Cornell & Diehl Morning Drive

It so happened that I had two Cornell & Diehl blends on my shelf almost simultaneously with a similar name - Morning Drive Time and Morning Drive. The production date, packaging and labels were different, and I was a little confused - was it the same tobacco or different? I decided to open both cans at once and confront them.

First, I opened a 100-gram tin of tobacco called Morning Drive Time, which didn't yet have a production date on it, but circumstantial evidence said the tobacco was created around 2013.

The appearance was a roughly chopped sliver of a monochromatic color of dried oak wood. The blend is fairly uniform, but uncut leaves and cuttings from them are found among the ribbon. The tobacco has dried out quite a bit during the time in the tin, and clearly needs moistening.

Flavor - latakia is pretty weathered, but somewhat preserved its notes in the overall flavor. Along with it, there is the smell of chamois and woody tones, in the background you can hear walnut, a faint citrus note, some cream, and a slight scent of mixed peppers. All smells are quite muted, partly due to the age, partly due to the dryness of the tobacco.

Taste - muted sweet smoky latakia note added to the sweetness of Virginia, also have some acidity, a slight spice from the orientals and a very small amount of perique. As you smoke, the woody, earthy notes of burley appear and grow, and the acidity almost disappears. The tobacco, which initially had some roughness, becomes smoother and softer.

I then opened a relatively fresh 57 gram tin, which is already named Morning Drive, and the date on it indicates April 7, 2020. After examining the contents of the can for appearance and smell, I realized that the blend in front of me was, for all intents and purposes, the same blend - but, of course, fresher.

The appearance of the tobacco is pretty much the same, but the cut is a little finer and neater. In the bulk of the tobacco, you can see some darker flecks of latakia. Individual small uncut leaves are also found, but no cuttings.

The flavor is much brighter, but shifted to the acidity, which is much stronger, as well as the earthy woody notes. On top of that, a Virginia bread note appeared, not too pronounced, but palpable. The smokiness of the latakia is also more pronounced, but the overall flavor of the blend makes it clear that there is not as much of it here as it seemed in the case of the old blend. The smell of suede stands in the distance, faintly discernible.

The taste of fresh tobacco turned out to be a little different as well. It is much brighter, in every way: the sweet and peaty taste of the latakia is felt more confident, there is the astringent nutty taste of burley with a woody, earthy flavor, and Virginia is somewhat muted by these two flavors, but there are its hay and bread notes, not just a light sweetness. Orientals and perique give a little more spiciness and spice, and the sour note in the flavor is more pronounced, but does not stand out from the general background, although it does not disappear as you smoke. The tobacco itself is more harmonious and mild in flavor. Overall, the blend feels more like an English blend than an oriental like its older version.

The strength of the tobacco from both cans is medium, a slight nicotine kick is possible in the large pipe. The blend burns medium-hot, burning into a fine, dry, light gray ash. There is little moisture in the pipe, but it is there. The aftertaste is understated, woody and nutty with a bitterness.

The smoke from the blend has a nutty, woody flavor with a hint of peat, stays in the room for a long time.

The bottom line will be expansive.

First, I became convinced that Morning Drive Time and Morning Drive are pretty much the same blend. Given this fact, I will boldly mix an aged blend with a fresh one after the review and try to elevate and refresh its flavor and aroma.

Second, in the years since it was first introduced, the quality of the blend's components has not declined, but rather has increased.

Third, this blend is not one to be taken for storage - it loses significantly in flavor and taste, turning from a fairly striking representative of English (in the American sense) blends into something closer, in taste, to poor-tasted Oriental.

Fourth, if Cornell & Diehl wanted to present their vision of Dunhill Early Morning Pipe with this blend, they succeeded much worse than G.L. Pease with his Chelsea Morning or Robert McConnell with his Boutique Blend. Even the blends above vary considerably in composition, not to mention taste and flavor. The closest to the original, in my opinion, was Robert McConnell, but I liked the mix from G.L. Pease. However, Morning Drive somehow reminded me another discontinued blend, Nat Sherman 536 Empire English.

