Cornell & Diehl Cordial

What a find this tobacco has proved to be. I rate it highly as a medium-bodied English. It's smooth enough for all-day smoking But with enough strength to move it out of the wimp league. What immediately strikes one is how round the flavour is - no harsh edges here. It reminded me of Dunhill 965, perhaps amped up a little (nor much). Cordial is certainly the rounder, creamier smoke. I recommend it.

Received a free sample with my last order from C&D. I found it to be a mild, pleasant, and flavorful smoke. The tobacco's seemed to be of good quality, burned slowly, and remained consistent throughout. I did have a little trouble keeping it lit at first, but burned well after the first few minutes. Not a complex smoke, and mild on the Latakia. Could easily be an all day blend. A good change of pace, I liked it!

I love this one!

It's nutty, buttery, creamy, smooth, and fragrant. It doesn't bite. Very much like the Dunhill blends that I love, like #965.

A quintessential English blend!

Highly recommended!

C&D's Cordial has a sweet, smokey, creamy jar note that reminds me a little of Balkan Sasieni's tin note. The smoke is slightly oriental forward with notes of spice, very earthy, with a slight herbalness, I also get some saw dust from time and time and they have the characteristic sour note that contrasts with a buttermilk like creaminess in the smoke. The Lat. follows behind this for me. It has its characteristic campfire smoke, it too may be just a little earthy, and I think the musty note may come from here or perhaps this too belongs to the Turkish it is hard to say for sure. The VA's are more felt than tasted for me. A note or two of grass maybe a hint here and there of citrus but nothing else really stands out. The Black Cav adds a little sweetness maybe a touch of brown sugar and vanilla to the base of the blend. The nic hit is at the upper end of mild to med. but the overall strength from the lat and orientals is just below the center of med. The taste is solidly med. It will not bite or get harsh unless you really push it. Needed a few more than average relights for me but burned clean and dry. A solid 3 stars.

I've had the pleasure of enjoying lots of Dunhill "The Aperitif" in my day and still have a small, dwindling stash of it in my cellar.

That said, Cordial by Cornell & Diehl resembles "The Aperitif" in some ways, but is different than it in many others.

Getting right down to it, the taste/roomnote of Cordial at times is somewhat similar to "The Aperitif" with the tobacco cut, moisture, overall quality and burning characteristics being very different than "The Aperitif".

On it's own merit, Cordial is a pleasant mixture that is just a tad stronger than mild. The pouch note smells like a lat-bomb but the latakia is a supporting character just like in "The Aperitif". Hard to get lit, but once it gets going it provides a nice, subtlety spicy/sweet/smokey experience without being too overwhelming on any of those fronts. Priced nice.

One of my all-time favorite tobaccos. Perfect to relax after a busy, stressful day.

The cut is not quite a ribbon, but more of a ready-rubbed, with some chunks of flake. This might require a few more relights than your average tobacco, but your mileage may vary. With a few more relights, it burns to a nice powdery ash, though.

The first thing you notice is the latakia and orientals, blending very nicely with the other flavors to give a full-bodied flavor profile. Imagine a wood fire built from aromatic woods, with a bush of heather thrown on for a bit of a floral note.

As it is being smoked, it gets a bit sweeter (as is typical for blends containing virginias) but still very nicely blended.

If you like full-bodied Scottish blends with a good (but not overwhelming) amount of latakia and spice, make sure to get some of this. It won't disappoint.

This is a serious English blend, not a latakia bomb, but full of flavor with good balance. The bulk came a little dry and chunky, better jar it or you have to rehydrate it after some time. Smoky. I think it's a little stronger than Dunhill's Aperitif (Orlik version).

This is very good stuff,but requires a spritz of distilled water and 24 hours before it should be smoked. Very heavy in Turkish flavor.Some might consider this slightly bitter,and it is ,but in a good way.Latakia is the secondary flavor here with Virginias coming in last. A very smooth blend with no bite at all.This is an amped up version of C&D's Black Duck(which I love).This is really for the connoisseur of fine Turkish leaf. 3 of 4 stars.

