Tobaccos Cornell & Diehl - Golden Ash

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	JimInks (3048)	2016-06-20		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

The burleys are very nutty, toasty, and earthy with a light molasses note. They are the star component. In a support role, the gold Virginia is mildly grassy with a little citrus and spice, less than what one usually expects from that varietal. The smokey, woody Cyprian latakia is a back ground presence with a little less sweetness than is the norm. The nic-hit is mild to medium. Won’t bite, but there are a couple rough edges here and there from the burley. Burns well, is fairly cool with minimal sweetness and a very consistent flavor. Easily burns to ash and leaves virtually no moisture in the bowl. Requires few relights. Has a decent nutty, smokey after taste. Though I rated it as mild to medium, I would not consider this a routine all day smoke.

-JimInks

14 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Demetri (113)	2014-08-07		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

I see some here find this similar to Morley's Best, but I however do not. To me it is a lighter blend perhaps reflecting a different Virginia flake and a lot less Latakia. The Latakia is present but in so small an amount that in a blind test I might not pick it out at first. In MB it is up front. Golden Ash is an old blend the recipe for which was purchased by C&D. I assume it is the execution of the recipe which makes this blend such a long lived survivor of the corporate ax which mergers can bring on. It is incredibly smooth with the burleys being a lighter selection than what is in Morley's Best. The Virginias provide a subtle sweetness but nothing overwhelming in that department. The Latakia is barely a seasoning, appreciated but truly in condiment quantity. With all that said, I have a hard time classifying this as an "English" - Latakia and Virginias notwithstanding. It is a refined burley blend and very tasty. No need to stoke this for more flavor, Golden Ash qualifies in my world as an everyday , even all day, smoke. That coming from a confirmed Engine 99 smoker might say something as well. As far as nicotine goes, Morley's Best packs a huge punch, this does not. It's potency is just perfect for me. Of course I like Engine 99 which despite its very full flavor is medium at best, or less, in nicotine. I smoked this at first, 5 or 6 bowls, in a cob. It seemed at best a 3 star blend. But when I loaded it into my briars it showed itself much better.

Unlike Morely's Best which for me leaves a strong, long lasting aftertaste, this leaves a very pleasant and short taste - a "short finish" in cigar jargon. I do like it and see no reason not to keep some around here. One gets tinned blend quality for bulk pricing.

Pipe Used: Kaywoodies, corncobs

Age When Smoked: New production

Purchased From: smokingpipes.com

10 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Gentleman Zombie (729)	2015-03-15		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

The Burley is nutty and sweet. The Virginia flake adds to the sweetness and provides a little spice. The Latakia adds a mild amount of smokiness and adds to the spice of the Virginia. So here we have the Burley and Virginia combining their sweetness, the Virginia and Latakia combining their spiciness. That's a fine example of components complimenting each other. This is a fine blend that I can highly recommend.

Mild to medium in body and flavor. Burns well and cool. Came a little dry, but that's the way I like it.

Pipe Used: MM Country Gentleman, MM Mark Twain

Age When Smoked: fresh bulk

Purchased From: smokingpipes.com

7 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	incendio (45)	2017-10-10		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Tolerable

It seems to me that Cornell & Diehl have quite a number of blends containing Burley. My guess is that they buy huge quantities of it and use it as filler for the incredible variety of blends that they market. A tin full of Burley, a dash of this, a pinch of that, and it becomes something "unique" to be sold in behind an attractive label.

I've bought several of Cornell & Diehl's Burley blends, and in particular this one, expecting that the accolades they garnered would show me the quintessence of what can be achieved with Burley.

Nope. I tried and tried and tried. I smoked most of them to the bitter end. I was browsing around for something new to try and I noticed, to my surprise, that I hadn't rated this one! I was sure I had! The aroma was interesting, and suggested it would be a complex, tasty blend. What I got was mostly cheap cigar filler--a rough, dry Burley that tasted like ground-up drugstore cigars.

The Virginia and Latakia? There is a suggestion of them in the aroma of the unburnt tobacco. A suggestion, mind you. And I think I see them. There was nothing subtle, refined, flavorful, distinctive or pleasant about this blend. Moderately seasoned sawdust.

I had to convince myself that there was something redeeming about the blend the entire time I smoked it. I have no idea how it garnered such high ratings from other reviewers. After smoking this, and the other purchases I made, I am very suspicious of anything from Cornell & Diehl that has Burley in it.

