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The 10th Iteration of Cornell & Diehl's Small Batch: Carolina Red Flake
Filmed by Chris Herath & Nicole Weed | Edited by Nicole
In this episode of Tobacco Selections, Jeremy Reeves, Head Blender of Cornell & Diehl, discusses this year's Small Batch Carolina Red Flake — this year's release marking 10 years that the fan-favorite CRF has been in C&D's portfolio, celebrating flue-cured tobaccos and their ability to naturally age delightfully.
Note: The following transcription has been edited for clarity and brevity.
The Story of Flue-Cured
[Jeremy Reeves]: Over the years, we have really focused on the way that U.S.-grown flue-cured Virginias could be blended to all sorts of different effects, but there's a much bigger story of what flue-cured is and how it is used. Not only was this tobacco foundational to the United States in its infancy; it also went all over the world.
Along the way, seed went with it, so we ended up with flue-cured tobacco grown in places like Zimbabwe, Argentina, Brazil, and India, and these last two are actually included in this year's recipe.
Components & Flavor Profile
We've got some 2023 dark hand-stripped leaf from Brazil. This has been fermented in pilones, essentially, and it gives the tobacco a really deep, caramelly character. It plays really nicely with the 2019 Georgian leaf that we've used to great effect in previous years for its wonderful sweetness, and the tips from North Carolina from crop year 2022. These have also shown up a couple of times in Carolina Red Flake. Lastly we've got some really nice, rather old 2010 Red Virginias from India.
Again, the flavor profiles from tobacco have so much to do with the terroir and the practices culturally around handling that tobacco. The Indian leaf has this really mellow quality to it. The sweetness is certainly there, but it actually has a little bit of a spicy note that is toned down. A lot of that has to do with the age of the leaf as well. It has had plenty of time to sit and mellow.
The Brazilian leaf is really big and rich, but again, it's very soft. The subtle spicy qualities from the Indian and then the sweetness, from both the Indian leaf and also that Georgian leaf really ties everything together, with the tips coming in on top with sort of bready and also slightly fruity note.
Celebration of Flue-Cured Leaf
Like many of you, I have really enjoyed going back to previous years of Carolina Red Flake releases. We've been doing this for a while now. Actually, this will be the 10th year that Carolina Red Flake has been a part of our portfolio. It has always been not only a celebration of what the Virginia is right now and how the process has affected it in the immediacy, but it's also been a celebration of the age of some of the tobaccos that have been used and the way that it can cellar in a tin.
As we know, flue-cured tobacco is flue-cured to preserve as much of the natural sugar as possible, because that leaf tends to have a very nice, high sugar content, making it very sweet. Those sugars then aid in fermentation and a blend that is straight Virginia can really have quite long legs, as they say. In other words, it will continue over decades to change and ferment in your tin.
For those of you who are fond of fermenting and cellaring, definitely this is one that would do quite well in that. I think that this year is just even more a celebration of what flue-cured tobacco can be, no matter where it's grown, made right here in South Carolina. I hope y'all enjoy it as much as I do.
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Comments
When is the release date?
The suspense!!
I would like to know also
The CRF 2026 release is 22 Sep at 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
I'm so damned excited! 😸
Maybe a club for tasters could pre order 1 tin before the hoarders swooped in
Oh sure, let the elitists pay shipping for 1 tin before the hoarders come in…
请给我留一个品尝的机会
I really want to try this tobacco and hope to have such an opportunity.
I had a boss who said, "You walk behind a donkey and he kicks you in the teeth, he's an ass. Do it a second time with the same result, you're the ass." This sums up my reaction to these limited releases. I shouldn't complain, because each time I've been able to endure their "Waiting Room" to order a reasonable supply, but each and every announcement of these boutique blends doesn't create anticipation, rather it stirs up anxiety over the unpleasant experience I must go through to get them. Customer's have long memories. They store this unpleasantry in the back of their minds, and often the result is hoarding by a few. It even creates a secondary market of resale for profit. As an economic model for Laudisi thisworks, but for the customer, even those who score a few tins, a back burner enmity towards the pipe and tobacco supplier I love kindles. If anyone wants to know this is an economic model called "Artificial Scarcity" causing pent up demand. When a company deliberately limits the supply, availability, or release window of a product to manipulate the psychology of consumers, they are leveraging the Scarcity Principle. This creates an intentional bottleneck to build up a wave of urgency, a highly concentrated consumer interest. It mirrors the infamous example of the "Disney Vault" where movies were pulled from home video shelves for years at a time. When reopened, it forced, immediate pent up demand by people afraid they wouldn't get another chance to get the movie. There might be an unknown or little known government regulation that makes very big and long sustained releases of new tobacco blends extremely difficult and economically unviable. If so, then apologies to Lausdisi and shame on more government over-reach. But whatever the reason, the economic model remains. So, wait for a formal roll-out announcement I will, and be on their website at the appointed time, but I won't like it whatever the reason. I love Smoking Pipes. Of all merchandisers they are my favorite. I suppose I could say the same for my family loved ones despite some of their irritating habits. :-)
Trouble is there are so many kitchen sink blends churned out by C&D that they really all do start to taste the same. It’s nice to be able to choose from 200 English blends and 50 Virginia flakes…. but if they are built from the same components are they really all that different?
That’s a separate but reasonable issue.
Man I wish I had the patience to read all that. I bet you made some interesting points.
Reading and smoking? Who would have thought?
heh
Karnataka Red Flake Pue Cured Virginia (PCV). The fields are ~68 miles from where they throw cow dung at each other for fun. Perfect cure for my FOMO while boosting the corporate bottom line by exploiting 3rd World markets. "Carolina".
Laudisi is not a greedy corporate monster. You're thinking of STG. They're the last tobacco makers in the US. And let's touch on the "exploitation " of people. If you have ever bought diamonds, clean energy products that require rare earth elements or pretty much anything from China you are contributing far more to that garbage rant than buying some CRV. It's just good marketing and they don't even hike up the tin price. You gonna go onto Nestlé 's site and rail against the yearly release of pumpkin shaped peanut butter cups and the exploitation of South American cocoa farmers next? Boo-hoo, you dont like capitalism. Maybe you should go try being a farmer under socialism. Lemme know how that turns out for you.
The strawman will be enjoying a delicious red herring on a bed of Couscous with seasonal garden vegetables. Not grown on a Communist farm. For desert, an assortment of free range cage free chocolates from local cacao farms. Not shaped into pumpkins. Boo. Who. Diamonds? Wow. Easy there sparky.