Cornell & Diehl Golden Days of Yore

Tis the season....Opening the tin, as another reviewer stated, reminded me exactly of Epiphany. Didn't smell the typical sweet aromatic aroma. The ribbons were perfectly ready to load and light. Stayed lit without too much trouble.

Great Tobacco taste with just the right amount of holiday aromatic sweetness offset by some spice. The room note is great and I had many compliments when smoking it. I enjoyed the hint of cinnamon, cloves and rum. This can bite just a little bit, might be the spices in it, but overall can be puffed or sipped. I really enjoyed this blend and it's my favorite Christmas blend by far. Other blends are usually too highly cased. This is a perfect balance between tobacco and aromatics with a decent kick.

Love it!

I enjoy this one very much, I like that there is enough tobacco flavor mixed with the topping. What really drives me to grab this one over any other aromatic I have is the Oriental leaf, it works so well with the spices in the topping. This was my first holiday blend, lead me to look into more of the C&D aromatics.

Cornell & Dielh's Golden Days Yore is a festive holiday blend with many awesome flavors, without being too overpowering. It has a standard ribbon cut that comes at the perfect moisture for me - a little on the dry side. I am used to aromatics being pretty wet and borderline goopy at times, but GDOY was pleasantly not like that at all. The aromas that I initially smelled were eggnog, cinnamon, nutmeg, light ginger and rum, all with the sweet hay like aroma from the VAs in the background. The sweetness coming from the toppings are separate from the sweetness comming from the VAs, and they both work together quite nicely. Packs easy, and lights well.

Upon lighting I was surprised to find that there was a strong natural tobacco flavor. The Bright VAs had notes of sweet hay, grass, and lemon, as the Red VAs gave alot of fruit notes. There was what must be the Katerini playing neck to neck with the Dark Fired Kentucky, The toppings were present from the first light however and I actually became more noticeable as the smoke went on, instead of the toppings burning off. The toppings that I picked up on my first time smoking this blend were eggnog, nutmeg, and cinnamon. After a few times smoking this blend, the rum and chocolate became much more noticeable. Throughout the smoke each puff was a little different. Sometime I would get a lot of one topping, and other times a different one. The flavor notes jumped back and fourth. The Kentucky picked up a bit at the halfway point.

What is amazing about this blend is despite all the many different flavors, you can pick them all out individually, yet they don't over power one another or the natural taste of the tobacco. This is a fairly complex blend that never lost my interest. It required a few relights, and although it never bit it could nip at the tongue a little if pushed too hard. This a great seasonal blend and despite being an aromatic, I think has the potential to age nicely.

---

Every year Cornell & Diehl (as well as many others) invent a special blend of tobaccos for Christmas, celebrating the occasion. In 2015, they released "Golden Days of Yore," a blend of red and golden Virginia with additions of burley, Kentucky smoked tobacco, some Orientals from Turkey, and black Cavendish. Seemingly nothing special? But add to that the unique complex flavoring and you get something incomparable. Happily, the manufacturer continued to release it after this holiday. I got about 50 grams of tobacco to try from a 227g jar of the 2016 release. I opened this can myself, so I immediately felt a very complex and interesting flavor: cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger played at once, like the smell of gingerbread. I know this combination well, because when my wife makes muffins, so I mix these very ingredients and spices for them every time. Added to that was the bready flavor of Virginia, a little bit of Kentucky smoke, a fruity note of Cavendish, and on the far side came rum and chocolate. I can't say anything about the presence of licorice - I didn't feel it, although I don't like licorice at all. The flavor was indeed very complex, but also very calm. The tobacco was sliced in ribbons of the same size. The different varieties were well identified: there were few Burleys, and Kentucky, Orientals and Cavendish were almost lost in the mass of Virginia - so few of them were there.

I stuffed a small pipe, rested after the aromatics, and smoked. The tobacco seemed sweet, with a distinct flavor of the same ingredients: bread Virginia, some smoked Kentucky, a fruity, heady note of cavendish, slightly bitter nutmeg, a hint of cinnamon and ginger. As it burned, the bitterness went away and rum notes emerged. I quickly ran out of tobacco, so I decided I hadn't tasted it.

So I filled another, larger pipe. I was surprised when in the bigger pipe the tobacco took on a different color: the nutty flavor and spicy oriental notes appeared, while the taste became more complex and richer. Rum and chocolate were immediately noticeable, while nutmeg and ginger took second place, complementing the taste of tobacco. The tobacco flavor reminded me of something very familiar that I smoked a long time ago.

The strength of the tobacco was clearly below average. I easily finished the second pipe. The tobacco smoked cool, didn't go out, left almost no moisture. The pipe after it is dry, but for a while smells like a nut, this is worth considering.

The smoke from the tobacco is persistent, the smell is pleasant - the same Virginia bread smell, quite bright nuttiness from the burley and spice.

I really liked this blend, although it's obviously not for every day and not for every pipe - in small pipes to feel it in its entirety, most likely, you can't. I wish I could remember what it tastes like, but I'm sure I'll take a jar of it as part of my collection on occasion.

Tin note is wonderful Christmas smells: Allspice , Cinnamon, clove, ginger and coco. Smells quite sweet as well. Mixture of medium and thick ribbon cut, bright leaf colors . Packs easily and the moisture level is just right. I usually am not a aromatic fan, but this one is really outstanding, all the flavors transfer into the smoke with no chemical taste at all. The lead flavors are the Orientals. Its much like Oriental express as a base then with many lite Christmas spice toppings. Burns quite fast and a bit on the hot side. Slowing your cadence will help with the flavors and the heat. This is not a goopy aromatic burns to a clean ash and the cavendish is just pinch. Nic hit is mild but the flavor is medium. Easley an all day smoke. 4 stars