Cornell & Diehl -- Pirate Kake

Brand: Cornell & Diehl
Blend: Pirate Kake
Style: English
Pipe Used: No-Name Apple
Price: $27.60/16oz.

Appearance: 9
Taste: 9
Room Note: 7
Value: 10
Overall: 9

Recently I ordered a pound of Cornell & Diehl's Pirate Kake purely on a whim. I had never so much as tried the blend before but at such a low price I decided I might as well get an entire brick of the stuff and hope for the best.

The tobacco arrived as one large pressed kake sealed in plastic and was dated just four days prior to when my order was placed so this was one young blend to be sure. The kake was soft and pliable and a tad on the moist side and was composed of jet black tobacco with a few brown flecks mixed in. The aroma reminded me of a campfire log that had burned to coals overnight and been dampened by the morning dew. To many folks that is not a pleasant smell but to me it's pure bliss which probably explains why I'm such a fan of these strong latakia blends.

To give it a try I broke off a nugget of the kake, dropped it into my pipe, and sprinkled a bit of rubbed out tobacco on top to act as tinder. The stuff lit right up and once that piece of kake got a nice ember going it refused to go out. I never had to relight the pipe and only tamped it a bit more out of habit than necessity. The pipe was even left on the workbench for minutes at a time while I changed the wiper blades on my car and still it wouldn't stop smoldering. At the end there was only ash and a wee bit of soggy tobacco leftover which isn't bad considering how damp the blend was to start with.

So it burned perfectly which counts for something but how did it taste? C&D defines Pirate Kake as a blend with lots of Latakia accompanied by Turkish and Cavendish cut Burley so the dominant flavor, not surprisingly, is the Latakia which reminded me of the leaf that's used in Count Pulaski. Since that ranks as one of my favorite tobaccos I knew I was in for a treat.

Taste and smell go hand in hand and I can't fully describe one without the other so when I say that this blend reminded me of a well-oiled baseball glove or the seats in a vintage roadster I'm not implying that I've tasted either one but when I smoke this blend those are the images that come to my mind.

I could happily puff all day long on a pipe that offered nothing more than that but with this blend there's the addition of the Turkish and Burley tobaccos to consider. The Oriental leaf added a nice, underlying hint of spice and a bit of robust cigar flavor to the blend while the stoved Burley brought a nutty richness that kept the flavors nicely balanced.

The room aroma was about what once would expect from a heavy Latakia blend. I enjoyed it immensely but I'm not daft enough to think anyone else would so for me this is a blend best enjoyed in solitary comfort where a man can revel in the smell of burning gym socks if he so chooses.

It was a risky move buying a full pound of this stuff on a whim but in this day and age it's often best to get while the gettin's good and in this instance the bet paid off handsomely indeed. With excellent flavor and perfect burning characteristics, Pirate Kake stands as my favorite Cornell & Diehl blend to date. It's certainly not a tobacco for everybody but is highly recommended for all Latakia fans and those with fond memories of standing out in center field chewing the leather laces off their mitts. OK, I admit it, I have tasted a baseball glove before so sue me.