've had in the past. If you really like latakia and turkish go for it. If you want a more balanced english this one will be too strong on the condiment for you.

Upon opening a small sample given to me by father, I noted the sample was about as hard as concrete. I managed to fumble a piece and I managed to drop it and it shattered like glass. I realized I needed to take this sample and let it sit overnight with a damp towel over a bowl. I smoked some the next day and I noted that it smelled similar to being in smokehouse. First light I tasted heavy notes of campfire, wood, earth and sulfur. It reminded me of smoking a burnt out matchstick or if you were to smoke the smoke off of a meat smoker. About mid bowl it seemed to mellow out and I did get some nice sweet notes. It got more pleasant towards the end of the bowl but the overall 'smokey' taste just seemed to dominate this blend. This is what this blend is supposed to do so I knew going in I would experience this. It is a very different taste from what I normally go for (I tend to like those hideous 'soapy' tobaccos from over the pond) but not something I believe is for me. I do note this is good for something different.

If you LOVE not like latakia try this but good god come on man