Tobaccos Cornell & Diehl - Christmas Blend 2014 (We Three Kings)

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Shane Ireland (8)	2014-09-15		Medium	Medium	Medium	Pleasant

Now, I am not typically an Aromatic smoker, so when an "Aromatic" blend crosses over into the realm of a "Virginia", I have to take note. If there was a category between the two, We the Kings would fall there. To my tastes the bright and red VA does a good job of keeping things interesting in terms of body and strength while the Katirini definitely adds a certain intrigue not typically found in your everyday Aromatic blends. As far as the spice, it does remind me of that certain time of the year (although it would be great year-round) while adding to the modest, yet very appealing aroma. This one certainly surprised me!

Age When Smoked: Fresh

Purchased From: Smokingpipes.com

15 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	JimInks (3023)	2017-07-28		Mild to Medium	Medium	Medium	Pleasant

The tangy, dark fruity, earthy red Virginia is a little more noticeable than the grass and citrus from the bright Va. The black cavendish offers some brown sugar. The woody, lightly sweet and more sour, earthy, herbal, floral Katerini is an important supporting player, and seems to stand out a little more than the other varietals mostly because the toppings sublimate it less. The vanilla plays second fiddle to the all spice and cinnamon. I also sense a touch of clove, though I suspect that comes from the chemistry created by the various ingredients. The strength is in the center of mild to medium, while the taste level is medium. The nic-hit is just past the mild threshold. Won’t bite or get harsh. Burns cool, clean and slightly slow with a very consistent flavor that will fill your senses. Leaves little moisture in the bowl, and requires a few relights. Has a pleasant, lingering after taste and room note. Not an all day smoke, but it is repeatable. Two and a half stars.

-JimInks

11 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Paulie (1)	2014-10-04		Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

Tin Note: Mixture of black, brown, and gold leaf with a few stems. Smells pretty much like the tin says: allspice and vanilla, except I don't detect a cinnamon scent. To my nose the vanilla is up front and I also pick up a hint of raisins.

Charring Light: I packed my smallish, smooth Nording Queen using the air pocket method. First light yielded a few different flavors: definitely vanilla up front, and now the cinnamon that I didn't notice in the tin comes through along with a slight note of tea leaves. The leaf lit well with not a lot of smoke, rose well above the rim, and stayed lit nicely on the first tamp.

The first third of the bowl started a little harsh, probably because I pushed too hard to see what I could coax from it. Definitely have to treat this with care or it'll bite. I finally found the sweet spot in my cadence with very light tamping. At this point the Cavendish is forward to my palate with it's mild vanilla sweetness. I'm not a big fan of the aftertaste; it reminds me of cheap, hard candy for some reason.

Near mid-bowl the Cavendish begins to take a back seat as the Virginias and Turkish assert themselves. The sweetness shifts to a grassy/hay variety and the spicy cinnamon flavor weaves in and out. It has an almost peppery quality to it like an atomic fireball but not nearly as strong; more like Big Red chewing gum but not as sweet. The retrohale is fairly pleasant and the aftertaste has improved quite a bit.

The last third of the bowl is pretty much the same except the vanilla has somewhat made it's way back into the picture. The ash is predominately gray with flecks of white, and the burn was consistent throughout. Can't comment on the room note since I'm an outdoor smoker.

Overall this is good pipeweed and very fitting for the season; the cinnamon spiciness does remind me of Christmas. It's not in my wheelhouse so I doubt I would smoke it on a regular basis but it's a very nice change of pace. I'm curious to discover if my opinion changes as the weather gets colder.

Pipe Used: Nording

Age When Smoked: 2 months

Purchased From: Local B&M

10 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Mhulsey (36)	2015-12-14		Mild	Mild	Medium	Pleasant

Although sold as a holiday blend I believe that this tobacco could be smoked just about any time. The tin note reminded me of vanilla, nutmeg, rum, and spice and was very pleasant. Before lighting there was a sweet and spicy like taste in the pipe when drawn which hints at what is to come. The tobacco was easy to load and pack and took the initial light well, staying lit through the majority of the smoke, although I did have to relight midway through the bowl, but this is meant to be smoked slowly in order to avoid any bite. The taste was mild and slightly sweet with a hint of vanilla and a touch of spiciness on the initial charring, but progressed into a more spiced, almost ginger like note by mid-bowl. Towards the end of the smoke there was an almost fresh baked bread taste that was detectable with just a hint of the sweetness coming through. The room note according to the wife was warm and pleasant. All in all, a good smoke any day of the week

Pipe Used: Italian Briar

Age When Smoked: fresh from tin

Purchased From: SmokingPipes.com

6 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	StevieB (2076)	2017-12-27		Mild to Medium	Medium	Mild to Medium	Tolerable

Cornell & Diehl - We Three Kings.