Maybe I got a bad batch. Or bad batches. Or maybe Cornell & Diehl are pulling the wool over your eyes with this "1001 flavors of Burley" scam.

5 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	AC (19)	2017-07-12		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant

This is a great and classic smoke. In my quest of trying to find new (bulk) "companions" for my favorite C&D Burley Flake #1 & #4, I came across C&D's Golden Ash. It has a similar profile, save the fact that the sweetness of Flake #4 is somewhat attenuated in Golden Ash. Still, it is flavorful, complex, and often surprising. I find it smokes particularly well in the greater sized bowls, which I prefer anyway. Highly recommended!

Pipe Used: Custombilt

Purchased From: smokingpipes.com

5 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	SteelCowboy (685)	2016-03-30		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

Golden Ash is a light American English that smells in the pouch mainly of Burley and Virginia. In the pipe, the Latakia is present, but it is only condimental. My complaint with many C&D blends is the roughness of some of their Virginias and the desire to use Burley in so many of their English blends. In this case, the Virginias were smooth, and the Burley added some nutty and earthy quality to the blend. There is no bite and it burns cool. The Burley doesn’t turn bitter in the later stages of the bowl either. As mentioned, the Latakia is lightly used, but it is noticeable. I smoked a total of one ounce of this and didn’t see any Virginia flake in mine, although it could have been ground down. All in all, a decent blend for fans of lighter, American style English blends.

5 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Pipestud (1829)	2015-03-21		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

Certainly an American English, Golden Ash is aptly named as the appearance is that of golden crushed ash as the cube burley is about as fine a cube cut as I have found. In fact, I do not recommend this blend in pipes with open air chambers as the leaf can get sucked up into the shank and stem right along with the smoke. Similar in taste to the old HOW Barking Dog, but with a little more Latakia flavor and less bitter.

5 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	OhioTony76 (59)	2019-01-14		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

This one is starting to grow on me. I remember the very first time I smoked it. I was on my way home from work. I was tired, hungry and a bit under the weather. This tobacco knocked me on my butt. I’ve smoked many bowls since, and that never happened again. It’s actually medium strength at best. Quite perfect in the nicotine department. This definitely falls into the C&D burley based genre by taste. Although it’s an English by definition. Typical Virginia and burley tobacco characteristics. The difference with this one though is that the Latakia smooths out all the rough edges. For a hand blended tobacco, it melds incredibly. I definitely can’t single out the cavendish. The Latakia is almost undetectable on its own also, but my experience helps me recognize the roll it plays bringing everything together. This could be a great smoke on a cold January night, or great on a dog day August afternoon. Behaves well. Puts out lots of smoke and the cut is perfection. Highly recommended if you enjoy other C&D burley blends. UPDATE; I now DO detect the cavendish at certain points while smoking Golden Ash. It’s a very enjoyable toasty nutty flavor. Not sweet or goopy, and adds some nice body to the blend.

4 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	StevieB (2081)	2018-10-10		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

Cornell & Diehl - Golden Ash.

A pleasant enough smoke, just a little boring.

The Burley holds a firm first place, with the Virginia and Cavendish supporting. I get the least flavour from the Latakia, a touch of woodiness but not Lat Bomb smokiness. It burns very well, necessitating little maintenance, delivering a medium temperature, bite free, smoke.

Nicotine: mild to medium. Room-note: pleasant enough.

Golden Ash? It's okay, but can't have any higher than two stars:

Somewhat recommended.

Pipe Used: Peterson Spigot XL02

Age When Smoked: New

Purchased From: Smokingpipes.com

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	aadelma (67)	2014-01-25		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium	Tolerable

I am fortunate enough to have a B&M near me who stocks few aromatics and lots of english and natural blends. I had never heard of this blend before, but since it is a C&D burley blend, I thought it was worth trying, and I'm glad I did. It's a very pleasant old style American burley/Va with some latakia. It's a bit of a cameleon in that it's taste varies from pipe to pipe, but this keeps it interesting. The main player is burley with the Va and Latakia in the background, though with some pipes the Va and Latakia are much more prominent. I like the fine cut which I can just gravity feed and it's ready to smoke. It burns very easily and is great to puff on when reading or otherwise engaged. It is not a knock your socks off blend, but a pleasant and reliable companion. I like it enough to have 1/2 pound around. Fittingly enough, this American style blend smokes best in my American made Edward's pipes. C&D says it is an old Amar blend, so it has probably been around for around 50 years and has withstood the test of time. If you like the Ronkowski blends such as Haunted Book Shop and Morley's Best, you will probably like this.

