McClelland No. 2010 Classic Virginia

(3.15)
This is a blend of Eastern and Middle Belt lemon, orange, and orange-red Virginias. A sweet, smooth, and zesty smoke.

Details

Brand McClelland
Blended By McClelland Tobacco Company
Manufactured By McClelland Tobacco Company
Blend Type Straight Virginia
Contents Virginia
Flavoring
Cut Broken Flake
Packaging Bulk
Country United States
Production No longer in production

Profile

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

Average Rating

3.15 / 4
28

33

11

3

Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 10 of 74 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Sep 23, 2013 Mild to Medium None Detected Medium Pleasant
This may seem very odd to you good citizens of the USA, who make up the majority here. But for a Brit like me this is as exotic as St. Bruno must be to you!

The simple fact is that this is not available over here, at least not through any regular channels. So I am indebted to a good pipe friend for providing me with a sample to enjoy. And oh, what an enjoyment it was!

The rough ribbon cut and high moisture level put me very much in mind of the kind of thing one expects from the likes of Samuel Gawith. And then that "ketchup" thing which I have read about so much and been so intrigued by. Yes, it's there, straight in your face, wow! But in a good way.

Getting down to the business of smoking, well, how good is this stuff? Flavoursome, easy, totally Virginia and yet with that added tang.

I believe you guys can get this stuff by the truckload for a fraction of what we pay for small tins back in the UK, you don't know how lucky you are.

All gone now and unlikely to be repeated any time soon, sigh.

Highly recommended.
13 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Mar 24, 2014 Mild to Medium None Detected Medium Pleasant
McClelland's Classic Virginia is a good Virginia tobacco but not a great one. It has decent Virginia flavor and lots of sweetness but is rather one dimensional. For as sweet a tobacco as this is, it has surprisingly little bite. For someone who wanted to progress from drugstore aromatics to something more sophisticated, Classic Virginia would therefore be a good tobacco to start with.

As others have noted, Classic Virginia takes a fair amount of work to smoke. As purchased, it is quite moist and therefore benefits greatly from airing out for a day or so. The broken flakes are difficult to light so one might wish to rub it out. However, you will get the best flavor if you leave it in flakes and use a bit of easily lit tobacco as tinder to fire it.

Sold only in bulk, Classic Virginia is modestly priced. However, for the same money one can smoke better McClelland straight Virginias like Red Cake and Dark Navy Flake.
Pipe Used: Various briars
PurchasedFrom: pipesandcigars.com
Age When Smoked: Recently purchased
10 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
al1
Sep 20, 2008 Very Mild None Detected Mild Pleasant
This is actually pretty good for what it is. pipesandcigars.com was so kind as to send me a half pound with a Jeppesen pipe purchase for me to puff on. It is exactly as others described so far as the flavor only hitting the highest end of the spectrum and in a very light way. I smoked this after drying and rubbing and I would advise at least drying. Beginners might think it is plain tasting but there are nuances and hints in the flavor that vets will appreciate. However the flavor does not build or change much at all. Could be boring to some. I do not sense red va flavor, just very mild orange and yellows.

This smoked extremely well and dry for me in a couple different pipes and was mild enough to keep me wanting more. It requires minimal relights and is one of only a few tobacco's that will smoke dry all the way to the finish. So while it may be very ok for a all day smoke it is not going to give you a rich satisfying flavor. I think this makes cake VERY fast for a va flake, making it an excellent new pipe break in tobacco.

I disagree with a previous review that it is like the christmas cheer. Not true in my case- this is much lighter and nowhere as sweet or rich. How that reviewer figured that eludes me at the moment, perhaps mine will develop flavor with age?

The nicotine level was much higher than I expected and it hit me about 15 minutes before the bowl was done. It will not floor you but had more umph than I expected as mild as the flavor is.

