Hey boys and girls. It's Santa here today to talk to you about the new limited-edition Cornell & Diehl Wintertime Reserve blends, just in time for the holiday season. From now until the end of December, all the good girls and boys out there who treat themselves to a brand new Peterson pipe can pick one of four new limited-edition Wintertime Reserve blends made by Cornell & Diehl and Jeremy Reeves here in South Carolina: Scarlet Caché, Kringle's Delight, Midnight Moxie, or Fireside Fable.

Santa's going to taste each of these blends and tell you a little bit about what he likes about each of them, and then hopefully you guys can make your choices.

Scarlet Caché

Starting with Santa's personal favorite, Scarlet Caché. This is a blend of four different Virginias: Brightleaf, Red Leaf, Stoved Red Leaf, and Stoved Brightleaf.

This is right up Santa's alley. The tin note is really interesting. It has a malty and lightly citrus aroma, as well as a really rich straight Virginia note. I think the stoved Virginias here are giving this a lot more depth and richness than a straight Virginia would have fresh out of the tin on its own.

The cut is really lovely. It's a mixture of ribbon and a little bit of ready rubbed. It's really easy to pack into the pipe when you're on the go and have a lot of houses to visit in one evening, for example.

Let's see how it tastes. Upon first light, Scarlet Caché is clearly one for the Virginia lovers like Santa himself. The mix of Bright and Red Virginias and stoved Bright and Red Virginias really does something to create a very rich experience straight out of the tin. When Santa smokes fresh Virginias like this, he really is looking for the malty character from the Red Virginias, a little bit of that sourdough bread note, and a little bit of a citrusy and hay-like vibe from the Bright Virginias.

When you combine that with the stoved, you just get a lot more depth, sweetness, and maybe even something approaching a brown sugar flavor, which I don't typically get from a Virginia blend. It's almost like a really nice amber ale on a cold crisp evening.

The cut makes this really easy to pack into a variety of pipe sizes. It's really good for a lot of occasions. You can definitely enjoy this outside. Leave those ready-rubbed pieces a little bit more intact and put them directly into the pipe and it's going to burn nice and slow. You can also rub this whole mixture out a little bit more if you're smoking a smaller pipe or if you're indoors and you really want to make sure that the burn is where you want it to be.

Ninety percent of the time, if you find Santa behind the reins of his sleigh, he is smoking a Virginia mixture just like Scarlet Caché, out of one of his trusty Tom Eltang Basic Pokers.

Kringle's Delight

The second blend available in this year's Wintertime Reserve is Kringle's Delight, a very comforting blend inspired by my wife, Mrs. Kringle herself. What we have here is a really lovely crumble cake made of Black Cavendish, Katerini, and Bright and Red Virginias.

It's just the right amount of lightly aromatic, with notes of vanilla and baking spices. The tin note is fantastic. There's a rich, malty Virginia character, and I think the Katerini adds a little bit of earthiness and floral balance to the whole thing. It really smells like walking straight into a bakery or a house where somebody's been very busy putting cookies in and out of the oven all day long.

Kringle's Delight comes apart really easily. It's a beautiful, signature Cornell & Diehl crumble cake. It takes to the flame really well and loads into the chamber really easily.

Santa really recommends smoking this one at the proper moisture level, right out of the tin. Otherwise, you're gonna lose a little bit of something. This is an exceptional crossover Aromatic for fans who are typically leaning in the Oriental/English direction or the Virginia direction.

A lot of natural tobacco flavor comes through, with a little bit of earthiness and floralness from the Katerini, and a really solid, malty, and lightly citrusy base from the Virginias. An awesome creamy sort of texture comes through with the Black Cavendish as well. The top notes are warm spices, vanilla, and the natural characteristics of the tobacco, along with evoking the taste of a glass of really nice eggnog.

It's on a little bit of the stronger side too. Santa is enjoying Kringle's Delight in one of his Peterson St. Patrick's Day pipes from a couple of years ago. There's a little bit of holiday crossover, but that's okay.

Midnight Moxie

Next up in the Wintertime Reserve series, Santa is taking it up a notch with Midnight Moxie. Another beautiful crumble cake, it has that signature Cornell & Diehl very perfect moisture content, and is very easy to handle and pull apart just by hand. No knife needed, which is handy if you're on the go. It's rich, earthy, and robust. I'm getting a little bit of dark fruit and a malty character from that Red Virginia base, which Santa loves so much.

This is one for fans of Virginias, Virginia/Periques, and Burleys. This is the space that Jeremy Reeves and Cornell & Diehl — all of Santa's favorite helpers down in South Carolina — place so well in this space and make those tobaccos that have become iconic for their brand.

Midnight Moxie is definitely the strongest in both flavor and strength of this year's Wintertime Reserve blends, which is something that can help you get through long, cold nights.

Santa would recommend smoking Midnight Moxie from the moisture content directly from the tin. That is going to give you the most complexity, and this is a really complex blend. At first light, it's obvious that the experience delivers the same robust and earthy flavors that you would expect from a blend that includes dark Burley, cube-cut Burley/Perique, and Red Virginia.

The retrohale immediately is extremely complex. There are warming spices, a little bit of dark fruit, and lots of earthy notes and umami character. Midnight Moxie is another one that will stand up really well with your favorite Christmas spirit. I also think that this is a great after-dinner smoke, late in the evening. It could be an all-day smoke for your dedicated Burley smokers as well. Santa's enjoying Midnight Moxie in one of his favorite Silver Kapp & Peterson pipes.

Fireside Fable

And finally, in this year's Wintertime Reserve limited-edition lineup produced by Cornell & Diehl, we have Fireside Fable. It wouldn't be Christmas or winter without an English mixture.

Santa's favorite Turkish Latakia is a very high-quality Latakia that is produced very consistently and to a high degree of quality. To that, Cornell & Diehl and Jeremy Reeves have added dark Burley and a pinch of Bright Virginia flake for a little bit of extra sweetness and to balance out some of the more rich and robust flavors.

Fireside Fable has everything that the English smoker is looking for: a big volume of smoke and a really dense mouthfeel. It's got the woody notes that you would associate with Latakia, but again, it's a lot more floral and even has some dark fruit-like notes. There's a little bit of perceived sweetness. I think the Bright Virginia flake is adding a little bit of that, but really what this does is it reminds Santa of a really nice, dry red wine.

There are some umami notes, and the Turkish Latakia is definitely front and center. The Burley gives it a little bit more of a boost in strength and body and a little bit of earthy notes that really contrast well with the citrus sweetness from the Bright Virginia and the floral quality from the Turkish Latakia.

Santa recommends smoking Fireside Fable in a larger chamber, and he's smoking it in one of his favorite English pipes made by Claudio Cavicchi. As usual and per tradition, Jeremy Reeves and all of his elves at Cornell & Diehl have produced four amazing blends for this year's limited-edition Wintertime Reserve, only available at Smokingpipes.com with the purchase of any brand new Peterson pipe. And only if you're on the nice list. I will be checking each and every order twice.