McClelland - Club Blends: GKCPC Beacon Extra 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
Perique	01/17/2013	Medium	None detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
Fantastic stuff! One of my top-five favorite VaPers. It has that characteristic McCelland tin note - ketchup, vinegar. But it's far from overpowering. Beautiful, dark, broken flakes. A Perique-forward blend that can't be beat for the VaPer enthusiast. Highly, highly recommended. You will not go wrong with this blend. Outstanding.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
deepbass9	01/15/2013	Medium	None detected	Very Full	Pleasant
I'm all about variety, I'm all about quality and my palate is wider than many. Tobacco moisture, tongue bite, mood, smoking circumstances and other controllable variables won't be covered. This review is based on multiple bowls over time. I can't beat the high praise that precedes this. I wanted a full Perique blend that really let me know it was there. This blend does that, but with a soft hand. Wonderful leaf; this is an excellent tobacco.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
rintrah	07/25/2012	Medium	None detected	Full	Pleasant
Excellent leaf. Highly recommend it.
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Ehrling	02/03/2012	Medium to Strong	None detected	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
Beacon Extra quickly earned a position in my Top 10 favorites and it has become one of my favorite Virginia/Perique blends EVER!! This blend pushes the Perique content right to the edge--one more pinch of Perique might be too much. The extra ration of Perique provides a bit more body and strength to the blend, but it does not over-power the Virginias, it merely further enriches the flavor of the Virginias. The combination of Virginia and Perique in a blend, to my mind, makes for the perfect marriage of tobaccos--they compliment each other so well. (The Virginias provide the sugar and the Perique provides the dark molasses.) This flake has everything that I look for in a tobacco. Beacon Extra is most assuredly rich; it's smooth and naturally sweet; the Virginias and Perique work in harmony; the blend displays sufficient body; and it is very satisfying. Most of all, it smokes COOL!! It packs and smokes easily and it stays lit all the way to the bottom of the bowl with an absolute minimum of re-lights. It is difficult to imagine a tobacco offering much more. The name Beacon Extra says it all--this is Beacon with an extra measure of Perique. One reviewer compared it to Bayou Slices, but I believe that Beacon Extra is richer, more robust, darker, and more complex than Bayou Slices. In many ways I think that Beacon Extra most closely compares with Escudo, but Beacon Extra is smoother and more sophisticated and it is much easier to smoke and enjoy. And while Beacon Extra is a relatively strong tobacco, it is not nearly as strong as the English ropes and plugs.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Mr. Big	09/07/2011	Medium	Very Mild	Medium to Full	Tolerable
I find Beacon Extra (BE) to be one of the top VaPers. It is heavy on the Perique but allows the Virginias to play a major roll. I really like McClelland Virginias as they get a zing from their "Vinegar" processing , I call it McVV, a sweet & sour taste. This has the same McVV taste but with very high quality, mature Virginias used. This has no bite, is smooth, high "N" and is very similar to "St. James Woods", so much so I had to try a side by side taste test. Even side by side, it was almost impossible to distinguish any difference except maybe a touch more Perique in the BE and a touch smoother . I would rate SJW=8 and BE=10, I would buy BE again except that the SJW comes in a 100gram tin that I can get a price break over the 50 gram tin of BE. Price wins !
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
SMOKETSES	02/17/2011	Medium to Strong	None detected	Full	Pleasant
Heinz participates in this mixture too. Especially when you open the tin, finding dark black colored flakes, with some brown and golden shades among them. It is most fortunate that gradually this aroma fades away, and all that remains is the natural taste of Virginia. It is a strong tobacco that tastes real good, and the Perique just adds a spicy note, without bothering me at all, as I am not a big fan of it. A big disadvantage of this mixture though is how it lights up. It is very difficult, and equally hard is to keep it lit for long, especially if you fill the bowl with whole pieces that you haven’t rubbed or cut into cubes. I will keep the second tin, that my good friend “Hetfield” brought me, and smoke it after 2-3 years. I’m sure that the results will be more than impressive.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Bluenoser	10/02/2010	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!!
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DK	08/11/2010	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.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
vaperfavour	05/29/2010	Strong	None detected	Very Full	Very Pleasant
Delicious! The tobacco is a little young and a little too moist, but in years to come this will develop wonderfully. It is very good now but i have a feeling this will be 5 stars with age. I taste all sorts of things in this. It is very complex and delicious.Strong perique at first, then once your palate settles down all sorts of tastes come out, lavender, sunflower seed, corn oil, pepper. I think I am in love!! Thank you McClelland!!
Showing reviews 1 through 9 of 9 reviews of this tobacco