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As many of you are aware, Cornell & Diehl merged into our parent company Laudisi Enterprises almost one year ago. I was really excited about this merger for a number of reasons. First, I was, and am, a big fan of Cornell & Diehl's offerings. Second, I was, and am, a big fan of Smokingpipes. But my third (and most selfish) reason for being excited about this merger was that it greatly increased the likelihood that I might get to visit Cornell & Diehl's plant in Morganton, NC. I got my chance to do just that a couple of weeks ago, and what a fun and inspiring experience it was!
The C&D plant is located a few miles outside of Morganton and is surrounded on all sides by lovely forests which are draped in fantastic golds and reds this time of year. Tractors, farm houses and country cottages line the winding roads, and while all of this is beautiful to behold, the heartwarming landscape was all but forgotten by the time Sykes and I stepped inside the front doors of the small building Cornell & Diehl calls home. Upon entering we found ourselves greeted by a big smile and a warm handshake from Chris Tarler, VP of Manufacturing, and the gentle, soothing, and eerily captivating aroma of tobacco. All kinds of tobacco.
As we walked on through the doorway leading onto the factory floor, we were surrounded by the gorgeous, fall-like reds, golds and browns of dry bales of raw tobacco leaf varietals. This sight, to my eye was just as beautiful and full of deep purpose as the picturesque forest scenery just outside the door. Bright Virginia, red Virginia, dark Burley, white Burley, dark-fired Kentucky Burley, Turkish, Katerini Turkish, Latakia, Perique (in a barrel, not in bales or cases) were stacked up all around us.
As we strolled on past this tower of incredibleness, we began to see all the processed leaf which these raw components are to used to make, and the smiling faces behind that process. Mike Woods waved from the far end of the room. He was standing in front of the tinning machine weighing tobacco into tins, lidding them, and date stamping them. Brenna Call stood just to his right, fitting the bare tins with over-caps before affixing the labels by hand. Glue Sticks, and a deft hand, make Brenna a world champion at this by the way. To our left, Ben Hollifield sat before a tub of White Burley, gathering bunches of the leaf in his hands. He removed and discarded the stems one by one, and the pile before him of stripped leaf steadily grew. This pile would continue to build until he and a tag-team of others had completed the 150 lb. bale, he explained. (The next day when the bale had been completed, the pile stood nearly 4' tall in the center and was 6' square!)
My visit to Cornell & Diehl gave me a deepened sense of appreciation for the many blends that I had already enjoyed from them — giving me a fun and valuable inside view of how each blend was made and inspiring in me the desire to continue discovering new blends in their lineup. Seeing the time, hard work, dedication, enthusiasm, and expertise collectively required to take dry leaves and turn them into the dizzying array of rich, flavorful pipe tobaccos that this small, pioneering company has come to be known for, I realized that it was the people in that little warehouse that had made Cornell & Diehl such a special blending house to me, years before I had even met them.
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Comments
I'm delighted that you guys bought the operation so we can be assured that the great Cornell & Diehl blends, along with those of G.L. Pease, will keep our pipes smoldering and our minds wandering. Speaking of great smokes, I learned that De La Concha will stop making a number of its most popular blends. It's obvious that would rather sell cigars than pipe tobacco. Maybe Cornell & Diehl could work a deal with De La Concha and add those great blends to their puffing portfolio.
Nice tour of one of my favorite blending houses. Is there any chance of C&D putting out a rope?
Joe, thanks for the tip on De La Concha. I will run it up the ladder!
Do not know who was responsible for locating C&D. Hats off to them. We need more companies like this locating in western NC. Keep up the excellent reporting.
We need places like this in Texas, but the lack thereof is probably due to the lack of tobacco crops here. Either way, I'd love to be able to make a trip to some of these factories that produce my beloved tobaccos and briars. Great article. I am becoming a fan of C&D.
Was thinking about starting to smoke a Pipe
I'm thinking of starting smoke a pipe