Nevertheless, I can't help but note that Morning Drive is a pretty good quality morning blend, although it has quite a lot of burley in it, and I don't like that variety. It will definitely find its buyer and it will not stay on the shelf.

On the plus side, I can add a rich, multifaceted flavor and a relatively small amount of latakia, which will probably excuse you to the people you'll walk past while smoking this tobacco on your morning walk.

C&D- Morning Drive

I’ve had this sitting in a two ounce jar since 21Feb19, and remember quite fondly wondering what I bought when I first smoked this last year, this blend was spicy and for a new pipe smoker a little more than I could handle at that moment.

I decided to try this blend again today, and will admit I was surprised by how this has mellowed out a bit over time. This is labeled an English, but I find it more an American style blend.

Upon first whiff the orientals are there sour, but not over the top, the Latakia is more present in tin note vs the smoking experience. The hay of the Va’s comes through but never overpowers.

This blend was dry upon opening tin a year ago, and is now a year later not any bit drier, lights easily, the Perique is peppery especially upon the first few draws, enough to make my eyes water, just ashen I first smoked this, on retrohale I get the presence of the oriental providing a creamy depth and somewhat tangy yet subdued flavor. The VA’s provide a little hay but not enough for my liking.

This blend may be a little overwhelming for its complete sum of various parts.

The Working man series, a fitting name for the series of blends it encompasses, stout blends although this one falls a little short and may a little be too much.

Not the best, not the worst, probably not a purchase I will make again but I will finish this jar in time.

A friend of mine from the pipe club gave me a small jar of this that is dated 2/28/19 probably a month ago and I decided to try it. This has a very faint natural tin note smell. I guess this is blended for your early morning drive to work or race track, etc. It is listed as an English but for the life of me I really cannot detect any Latakia, maybe a wisp but I think that is power of suggestion. To me this is more an American blend. It is a nice pleasant smoke but I really do not have the patience this morning to try to smoke more to force myself to like it. It fits the bill for a lot of the reviewers and as stated not a bad blend but more VA than English to me. I am going against the grain and would somewhat recommend this. I will approach it down the road and see if my taste buds change their tune.

Disclaimer: As a veritable rookie in TPC, I am slowly learning to try and appreciate the subtleties of the craft. I have a workingman's palate as it were and still don't get some of the intricate flavors that others do.

Opening the tin gave me a grassy, hayfield type of smell with almost a citrus hint. First couple of good puffs are smooth and have what I would describe, creamy smoke. Very pleasant. Retrohaling got me the burley as another reviewer noted. I did detect a little spicy note and presume that that would be the perique or the Orientals. I can definitely taste the latakia as I have found that I favor it in most of my favorites. I like the English/Balkan blends with a mild to medium Vit N content.

This definitely fits the morning/all day smoke for my taste as I like London Mixture, Standard Mixture or Good Morning for that bill.

Will definitely be making this a part of my rotation.

This was one of the first non-aromatic tins I purchased. I did so based on very little information because Morning Drive seems to be an underappreciated gem. It was also the first blend I re-ordered, and it remains an all-time favorite.

It's basically a "mild English" (though this is probably more correctly classified as a non-aro American, but whatever.) There is a bunch of C&D Burley floating in there, which seems to take the lead. At least to my neophyte palate. The Turkish and latakia are present, playing a support role. Perique is in there somewhere, but mostly seem present in the tin note. It's truly used as a condiment in this mixture.

Apparently there are virginias in here, but they're overshadowed by the burley and orientals. All in all, this makes this blend very savory, rather than a sweet, grassy virginia.

This is a nutty, earthy, smokey, leathery, and spicy smoke. It needs very little (if any) drying and burns somewhat quickly and coolly, but it will absolutely bite back if smoked carelessly.

Interestingly, of the many blends I've sampled, Morning Drive's room, clothing, and beard note are universally despised by the non-smokers in my life. You'll definitely smell like tobacco after this bowl. Despite this, I certainly do not limit my use of this mixture to only the morning hours.

A little age really smooths out the rough spots, in my opinion.