A small amount of the mix is on the cusp of being a broken flake. It's prominently ribbons but some of the blend is coarser/quite rugged. The black Cavendish is the lesser of the three, about 20%. The smell from it exemplifies the spices more so than the vanilla. Like Golden Days of Yore which I reviewed a few days back the moisture's perfect, but unlike Golden Days' I'm not a fan.

The black Cavendish proffers the least flavour, the Virginia and Katerini are running the show. Being fair, the initial flavour's better than the subsequent part. I can taste a lot more vanilla for the first quarter, but this becomes overpowered by the cinnamon and sharp/floral Virginia and Katerini flavours. The over all taste is quite sharp and bitter. It burns good enough, causing no tongue bite, and is relatively cool.

Nicotine: mild to medium. Room-note: not a fan.

We Three Kings? I don't like it and won't rate it with any more than one star:

Not recommended.

Pipe Used: Peder Jeppesen Free Hand

Age When Smoked: New

Purchased From: Smokingpipes.com

5 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	TorontoSmoker (19)	2015-03-23		Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium to Full	Very Pleasant

C&D's We Three Kings, 2014 Christmas Blend is truly a treasure fit for a king of Orient or any other king. It's easily one of the nicest aromatics I've smoked, and definitely one of my favorites that I'm sure to keep at hand.

Not overly sweet - no heavy casing like many cheaper aros - this one is gentle and tasty, with the Virginias and Turkish components blending very nicely with the cinimony, nutmegy, light spicy, vanilla flavors of the dark Cavendish, without being overpowering. Not at all moist or goopy like typical cheaper aromatics, this burns nicely, like a high quality blend.

Other favorable reviews here describe very well the experience of this marvelous blend, with not much more I can add. A pleasure to smoke, especially during cold winter months here in Toronto Ontario. It really does epitomize the smells and essence of the Christmas holidays and spirit! Cheers!

Pipe Used: filtered & non-filtered briar, & meerschaum

Age When Smoked: fresh to 3 months old

Purchased From: Smoking Pipes

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Stah (139)	2021-10-11		Mild	Medium	Mild	Very Pleasant

I've been itching to open a tin of this blend for a long time. Enough to say, after it was introduced in 2014 as a Christmas gift (later replaced by Golden Days of Yore), the blend became quite popular, and it continued to be released for at least two more years. At any rate, I have in my collection a 100-gram tin from 2015 and a half-pound tin released in 2016. It's certainly interesting to compare how the tobacco has changed over the year, and when the 2015 can comes to an end, I'll leave some to make that comparison. For now, let's talk about the tin that was released in January 2015.

Appearance: a blend of tobaccos ranging from yellowish-brown light Virginia to almost black Cavendish. The blend is sliced in ribbon and flakes of varying sizes, with cavendish mixed in. It's not an even ribbon of Dunhill or McConnell, but it's not a rough cut of Amphora's Virginia blends either. The quality of the tobacco is very high - no dust, no extra moisture. A little dried out over the years, but the tightly sealed jar kept the tobacco intact. I kept it in the jar for a day to moisten, and the tobacco was ready.

Flavor: unconditional vanilla, rum and a complex bouquet of spices, with cinnamon standing out. The tobacco also has a slight whiff of berry sourness, which I attributed to its age. In addition, I caught a note of incense in the background. Of course, there is also the actual scent of tobacco - some dark Virginia fruit, notes of spicy Turkish tobacco, woven into the overall bouquet, a little bit of sweet prune from the cavendish. The overall impression is that of a well soaked rum cake with fruit and berry and vanilla filling.