The pouch aroma on this is very nice, much like a good fresh bag of brown sugar would smell-only better. The ketchup odor was very hard to detect and very subdued on this one. It has more of tobacco smell. It rubs pretty easily and smokes even easier. I found a breath smoke technique works well. In fact this was very much one that likes to be sipped constantly with a few breaks occasionally as it warms up. Very easy to smoke. Not nippy at all- this one gives you plenty warning when to slow down and smooths right back out.

I will be keeping some of this around and will age some, although I am curious if much age would cut the twang down which is so fitting and controlled in this blend- it could use a little smoothing and I suspect at least a couple months age will make a nice soft smoke. I will be sampling and reviewing more of the Mcclelland bulks as this one is fantastic. I just finished a bowl and could go for another real soon. Thats a good thing when you get tired of having to wait a while for your palatte to refresh after smoking it up all day on stronger blends.

Mcclelland must have simillar tastes to mine as I love most of their bulks and tins. You can pick almost anything they make and find something you like about it.

For an all day smoker this one is great, It leans more towards a cigarettish like smoke I think but in a good way. I like it for the fact it is about as simple and straight forward as flakes get. Also it leaves my mouth in shape for whatever I want to smoke in the evening. Try some just know what it is.

This could be a good blender as well. Update: I aged some for a year and it turned into something very close to christmas cheer. I was very surprised when I opened the jar. Wow it is so much more flavorful now, I see where other reviewers found it this way now.
9 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jul 03, 2004 Mild None Detected Mild Pleasant
This straight Virginia has a very "different" aftertaste. It also had a citrus type flavor while smoking that I found to be tart rather than sweet, indicating a mix of bright and Red leaf. Light flavor rather than strong. Nice room note.

8 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jan 30, 2019 Mild to Medium None Detected Mild to Medium Pleasant
The various Virginias offer some tangy, ripe dark fruit, wood and earth, some sweet and sour, tart and tangy citrus and grass along with hints of spice, very tart lemon, and bread, and a touch of floral. The strength and nic-hit are in the center of mild to medium, while the taste level falls a step or so short of medium. Won’t bite or get harsh, and has few rough edges. Needs to rubbed out and dried a little. Burns cool, clean and a little slow with a mostly consistent, mildly sweet, fairly smooth, lightly sour and tart flavor from start to finish. Leaves a little moisture in the bowl, and requires some relights. Has a pleasant, short lived after taste, and room note. Not quite as complex as my description reads as some nuances are fleeting. An all day smoke that can be used as a mixer, too.

-JimInks
7 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 03, 2017 Mild to Medium None Detected Mild to Medium Pleasant
In going thru my cellar, I found about half a pound of this and noted that for some reason I hadn't shared my thoughts on it here when I bought it a few years ago. Mottled broken flake and with age, much of the signature McClellands aroma that so vexes a lot of smokers was diminished. Dry this stuff out as you would any Virginia flake and most of it goes away anyway.

This is a Virginia blend and reaches all the higher notes of mild citrus behind the red's sweeping tang and orange's clean spiciness. As it's purported to be a less aged version of #22, this one with some age on it bridges whatever gaps there may be between the two. It's a nice smoke but not one of my favorites, as it lacks the dark spice of #25 and the huge depth of #24. But for the smoker that prefers more lighthearted fare, this fills the bill. It improves nicely with age and down each individual bowl. Sufficiently dried out before smoking, it flirts with several flavors and has moderate complexity with no wet steamy taste. A very serviceable Virginia. If you enjoy #5100 but want some extra joie de vivre (and in flake form), you are likely to love this one. Even so, it lacks the focus and depth of 5100, especially when the latter is aged. Tradeoffs abound in the tobacco world! Recommended as a nicely priced and fully acceptable Virginia broken flake.
7 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Aug 18, 2016 Mild Very Mild Mild to Medium Very Pleasant
McClelland - No. 2010 Classic Virginia.

If you've ever wondered exactly what's meant when people describe the aroma from the McClelland blends as being ketchup-like, try a sniff of this! Even though the pouch-note could be considered slightly incongruous, I find it a very good blend.

