Cornell & Diehl Christmas Blend 2014 (We Three Kings)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

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!

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.