Taste: sweetish note of caramel sugar, dried fruit with a slight sourness (very similar to small Turkish dried apricots), some wheat bread and to all this - an acceptable dose of spice mixed with white pepper. Surprisingly balanced, the blend now no longer feels lightly flavored, it has character. The blend is quite mild, with only a slight roughness that quickly goes away. The flavoring gets weaker as you smoke, the pepper takes over, and the result is quite a light tobacco, which nevertheless tastes closer to natural blends than flavorings. The tobacco smokes medium-hot, does not like heavy puffs, quickly heating up the pipe. The strength is below average - a large size pipe is not enough to get a nicotine hit, but XL pipes can remind you that this is tobacco, not a hookah blend for teenagers after all. The ash is light gray, not much of it. The tobacco leaves some moisture in the pipe, but virtually no tar. The aftertaste is sweetly rummy.

The smoke from the tobacco is very pleasant and yet dense enough to hang in the room for a long time. It has a vanilla-caramel aroma with a cinnamon-berry flavor.

Bottom line: a great holiday tobacco that could well be smoked as an everyday dessert. Fans of pure aromatics may not like it for its hint of natural flavor, but the rest will probably be very happy. The cherry on this cake is the fact that Golden Days Of Yore and We Three Kings blends have been re-released this year, in anticipation of Christmas, so they should absolutely be on our shelves at the end of the year. I highly recommend buying both blends by the can or two to try. They are well worth it.

Pipe Used: Peterson POTY 2013, Peterson Pub Pipe

Age When Smoked: 2015

Purchased From: Online

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	AnthonyRosenthal74 (2)	2017-12-06		Mild to Medium	Medium	Medium	Pleasant

You can imagine the tin note was indeed lovely, and the scent of the components was detected easily enough, I think. The cut is mainly a fine ribbon cut of the virginias, with chunks of black cavendish and perhaps some of the Katerini turkish being a bit chunky as well. The tobacco is not overly moist, and in fact seems to be just about perfect for smoking right out of the tin. I let mine sit out a few minutes regardless.

Char light was lovely, with flavors of vanilla and a hint of cinnamon greeting my tongue and my nose. Tobacco flavors were there, not washed out by the aromatic flavoring. But then after tamping down the char light, all flavor became very mild, but began to pick up quite well again after a few short minutes. About late mid-bowl I began detecting a scent and taste that were quite fruity... the allspice perhaps? Regardless of what it was, it was quite enjoyable. I detected absolutely no tongue bite. Nicotine was there enough just to say, "Hello." And the tobacco burned very nicely, with three relights. One relight because I set the pipe down for a couple minutes.

All in all, I found Cornell & Diehl's We Three Kings a very enjoyable smoke. And one that I think will be enjoyed much more with cooler weather. I'll definitely be ordering a few more tins of this for the holidays. Lovely stuff. :puffy:

Purchased From: smokingpipes.com

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	JaWiBr (449)	2022-11-12		Mild to Medium	Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

Tin note of vanilla, earth, and a mild note of cinnamon toast. Tobacco cut is a mix of tan ribbon, reddish-brown broken flake and black broad cut. Tobacco is somewhat dry, no drying needed. Burns slightly slow with few relights. The strength is mild to medium and nic is mild. Flavoring is mild, with notes of allspice, cinnamon and light vanilla. Taste is mild to medium and mostly consistent, with notes of very woody, very herbal, very floral, earthy, lemon grass, mildly sweet dark fruit, and mildly peppery retro. The 31.25% Red Virginia and 31.25% Bright Virginia are ganging up on the 31.25% Katerini Turkish while the 6.25% Cavendish plays referee. Flavoring is calling the fight. Room note is pleasant, and aftertaste is ok.

Pipe Used: 2015 XXX Ashton Brindle Author

Age When Smoked: 8 years

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Amordad12 (13)	2022-06-14		Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

After using half of my jar I wrote the review. This tobacco is one of the good aromatics. I got the Valina taste from this one and the room note is not bad. The strength is mild to medium.

Pipe Used: TROKASH

Purchased From: https://trokash.com/

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Leon (82)	2022-03-02		Mild to Medium	Medium	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

2021 We Three Kings:

Tin note reminds me a lot of Autumn Evening, but on the low fire. Maple, cinnamon, caramel.

