This was a very important time for me, because I have always been a tin-only man.

What a big mistake I made when I chose to go against my principles.I should have stuck to my guns and my years of experience that tried so hard to speak to me.

There is nice faint smell from the pouch, but the contents of the tobacco is flat and unimpressive. The room note was not very bad, but also not very good.

If you asked my opinion on the matter, I would say not to go after this brand. You'd thank me later.

- it is known as the roughest and "pop" tobacco of all the "historic" ones on italian market... -my beloved grandpa, now gone, use to smoke tons of this when i was a kid and its room note makes me think of those times....

After all I can't really understand what kinda floreal-candylike flavour they may have used to case this but it's weird...I can't taste any perique in it but I do taste some smokey flavour maybe cause of kentucky.

Weird. weird, weird but I smoked worse ones. That peasant tavern room note, I just can't forget...

After feeding long straggely ribbons into your pipe, you'll be rewarded with a bizarrely perfumed aroma.

Anyone close to you will comment on the lovely smell, but you won't hear them as you'll be too busy trying to work out what the hell you've just put in your pipe. You could almost believe this was developed in an organic chemistry lab staffed by non-smokers who'd looked up pipe tobacco on wikipedia.

I find myself buying it on occassion just to remind myself why I don't buy it.

On every rational measure this should be a one star.

But I guess the British eccentric pipe smoking uncle character is a market segment too, and I'm giving this an extra star to reward Theodorus Niemeyer for considering them.

Now, I used to positively loathe Clan, partly because it smokes far too quickly, and partly because I didnt like the taste. However, 10 years after last trying it, I've bought several pouches over the last month, and find it to be much better than I remembered.

Best thing about it is the pretty full, woody aroma. I now find I can also smoke pipeful after pipeful with absolutely no bite. And it doesn't irritate my throat, nor make me feel as if my lungs are going to give out (what a plus, eh!) Worst thing about Clan is that it does burn too fast, so that you finish a bowl in no time.

Now view it as a very acceptable in-between smoke, when I don't have the opportunity to get hold of something with more quality.

I have smoked it in the past, during my first years. I keep the memory of a long cut shag that did not taste anything.

After all these years, I can say that Clan is not that bad, after all. Not, by far, a memorable tobacco, but I have certainly smoked a lot worse.

This mixture displays a combination of very long cut multi-coloured leaf. This is not a shag cut anymore.

The pouch aroma is sweet and slightly smoky.

Ironically, you need to be an experienced smoker, pace yourself and dedicate your total attention to Clan to be able to get any flavour out of it without ending up with major tongue bite.

The taste is of a mild, tyoical Danish CA with just a touch of smokiness. I can't say that I taste the perique, oriental or kentucky.They must be in very light condimental proportions.

Nothing grand, but I did somehow enjoy the experience. I will certainly smoke it occasionnaly and finish my two pouches.

Comes in a green tartan pouch design in 50g and 25g i think..

Pouch aroma: Earthy and slight caramel casing..

Appearance in pouch: Crimpled ribbons,feels dry but smokes moister.

Pipe used: Peterson rustic bent apple 303.

It smokes ok out of the packet but would benefit from a little drying out,,i used a pipe zippo to light it..

This didn't seem to bite and i don't remember any real soap factor in this,and if there was it hasen't left a memorable impression.

It being mild left no ghosting in my pipe either..

To describe the baccy it had a mono but consistant taste;considering the amount of alleged ingredients within,none of them stand out - you get a rounded average taste,,,mild i suppose,,,slightly woody,,,a light wood..

Its a dry taste perhaps like a stronger rollup tobacco,,the closest comparison would be to "samson" rollup ,but stronger.. A few people i know make roll ups with this as well..

So it is slightly cigarette-ish and has a dry taste;to describe it alegorically its like smoking card,,like the cardboard of a box that had contained toffee's,,,;imagine a box that has had some toffee's in it which is empty & you sniff the box & then lick it(like when you was a kid and wanted some more),,it tastes like that basically;toffee aromatic sweetened cardboard box..

Its alright but nothing special;it tasted ok in a briar as well(i only use clays these days),,it may taste better in a clay but i don't know..

Not bad for a drug store brand but for an extra possible £1 i can buy more interesting and enjoy it better..

A semi aromatic OK for someone trancending cigarettes - it won't put them off..It has due to its mildness the ability to be an all dayer smoke as well..

The room note is ok,its OK for a pipe smell..

If i had to purchase a british newsagent pipe tobacco and erinmore was not on the shelf i would purchase Clan..(erinmore although a semi OTC, is in a class as good as anything which is harder to aquire,,i even order it on line)

Its not a complicated smoke and doesn't say much;its a brand that one of my dads work colleagues used to smoke in a falcon pipe,,it reminds me of a workmans smoke rather than a conneseur(can never spell it)choice..

For a toffee-ish aromatic i would smoke this over petersons "sweet killarney" which was an untameable biter,although i am sure there are better toffee aromatics about(i don't really smoke aromatics anymore)..

UPDATE 17/06/2012

My first review obove was written from vague memories,but i have recently revisited this OTC as part of my small OTC odyssey.

The words "over the counter" ant the term OTC became for some reason a dirty word which was due to my pipe snobbery at the time of being spoiled by harder to aquire brands with elaborate preparation techniques.

Butterscotch pouch aroma,medium aromatic.