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UPDATE 6/15/07

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DIRT IN A CAN! READ EMMBEE FOR THE REST OF MY SENTIMENTS.

At first I didn?t rave about this mixture. It reminded me of a watered down Valley Crucis. It?s a lovely large cut of what appears to be Virginia, Latakia and some type of black Cavendish. Perhaps some Perique as well? It has a light, buttery aroma of pepper and ember and behaves very nicely when smoked. Midway down the bowl, an autumnal charm takes hold and the very subtlest nose of fruits and leaves begins to hypnotize. It leaves the room smelling grand for up to 30 minutes. I?m appreciating C & D more and more for its masterful blending and experimentation. This is one I will turn to every now and again. This is really a late fall, outdoorsy smoke. Mmmm Mmmm, Gooooooooood!

Three and a half of five stars

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9/10 update: make that five of five stars. it took a few pipefuls to truly appreciate it. too bad it's available only in large 8 oz tins. though i believe i will break down and get one. cordial really is pipe smoking perfection. one of my new favorites & one of c & d's grandest accomplishments!

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4/10/07 update: If there?s one thing I do not readily accept, it is change for no damned good reason. A masterpiece of architectural design doesn?t need to be torn down for a towering monolith, when that eyesore can be built elsewhere with no loss of profit. Gentrification and neighborhood revitalization need not result in soulless urban playgrounds. Not all of nature should be paved over to make way for endless suburban sprawl. Or how about wars fought without an exit strategy so that certain members of government can pass out economic windfalls to pal oil barons and Texas cronies? What?s the analogy of my ramblings to pipe tobaccos, you ask? Well, for one thing, change has been taking place among too many of them, and for no good reason. Pipe smoking is like harpsichord making or woodcut illustration. There are few folks these days engaged in manufacturing and not many more consuming these time honored arts. Let?s face it, pipe smokers are an odd lot and there are not a lot of us left. Just walk down the street with a pipe in your face and you will be looked or laughed at as a relic. Thus, would you buy a badly voiced musical instrument or a cheap oil on canvas that looked as if the artist had painted by numbers? I should hope not! One of my all time favorites, Cordial has not changed ala European blends, taking an element out here and replacing it with something different there. This is wholesale alteration and misrepresentation of the product. All the light speckled tobacco components have been completely removed. The luscious latakia has been overpowered by a ton of hot, smoky Orientals and Balkans. There?s none of that gingery topping left nor any unsweetened signature black Cavendish. This is an over the top Balkan blend with an aroma that will surely offend everyone around you, and this is hardly the first time ol? cracker Craig T has been playing games with his tobaccos. You can read my other C & D reviews to see what he?s done to Pennington Gap (hit and miss depending upon the tin you buy), Strathspey (from magnificent to totally horrid), DaVinci (powerful to overbearing), all of Serad?s discontinued blends (sublime to ridiculous), Pirate Kake (hot, hotter, hottest), the overrated Peases (all marketing) and a host of others. Buying a C & D tin is now a crapshoot, as you never know what Tarler is going to do with his creations, altering some beyond the point of recognition. He must think pipe smokers can be hoodwinked and won?t know the difference from one tin to the next. Is he trying to cut costs? Is he taking too many trips to the still behind the curing shed? There are few things one can rely on in our fickle, ?now you see it, now you don?t? culture. The least one can expect is some regularity in a tin of pipe tobacco! I mean, how hard can it be? Unlike most other blenders, there?s absolutely no consistency with C & D nor is there a common thread that makes its products readily identifiable. Even drugstore blends such as Sir Walter Raleigh or Captain Black have a perennial consistency to them. And lately, C & D exhibits a total lack of any form of quality control. At 8 to 15 dollars a pop, these are becoming expensive mistakes that are really (sorry) pissing me off. I?ve resolved to end my journey with C & D and stick with a host of other great tobaccos made by blenders that are consistent and reliable: McClelland, Peretti, Fader?s, etc. With the Chicago Pipe Show only weeks away, I can assuredly tell you that when I see Craig and Pam I won?t be stopping, though I?ll try to smile as I go by.

One of five aggravated stars