Smoking it I mostly get a cinnamon-vanilla flavor. Again, it reminds me a lot to Autumn Evening, but on a lighter level. There's a nice clove spice and creamy maple sweetness.

Ribbon cut, easy to pack and smoke. The flavor does get a bit less sweet and more rough towards the end. While it is generally a mild blend, it also gets stronger towards the end. No tongue bite, moisture level is good out of the tin although I can see some people giving it a slight drying time.

Characteristics: body (flavor), strength, aroma (tin note), complexity, balance.

Mild-medium in body and strength, medium in flavoring. It does feel a bit like too many flavors are mashed together which takes away any uniqueness from the blend. I imagine getting a similar result by blending 10 different aromatic tobaccos by myself (not to take away from the skill that blending actually requires, but you get my point).

This is a nice blend but to be honest, I don't find it exceptional in any way. It is just an ok aromatic. Cornell & Diehl has more to offer in terms of aromatic blends and while I wasn't crazy for Autumn Evening either, that was a much better blend, in my opinion. I probably won't pursue it the next time it shows up.

Purchased From: Smokingpipes.com

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	WorkingClassChap (192)	2021-12-18		Mild	Mild to Medium	Mild	Unnoticeable

2021 Version.

Sample bag came pre dried the way I like it. Smells like vanilla, Virginia, and spices. I suspect the bag aroma would be more if it wasn’t dried however I smoke aromatics on the dry side.

The taste is weird. It definitely has a spice eminent to it. Some people didn’t pick up cinnamon and allspice but I sure did. Had a dry unsweetened ginger bread taste. The room note however I’m told did not transfer over. While smoking this at work I was told it had an neutral smell. The Orientals come though and are very noticeable. A vegetative, herbal, wood flavor. The Virginias are earthy, bready, not too sweet. The cavendish was not very sweet. The retrohale is spicy. It’s a change of pace, not something I would reach for again. Although it did remind me of Christmas so there’s that.

Pipe Used: Briar

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Gerry P (39)	2021-12-07		Mild	Mild to Medium	Mild	Pleasant to Tolerable

This review is for the 2021 version. I agree with juanpr's review. The tin note is mostly vanilla, followed by the the VA. I couldn't detect the advertised allspice and cinnamon, the reasons I bought this in the first place. To be sure, I handed the jar, having transferred the tin's contents, to my significant other. Her olfactory powers are immense, and she failed to detect any of the aforementioned spice aromas. The same goes for the taste when I smoked a couple bowls...Vanilla, VA, maybe a touch of sweetness from the cav, and that's it. I found it to be a bit bitey if I wasn't careful. We Three Kings (2021) is an overall disappointment. I found myself wishing that I had bought a tin of The Virginia Cream instead.

EDIT 12/13: Smoked a bowl of this earlier, and decided it wasn't as bad as I thought when I wrote this review. Still no allspice or cinnamon, and maybe I was in the mood for vanilla this time...idk. Anyway I'm adding a star.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Bumble (65)	2021-11-04		Mild	Very Mild	Very Mild	Pleasant

Christmas blends are my favorite, I want to try them all, so I go into each Christmas blend with great expectations! This is for the 2021 edition, not the 2014 in title... Opening the tin, what I smelled was some vanilla and spices. The flavor I tasted was very light compared to the tin note, was expecting the flavors to be a bit more noticable. I did not have any tounge-bite with this blend.

Pipe Used: Peterson 2017 Christmas (87)

Age When Smoked: new

Purchased From: smokingpipes.com

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2018-12-26		Mild	Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

A few years of age really enhance this tobacco, which I do not usually find to be the case with aromatic blends. The katerini melds with the allspice and cinnamon—offering flavors reminiscent of a mild clove cigarettes without the harsh clove flavor. The black cavendish and vanilla casing add a creamy sweet flavor to the smoke. The smoke is quite mild but a good smoke. If you can find one of the few tins out there in the wild, grab it—you won’t be disappointed.

