Cornell & Diehl Rajah's Court

This blend was a pleasant surprise to me. Upon opening the can, you are instantly aware of the pungent orientals added to the VA's. Colors are typical golden, mohagony, and black. Moisture was perfect, packing easy, lighting easy. Initial flavor: Pungent (in a good way).

Relight Flavor: Settles down with the VA's coming out and the latakia in the background.

Mid-Bowl: Nice, mellow, with hints of VA sweetness, and an occasional burst of bitterness from the oriental leaf.

Bottom of bowl: Slight increase of richness, ends with a sweet note and a pleasant aftertaste.

Overall: A nice mid-strength English blend tilted toward the orientals with good interplay with the Va's. Good all-day blend, no tongue-bite. For me, an occaisonal smoke.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars Enjoy..

Tin note is sweet and herbal with a background of grass from the Va. not much Latakia on the nose for me.

Typical C&D ribbon cut packs and lights well and came with perfect moisture content.

Taste: Perfumey, zesty, and slightly creamy Orientals balanced by a touch of Latakia and a backdrop of bright grassy Virginia. I prefer my Balkan/Oriental Mixture with less grassy and bright Virginia than Rajahs Court. It’s really my only complaint.

The nicotine crept up on me with this one. Smoked it in a big broad bowled pot and then a clay. It is fairly balanced throughout and gets a tad rough towards the end of the bowl as the creaminess dissipates. It is rather good. I have a tin of Dunhill London Mixture that’s still unopened as well as GLP Westminster that I will come back and compare this against.

I recommend this for anyone wanting to be surprised by C&D for making something other than an American Burley Forward blend. If you’re wanting to delve into Balkan/Oriental forward mixtures as a Virginia Enthusiast or an English enthusiast give this a shot. It’s cheap enough and readily available.

Similar to Samuel Gawith Skiff Mixture but less oriental spice and kick, more Virginia grass and nicotine.

This was a treat. I bought this tin when I was in my heavy cellaring days solely because a friend was always smoking it and I decided that I would one day have to try this blend. So one tin went in the cellar when I was taking advantage of a sale on C&D.

TBH I had very low expectations. C & D is not one of the blenders that come to mind when you think of great Balkan blends. Almost every blend they do that has latakia or some Turkish/oriental, also seems to include a good measure of burley taking it from what could be exotic to more like the homey American English blends of yesteryear, albeit with less chemical tinkering. And not to take anything away from them for that as they do those types of blends very well. When they do not include Burley, the Virginia used is often earthy and lacking in sweetness, making it taste, well, like burley.

Rajah's Court explodes this stereotype. It has an abundance of Virginia sweetness. You know, without a doubt, this has no burley in it. The sweetness combined with whatever Turkish leaf is used, creates a lovely citrus, sweet/sour taste that is just lightly brushed by the campfire notes of the latakia. The latakia is very lightly applied, so much so, that this is one of those few latakia blends that could easily be smoked all day.

Another way this one is different than many of the other C&D offerings is that this one is not tinder dry. Neither is it overly moist, but this one will last longer in the pipe than the average C&D blends, which tend to burn up fast. True to these sorts of blends, there is no problems with biting. I swore I was done buying tobacco, but this one may test my resolve. 4 stars.

A little bit sharp on the tongue. I could not detect any of the sweetness mentioned in the description of this blend. It still satisfies without being very heavy in the latakia department.

Govern Yourself Accordingly.

Reading the component tobaccos: Virginia, Latakia and Turkish; you would think this is your average English blend, like so many others. This is however a quite unusual tobacco. When you light it the first thing you notice is a spicy incencey taste and smell. The Turkish is dominant from the beginning. The Latakia does not come out at all, though if you examine the tobacco you can see a little in it. I suppose it smoothes out the blend. The Virginia adds a little sweetness in the last half of the bowel. The flavour is unique and exotic. You have to try it to see what I mean.

I primarily smoke English blends and have sampled or smoked just about all of them during the past 50 years. RAJAH'S COURT has become my favorite and it exemplifies, in my opinion, exactly what an English blend should be. Perfect as an all day or for those that want a milder and lighter smoke all day, this would be the Perfect Nightcap. 4 stars all the way!

I expected a medium blend laden with a Turkish peppery taste mingled with a preponderance of sweet Va's. What a pleasant surprise. This is a well-balanced, 'almost' full blend that burns cool and has a marvelous taste. While its signature is certainly Oriental, the Latakia component adds a dimension that gives this tobacco some body. The Virginias provide a constant but restratined sweetness that really brings the blend together. Kudos to the Tarlers!

This is a great all-day smoke for the English fans. It has a classic "dunhillish" feel when you open the tin, that good old sweet Virginia-Oriental smell. It comes with the perfect moisture, I just leave it dry a little bit.When you light, the first impression is of an oriental-canted tobacco, but after a few puffs the Virginias are back in the front row, perfectly balancing the blend with their sweetness. Only the latakia lacks a little for my taste, but it's present and comes out here and there. A fine change of pace for the latakia addicted.

The tin I opened was dated January 2016. The tobacco turned out to be pretty stale and slightly dried out. I put it down to rehydrate for a couple of days, not denying my curiosity to examine it. Cut in fine ribbons, the color ranged from yellowish brown to dark chocolate, the different varieties clearly distinguishable despite their age. The tobacco is mixed very neatly, light and fluffy to the touch.

When the tobacco had moistened enough, I decided to investigate its flavor. Leather, sandalwood, musk, coriander, a bit of peat smoke, some citrus and a complex meadow flower scent. The bouquet is extremely calm and difficult to separate, no single component is out of place. Latakia is clearly very little, the blend can hardly be called oriental. In spite of this, it is classified as English. There is no need to knead, the mixture is easy to get into. I took a medium pipe that had already rested from other tobaccos lying on the shelf, and stuffed it tightly.

The initial taste is a sweet, slightly sour, yet spicy blend with a hint of smoke from the smokehouse and orange zest. The sweetness is very light, as from the light milk chocolate, with a hint of cream. There is also a woody note in the flavor - imperceptible at first, it intensifies to the middle of the pipe. Along with it, the latakia flavor intensifies - to the sweet and creamy comes a resinous, smoky flavor. The tobacco smokes cool, but easily heats the pipe if you get carried away. The flavor is very mild, the tobacco doesn't bite or burn even with a deep puff. The ash is very fine, smooth, light gray. The strength of the tobacco is slightly below average, nicotine hit is not a threat. The medium pipe ran out after about half an hour.

The smoke has the same sweet and creamy aroma with a woody note. It is moderately dense, and lingers in the room long enough.

This is a very pleasant blend. It's clearly lighter in flavor, smell and strength than Oriental Square, softer and more airy, sort of - and doesn't dry my mouth out. Overall, if I have to choose between Oriental Square and Rajah's Court, I think I'd rather have Rajah's Court than Oriental Square. It's cozier somehow.