Cornell & Diehl Chenet's Cake

Ha! I finally identified the flavor profile on this smoke. It's buttered popcorn with a hit of paprika!

This is a very cool VA/Per. The tin note is atrocious, really awful -- whoever said sweaty socks, below, isn't far off. And, if you don't let it age (or at least break the cake up and let it dry for a week in a mason jar), it's a weird smoke. Fresh from the tin its muddled, an unidentifiable sweetness, with some perique peeking through.

But, if you don't want to cellar it, at least break the cake up and put it in mason jars and let it dry out for a week. Then it starts to come to life. The creaminess clarifies into a big, rich mouthfeel smoke. The perique maintains a fruity spiciness, really more on a paprika or peppercorn vibe than straight black pepper. The herbal/grassy flavors stick around, becoming what I'm now calling the "buttered popcorn" notes.

This is a special VA/Per. Maybe not everyone's taste, but unique and awesome in its way. It'll always have a place in my cellar and my pipes.

For those noting a chocolate flavor -- I got that when I smoked it fresh from the tin as a lingering aftertaste. But there was a LOT going on that way, and it wasn't all easy to identify. With some age in the cellar or some drying, I'm quite sure there's no cocoa flavoring on this. Just some nice virginia buttery sweetness.

Edit: I had a little revelation about this blend while having a bowl, and wondered if there was burley in it. Coming here, I see it lists burley as a component. I can taste that with some age on the tins -- I think that's part of the "popcorn" nuttiness and the mild cocoa notes. It's not strong, I've had pounds of this stuff before I noticed it, but it is present as a background note.

Here it is, folks, my all-time favorite blend. To be fair, my first experience with this was not good, in any way. It was my first VaPer, and only my second step away from drugstore aromatics. At that time, my palate wasn't developed enough to appreciate the untamed Majesty of this masterwork 'baccy. Many of the observations I noted then still hold true; what has changed is my appreciation of them. There is a MASSIVE amount of spice, but also deep, mature sweetness, grand notes of figs and dark chocolate, and no bite (what I thought was bite back then was simply misinterpreted pepper). I know this blend is meant to be aged "between 10-15 years", but I smoke so much of it that I doubt any will make it to that ripe old age. I have one tin dated from January of '16, socketed away with just this intention. Let's see if patience can outweigh my craving for this blend. A block rubs out into a fine shag, and burns to Ash without a qualm. The limited amount if aging I have ever been able to give it deepens the sweetness and dessert notes, and allows it to dry a bit; fresh off the line, it's just a tad damp and almost feral in its intensity. at any age, it has an abundance of its own kind of charm. This is my gold standard for VaPers, and will continue to hold court in my Holy Trinity of favored blends: Chenet's, Ten Russians, and Mad Fiddler. In nomine Patri, et file, et spiritus sancti, amen.

This stuff is a perique powerhouse! Upon opening the tin you can smell fermentation and slight dark fruit tones mixed with tangy sweet grass. Smells earthy and slightly sour and fermented. It's a brick of shag that is easy to break off and rub out the varied brown ribbons.

Easy to load and light and takes the normal couple of matches or lights to get it going. Once it's going it's easy to maintain with simple light tamping.

The smoke, at least for me, is strong in flavor. Lots of earth and wood tones here rounded out by a bit of tang and slight sweetness. The perique takes center stage and delivers flavors of raisins, slight tang, and some spice. The flavors from the perique are deep and dark...I don't know how else to explain it. There are hints now and again from the VAs that are sweet a little grassy and also add some sour/bread notes, but very faint. The flavor profile is good, but very strong and a bit too harsh or much for me. I think this may be because of the less than one year of age on it. It's good, but I'm sure with age it'll be even better.

This is a good tobacco for those that love perique. I imagine that it will greatly improve with age and I look forward to sampling the tin I have packed away in a few years.

This is one I tried a few weeks ago. This tin is dated 042219. It is a nice pressed crumble cake, smells great, sweet, very light spiciness. I rubbed out a small amount, loaded my pipe and fired her up. First few puffs I could tell this is a stout Perique blend. Almost wondering if I should not be smoking this with coffee on an empty stomach. Puts out quite a lot of smoke and almost caught myself coughing a few times which as stated before is my Perique O’Meter. Not as strong as Picayune but starts out like Dr. Jekyll and turns into Mr. Hyde throughout the bowl for want of a metaphor. Good strong stuff. After smoking too many bowls. “As I looked there came, I thought a change - he seemed to swell - his face became suddenly black and the features seemed to melt and alter...” ― Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I would give this one a try.

I've decided to review to cellar series blends from C&D upon purchase (or thereabout) and after the recommended amount of aging to see the changes. I intend to update the review after that period of time has elapsed.

Now:

Standard VaPer tin note, sweet and raisiny. There's a mildly earthy quality. A nice chunk of cake, easy to break off and rub out - a welcome change from the slices of cakes I've had a run with. Swells more than typical due to its compact nature, so look out when lighting that you don't let it get carried away.

