McClelland Beacon Extra

(3.85)
For this blend, the Beacon recipe was enhanced by adding more vintage, barrel-aged perique. The result is naturally sweet, incredibly smooth, dark as a Louisiana bayou, studded with bright highlights like beacons along the coast.
Notes: Originally introduced in May, 2010 for the Greater Kansas City Pipe Club, is now part of the Club Blends Series.

Details

Brand McClelland
Series Club Blends
Blended By McClelland Tobacco Company
Manufactured By McClelland Tobacco Company
Blend Type Virginia/Perique
Contents Perique, Virginia
Flavoring
Cut Broken Flake
Packaging 50 grams tin
Country United States
Production No longer in production

Profile

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

Average Rating

3.85 / 4
29

3

1

0

Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 10 of 33 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Aug 11, 2010 Medium None Detected Medium Pleasant
Beacon was a very good example of a lighter VaPer, while Beacon Extra is an excellent example of a richer one. This reminds me very much of McClellands Bayou Slices, both in cut and flavor. Both are very smooth, produce no bite and are incredibly tasty. As usual, this one will be a bit hard to light if it's not properly dried out, as it comes moist in the tin. I gave this one a few hours to dry.

Tin aroma is the typical McClellands fermented virginia which I love and others view as "ketchupy" or "vinegary". Since I'm not a big fan of either of those condiments, the explanation of why I love the McC's aroma is a mystery. 😉 At any rate, the first thing I want to do when I open a tin of McClellands is immediately fire up a bowl, and this one did not disappoint!

I would not call this a heavy or strong tobacco, but it was deep and rich and flavorful. No Nancy-boy here! It was a complex mix of VA's and perique that deepened in nuance as it progressed. Really nice room aroma here, if you enjoy the aroma of perique. I smoked a bowl of this next to a bowl of Bayou Slices and found the latter just a tad more complex and interesting. That one will stay in my rotation, but if you're a VaPer fan, this is one not to miss. Perique isn't the easiest tobacco to blend but McClellands has mastered it.
15 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jan 26, 2017 Mild to Medium None Detected Medium Pleasant
This is an exceptional VaPer that is heavier on the Perique than the original Beacon. In fact, one of the most delightful Virginia/Perique blends I have tasted in quite some time. It is a crowd pleaser with a full measure of taste and decent strength. I can see where experienced pipe smokers would gravitate to this leaf. Not only is the flavor and strength very noticeable, the flake cut gives this one staying power. Beacon Extra, like the original Beacon, has it all!
13 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
May 31, 2013 Medium to Strong None Detected Full Tolerable
May 2013

What an exceptional Virginia Perique blend this is! Rich, sweet, spicy, strong and full, this blend is one of the few that actually tastes as good as it smells. And, it smokes soft with virtually no bite. The smoke volume and resulting flavor rivals that of a fine cigar. This ia an A-Plus blend that deserves a lot more attention than it's received. Kudos to McClelland! DO NOT EVER discontinue this.
13 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jan 17, 2013 Medium to Strong None Detected Medium to Full Pleasant to Tolerable
Fantastic stuff! One of my top-ten favorite VaPers. It has that characteristic McCelland tin note - ketchup, vinegar. Beautiful, dark, broken flakes. A Perique-forward blend that can't be beat for the VaPer enthusiast. As with most McClelland VA blends, this one will benefit from drying in the open tin for awhile. I'm currently smoking from a tin that's been unsealed and left to think about itself for around a year, and it's outstanding. McCelland VAs are the only ones I don't jar. They can use all the drying out they can get. You'll notice the changes after 3/6/9/12+ months and want to lay this stuff down for a few years. (But can you resist the temptation to smoke it?)

Highly, highly recommended. Perique lovers will not go wrong with this blend. Outstanding. I can't believe this blend has only ten reviews.

12 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Oct 02, 2010 Medium None Detected Very Full Very Pleasant
Absolutely wonderful. The experience for me begins upon opening the tin. I was greeted with waves of unrelenting fragrances of the deepest and most complex Virginia tobaccos I have ever experienced. These first moments of olfactory bliss were further enhanced by an amazingly pungent Perique bursting with flavors of raisin, plum and prune. The broken flakes are dark brown with jets of black and tan throughout. They are quite moist but can be smoked without drying. At the match your tongue is greeted with creamy sweet smoke with unmistakable characteristics of the finest Virginia-Perique blended to mastyerful perfection. I call the strength medium but it does creep up into the medium-strong level at times throughout the smoke. For a point of reference I can safely compare Beacon Extra to St. James Flake except it is sweeter in taste. This tobacco has become my favorite and will remain a mainstay in my smoking rotation. With resounding conviction and confidence, Highly Recommanded!!
10 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jan 19, 2016 Strong None Detected Extra Full Very Strong
Beacon extra is a perique bomb of the first class . It takes regular Beacon and pumps it up to Olympic status . This blend benefits from rhe use of Mc Clelland's great Virginias and Mike and Mary's superior blending skills . Aside from Tudor castle , it might be the best VaPer ever made . That being said one is not always in the mood for this much perique . I smoke this outdoors when I want a really perique forward after meal smoke . This is a strong tobacco , not for the faint of heart .
8 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jan 05, 2016 Strong None Detected Extra Full Pleasant
This outstanding tobacco comes as a coarsely broken flake, looks a bit messy. The tin nose is wonderful. Vinegary sourness from successful fermentation and the most delicious Perique aroma of fig, plum and fruit. To be honest, there is a hidden tomato-ketchup flavour I can pick-up, which some reviewers write about. But it’s only in the tin, not when smoking.