Similar Blends: Cornell & Diehl - 101: Morley's Best.

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Group 4 (8)	2007-11-20		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

After many years of latakia-indulgence I've retreated to the world of burlys and vapers. But every once in a while I miss that unmistakable smokey-steak taste and smell. Golden Ash has been my recent ticket back to Latakia-ville. This is truly a blend where the latakia is used sparingly. You can smell it in the bag but it sits quietly in the back row while you smoke it. Here the Virginnias and burleys are well-balanced and dominate. This is a wonderful overall medium tobacco which requires no special considerations, smokes cleanly and dryly, and most importantly, tastes really good.

UPDATE 6/13/20

Recently have been smoking a bit of this again and I still find it a really pleasant smoke, and is a nice little departure from my daily, Big 'n Burley. This would make a wonderful daily smoke. Something about the old Amarr blends Craig Tarler acquired when he began C&D.

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Jorge Soler (203)	2021-07-30		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Tolerable

Cornell & Diehl has a rather solid line-up of tobaccos with burley, orientals, perique, and just a dash of latakia, and this particular blend falls quite nicely into this category. In this case, no perique or orientals are to be found in the formula, but the spirit is the same. The burley leaf adds a roast and meaty dimension, the virginia brings zesty and sweet notes, and the latakia a slightly spicy note that will leave you wondering. I had a few bowls so far, and it seems to evolve quite nicely as well, which is to be expected all things considered. It seems to perform best when used in a corncob pipe, but it likes briars as well. I cannot complain because no perique or orientals are added as CD has other blends at hand that contain this leaf, so this tobacco should be taken for what it is. The good thing about these components is how you can tweak them, adding and subtracting as you like. In its simplicity, I am finding this blend quite rewarding for a medium blend. The room note is a bit off, but I personally do not mind because what really matters is the smoking experience. I cannot detect any tongue bite and it can be smoked all day. My only complaint is I cannot find any comparable advantage to choose it over other similar blends, so 3 stars and a half.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	TallPuffO'Burley (633)	2012-02-20		Medium	None Detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

This is my first review, so I thought it only appropriate to start with a glowing review of my current favortie tobacco. I have only been smoking a pipe for about five months so far and have yet to attain the expertise as many of my forebearers here, but I must give thanks to all of you. For if it wasn't for this site and the many insightful reviews and accompanying gems about technique, I would have abandoned this hobby within the first few months of burning money on garbage tobaccos and pipes.

My adventure in pipe smoking started with the local B & Ms of which, in my area, are nothing but roll your own and cigar pleasers with but a smattering of lousy tobacco for pipe smokers. This coupled with blank looks when I would ask about pipe smoking led me to the internet. Knowing really nothing upon entering TR, I merely clicked on 4 star ratings read the reviews on this one, All 4 Stars, and just called up C & D and ordered a pound.

The folks at C & D are great, as has been repeatedly mentioned on this site. As I told them this was my first order with them, they welcomed me to the family and included 2 complimentary samples of which I will leave for their respective reviews later.

My first puff of GA was heavenly. At this point I had read several reviews and realized, with my little experience, I should wait to review. I have now tried several other tobaccos and I find myself continually going back to this as a kind of comfort.

This tobacco was also my first experience with Latakia and I find I love it although blends with too much I find hard to pallet more than a bowl a day.

I should probably end this review now as I have likely already made you read more than you intended, but I must say that if you are looking for a transition from sweet tobaccos, I highly recommend this pure unadulterated tobacco bliss, but puff slowly or you will fail to appreciate its glory. Yes, this mantra has served me well with all tobaccos I have smoked.

8/26/14 EDIT

Well 2 1/2 years have passed since I reviewed this one and what changes have happened over that time. Tobacco Reviews has a much different (and Improved IMO) appearance and you can no longer call C & D up and talk to the owners as the owners are now in partnership with SmokingPipes (probably another improvement for C & D, but certainly less homey.)

With the latter change, many of their blends have fallen the way of the dodo bird and no longer exist. This one, fortunately, has survived the cut. It is no longer my favorite blend, but I still do enjoy it from time to time. My tastes now favor more the Perique laden blends and I still enjoy a lat blend from time to time.