Starts mostly with that signature Perique spice. Rich and deep. Vague fruit dances in and out, but the flavor is mostly Perique. The spice (and fruitiness) fades slowly over the bowl, but the general profile remains the same. This is excellent if you want a VaPer skewed more heavily toward the Perique. Age on the tin can't come quickly enough as I'm super curious how the balance will be after 10 years.

You can see my video review of this blend unaged here:

https://youtu.be/H1SV2JWYf8E

Aged:

Stay tuned.

Another of Cornell & Diehl's masterpieces. A wonderful Vaper blend and those are vastly becoming my all time favorites. A very tangy, spicy mix of excellent Perique and Virginia. Plenty of good old fashioned tobacco flavor and sweetness from the Virginia's. The Perique is ever present with it's peppery sensations especially when exhaling through my nose. This is my benchmark measure for rating tobaccos. If it gives my nose a good distinctive fiery "rush" I absolutely love it and this one will not disappoint in that regard. A true smoking pleasure. It comes in a beautiful cake form easily broken ready for packing. Burns very efficiently with little moisture. I love this one and I'll be sure to get a lot more.

8-24-2020 - Update

I jarred the rest of the tin after buying it and just reopened it in August of 2020 to give it another try to see how the aging is going.

The difference now is that the VA's and the PER have melded together into a really good and more balanced VAPER. That overwhelming pepper taste from 2019 is now a sweet VA complimented nicely by the pepper and little dark fruity perique that I was expecting. It's still quite Perique forward so if you don't like perique (pepper) run now.

I have a feeling that at the planned age of 10 years this will be devine. I smoked up a few bowls over a couple of weeks and resealed the jar and put it back to age another year for another update in 2021.

----- 1-12-2019 - Original Review

I saw this on the shelf of my local B&M and the tin was literally swelling. I bought it as I've been wanting to try it and decided to pop it and smoke a bowl, the top "exploded" like a gunshot... making everyone jump.

I love crumble cake presentation and the C&D brownie was full of dark goodness. The smell was quite strong.. musty, peppery. The cake was easy to crumble up into a favorite Canadian and I sprinkled some of the crumbs on top to light...

The taste to me is pepper, followed by pepper, complimented by pepper.. but not in a really bad way. I love black pepper and peppery foods so the experience was right up my alley. I really don't get much of the Virginias.. and as a strict VaPer it tends to be more a vaPERRRRR. NOT an all day smoke (way too strong) but something really different when I'm in the mood for it.

This has become a great smoke to end the day after dinner especially pared with a glass of scotch or bourbon. There was another swollen tin I picked up to cellar, hopefully it doesn't explode at some point and open itself...

Hot damn! If you are having trouble detecting perique in blends give this one a shot.. it is most definitely center stage.. I was gonna let mine age more but I was getting worried about the seal- these c&d tins tend to bulge quite a bit.. the second I popped it and heard a popcan like whoosh I instantly regreted it... oh well.. nice to try anyways.. I can certainly see why you might want more age.. the Virginia is kind of buried within the very generous dose of perique.. a little time would help bring the Virginia forward I suspect.. very nice.. slightly complex.. but at least in it's young state it's almost too heavy handed.. all in all, another nice flavorful va/per from c&d.. as a young tobacco I would definitely prefer bayou morning flake.. but cellaring potential is interesting indeed.. spicy and sassy

The tin note on this blend is well, not good. I get chocolate and sour, foul smelling musty, rotting food. Probably the worst tin note on any tobacco I have ever smelled. I have 3 pounds of St. James Perique straight from a manufacturer and some of McClellands blending Perique and those smell like a florist compared to this. Thankfully the flavor of the smoke does not carry over from the tin aroma. However this VaPerBur is not one of my favorites, and I love VaPer's (and VaBur's). First off from the tin note through the smoke there is an obvious topping/casing of chocolate. Now a light chocolate topping often enhances Burley's but to my tastes this was a bit heavy handed. From the charring light to the last puff I can taste chocolate in this tobacco more so than I would like. It is not bad but it is distracting from the other tobacco's, namely the Virginia's and Perique which is what I had hoped for. That said it is not an awful flavor, just distracting. The perique is the main attraction in this smoke. It is peppery and loaded with dark fruits: plum, raisins and figs. The sweetness of the VA's are muted by the topping but they are first class red Virginia's that offer some bready, sweet and even earthy notes. There is a good dose of nicotine in this blend so if you are a lightweight like me be careful. This tin is 3.5 years old and it was quiet dry but still required a fair number of relights. I have found that if you slice it an let it air dry for 10 plus minutes prior to rubbing out it loses some of the chocolate flavor (suggesting a topping and/or casing), I prefer doing this but it is relatively inconsistent and due to the dryness it can cause the flake to turn to dust. Not a bad blend but based on the reviews I read, it doesn't live up to the hype for my palate. In fairness C&D says this hits its peak in 10 years or so so even with a few years of age in an unopen tin, it is still a bit young. I will go back for more but at this point it is on the low end for me when I want a VaPer. YMMV