It needs some preparation effort, breaking or/and rubbing. No drying necessary. Good smoking conditions. It’s a fantastic mixture, strong, deep, heavy, made for Perique aficionados. It’s not a smoke for in between. Do sit in a comfortable armchair and take your time, may be observing a harsh winter day through the window. Smoke it patiently, at the rate of a beacon perhaps, and give it about a quarter of the bowl for all flavours to deploy. I suggest to smoke BEACON EXTRA in a churchwarden or any deep, narrow mid-size bowl.

The Perique is dominant and shows off with its famous and distinctive aroma palette, the most obvious being white pepper. The body of this blend is a robust Virginia. Although the typical Virginia flavours (hay, wood, bread, earth) are there, they are pushed back to some extent by the dominance of the Perique. The welcome low-grade sweetness originates from both, Perique and Virginia, I believe. No doubt, it is a top rank full Perique/Virginia mixture, which I shall enjoy occasionally, without adding it to my rotation.

UPDATE, 14th January 2016:

BEACON EXTRA has become one of my top 5 favourites in no time. I must add it to my rotation. I have to downgrade the strength from very strong to strong, and upgrade the room-note, according to comments of family and visitors, from tolerable to pleasant. I also upgraded taste from very to extra full, due to the fantastic Perique in this blend.
PurchasedFrom: Internet, www.smokingpipes.com
Age When Smoked: New, out of the tin.
7 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Oct 16, 2015 Mild None Detected Mild to Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
This is a truly good tobacco that lives up to what many of the reviews below have attested to. Right from the tin, the aroma and the sight of the tobacco are things to behold. It looked like black crystals and smelled real good in a way that I'm unable to fully describe. It is very balanced and smoked well without being relit more than once, ending in a nice grey ash. IMO opinion the perique was present but in such a subtle way that the mature Virginia was not overwhelmed. It had this really palatable creaminess from well before mid-bowl to finish. I enjoyed it so much that I emptied the 50g tin in circa 2-3 days of (continuously) smoking this brand and none other, using three different pipes. I will order some more for aging. And indeed, I will get some Beacon to compare with this as I've never smoked Beacon before.
Pipe Used: Giordano 14661, Aldo Morelli 665, Capitello 3
PurchasedFrom: pipesandcigars.com
Age When Smoked: New Purchase. Tin date underneath is 03/15/15
7 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jul 03, 2017 Medium to Strong None Detected Full Pleasant
McClelland - Beacon Extra.

Found it! Since running out of a VaPer for the mornings (for me the morning pipe's usually a VaPer or English/Balkan) I've cracked a few tins from my cellar, of which McC' Bayou slice was one. Bayou S': good, but not 'the one'. So, I was either going to open this or order one of my regulars again, but seeing as I order my cigars/tobaccos Friday, and it's only Monday, I opted to pop this open.

The flakes are half and half, meaning they have a dark brown background, but there's yellow Virginia streaks running through them; 50/50. The flakes aren't 'ever so' broken, sure, they're not whole, but neither are they smashed to ribbons: a 'slightly' broken flake.

Lighting my first bowl was a doddle, due to a sublime quantity of moisture, and then I was in heaven! The amount of Perique suits me, it's easily the more fervent of the two leaves, yet, it doesn't feel overwhelming; although it's potent with Perique, it isn't too spicy. Like all good VaPers, the flavour becomes deeper, plumier, and richer as a bowl's smoked. The first half seems more reminiscent of its sibling Beacon, but it develops into a different beast! The burn from B.E. is one of the best, giving a bite-less smoke.

Nicotine: above medium. Room-note: quite strong, but I like it!

I rate this amongst the top five VaPers I've had. Highly recommended:

Four stars.
Pipe Used: Various
PurchasedFrom: 4noggins
Age When Smoked: Two months
6 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Nov 25, 2015 Medium to Strong None Detected Very Full Pleasant
I cracked open my tin of Beacon Extra to see if it lived up to some of the reviews I have read. Upon opening the tin you get that tangy ketchup like aroma. Reminds me in many ways of the Mississippi River like note. Took a bit to get her lit and get her going but when I did, I knew I was in for a new experience. There's a lot to this. It put me on my palate heels as I figured it out - and I mean that in a good way. This is very rich, very deep, and very smooth. The perique is nicely forward with a creaminess that develops with some very good virginias. I probably have never smoked and savored a bowl like I did with this one. This is like a fine, fine wine that you savor. It certainly lived up to its billing. I can't say I could knock this back regularly, but it is exceptional - so much so I already ordered a tin to stow away so I know it is always there.
Pipe Used: bjarne, rossi, la strada
PurchasedFrom: P&C
Age When Smoked: 3 mos
6 people found this review helpful.
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