Age When Smoked: A few years

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Philo Beddoe (221)	2018-11-19		Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

The C&D Christmas blends have been hit and miss for me and this is unfortunately a miss. Upon opening the tin you smell various baking spices and what I would swear is a base of GL Pease’s Vanilla Cream, if it’s not, it real close. The first few puffs are pleasant enough and the room note was very nice I was told. After about 1/3 of the bowl it just turns flat, then ”cigarettey”. I was hoping for a fragrant blend to smoke during the cold nights ahead, but this was very disappointing.

Pipe Used: Various Meerschaums

Purchased From: Local B&M

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Pugdad94 (2)	2018-11-04		Very Mild	Medium	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

Love this blend. The allspice and vanilla come through on the char light and through the entire bowl. A lovely and enjoyable smoke. I believe I bought the last 8oz tin online this year that was remaining. The moisture content is perfect and have no trouble keeping it lit even fresh from the tin.

Pipe Used: Savinelli joker

Age When Smoked: New and smoked again with 4 years of age on it.

Purchased From: Smokingpipes

Similar Blends: Mccellends holiday spirit is similar , McClelland - 2014 Holiday Spirit, McClelland - 2013 Holiday Spirit.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	JohnnyMcPiperson (119)	2016-04-15		Mild to Medium	Mild	Mild to Medium	Very Pleasant

Very interesting aromatic/Va blend, the two aspects interplay with each other very nicely, the christmas spices of nutmeg and a hint of cinnamon/clove play very well with the virginias in this blend, it overall a very nice smoke with a pleasant room note!

Pipe Used: Wessex Straight Bulldog

Age When Smoked: 1 year

Purchased From: City Place Cigars (Lynchburg, VA)

Similar Blends: ....

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Appalachian Chef (52)	2014-11-22		Medium	None Detected	Extremely Mild (Flat)	Tolerable

What a disappointment! I expected better from Cornell & Diehl. Not the slightest hint of vanilla, cinnamon or allspice. The Virginia and Katarini overpower everything...including the Cavendish. I've tried two bowls and I'm not sure if I will throw it away or try to blend it with something. Sad, just sad.

Pipe Used: Falcon Meer-lined Istanbul

Age When Smoked: Fresh from tin

Purchased From: Pipes Ltd.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Ronnstein (29)	2014-09-06		Very Mild	Extremely Mild	Extremely Mild (Flat)	Unnoticeable

Wow, what a disappointing blend this is. About the only thing that stands out to me about this blend is the Turkish tobac in here. This is a very bland blend, not delivering on it's "holiday magic with flavors of allspice, cinnamon and vanilla" at all. Skip it.

Purchased From: P&C

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Mijnnif (126)	2023-02-13		Medium to Strong	Medium	Extremely Mild (Flat)	Strong

Tin note is sweet holiday spice cinnamon, clove, brown sugar, and others. I think some of the tobacco must have been pressed at some point as some of the cuts are small pieces of flake mixed in with the ribbon. Packs easily and the moisture content is just right. The smell does not translate into the smoke at all. I am hoping that the tin I have is just a fluke. All I can taste is cavendish and Turkish. On top of that its quite harsh even with a very lite cadence. My expectations were very high initially as the tin smell was very nice. This tin I have tastes like a very old camel cigarette. Based on this tin I can't recommend this to any pipe smoker. I will let it sit in a jar for a few months and try again.

Pipe Used: custom long stem cob

Age When Smoked: tin says 11/4/2021

Purchased From: Pipes and cigars.com

Nobody has rated this review yet.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	HWM (11)	2022-07-08		Mild	Medium	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

The smell does not match the taste but that is ok. It’s one of those VA blends with a hint of casing. Pleasant enough room note but the taste is more like a VA tobacco. It can bite if puffed to hard. Ok but I wouldn’t buy it again as I was hoping for a more “in your face” aromatic rather than a middle-of-the-road VA tobacco blend.

Pipe Used: Peterson Dracula Bent Apple 03

Age When Smoked: Less than 1 year

Purchased From: Smoking Pipes

Nobody has rated this review yet.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Juanpr (2)	2021-12-05		Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Mild	Tolerable

Smells good in the tin but once lit it lacks any of the aromatic flavors I expect from a holiday blend. I feel like the virginias take a back seat and the cavendish is pretty much undetectable. It is a very cigarette tasting blend. Quite disappointed.

Age When Smoked: Fresh

Purchased From: 2021

Nobody has rated this review yet.