McClelland Blending Oriental

Mostly walnut-brown in color and a ribbon cut. Musty smell of old gym lockers in the tin. Good blending tobacco, for sure, but in order to know what it brings to a blend, it needs to be smoked straight.

Not a ton of flavor, which is to be expected. I doubt even the Turks or Greeks smoke oriental tobacco straight, but what do I know. Definitely a spicy earthiness to this, but I detected almost no sweetness. The Grand Oriental series has predominately Virginia, which makes up for the sweetness this stuff lacks. Room aroma is very pleasant - sort of a soft incense, just the thing to take the smell of a cigar out of a room without a heavy masking.

As a blender, this shines. I use this mostly for Virginias with perique, where it lends a light spice and tones down the perique. But it's also fun to mix it with a straight burley, such as C&D's Burley Straight, where it adds some nice complexity and spice to the monodimensional but great tasting burley. No blending table should be without this stuff, even though I agree with a previous reviewer in that it would be nice if we knew which orientals we were blending!

This is indeed a nice blending tobacco and I had a lot of fun (but, little success) in trying to improve other blends with the addition of this stuff. Betty Crocker I am not.

Upon popping the tin, I was in heaven. This is really what Oriental leaf of top quality should smell like. Deep, exotic, musty and rich, I could not wait to try it by itself just for fun. It had a lot of sweet spice and a very cool presentation. Sweeten any pot with this one!

A bit musty, some spice and woody notes, with a little earthiness and a hint of sweetness. I smoked a small bowl of it, and was not impressed, though of course, it wasn't designed to be smoked straight. As a mixer, I found it didn't perform as well as I expected, as it left me wanting more strength from it. It's good enough to use.

-JimInks

Good for blending, sandalwood+cinamon tones. A must for oriental lovers (Nikolas/Greece)

Update: I've been so taken with the Grand Orientals from this company, I forgot how much I enjoyed just the pure stuff. What surprised me is how much it resembled the Yenice Agonya blend, the main difference being higher sweetness in the latter.

From the description on my 2003 tin, it seems this product is subject to variability in content: no specific types of leaf nor percentages are defined, just generic 'oriental'. I do wish McClelland would be more specific. Better yet, make each component available in bulk.

I still enjoy it for what it is and how I use it. If cigarettes had been made of this, I wonder if smoking would have ever been banned from public places. Non-smokers seem to like the smell as much as me.



(From 2005) Yeah, I blend it too. I adore the aroma of this mixture of Greek and Turkish leaves so much, it doesn't always make it to a blend. Woody and sweet-spicy, though thin on flavor, it is my favorite incense. Nicotine seems non-existent.

I bought this to make english blends free of latakia and perique. Sweet virginias like MacBarens No. 1 and Marlin Flake go well with this. With burleys, I get an improved Amphora.

My tins don't have the stink others report. Mine have only a mild dried fruit smell.

THIS IS GREAT STUFF!! Staight oriental tobaccos for bending. Pure ambrosia for anyone who loves orientals. Large elongated rough cut peices with an incredible semi-sweet fragrance, light sweet taste, with a touch of earthiness in the tin aroma and smoke. "...And what is oriental tobacco's fragrance like, one may ask?" Well, like stinky socks and/or mildew. Why would one endeavor to suffer though such a noxious trial? Some people are connoisseurs of ripe stinky cheeses that smell like a septic wound so I think it has to do with context. An excellent blender or try smoking it by itself for a naturally aromatic rich aroma and mild strength smoke. You could even blend this in a lightly cased and dry burley base tobacco. Prince Albert smokers should give that a try. Thanks McClelland for offering this to the over the shelf market.

-Highly Recommended!

P.S. Orientals are in the sun cured class of tobaccos and not flue.

Ribbon cut containing at least three types of sun cured leaf, one bright, one brown and another being darker. Tin note is subtle, woody and sweet, all natural. I smoked this straight and I have to say I am very impressed! It is a very smooth tobacco, of mild strength and nicotine but it's also incredibly flavorful and naturally aromatic. I think I can discern the basma component (if there is one) which gives its characteristic earthy/curry flavor. I can also detect white pepper as far as pungent spices are concerned but there is a load of sweet spice as well, like cinnamon and clove and even a note of sandalwood. Present is also a creamy, buttery, vanilla like aroma - maybe a light casing? Also at times I sensed dried fruit like peach. The tobacco is not very humid but even with a loose packing it needs a few relightings. Smokes nicely and dry to the end with no bite at all. I enjoyed it so much straight that I want to savour it alone. Excellent combination of a light strength/weight tobacco with an intense natural aroma and flavor, smooth texture and a subtle sweetness. Of course it can add spice and flavor to blends and can also reduce the strength of heavier tobaccos but it is heavenly on it own as well.

Update a month later: smoked straight I realised it does not stay lit easily, so much so that I find this a reason to downgrade it to three stars. However if you puff hard making plumes of smoke the aroma is heavenly - dry and cigaretty I admit, but the best imaginable - but still it's not an easy tobacco to smoke due to mechanics. Moreover such kind of smoking is not relaxing even if it has no bite. Lastly, although I wish at McClelland's they put even more emphasis on the Oriental leafs in their Grand Orientals series, I have to admit that overall these blends are more balanced than the straight Oriental for Blending. Yes, this one begs for some Virginia sweetness. But what a divine aroma it has!!

Great blending tobacco! Adds a little bit of smokey sweetness to whatever you add it to. Wouldnt recommend smoking it straight though.

Tin: Standard appearance of brown and black ribbon. Rich and pleasant, sweet, buttery incense aroma, a sweet, soft fragrance. The bag(in bulk) had a fine perfumy clove-sandalwood scent. Exceptionally sticky stuff, the resin had to be washed off my fingers.

Taste: None; exceptionally smooth, arguably the smoothest tobacco I have ever smoked.

Aroma: Bland, light sandalwood; the bowl was left cool to the touch

Overall: I was anxious to try MBO because I have been sampling pure blending tobaccos in order to gain an ability to discern the qualities of blended tobaccos. This pure oriental does not produce the expected profusion of taste or aroma. It produces a rather light sandalwood aroma that would be difficult to detect in most any blend. In other words, the pouch aroma was not matched by the smoking qualities.

This tobacco educates me to think of MBO as nothing but filler to soften up heavy tobaccos with a light sandalwood element.

McConnell's Oriental is better, having more definitively oriental qualities, but is only partially oriental, having VA blended in. To put it more succinctly, McClelland's pure oriental has lightweight oriental qualities, compared to an oriental blend that is not even 100% oriental.

3.4 stars for easy and soft smokability. 2 stars for the oriental attributes, in that it's 100% oriental designed for blending

Just finished a bowl of this mixed 50/50 with P&C's black stoved Va. Phenomenal from start to finish - I put it in a big (Gr 6) meer & it started off creamy, tart, & floral, changed over to sweet & tart, lightly acidic in a pleasant way, finishing cool and creamy-sweet to the ash at the end. As a blender, highly recommended.