Tin: 2008 stamped on bottom of tin.(The label says Vintage 2007. Orient 996 was introduced in DEC 2007.) Sweet and sour smell, the sour aspect diminishing readily after the tin is unsealed for a couple of days. Burnt or stoved mahogany hue, standard ribbon cut, almost dry.

Packed readily, as a ribbon usually does, and burned well.

Taste & Aroma: A nice, soft, mellow smoke, but not enough umph-It lacks the substance that its cousin, TC, has.

Overall: Nice and mellow. A strong 3 stars, but not enough subsance to merit four. 3.4 stars.

Reading vaperfavour's review, I decided to give piece another chance since 3 months had already passed over my last smoke of Orient666. Interesting though, upon re-opening the tin I was surprised it had not completely dried out. Filled a pipe, lit, and a couple puffs here and a couple puffs there and a couple puffs everywhere...weeeheeee it was now Orient966! next time I tried, I left it for more air drying (about an hour) and that smoke was indeed Orient996. I was so mesmerized by it, my next purchase was its sister blend Jubilee, which btw will be resting in peace with an open lid for another month.

Thanks to vaperfavour and several shamanic chants, evil out flavors in.

After seven bowls, though, I am convinced that this is the most poorly mixed blend I've ever smoked. Given McClelland's reputation for excellence, I can only assume that there were serious manufacturing or quality-control problems with my tin.

The first five bowls were Virginia-dominant smokes that only occasionally allowed waves of the Yenidje to come through. There were literally only three puffs in which the Syrian was detectable. The latakia was present in such minute quantities, it was as if it had been added with tweezers and a microscope.

However, bowl six was significantly different, with a stronger latakia presence. Bowl seven was even more different: 2/3 of the bowl smoked as if it were straight Yenidje, like a large knot of Yenidje was present in entirely unmixed form. In the bottom 1/3, the Yenidje disappeared entirely and the Syrian and Virginia were the sole flavors.

Despite every variation I tried in loading the pipes, every one of the seven bowls required a *minimum* of five matches.

Because of the extreme variations I experienced in bowl after bowl, I cannot highly recommend this. I can only hope that subsequent tins will be much more consistent; clearly, others here haven't noted similar problems. (I'll update this in the future, if other tins end up faring better.)