McClelland - Grand Orientals: Black Sea Sokhoum pipe tobacco reviews

Review

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Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Showing reviews 1 through 17 of 17 reviews of this tobacco
wosbald	07/02/2011	Mild to Medium	None detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
In the tin, this medium ribbon blend is notable for its initial turkish spiciness, along with a distinct cocoa note. The McC virginia fermented scent, stemming from both black stoved and red virginia, is present, though subdued. There seems to be condimental leaf, neither black stoved virginia nor latakia, which may be natural burley black cavendish or, more likely, dark kentucky. Perique seems absent from this blend. Since the spirit of this series is, apparently, the splitting of hairs... some nuances exhibited are: dragonwell tea, chocolate, and rye toast. I must admit that the "cigar-like" characteristic eluded my cognizance. Black Sea Sokhoum is savory and delivers loads of nuance. Chamber Gauge: Medium
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Unsal	11/17/2010	Mild	Very Mild	Mild	Pleasant
An excellent tobacco. Highly Recommended.
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piedpiper	07/01/2010	Extremely Mild	None detected	Extremely Mild (Flat)	Pleasant
Not much taste to this blend. No cigar notes. Frustratingly, a not-so-accurate description of this blend, as is so often the case with McClelland. I realize that taste is subjective, but none of the blends that they describe as full-bodied fit that description in my book. A very mild & smooth blend & perhaps one that could be uses as a blender, but that would be all this tobacco would be up to IMHO.
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Marshall Law	06/14/2010	Mild	None detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
This is perhaps the sweetest, simplest and fullest in flavor of the Grand Orientals line. It is fragrant and smooth, similar to Classic Samsun, but less complex, and is slightly more consistent and bolder throughout the bowl than some of the other Grand Orientals. This tobacco prefers a cooler lighting and smoking temperature, being much sweeter and fuller on the sides of the tongue the slower and cooler you smoke it, but does not require the same concentration and finesse as its delicate siblings Katerini and Drama to fully appreciate. This is surely another tasty treat you should sample if enamored with oriental blends, and has found is way into my rotation. Like most other McClelland's virginia based blends, it continues to improve after you've opened the tin.
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Xeneize	04/25/2010	Mild to Medium	Very Mild	Medium	Tolerable
Black Sea Sokhoum is an excellent Oriental mixture, my favorite among the Grand Orientals collection. It shares the spiciness and sweetness with its cousins, with aditional subtle tastes of burley and cigar. Although I enjoyed the others, I won't be buying tins in the foreseeable future. BSS is the exception: I feel I need some more of this one.
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SteelCowboy	01/25/2010	Mild	Very Mild	Mild	Pleasant to Tolerable
It's no surprise that this is a stain of Samsun as I find it tastes similar to the Grand Oriental's Samsun. I view view this one as Samsun's little brother. As a long time cigar smoker, I don't seem to be able to find the cigar like flavor that McClelland is referring to. I find this to be a mild sweet tobacco best enjoyed in the early day. Recommended.
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Alguhan	10/11/2009	Medium	None detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
As the other McClelland Grand Oriental series tobaccos I've unsealed the tin, closed the lid, and left it a couple of days for the smell and flavors to be settled. The very well known, typical McClelland's sour-sweet smell and flavor is present in this tin. The subtile cigarette smell can be detected even from the tin. As said on tin description this is not a cigar (cuban for example) taste. This is cigarette taste. Some of our reviewer friends may have had this misunderstandig. This blend smells and tastes like Classic Samsun of the same Grand Orientals series. It is a bit more powerful and sweet. The Virginia addition must be somehow higher in this blend. Behind the sweetness of Virginias the exotic, cigarette tasty oriental is present. This Turkish also has more spicy notes than the Classic Samsun. The bowl gets richer in smoke and flavors when you reach the half of it. It finishes without any bite or overhelming taste or nicotine dose, leaving a soft whitish ash. If you like the sourness of typical McClelland blends and fine oriental smokes like me, this one is also a great choice together with the other blends of the same series. I'll keep on smoking at least one bowl per day from these Grand Orientals. And Black Sea Sokhoum will not be an exception.