Having tried a fair amount of tobacco archetypes now,my palette has developed and i can detect more nuances,and also my quantity of pipes in my collection and experience of matching the best combinations of draught hole and smoke tube diameters,bowl profiles, and system pipes to different types and blends for dedicated usage pipes:I am now bumping this one up to three stars because it is such an easy to live with semi aromatic baccy(an aromatic with serious base tobaccos).

It sure has a kitchen sink of ingredients,but i now find it interesting for this factor because down the bowl i get so many hints and its a real transformer.

A semi aromatic/english/burley/virginia/oriental/latakia,a unique enigma of a medium/mild easy OTC ,everyday ,allday, smoke.

Smoked in a curved multipurpose stem falcon pipe with large 'instanbul rustic bowl(falcons being my best performing pipe since retiring my old clays because i initially wasn't getting on well with my first briar endevours(i was over using them and not rotating))i am getting a better cleaner open taste and have realised that i judged this blend too early and didn't know what i was really tasting,my comparations to cardboard was because i was used to full aromatics and not real tobacco yet.

To the uninitiated it might seem a bit cardboardish(but i could say worse of my better tobaccos when veiwing through the impression of a neophites ignorance)but to a veteran pipe smoker it may seem underwhealming compared to more robust heavyweights and sits in an awkward middle ground of judgement.

Taken for what it is, it is certainly unique enough to deserve a permanent place in my rotation and the fact that i can almost get it anywhere means its worth more in the longrun and will likely be around when other names of prestige seem to disapear.

A spicey sweetish smokey smoke,cinnamon,nutmeg,peppery,caramel,granny fruit cake nuances in an aromatic sence,probably a combination taste of all baccies combined with a light topping.

The topping or light casing remains with the tobacco and isn't a fader.

Tastes overall like a sun cured/toasted impression.

First light is a little spikey but it settles into a neutral PH balancs quickly.

Medium light nicotine but satisfying and ok for bigger bowls,i can tolerate large bowls without tiring and its as easy as sucking a butterscotch sweet and becomes an auto pilot smoke that doesn't demand attention.

Its a crinkly ribbon cut which when removed from the pouch expands like hellfire and i need two regualar kilner jars to jar it.

It contains all ingediants but none stand out too boldly to over power,its like a balanced house party of many familier guests tasted in alternating combinations that you wouldnt necessarily think of.Sweet and savoury yet composed but complex and interesting if you can penetrate the combined overal surface.

I will purchase again.

It has to be just right out of the bag: too dry, and it burns like grass. Too wet, and you will struggle to keep it lit, and it will shred your tongue. Okay, I know this is the case with all tobaccos, but it seems more critical in the case of Clan. Get it right, then Clan offers a lot as an everyday smoke: easy to pack and light, easy to smoke, even burn, straitforward, with a bit of a nicotine kick.

Solid, run-of-the-mill stuff, not too sweet, and certainly nothing to get excited about. A tobacco for the masses.

The taste is very mild with hardly anything there at all. it smoked very hot and very quick. Closest thing to cigarette tobacco on the market, not great in a pipe. Avoid and get something decent instead.

Packet smell: aromatic heathery, herby with touch of pine forest.

Taste & flavour: similar to it's fragrance, aromatic, heathery, herby, touch of resinous pine trees with a hint of liquorice at the end. Can be a bit sickly, so smoke in moderation. Mr Brog no47 has a small bowl size, so no problem there.

Room note: Pleasurable and fragrant.

A dessert smoke as opposed to something like St Bruno, which is more meaty and savoury in nature.

I see that this tobacco has had a lot of negative reviews. But I like it and I have not once had tongue bite, not one bit. After reading all the bad reviews I can't be sure we're smoking the same tobacco because I think it's really good. Oh well, try it because like me you may enjoy it. But many people don't like it.

Well it burs easily, you can smoke full bowl without leaving any tobacco left easily. But be warned, smoke it calmly and you will get only small and somewhat enjoyable tongue bitting, but if you'll smoke "hardly" it will bite your tongue. I actually didn't found any kind of flavoring in it, its just plain simple tobacco, you may taste it like a cigarette. It is strong by the way by nicotine level.

My personal rating would be 6 from 10 (but ONLY as non-aromatic kind of tobacco).

Because I enjoy cigars I want my pipe tobacco to have flavor. This would have been a good blend for me if it had much more flavor.

I started the pipe again about a year ago, having tried initially in 1983 at the age of 18. This time round - largely thanks to sites like this one - I've worked out how to smoke propely.

Clan was the second tobacco I tried in 1983, and I remember it as having quite an earthy aroma in the packet. Having bought a packet last week I was looking forward to a Proustian moment of rememberance when I opened it. I was disappoinhted: the smell was different from what I was anticipating. Has it really changed from the old days or is it just me that has changed?

I had low expectations of the smoke because of this (and because of the many poor reviews by others), but I have to say that after 4 bowls it isn't actually that bad. Certainly I found that it had less bite than - say - Macbaren Navy Flake.

I'd be very interested to hear from others as to whether Clan 2010 is significantly different from Clan 1983.

If its negative qualities are as widely known as it would seem, the Aberystwyth tobacconist that recommended Clan to me when I back in the olden days bought my first pipes may well even have wanted to deter me from pursuing my smoking whish. Nonetheless standing on Constitution hill, looking down on the Irish Sea and smoking a bowl of Clan started my passion for the pipe. And still I fancy a whiff of that stuff now and then (though my taste has taken rather different paths since then).

The pouch aroma is very similar to Sail Green.

The comparison with Sail stops here. The taste is bland because of the shag cut.

And the nicotine level is zero.

New pipe smokers- I don't recommend going down this route; even if you're starting with aromatics, better things are available.