 This week’s excursion brings us to what I consider another excellent summer pipe-smoking mixture…Cornell & Diehl’s Briar Fox. Billed as a private blend for Peter Heeschen (a rather famous Danish pipemaker), the blend’s constituent tobaccos are basic Virginia and Burley, which makes it what we pipe nerds call a VaBer.
It’s one of C&D’s best selling tinned tobaccos, and with good reason: it’s delicious. It is tinned à la Krumble Kake, so the piper will discover a solid block of tobacco upon opening the tin. This is easily processed into a smokable product by simply pinching off a piece and rubbing it between your palms.
The tin note is subtle: some hay notes from the Virginia, with perhaps a slight casing note. (Casing is any substance – even water – sprayed upon tobacco to facilitate pressing into flakes or cakes; this may impart a bit of flavor to the smoke.) Because C&D does not add any humectant (a moistening agent) to their blends, this is ready to smoke and it takes the light very well.
Flavor notes during the progression of the bowl will offer up sweet, grassy notes from the Virginias intertwined with a nutty/buttery cream from the Burley which at times will deliver noticeable chocolate or cocoa notes. This is an excellent all-day blend or even a great out-of-doors blend to enjoy while cutting the grass or just watching the white puffy clouds roll by.
An old standby to be sure, Briar Fox earns 4½ pipes (and I’m docking a half-point only because it’s not available in bulk). Puff On!
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