McClelland Honeydew

(2.88)
The sweet fragrant Honeydew was all gone by the time Susan Cushing offered the container to Sherlock Holmes, but he was undoubtedly familiar with this fine Irish flake's gratifying flavor, its pleasing aroma and gentleness on the palate. A subtly sweet, fragrant flake tobacco in the Irish tradition.

Details

Brand McClelland
Series 221b Series
Blended By McClelland Tobacco Company
Manufactured By McClelland Tobacco Company
Blend Type Aromatic
Contents Virginia
Flavoring
Cut Flake
Packaging 50 grams tin
Country United States
Production No longer in production

Profile

Strength
Mild to Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild -> Overwhelming
Flavoring
Mild
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
None Detected -> Extra Strong
Room Note
Pleasant
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unnoticeable -> Overwhelming
Taste
Mild to Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild (Flat) -> Overwhelming

Average Rating

2.88 / 4
20

27

14

7

Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 10 of 68 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jul 06, 2016 Mild Mild Mild Pleasant
McClelland’s familiar “vinegar” note that you smell barely translates into the taste, and vanishes fairly quickly. The Virginias offer some hay/grass and a bit of citrus, slight earthiness, and a little dark and lighter fruits. I notice a consistent mild floral vegetativeness from one of the lighter Virginias. The toppings are hard to define, but among them is a light molasses and fruit. The nic-hit is mild. Won’t bite, and has no dull or harsh spots. A little moist out of the tin, but needs no dry time. Burns at a reasonable pace, cool and clean with mostly smooth consistent flavor, though it does lose just a touch of sweetness toward the finish. Requires an average number of relights for a broken flake, and leaves very little moisture in the bowl. Has a pleasant after taste. An easy going all day, mostly uncomplicated smoke that won’t bore you.

-JimInks
9 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 20, 2014 Mild to Medium Mild Mild Pleasant
A dark-golden broken flake, on the thicker side, with a fragrant tin nose that goes beyond straight Virginia. I found it pleasant smelling but I miss that tangy fermented Va aroma when it's awol from McClellands tins. This came wet and had to be dried out, as do most Virginia flakes. I dried this one to just a few degrees short of crispy for maximum flavor.

In the bowl, this was a fairly mild bright VA with a distinctive top dressing. Much more fragrant in the room than on the tastebuds, this is more of a scented flake than an aromatic. I couldn't place the scent or the taste, and honeydew melon doesn't fit. I'm also not entirely sure what makes this an "Irish" flake. But no matter, this was a mellow, tangy and lightly sweetened mix that required a lot of snorking to get the most from it. It was a bit light for my tastebuds, but it was a refreshing kind of smoke - nice palate cleanser. Reminded me of a toned-down #2000 but this didn't have that one's tendency to bite when enduring anything other than slow sipping. In fact, this one would tolerate a fair bit of puffing without getting too cranky. Nice, easygoing flake with a light flavor. No complexity to speak of, but nice for those times you're too busy to take much notice of what you're smoking and just want a mellow flavor. Not destined for my rotation, but still recommended.
Pipe Used: meerschaum and morta
Age When Smoked: 4 yearts
7 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
May 16, 2007 Mild to Medium Mild Mild to Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
A pleasant and simple blend. It is not a biting blend. Honeydew's downfall maybe the simple nature, but in the right context it is a great tobacco. It is nice to sit back and smoke slowly without worrying about complexity.

Roomnote: It is not an extreme aromatic. No one will stay in the area of the smoke to get a whiff. But it is tolerated by most, who will tolerate smoke.

Mouthfeel: It is a moderate smoke. It can get warm. But I feel it bites less than Glengarry flake.

Taste: Sweetness, it does not have the tang of darker Virginias. If the darker flavors are desired, Honeydew probably will not statisfy.

This is an everyday tobacco. I go through a rotation of many varieties of tobacco, from latakia to pure Va. Honeydew is consumed daily.
5 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jan 10, 2015 Mild Mild Mild to Medium Pleasant
I'm on my second bowl of the Honeydew. My first bowl was consumed a little quickly, and I didn't get to taste it as much and it started to bite toward the end. Today I'm relaxed, sitting in my library enjoying Honeydew with a mug of black English tea. Also, I bothered to do a decent pack and light today, which helps tremendously. So that's the first part of my review, this light tobacco wants to be taken slowly. Flavor disappears when smoked fast.

The prep: rubbed out bits of the flake and smelled the tobacco before packing. Mild, but it held a definite cream and honey scent.

The pack: three pinches, packed light, medium and firm. Checked the draw before lighting. Might have over-packed a bit and the draw wasn't wide open but better than when I'm rushing and just shove it tight.

The light: lots of expansion on the false light. Since I had piled it high, had to tamp and settle it back into place before the true light, which expanded more. This left a nice fluffy medium gray ash, which became speckled with light grey as I continued to smoke.

Taste: mild but notably sweet. I like sweet and haven't found many (yet) that remain consistent through the whole bowl, but this one seems to be doing the trick for me (relative to a consistent pace, that is).

Nose: Smelling exhaled smoke was mainly spicy, but still mild. Though most tobaccos do that to me, so I don't know whether it's specific to my selections or just how my nose reacts to smoke.

Room Note: Also mildly sweet. Pleasant.

Seems a reliable choice for those who enjoy a sweet selection with a consistent experience.
Pipe Used: Peterson Suir (River Collection)
PurchasedFrom: Smoker's Choice of Bloomington, IL
Age When Smoked: New
4 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jul 12, 2004 Mild to Medium Mild Mild Pleasant
A friend of mine had asked me to pick him a tin of this blend my next trip into Boston to see my tobacconist, L.J.'s. Needless to say, upon giving him the tin he insisted on my taking some to sample.