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DK	06/17/2009	Mild	Very Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
Definitely agree that this tobacco is "cigar-like" and that the cigar note is more like a burley blend than an actual cigar leaf blend or cigar. It's a mild, good tasting smoke, at least until you hit the bottom 1/4th of the bowl, where it becomes a little harsh and bitter. Easy to pack and stays lit, and produces a nice volume of smoke with low nicotine. I honestly don't taste much in the way of oriental here, though, and I'm not familiar enough with the taste of Soukhoum tobacco to know for sure. But the blend description says that the oriental "lends depth" to what is basically a matured virginia blend. This is a fine smoke but I probably won't buy more. It's recommended as something slightly different, and shows that a tobacco that is a mild smoke doesn't mean that it's low on flavor. Whether you like the flavor is up to you. I find it ok... somewhere in the range of a 2.6 rating.
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pipinNfishin	02/18/2008	Mild to Medium	Very Mild	Mild to Medium	Tolerable
The cigar notes in this blend is similar to the notes given by a good burley blend. Burley lovers should give it a try. I had an infatuation with samsun seed, but now my tastes are turning to the xanthi seed blends. It does not mean, I am turning from samsun. It is still in my rotation; it just is not a focus of my smoking at the moment. The blend quality is still there. It smokes dry and cool. The taste is dry when compared to Yenidje Supreme or Yenice Agonya. Give it a try!
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JazzSmoke	12/29/2007	Very Mild	Medium	Mild	Pleasant
Cigar like? Hmmm. There is no cigar leaf in this blend, so the tin description could be a little confusing. I smoke cigar blend regularly and I don't detect any cigar leaf character here. I assume it's just a description of the flavor present in this blend. Also, while I think is a good high quality blend, I don't taste exotic oriental tobacco either. The tins description leads us to believe that is a traditional virginia/oriental tobacco. However, It's a sweet aromatic, and tastes like their other mislabeled blends like Syrian "Balkan" or Virginia Woods! The typical McClelland virginias with a faint acidic smell are present. There is a sweetened or cased dark tobacco which really makes this an aromatic blend. It is light and has a lovely room note. But it's not what's advertised, which is so typical with McClelland. Good quality and some people will like it.
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Big bad Jon	12/08/2007	Mild	Very Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
This tobacco was not what I expected, it was not really cigar like (ie. C&D's Purple Cow) but more of a mild sweet tobacco that was a real treat. The tobacco smoked as cool as anything I have tried, and required absolutely no attention to keep lit. The tobacco burned to a fine powdery ash, and left no after taste in the pipe. I would have liked to had a bit more of the traditional oriental taste, but what taste there was was very well balanced. The tin I tried was a free sample at the local tobacco store, and Four of us proceeded to have the whole container. Great smoke you must try this blend!!!!
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Lochinvar	11/17/2007	Mild	None detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
Very good stuff, and not really what you think of when you think oriental or cigar-like. I find most cigar blends to taste like a cigar in between the stage of an inch left to smoke and sitting in the ashtray for an hour (do you detect I'm not crazy about them?). This was different, it has the orintal spiciness with the sweetness of the Virginia, but with a depth and darkness that are usually only components within the overall cigar taste. No, this is no twin for a cigar, but it is a very mellow, almost intoxicating blend. An excellent tobacco from McClelleand whose other offerings in the non VA arena have been......insipid, watered down, disgusting, good tobacco for babies, mulch..take your pick. These will get them into oriental tobacco heaven after all.
