Cornell & Diehl Strathspey

Tin: Mix of dark tan, with flecks of olive, ribbon and black wide cut. Latakia and butterscotch essence smell. Since it is dry, it isn't sticky.

Lighting: It has burn qualities characteristic of aromatics, requiring relights, tamping, and puffing, even considering it is quite dry. Another trait of aromatics, it does give some tongue bite, even though the smoke remains fairly cool.

Aroma: Soft, mellow, woodsy butterscotch.

Taste: Not much at all

Nicotine: mild

Room Note: Similar to aroma, a little tangy, natural aroma persisting for a short while.

Overall: If it's essence of butterscotch, I must like aromatics, which I smoked for years, before turning to tins. Strathspey seemed like a decent tobacco, but might not be worth a premium price.

Aired Strathspey: Two weeks after opening the tin, the original aromatic blend has transformed into a true light Cavendish blend. The butterscotch flavoring has diminished, wafted off, leaving a quality light cavendish blend.

Aroma & Taste: Complex, soft, mellow, woodsy, the interference of the flavoring essence no longer dominant; less tongue bite also.

Originally, the flavoring essence overpowers the qualities of the tobacco leaf. Aired out, the blend displays quite good qualities of a light English blend with a good Cavendish base.

Strathspey is an interesting blend from C&D. In the bag, it smelled odd ? kind of like something you should be putting around the plants in the garden, not in your pipe. But the object of this exercise is to smoke it ? and smoke it I did.

One thing I thought of every time I smoked Strathspey was how much it reminded me of Syrian Trawler. Seems to be the same Latakia types and proportions.

The flavor is dry, only a slight a hint of sweetness. A bold flavor without being too strong, I felt that it lacked roundness and body. The Scotch topping was very subdued, and was probably too busy working behind the scenes to come to the fore. The room note will not win friends. You will probably get ushered to the porch before you get too far past the charring light.

I wouldn?t put Strrathspey in the normal categories. It?s unusual. The English + topping is done much better with this one than with Cross Eyed Cricket, but nowhere as good as Mephisto.

I can just detect a faint hint of Scotch in this. Starts a little harsh, but finishes well and is actually quite nice. Watch your tongue on those first few puffs. Comes a little dry like all C&D products. Will look elsewhere, but may come back to.

Strathspey is an interesting "crossover" English; that is, a mild or medium English with some kind of aromatic dressing. In this case, the Latakia and Turkish are "civilized" with cavendish and a Scotch top dressing. In the can, this is a very short ribbon cut with a fair amount of dust showing a good balance between darker and lighter leaf. As with many C&D blends, this came too dry for my tastes, so I popped a pouch button in the can and let it sit for several weeks. The can aroma is definitely that of Latakia, but with a sweet, almost candy-like, top note. At first lighting, I notice the Latakia, but also a sweet deep undertone to the smoke that's quite pleasant. This is a smoke with a lot of "bottom end." As the bowl progresses, I notice less and less of the sweetness and more and more Latakia with even a bit of bitterness. As the smoke progresses, this blend smokes hotter and more bitterly and sort of never recovers its early promise. A good smoke gone bad...

This is another of C&D?s flavored Latakia blends, but this is not really an aromatic like Brigadier and Cross-Eyed Cricket are. I would put in the same category as Esoterica?s Pembroke in that it?s really an English blend with an added alcohol topping. This blend contains Latakia, Orientals, and black and light pressed Cavendish topped with Scotch. The tin aroma is a bit like butterscotch, with a rich sweetness, but the Latakia is quite apparent as well. The taste is fairly complex, with the Latakia in the fore, but the Orientals provide some nuttiness. The Scotch isn?t apparent in the taste, but it may provide some background sweetness. I really like the way this tastes. It?s biggest drawback is that it can be sharp on the tongue?deceptively so, actually, as you?re not expecting it from such a full-tasting English.