Cornell & Diehl Three Friars

A lightly sweetened Virginia/Burley with a dash of Perique. And yippee, nicotine!!!!!

If you like your Virginia without a grassy taste, if you like your Burley to be Grade A+, and if you like top-shelf, Louisiana grown (the real deal) Perique, then you're gonna love Three Friars.

The blend does stink in the tin, but at the match it smells good enough to keep you from being thrown outside with the dogs.

I think that this is one those tobaccos that it's easy to overlook. I suspect that's partly because of whole “clone” or “copy” identity that the stuff has. It seems to suggest second rate from the git-go. Can a clone ever be as good as the original? Aren't copies subject to degradation? So this stuff isn't Three Nuns. From what I understand, even Three Nuns isn't Three Nuns anymore. Never having smoked Three Nuns (in any of its successive iterations), this little fact doesn't faze me a whole lot.

On its own, I find Three Friars to be a wonderful smoke. It probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense to call this a Burley-based VaPer, but that's really what it is. It has some things in common with familiar VaPers like Escudo, Dunbar, Cumberland…even Haddo's. All of these share (though intensity levels vary, as do toppings) the standard VaPer nose of dried fruits (primarily fig and date), tomato leaf, dried hay, and caramel. Where 3 Friars wanders off on its own path is with the addition of a quantity of good quality Burley. This has the effect of muting the familiar VaPer qualities on the nose, and reducing some of the sweetness associated with straight Virginias and VaPers.

The muting of the nose and the reduction of the sweetness will no doubt be unwelcome to plenty of regular VaPer smokers. However, those with a fondness for the nicotine richness and, for lack of a better word, “dry” qualities of Burley (me, for example), may well prefer 3 Friars to the more familiar VaPers. I'm fond of both the familiar VaPers and 3 Friars. What I find, however, is that if I'm on a pipe-smoking binge, I'm better able to smoke successive bowls of 3 Friars than a sweeter VaPer. If I'm glued to my desk working on a project from home with a pipe stuffed in my jaw for hours on end, 3 Friars is great. If I'm just enjoying a pipe in leisure, I'm more likely to opt for the greater depth and concentration of Escudo or St. James Woods or Beacon Extra.

To my mind, 3 Friars is the OTC VaPer that the American market currently lacks. It ought to be produced by Middleton so that it can enjoy the simultaneously wide-scale and down-scale distribution of Carter Hall, Prince Albert, or Sir Walter Raleigh. In bulk, it's actually a shade less expensive than a typical OTC tub. And it shares the easy-to-light, easy-to-pack, easy-to-smoke qualities of the OTCs. For all-day smokers—especially those on a budget—I'd be inclined to recommend this highly. Less prolific puffers may well find something to like here, too.

A tasty blend. Virginias and Burley pretty well balanced and the Perique applied with a light touch. Medium body and taste. A nice any time of day smoke.

A good mixture with a sweet tone and solid structure. In my opinion Three Friars is another fine example of the kind of natural American style blends that Cornell and Diehl excels at. The pouch note has a sweet and sour fermented bread-like scent. The perique is done to balance, adding a touch of spice without overtly influencing the flavor. The burley is quite noticeable and adds a dose of rustic heartiness and a bit of flavor strength. The Virginia's used are the meatier, deeper kind more than the bright grassy-sweet variety. The flavor is bittersweet & earthy with a subtle tanginess coming from the perique. Three Friars is not a complex tasting mixture, but there are enough variations in flavor to keep things interesting throughout the entire smoke. Overall this blend has a good amount of flavor strength. Nicotine strength is a comfortable medium, and becomes more noticeable in larger bowls.

I was coming on here to update my review of three friars, which I was sure I placed 4 stars on after receiving a sample a while ago. That is when I discovered I never actually reviewed the blend at all. Well, I was so taken by my first experience with it, I ordered some more and just finished it today.

I will say that I still like this blend, but Would give it three stars today as it just didn't blow me away like it did the first time I tried it and perhaps, I have just tasted so many more Va Bur Pers since that time.

This is a good example of that genre that offers a nice balance between the three elements. C & D burleys can come off pretty harsh if they are over provoked only slightly and this one is no exception to that. You will get the most of this one in a quiet contemplative smoke. When you are in the zone it is fantastic. Nutty sweetness with a great amount of spice. The trouble is getting in the zone with this one. It is not as easy a task as many other blends. For this reason I ended up having several ashy tasting harsh moments when I was smoking this one.

I will say when I was there, it was a four star experience, but the difficulty of getting there put it at three stars for me. I will likely buy this again though for those times when I have a pretty clear mind and can really get into the zone.

The tin note was tangy with a smell that reminds me of shredded wheat cereal without the sugar.

Lit easy and stayed lit. Only had one or two relights depending on the bowl or what I was doing.

The initial flavor was tangy with a slight sugar spice. I have had times where I would get hit with spice but after I let the blend sit for a couple months that has seemed to gone away to a nice lingering background spice.

I found this blend to smoke really quick and as a result the first few bowls I smoked of this I burned my mouth pretty bad. But once I slowed down with it and found a nice leisurely pace I had no further issues.

There is a slight burn on the retro hale. The room note is a nutty, shredded wheat, almost hay like smell. Smoke out put is moderate but not heavy. It has a nice chewy texture to it.

I gave this blend no dry time. For me it smoked best in my cobs. I tried it in a few different briars and it just didn't work for me.

I have never had Three Nuns so I cannot say if this is a good comparison, but I will say it is a nice smoke.

I've never had the old Three Nuns, so I have no basis for comparison, but this is a good solid tobacco in it's own right. The burleys are nutty, the Virginia's are grassy and I definitely get a bit of citrus in there. The perique is sweet/spicy and fruity in kind of a fermented way. Some of the flavors are at times, more pronounced than others, and the flavors just kind of trade places coming to the fore and then fading into the background. It's a very flavorful blend with a satisfying nic hit to it. This is a good tobacco to just sit back and sip it, I think you get a lot more flavor from it that way. I'm sure this will age well, so I bought an extra 8 oz. to put back specifically for that purpose. I will recommend this blend and give it 3.5 stars.

This blend is, as other reviewers noted, sort of a stepped-down version of Cornell & Diehl's Old Joe Krantz. A good blend with occasional hints of Virginia sweetness, this tobacco will likely please many VaPer fans especially those that appreciate the fullness that the added burley provides.

Govern yourself accordingly

I bought this on a whim thinking it would be good, as it is in my general wheelhouse.

Fairly dry when I got it. A mixture of little bits of dark brown and black. Some fine cut ribbon of lighter shades of brown and a small amount of well rubbed flakes.

It chars and lights pretty easily. Smokes well and is fairly easy to keep lit. It’s sweet to me, and has a little zip from the perique. The burley gives it some body, and I’m not sure what the flake bits are doing.

Overall, I like it. Has a nice sweetness, and a bit of the bread character I enjoy. The perique is present and more of a evenly laid addition than a main feature. Has a good strong flavor, with a intense retrohale. Has a tendency to be a bit bitey for me in the first third of the bowl. And I’ve tried it in several different shapes and sizes. If it didn’t do that, I could smoke this all day.