Cornell & Diehl -- Epiphany

Brand: Cornell & Diehl
Blend: Epiphany
Style: Aromatic/Light English
Pipe Used: Peterson Aran #150 Bulldog
Price: $17.50/8oz.

Appearance: 7
Taste: 6
Room Note: 8
Value: 7
Overall: 7

After hearing much positive word of mouth about this tribute to the old Revelation blend I decided to give Cornell & Diehl's Epiphany a try. While I never had the opportunity to try the original Revelation the description of this blend sounded delightful.

Billed alternately as an American English or light English blend, Epiphany is a real grab bag of tobaccos with Burley, Virgina, Latakia, and Perique all present with a light, fruity topping thrown in as well. This is the type of blend that's supposed to be carefree and easy and is designed to provide that elusive all day smoke.

Epiphany arrives in a fairly thick and long ribbon cut and is predominantly light brown in color with some black pieces of tobacco mixed in for good measure. The aroma of the unlit tobacco is fruity in nature with hints of citrus and berries and the advertised Latakia is just barely detectable as a faint smokey whiff.

To sample the blend I gravity filled my Pete Bulldog and gave it a charring light but for some reason this well-dried tobacco just did not want to burn and it took quite a while to get it going. Sadly, this struggle to keep the pipe lit was to be an ongoing and thoroughly annoying problem from start to finish.

The first few puffs provided a very spicy dose of Perique and this peppery tobacco remained very much front and center throughout the smoke. The fruity sweetness evident in the pre-light aroma came through nicely and played off the spice very well without ever tasting artificial or cloying.

Unfortunately the primary tobacco components in this blend seemed overwhelmed from the get go and were never able to reassert themselves. The nuttiness of the Burley was downplayed, the sweet Virginias were trumped by the topping, and the Latakia was all but absent.

To my palate Epiphany was more of an aromatic Perique blend than a light English and the lack of any depth and complexity in taste was disappointing. It's not an off-putting blend by any means but it just wasn't what I was looking for here.

The room aroma was pleasant and fruity and the lack of any forceful Latakia component certainly helped in that department.

As mentioned earlier, Epiphany was a real bear to keep lit and I'm sure that aggravation did nothing to improve the taste. It did smoke cool and dry which is a given I suppose for a blend that remained unlit for most of its time in the pipe.

Cornell & Diehl's Epiphany is a decent tobacco blend but it just didn't agree with me in either taste or temperament. To qualify as an all day smoke a blend must be in the fire and forget it mold and this one was anything but. And if a tobacco is going to be persnickety then it needs to pay off with a real depth of flavor and here again Epiphany fell short. I just don't see where a spicy aromatic requiring far too much TLC can fit into my regular rotation.

*UPDATE*
In case it seems like I didn't give this stuff a fair shake I want to qualify that I tried Epiphany on four separate occasions in four different pipes (bulldog, billiard, cob, and clay) and had the same problems each time. Since I'm sitting on half a pound of the stuff I'm going to put it way back in the cellar and hope that it comes together a bit better when I "rediscover" it down the road.