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Captain Bob’s Blend

Just a little background on myself first. Maybe it’ll make this review make more sense. I grew up in a Baptist tea totaler family. My grandfather smoked and drank himself out of a liver and bladder among other things. So, these types of libations were rather frowned upon. That being said, we never seemed to much mind a pipe smoker although there never were many of them around. I don’t think my family did me a disservice, on the contrary I think it gave me a healthy respect for moderation. As I got older, I started to get a little suspicious of the anti-smoking movement for various reasons. A couple years ago I got very interested in pipes (one of my favorite bands in High School - a Christian band called The Newsboys has a guitar player named Jody Davis, the one who lives in AZ and makes REALLY beautiful pipes) and started doing some research. Long story short, I dived headlong into pipes and pipe tobacco.

I joined an online smoking community called My Pipes Community and met a lot of really great people there. One fellow in particular, Bob Coffey. Somewhat of an informal mentor, and a really great guy who also happens to have developed several blends of his own pipe tobacco. Shortly after I started smoking a pipe I received a sample of Captain Bob’s Blend. Being a noob, the stuff was WAY out of my league but I could tell it was a high quality tobacco.

Over the course of the next year and a half I tried all kinds of pipe tobacco. My sense of smell and sense of taste are very acute and I tend to gravitate towards fuller flavors (very dark red wine, Guinness, well seasoned steak, maduro wrap cigars, English type tobaccos, etc…) and I gained an appreciation for very high quality, mostly non-aromatic pipe tobacco.

When the opportunity to really sit down and write a review on a bowl of Captain Bob’s Blend, well, I jumped as quick as I could. I remember gaining a deep appreciation for it but beyond a few memories couldn’t really tell you all that much. So here is my in depth review on Captain Bob’s Blend, by Cornell & Diehl.

In preparation, I sat down with the list of ingredients. Tobacco: Red Virginia, Flu cured Kentucky Green River Burley, Carolina Virginia Brights, Ismir Turkish, Perique and Latakia. The topping (sauce) consists of grape, vanilla, orange, caramel, black walnut and maple. The pipe I chose to use was my Peterson Silver Cap straight billiard.

The first thing I did was take a whiff of the jar, since smell and taste are so closely related. A lot of the reviews I have read on this blend concentrate on the grape scent/flavor. That is the predominant smell, but the first thing that hit me was the citrus. A nice little tang. The citrus and grape were tempered very well by vanilla. The blend is great to look at, it is very colorful. Each type of tobacco has its own shade and in some ways reminded me a little bit of a Picasso cubist-style painting. Unlike most topped tobaccos, this blend was not in the least goopy. It packed very easily.

The beginning of the bowl brought about some typical Virginia characteristics. Light, sweet but no tongue bite. It had another dimension, enhanced no doubt by the Turkish tobaccos. A very well rounded smoke for a light flavor, and the topping in no way overwhelmed the taste of the tobacco. I appreciated this aspect very much. As far as the aromatic properties are concerned, the grape and vanilla really complimented each other. Vanilla can be very bland by itself and grape can be just a bit “vertical” (for lack of a better description) in flavor. The orange seemed to stand alone while the other three combined to fill out the blend. The result is a very round scent - ball shaped if you will.

Room note is predominantly grape, enhanced of course by vanilla and maple.

I didn’t have to re-light until I was well into the mid bowl. That was kind of nice as seeing the humidity level was about 2000% here in Southern Indiana. The burley starts to make itself known in the taste and nicotine content. Burley can be a bit thick for me sometimes but this was just enough to give the Virginia some balls, for lack of a better term. The English character started to make itself known but not in a typical, tangy Latakia sort of way. It gradually came into the room, unobtrusive and unannounced and *very* sophisticated. It started to make me wonder what the unsauced blend tastes like!

At this point it was apparent, this tobacco would most certainly be a crowd pleaser when walking on the river front. At the same time it will satisfy a pallet that needs a fuller, more complex flavor. I would also compare some of the flavor and aromatic properties to Autumn Evening (also by C&D) but not overwhelming in the maple and burley department. AE was a bit much for me.

Later in the bowl, the English tobaccos had made themselves very well known but again not in a moldy socks sort of way. The taste broadened in a way I’ve not experienced with pipe tobacco (some fine cigars perhaps) and at this point my analytical efforts took a hike. I sat back with my pipe and my beer and thought to myself “now THAT is what a well rounded, multi-faceted pipe tobacco SHOULD taste like!” Every puff made me forget what I was out there to do.

I should add at this point that cleanup is a breeze. No gooey dottle left to scrape out as with many aromatics.

Conclusion, this is a MAN’S aromatic tobacco. A lot of effort and a lot of thought went in to creating this blend. It is almost four dimensional.