McClelland - Blending Oriental pipe tobacco reviews

Review

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Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Showing reviews 1 through 9 of 9 reviews of this tobacco
tmoney	08/30/2010	Mild to Medium	None detected	Mild	Pleasant to Tolerable
Great blending tobacco! Adds a little bit of smokey sweetness to whatever you add it to. Wouldnt recommend smoking it straight though.
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UncleGar	03/03/2009	Very Mild	None detected	Very Mild	Very Pleasant
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.
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SirLoirn	03/06/2008	Extremely Mild	Extremely Mild	Very Mild	Very Pleasant
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
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thedstnguishdgntlmn	11/08/2006	Mild	None detected	Mild	Unnoticeable
This makes everything better when added to Straight Virginia or Burley blends. A one dimensional richness is added to every blend it touches! Rather bland by itself, but excellent as a condiment! 4 f 4 stars!
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Taste Buds	10/23/2006	Mild	None detected	Mild	Pleasant to Tolerable
I bought a tin of this with my last order from Iwan Ries, without knowing what I would do with it. After some consideration, I decided to add about 10 or 12% to McCranies Red Ribbon, which includes 1/8th Red Flake(rubbed out). It was a magnificent creation(in my opinion). I'll never smoke Red Ribbon without McClelland's Blending Oriental again. I suggest that any of you who like virginia/oriental blends may want to try this.
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DUPE.1512	06/01/2005	Mild to Medium	None detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
As far as a blending oriental goes, this one is outstanding. The greek and turkish varitiels used are high quality.
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Pipestud	02/15/2005	Extremely Mild	Extremely Mild	Very Mild	Pleasant to Tolerable
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 smelled better than it smoked. Not much flavor and no nicotine hit. Oh well... I then tried it as a filler in some old McClelland's #27. I think I mixed in too much of the Oriental because all I managed to do was dummy down the flavor and strength instead of add to it. I now have added respect for the blenders of the world. And finally, I did a web search on Oriental leaf and discovered there is a vast variety of types including flue and fire cured, and it grows in many places, not just the Orient. I reckon that means that perhaps Virginia leaf doesn't grow just in Virginia? (-;
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Darth 69	01/08/2005	Mild	None detected	Mild to Medium	Tolerable to Strong
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.
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bigjonburley	12/11/2004	Mild	None detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
I thought that I should write a critique on the properties of this blending tobacco. As those of you know, who smoke a lot of english blends, orientals are often the backbone of their construction. Orientals lend heaps of texture and complexity to heavily dosed latakia blends. This tobacco has an uncanny ability to power through, yet complament, the smokey essence of latakia and perique. I love the texture of orientals and prefer them to Virginas in most of the "English" blends that I smoke. With this particular tobacco, McClelland has produced an easily blendable tobacco that is great for tweeking and existing blend, or constructing one from scratch. The beefy, twangy overtones of this oriental ooze from the tin apon opening. I think that it is very important for smokers to know and understand the properties of all the tobacco's that make up their favorite blends. The first time that I tried 965 and nightcap, I was aching to know what each tobacco's role was in the blend that I was smoking. Although not mind blowing while smoke solo, this tobacco can be used to doctor up a favorite blend, or construct one from ther ground up. McClelland has provided yet another quality product for experimentation.
Showing reviews 1 through 9 of 9 reviews of this tobacco