I am removing a star from this one, but will leave it at three stars and recommend the blend for those who want to try something a little different in a burley. So with that three stars and If you want an example of something different in a burley that I would consider a four star, try John Patton's Storm Front.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	SmokeKing David (134)	2010-02-01		Mild	Very Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

This is a nice, natural blend with a small amount of Latakia. I had recently stayed away from burley blends, but now enjoy a few. This is one of those few.

The burleys used are so well chosen and blended. They provide an underlying sweetness that is, to me, different from the sweetness of a Virginia-dominated blend. There is some golden VA in this mix, and it adds to the experience...sort of like supporting the burley base and giving it a different dimension.

I got this directly from C & D. It is one of their bulk blends. Initially unimpressive, I thought that burley just shouldn't be in any type of English blend. But Golden Ash emerged from a 6 month nap in a mason jar as an interesting tobacco. It has put burley-Englishes back on the map for me. When I want a lighter latakia-influenced blend, I tend to smoke Golden Ash.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30194)	2006-07-30		Mild to Medium	Medium	Medium	Pleasant

This is an exellent tobacco. I can't believe no one's reviewed it yet. The balance of burley and virginia is perfect, and the latakia is present without being overpowering in any way. This is just so much better to me than regular English blends. I hope others will try it, it has my highest recomendation.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	doc pipes (110)	2022-04-10		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Medium	Tolerable

Golden Ash is an American style English that I would recommend to lovers of burley and mild to medium English blends.

This mix of ribbon and cube cut is something of a sleeper that gets little fanfare despite its place as one of the oldest blends C&D produces. Pre C&D in fact. There is a nice sweet/smoky barbecue pouch note. The tobacco comes fairly dry, and indeed burns clean, dry, and easily. Quite notably, very few relights were needed with this blend.

Golden Ash yields a clean, natural tobacco experience/taste. The burleys are earthy and nutty. While this is a burley dominated blend, the Latakia asserts itself. It appears to contain 3-5% Latakia, and while this seems like a truly condimental amount, the smoke tastes as if it contained double the amount. I cannot say that I noticed the VA much, per my experience it was nearly undetectable. This reminded me of a much milder take on C&D’s big n burley. Having sampled morleys best recently, I can also say that GA and MB have quite a bit in common.

This is another one of those blends that could be a burleyphile’s EMP equivalent. While there is much less Lat, and no oriental to speak of, this fills the same sort of “first pipe of the day with black coffee” role.

Pipe Used: Numerous briars

Age When Smoked: Fresh bulk

Purchased From: SP

Similar Blends: In the brotherhood of C&D blended bulk VaBurLats, this would be the littlest brother. Big n burley>Morleys best>GA.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Ivanhoe (36)	2010-02-02		Mild to Medium	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable

I love burley blends, and many of my favorites are from Cornell and Diehl. I find Golden Ash to be a very light, pleasant experience. Perhaps, the lightest of the C&D burley blends I have tried. I find it very nice for a change.

And, it burns smooth and dry all the way to the bottom of the bowl. I think I'll go have a bowl of it now...

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30194)	2008-04-01		Mild	None Detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

The balance of latakia in this blend is spot-on. It doesn't cover up the burley, but is definitely present in every puff. This tobacco seems to be stairstep down from C&D #106 (Epiphany) in terms of latakia content.

Interestingly, it seems to burn--not hot--but very fast.

Very well balanced, burns well, doesn't bite. The taste reminds me a bit of Dunhill My Mixture 965. Still probably not quite an everyday smoke for me, though it probably could be for many.

Four stars.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	DrHoo (20)	2022-08-29		Mild	None Detected	Mild	Pleasant to Tolerable

I mostly smoke straight VA flakes and ready rubbed. But occasionally, I get an urge to dip into the burleys that I started with because they were cheap and readily available when I first started smoking a pipe 40 years ago. Golden Ash is my go to on these occasions. It's stood the test of time with quality burleys, a hint of latakia (The latakia comes though a bit more strongly for me than it probably would for would for someone who regularly smokes latakia blends.) and enough VA to keep it from overwhelming my aging constitution with nicotine. Sometimes I mix it 2/1 with Sir Walter Raleigh to get the FGE (full granddad experience.)

Pipe Used: Mostly medium sized old briars

Age When Smoked: Fresh to a few months old

Purchased From: smokingpipes.com

Similar Blends: C&D Virginia Gentleman, Pegasus; STG Half & Half.

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