Well, now I find myself having to plan a trip into Boston again this week.

After several months of being on a "Gawith Binge", this blend was a totally unexpected wonderful change of pace.

Much like the Gawith blends, the flavoring in this blend accentuates the high quality tobacco and never overpowers them.

Unlike Gawith, the mildness of this blend is refreshing and a nicotine "zoning-out" does not occur, which I find is often the case with the Gawith's.

This is a gentle, kind, blend with a consistent taste down the run of the bowl. A pleasant, slight sweetness that resounds through the experience and left this smoker wanting more, (hence the road-trip tomorrow, lol).

I pack the blend unbroken and rub out just a little to top it off, to assist in lighting. One false-light, a tamp, relight, and I am off to some quality downtime.

A very nice experience, recommended.
4 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Sep 06, 2017 Mild to Medium Mild to Medium Mild to Medium Very Pleasant
McClelland - Honeydew (221b Series).

The cut's a broken flake, over half of the tin is exceedingly well broken. The tin note's perplexing, as many reviewers mention, it has the ketchup note found in McClelland blends, whereas the smoke doesn't. The moisture's good for immediate smoking.

The smoke has just the right amount of sweetness to it for it to qualify as being a steadfast aromatic. The sweetness isn't heavy, but kind of 'sharp', if that makes sense? The Virginia's give a rich fruity note, without being very caustic, and can seem slightly tart at times. The burn from Honeydew's good, producing a cool smoke, without any bite.

Nicotine: quite mild. Room-note: very pleasant.

A top quality smoke. Highly recommended:

Four stars.
Pipe Used: Freehand
PurchasedFrom: Smokingpipes.com
Age When Smoked: One month
3 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Nov 25, 2015 Mild Mild Mild Pleasant to Tolerable
This tobacco meets my specs of a mild, sweet, easy-to-puff, uncomplicated Virginia. In spite of its simplicity though, different delightful flavours emanate from the bowl as one smokes along; and they remain consistent through to the end.

It is labelled an Aromatic here though it's connection to being one is only in its sweetness, not even in its fragrance because it has the usual McClelland ketchupy aroma. Even so, I don't detect much flavouring which means little was used to enhance the Virginias though I can't tell what it is with precision.

My tin is newly purchased but has a stamp underneath that reads 230412. Not sure if it means it dates back to 2012. If so, that may have enhanced its taste. If new, no matter - same result: a pleasurable smoke.

It is no less than a three and half star.

Pipe Used: Old Bruyere Garantie and vintage Angelo Real Briar
Age When Smoked: New
3 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 18, 2012 Medium Very Mild Mild to Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
Nice broken flake that is easy to work with. Tin note is standard ketchupy McClelland tin scent. I do taste this in the first few puffs, but do not find it unpleasant. A pretty mild smoke. Not quite as sweet as I was both expecting or prefer, but a nice taste all the same.

As to the room note I am a horrble judge of this as I either smoke in the garage or outside. My wife says this smells like S*&T, but this should not concern anyone because she says that about all of them. lol A friend of mine in the passenger side of the truck asked if I was smoking a cherry flavored tobacco. I took this as meaning it smelled good. Of course, I did not taste anything of the sort.

I find this blend to be more gentle on the tongue than most VAs and this, I find, to be a major plus. Can't say anything bad about the blend, but I do prefer other straight VAs to this one.
3 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Mar 24, 2017 Mild Extremely Mild Mild Very Pleasant
Honeydew is a total departure from the Arcadia and Black Shag brothers of the 221B Series. This one is a very thick cut and Bright broken Virginia Flake with a sweetener of some sort that really didn't translate to the palate, but sure made my sniffer happy! Easy to smoke all day due to the lightness of the fare, and very naturally sweet. And finally, typical of all McClelland's Virginia offerings, the quality of the leaf was superior.
2 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jan 04, 2017 Medium Mild Medium Very Pleasant
Whoever does the marketing at McC must have a good sense of irony or especially enjoy puzzling us mere mortals. Altho Sherlock was written to enjoy pungent, powerful tobaccos, the McC blend in this series dedicated to the character, Black Shag, was a mild and delicate, low nicotine stoved Va. Likewise this blend, dedicated to the literary memory of Dr Watson, proclaims itself as a Honeydew (historically a Va with naturally occurring high sugar levels), and in the Irish tradition. I don't detect either of these inputs. Further, the casing/top note on this tobacco defies my attempts at deconstruction. I haven't a clue what it is.

Here's what I do know, or think I know. It is a broken flake of mostly chocolate browns with occasional bright and dark spots. In the tin it has an ineffable sweetness with some floral notes. These scents are carried thru into the smoke itself. I wouldn't call this an aromatic as such, but others might. As another review has already suggested, this tobacco has most in common with scented flakes. To which I would add, specifically, this is a light lakeland type of tobacco, which would also include such geographic outliers as Erinmore Flake and Mick McQuaid Plug. For the sake of accuracy, I am not suggesting this tobacco tastes like those two tobaccos. But it shares that relationship between tobacco denseness and artificial fragrance additive.

Burns beautifully and is easy to pack and light. Lasts an age in the pipe and is great value. The flavours are rich and complex (more than just puzzling) and there is plenty to enjoy. There is also some pepper and spice to balance the sweetness, especially as the bowl progresses.

A near miss for 4 stars from me.
Pipe Used: Lepeltier
2 people found this review helpful.
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