The broken flake's are still quite wholesome so many folks would probably want to give them a further rub, but that's easy though, the moisture makes that a simple task. And then it gives a very satisfying smoke: to be fair, I get a deeper flavour than I'd expected, I'd prepared for a bit of a 'zest-fest', but this has more depth to it than just zest alone. There's a honey sweetness, with an almost caramel-esc smoothness. I do get a slight liveliness from the Virginia's, but whether that would fall under the caption of Zest (as per the current description), grass, hay, or lemon, would come down to personal predilection I guess! One of the great features of No. 2010 is the burn: it's stable, even, cool, and a pipe can be enjoyed from just one light for a very long period.

I don't recognise much nicotine from 2010, maybe not quite very mild but definitely no more than mild. And finally the room-note: very nice indeed.

This has a bit more character than a lot of straight Va's, and I have to highly recommend it:

Four stars.
Pipe Used: Peterson Sherlock Milverton
PurchasedFrom: Smokingpipes.com
Age When Smoked: New
7 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
May 21, 2008 Mild to Medium None Detected Medium to Full Pleasant
"2010 Classic Virginia"

The name says it all, it certainly is a classic VA done just the way I like it. Somehow the folks at McClelland must have a palate very similar to mine because I like virtually every blend of theirs I try to varying degrees.

This VA has all the class of their Christmas Cheer series of which I am a huge fan. If you like CC, you'll like this.

VA depth and creaminess with the classic light citrus tang.

Aging? I'm sure it has been pre-aged by McClelland and I doubt I will be able to age any right now - I'm gonna smoke up my 4oz and order more. But, for those into aging, I'm sure it will age wonderfully as most all Quality VA flakes do.

No bite. If you make this one bite, you've really accomplished something.

Highly recommended.

4 stars (*)-(*)-(*)-(*)

Good Draw to You, Cheers,

Glorfindel
7 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Oct 27, 2005 Medium None Detected Full Tolerable
This flake is the standard by which I judge most Virginias. 2010 has a nice, sweet taste without the addition of a topping, it ages with excellence, like a fine Virginia should, and it only gets better as you work your way down to the bottom of a bowl. I assume this would be an excellent candidate for your DGT effect, though I must admit I am too impatient to bother with the experiment.

I've had some distasteful reactions with other McClelland blends, notably, 2035 and 2025, the former for what I believed to be a lack of taste, and the latter for its incessant tendency to bite. I'm also not much a fan of that vinegary smell that appears to be an intimate part of any McClelland blend. Though I found it a novelty at first, my approval quickly waned to something approaching a mild distaste. You'll find that stench here, but the fine qualities of 2010 quickly outshine any previous apprehensions I initially feared when first sampling this blend.

This is pure Virginia goodness, people. It's not too strong, and not too weak, but just enough to give you a taste of how great the old standard can compare to your English and aromatic blends. You'll get great billows of smoke here for a valued cost. Give this a try. I highly recommend it.

4.0 out of 4.0
6 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Aug 28, 2013 Mild to Medium None Detected Medium to Full Pleasant to Tolerable
When I first got my sample of bulk about a month ago, it was damp but still very smokeable. My first pipes were somewhat hot and bit some. As this dried and I could keep it lit at a smolder, this turned into a good smoke and without the heat. It could use some time in the cellar. I agree with reviewer "Virginia Lover, 07/09/2010".

Updated 12/29/2014- I just retried this blend after a year in the cellar, "wonderful". Naturally sweet, dark , zesty and no harshness. I'll be ordering more, reminds me of one of McC's better Christmas Cheer blends. The wait time in the cellar was worth it and I'm upping this to 4 stars.

BTW- I also blended this 50/50 with some "5100 Red Cake" and that's a winner also. I've been looking for a way to cut what I perceive as a touch of Lakeland Floral ( not a fan) in the 5100 , adding the "2010" did the trick.
Pipe Used: cob
Age When Smoked: 1 year
5 people found this review helpful.
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