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wipipecop	11/03/2007	Mild	Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
Also a new reviewer here.. My palette bases a lot of things by my normal go to blend of MCs 5100.. I saw this in the store and didnt know much about it but bought it as to the description of a virginia and cigar blend which got my attention.. I like a cigar on occasion but due to a bad overbite seldom smoke them.. a pipe stem suits my mouth better.. I also am a wimp on nicotine as I don't like feeling light headed, ( got enough middle ear problems to not like that feeling). This blend burned great right from the tin and only had to relight once after the charing light.. Burned smooth, started out more sweet and virginia like and then seemed to move into the cigar taste and smell to me.. I smoke a lot in my truck and this was a great blend for a 45 minute trip, no relighting! I will keep this on my list and recommend it to anyone looking for a light great smelling and tasting blend. Not sure what to expect with it aged though.. will cellar a tin and revisit again.. will the virginias win out and sweeten with age? We will see Mike Update Nov 3rd... after trying this a few more times I got to lower my rating to 3 stars.. that last half of bowl is not that great anymore.. I like some flavor till the end.. and this wasnt as flavorful as some of the virginia blends I smoke ...
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john doe	10/23/2007	Mild	None detected	Mild	Pleasant to Tolerable
I really wanted to like this tobacco. It's an attempt to rediscover a classic style of pipe tobacco -- the kind of "fine Turkish" Rudyard Kipling and Mark Twain smoked. It's also an unblended tobacco from a single region, if you're interested in the raw materials the blenders use. Both of these reasons make this tobacco a curiosity, and interesting to smoke, at least once. Unfortunately there is almost no flavour in this tobacco. If you smoke if very slowly in a big pipe you'll get an extremely mild Virginia flavour, and the merest hint of cigar. I like mild tobaccos, and this is very mild indeed. But I also like a robust flavour I don't have to concentrate on to actually detect. Also if you forget and smoke this fast it quickly becomes harsh and unpleasant. I'd give this one star but I reckon McClelland deserves two stars for effort.
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Calvano	10/07/2007	Mild to Medium	Very Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
My first review on this site, but this tobacco was so surprising and enjoyable I had to dive right in after just a couple of pipefulls. I normally smoke much heavier Balkan blends, and hardly ever like anything without Latakia, but this is an exception. I enjoyed the subtle flavors, and indeed, it is very cigar-like, as advertized. I would highly recommend a tinful, regardless of the (high) price, particularly if you are stuck in a rut and want to try something quite different.
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Stacey	08/16/2007	Mild	Mild	Mild to Medium	Tolerable
Well normally I would wait until smoking quite a few bowls before reviewing something but I felt completely confident after only one bowl that this was going to the trash heap. This stuff is vile in the extreme. Cigar-like might be accurate in the way that leather-like might be for a really cheap leather jacket if you catch my meaning. It tastes like a particularly cheap and nasty cigar. I like good cigars and this doesn't even cut it in that respect. If you want a cigar, you'd be better off buying one than this. Can you tell I detested it? :}
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tacoeatingzebra	07/06/2007	Mild	Very Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
I generally wait until I am half way through my second tin before passing judgement on a blend, but Black Sea Sokhoum has to be an exception. When I opened it, that god forsaken ketchup smell was very present and I winced and worried that it would be no good. I always do this with McClelland blends, but generally at least feel okay about them. I must say, however, that the scent disappeared more quickly than it has in other McClelland blends I've tried. Semi-sweet seems a bit of a misnomer, it is very sweet, at least to my tastes. Not in a bad way however. Cigar-like, yes. In fact, as someone who is somewhat lukewarm on cigars, this stuff tastes like what I think cigars should taste like. There are lots of chocolatey notes, perhaps a touch of coffee and other times tea and hints of vanilla and maybe dabs of a green herb like taste weave themselves in and out of the smoke. Very complex smoke with lots to look for and a pretty pleasant room note. It's also a very cool smoke and leaves a dry pipe with fluffy whitish grey ash. I give this one the highest recommendation. P.S. - Everytime I smoke it, I wind up with Back in the USSR in my head because the Sokhoum tobacco originates in Georgia (not the state containing Atlanta, Macon & Savannah) and there's the line "and Georgia's always on my mi-mi- mind."
Showing reviews 1 through 17 of 17 reviews of this tobacco