Cornell & Diehl Blockade Runner is a true Navy Cavendish crumble cake — hand-stoved Red and Golden Virginias soaked in premium rum for seven days, lightly stoved again, then pressed and cut.
Blockade Runner is one of the oldest and best-loved blends in the C&D catalog, and it earns its name twice over. The seven-day rum soak references the time Civil War–era seagoing forefathers took to sail back to New England from the Caribbean with casks of tobacco steeping in rum. The ship on the label is the Advance — the South's most successful blockade runner during the war. It's also the base blend that Cornell & Diehl layers Latakia and Turkish into to produce Black Frigate; this is where that recipe starts, standing alone and uncomplicated.
Blend Information
- Blend Family: Virginia · Navy Cavendish
- Components: Hand-stoved Red Virginia · Hand-stoved Golden Virginia
- Flavoring: Real rum (Virginias soaked for seven days, then lightly stoved again)
- Cut: Crumble Cake
- Body / Strength: Mild to Medium
- Room Note: Pleasant
- Country of Origin: United States (Morganton, NC)
- Format: 2 oz tin
Tasting Profile: Rum arrives first — the tin pop opens with a warm, sweet rum aroma that announces exactly what's coming. On the burn, the rum settles into a soft undercurrent while the hand-stoved Virginias take over: natural sweetness, bread-like Red Virginia body, with Golden Virginia bringing lift and a cleaner citrus edge. The crumble cake format and the stoving process keep the burn slow and the ash clean. More Virginia-forward in the smoke than the tin aroma suggests; the rum lives in the finish.
A benchmark Navy Cavendish and the base blend behind Black Frigate. Pair with coffee or, in character, a glass of dark aged rum.
