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Cameron G.

Reviews

Orlik - Golden Sliced 100g
Very distinct flavor
As a newer smoker when I see mostly straightforward blends I imagine cigarettes in a pipe. This proved me so wrong. This smells like apple juice in the tin, and tastes almost sort of vaguely lemony and citrusy, and the perique is really noticable when you retrohale. The whole experience is just really pleasant flavor aside. I'm not even big into Virginia's at all, in fact I don't like most Virginia tobacco. Definitely at least try this once just so you learn not to judge a blend by it's contents. You can have identical contents and even proportions and have them taste wildly different.

G. L. Pease - Montgomery 8oz
I'm disappointed
I know he said a pinch of dark fired but there is literally just 3 or 4 wood chips of dark fired in this entire large tin. It wasn't mixed very well, but that might have just been bad luck. Even with the DFK broken up and mixed more thoroughly this blend is just not that interesting to me. I'm gonna give it some age and see what happens.

Cornell & Diehl - Good Morning 2oz
It's good to have around
Good for when you are tired of everything else in the morning and want something straightforward but not totally lifeless either. Nothing crazy though.

G. L. Pease - Maltese Falcon 8oz
Proof of a strange concept in blending
I have tried everything from Lat bombs to Oriental dominant blends to english aromatics to blends with a tiny spec of latakia and oriental every now and then and in my journey this past 6 months as a new 23 year old piper I've learned a valuable lesson from the wise, precise, agile and sophisticated falcon. Balance is not the same as being a jack of all and master of none type deal. Balance means the different leaves actually embolden the positive aspects of each other and round off the negatives. Latakia bombs can be soapy and anticlimactic. You see this so often with C&D lat bombs where you expect to get a lot of flavor but shockingly, despite there being like 80% latakia, you actually don't get more Latakia flavor, instead just less of a more one dimensional flavor. The same goes for orientals. This blend taught me what blending is really about, and humbled my naive assumption that the strong and distinctive flavors I sought in an endless ocean of bland mild blends was not to be found in extreme one sided blends, but in a tasteful balance of well sourced tobaccos. This blend defies the mathematical and calculating logic I previously relied on and replaces it with the wisdom of the falcon. I wish I could have this exact blend but slightly stronger in flavor, but perhaps I am searching for something that doesn't exist.

Cornell & Diehl - Autumn Evening
It's better than most aromatics, but...
First off, this is a rare case in aromatics where you actually taste something. The topping is definitely right in your face especially if you smoke it slow. The more it dries the less flavor there is. It is excellent at what it sets out to do, and is objectively good tobacco. With that said, I hate it. I don't find it intolerable or anything, and I'm not even a snob, I actually like aromatics as a palette cleanser from time to time, english blends tend to kind of become dull when it's all you smoke. But the thing about this blend for me is the maple flavor is just too one dimensional. I don't think maple is a desirable flavor for tobacco. Vanilla works, honey works, floral toppings which are rare especially work and are my favorite. But this is just pancakes in your pipe. And if anything the tobacco flavor and maple flavor detract from one another. It's a contradiction. Even as just maple flavor, you don't tend to eat syrup without the pancakes, and you don't tend to put maple syrup on your vegetables. That's what this tastes like. Like trying to make something grassy and sweet in the way a carrot is sweet, sweet in the way syrup is sweet. I just don't get it.

Cornell & Diehl - Black Frigate 2oz
Makes me feel weird
I am no stranger to nicotine and I know for a fact it wasn't because of nicotine, but this stuff made me feel weird. Like, anxious and sort of brain foggy. I didn't attribute it to thr tobacco at first. It's a shame because I rather enjoy the flavor. Eventually I figured out what was causing the weird terrible feelings and stopped, and it went away. To further confirm, I didn't smoke it for a week, then loaded some up to settle it once and for all. Within a minute of smoking it, that terrible terrible feeling returned. This blend is either cursed, I got a bad batch, or It was just a bizzare repeating and unlikely coincidence. I haven't had this issue with any other tobacco and even smoke some pretty nic heavy cigars so I know it isn't the nicotine.

Cornell & Diehl - Byzantium
Was expecting more strength
I ordered this thinking I would be getting a lat heavy blend with a strong flavor, and while this tobacco is certainly a good tobacco blend, I would say it's strength is actually medium. Not strong at all. Nor is it especially lat heavy, which is odd because on paper it should be. A very balanced and somewhat medium blend like Maltese Falcon has more flavor and a stronger Latakia flavor, even though it has lower amounts of said latakia. While this blend is fine, I feel like it's just not as high quality as other lat blends out there for a similar price. I attribute it's lack of flavor to the quality of the Latakia itself as opposed to the amounts. Maybe I got a bad batch. Additional note: It can be a bit soapy and bitter. Not entirely sure why.

Sillem's - Black 100g
This is my favorite tobacco, however
This is easily my favorite blend. Sadly, your chances of getting it with a reasonable moister content aren't high. Sometimes I get it and it's literally crunchy like dried leaves, and it loses all it's flavor.... Really depressing because if it weren't for that, this tobacco might have given even legendary English blends a run for their money. They just need to change the tin packaging. I know the tin is iconic and really cool, but it doesn't work.