AMERICANA BY CORNELL & DIEHL

Sometimes the English blend smoker needs to rediscover what his parents' generation liked. My father's pipes all had a scent to them which I know now was Burley with condimentals added, a very old-fashioned smoke. My father wasn't an over-the-top Latakia and Turkish kind of guy. I think everything he really liked was good solid American-style pipe-tobacco, Virginias and Burleys in concert, and made exciting with Latakia and touches of unflavoured Cavendish, and Perique.

In other words, no degenerate Balkans, nor effete VaPers.

I am not quite such a well-balanced individual.

Sometimes I tend toward perversion.

Heck, very often.


My favourite weeds are redolent of Turkish and Syrian brutalists, as well as sweaty camelteers and scimitar-wielding brigands. My father must have thought me a queer sort, once my regrettable tendencies became known. But he never-the-less encouraged them, because he liked the reek of quality tobacco.

He would probably have prefered that I smoke something like C&D's Americana, and he would have got along well with Bob Runowksi, who is the consulting Burley maven on a multitude of products, and responsible for the re-creation of many old favourites.


AMERICANA
By Cornell & Diehl

Black Cavendish, Burley, Latakia, Virginia

This is a very decent smoke, an all-round reliable blend. At the beginning, the Latakia is forward, though soon it settles down and lets the Cavendish and Burley play most of the melody. The Virginia is noticeable, but not in any way dominant, just there to provide a good light all the way through to the bottom. The black Cavendish would otherwise go slightly astray toward the end.

Dry, mild, easy. It leaves a fine ash.


The name is aptly chosen; neither the British nor the Continentals would really appreciate this, and I rather suspect that it was the complete absence of good Burley mixtures in Holland that made my father give up the pipe. I remain grateful that he kept them, as they were wonderful to borrow when he wasn't looking.
I rather wish that products of this type had been available in Valkenswaard, instead of the ribbony Maryland leaf favoured by students, the drenched aromatics that the local pederasts and puppy-torturers smoked, or the rancid tinned savagery beloved by snobs and dilletantes.

People who were there remember Niemeyer, Douwe Egberts, Van Nelle, Van Rossem, Lieftinck, and Taconis. Not necessarily fondly, perhaps because they never made anything like this.


It would have been very good for students.
Satisfying, and not depraved.

TOBACCO INDEX


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