McClelland - 221b Series: Honeydew pipe tobacco reviews

Review

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Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
< PREVIOUS Showing reviews 41 through 58 of 58 reviews of this tobacco
Devonshire	09/07/2005	Mild	Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
An even, steady tobacco that doesn't really stand out. Its a good, traditional flavour, but I was looking for more of a honeydew taste. I would recommended Orlick's mild honeydew over this.
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Lochinvar	08/18/2005	Mild	Mild	Mild	Pleasant
WARNING! This is not a Virginia Flake! It is a Honeydew! Now that we got that out of the way, this is a fine example of an Irish honeydew. The Virgina tobacco has a additive, that gives a more syrupy sweet flavor to the already nutty sweet Virginias (this is the Irish style, the English and Continental Style are not quite so cloying). This particular example always puts me in mind of a sweet corn pudding. Smoke if Viriginias are not sweet enough.
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Spike	06/12/2005	Medium	Mild	Medium	Tolerable
It took a while to get the hang of this tobacco. A small bowl, lots of time to smoke very slowly. This method yielded a very tasty smoke. Earlier attempts were less sucessful. Especially while driving, I think the stress of dealing with freeway driving causes rapid or too deep draws on the pipe and unleashes a harsh and even sour taste. When you have the time to do it right, this is a 3 star smoke. If you are in a hurry skip this blend. Update: 6/12/2005- There are too many tasty Virginias available to waste time on this. Two and one-half stars.
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RCUSElder	05/18/2005	Medium	Very Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
Revised 05-17-2005 This is an OK Va flake. After trying many other fine VA's, I just can't smoke this anymore. I guess it might be a nice novelty from time to time, but my taste has travelled elsewhere. It does have a nice room note though.
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Darth 69	01/04/2005	Medium to Strong	Mild to Medium	Medium	Pleasant
THIS IS GOD AWFUL!!!! I am sorry to say but I think McClelland keeps missing the mark on new blend developments. Most of thier blends, especially thier flakes reek of vinegar. I guess it is thier theme. That smell is there to but with an added twist of an addition of a sweetener to a blend of golden brown virgina broken flake. It creates a sort of power play between the vinegary tang and the syrupy sweatness analogous to a sweet and sour dish at a chinease restaurant. It is called Honeydew but it sure does not taste like it was flavored with honey. In fact it tastes like the cheap syrupy sugar sweetness found in generic cavendish. This simply does not work. -Not recommended
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Montague	11/06/2004	Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium	Pleasant
Honeydew is McClelland's third installment within the 221B series and is aptly described by the blender as being a subtly sweet, fragrant flake tobacco in the Irish tradition. The aroma of this blend upon opening is light and is reminiscent of sweet biscuit cookies with brown sugar and molasses-like undertones. It is very pleasant indeed. Honeydew is a Virginia dominated tobacco blend with a slight topping that is most likely honey. The color of Honeydew is a handsome caramel/brown with hints of golden/yellow showing through. Honeydew possesses a coarse broken flake cut and the blend rubs out without much effort. Honeydew is slightly moist but can be easily brought to the correct moisture level with some drying. McClelland?s Honeydew lights well and has the ability to burn to the bottom of the pipe bowl. The blend?s light room note is similar to the aroma of baking bread and is quite agreeable. Honeydew has a mild to medium taste that is flavorful yet not overbearing like many heavy-handed aromatics. While the Honeydew pipe blend does possess an aromatic sweetness, it also has a true bright tobacco leaf taste as well. Honeydew can bite, but slow and steady draws greatly minimize this bite and helps yield the best flavors the blend has to offer. McClelland?s Honeydew is not necessarily an aromatic blend but rather a Virgina tobacco that happens to have some beneficial characteristics of an aromatic tobacco blend. A great blend to smoke during breakfast time.
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BostonPipe	07/12/2004	Mild to Medium	Mild	Mild	Pleasant
A friend of mine had asked me to pick him a tin of this blend my next trip into Boston to see my tobacconist, L.J.'s. Needless to say, upon giving him the tin he insisted on my taking some to sample. Well, now I find myself having to plan a trip into Boston again this week. After several months of being on a "Gawith Binge", this blend was a totally unexpected wonderful change of pace. Much like the Gawith blends, the flavoring in this blend accentuates the high quality tobacco and never overpowers them. Unlike Gawith, the mildness of this blend is refreshing and a nicotine "zoning-out" does not occur, which I find is often the case with the Gawith's. This is a gentle, kind, blend with a consistent taste down the run of the bowl. A pleasant, slight sweetness that resounds through the experience and left this smoker wanting more, (hence the road-trip tomorrow, lol). I pack the blend unbroken and rub out just a little to top it off, to assist in lighting. One false-light, a tamp, relight, and I am off to some quality downtime. A very nice experience, recommended.
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chaplikc	07/10/2004	Mild to Medium	Very Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
I enjoy this when I am in the mood for a light sweet virginia blend. This is sweeter than the tin aroma may lead you to believe. There may be a light honey topping but I think the sweetness mostly comes from the virginias. Even though this is a virginia blend I believe that there may be a small portion of burley in this in that on occasion I detected low notes that were cigar like. I may be wrong on this but I am a fan of virginia based blends with very small portions of burley and many of these style of blends have a very similar low note that occasionally comes through that straight virginia blends dont have. I prefer to smoke this dried out much more than the way it comes in the tin. It bites less smoked this way, however it still will bite with out much provocation. For this reason I give it 3 stars and not the highest rating. Recommended.
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Darwin	04/25/2004	Mild	Medium	Medium	Tolerable
I am a McClelland VA lover, but this is just too sweet for me; I find it cloying. McClelland VAs are naturally sweet, so there is no need for further topping. I will struggle to finish my tin. However, Honeydew might be fine for an aromatic smoker looking to try a Virginia. The base tobacco is high quality and the burn is excellent.
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Pipestud	04/25/2004	Extremely Mild	Mild	Extremely Mild (Flat)	Pleasant
Hot and sweet air in a can.
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Tantric	04/07/2004	Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
Finally a McClelland I can enjoy! No tongue burning, not the faintest acidic undertone, this tobacco is, to say the least, commendable. Smooth and gentle, it nevertheless retains enough body and tobacco complexion to make it enjoyable, and due to the cut and preparation, it is long lasting, consistent and well behaved. The subtle sweetness and rich flavor are NOT the result of an artificial casing or topping, but of the honeydew ?process?, that is, a means of preparing and maturing the pipe tobacco leaf (by the same token, Cavendish is not a tobacco, but a form of leaf processing), that allows the natural sugars, oils and resins to combine and ferment in such a way they provide a deep and rich bitter-sweetness, in this case to Virginia leaf, and a uniform reddish-brown hue to the flake. There are other similar tobaccos out there, like Gallaher?s Rich Dark Honeydew, J. Fox?s Honeydew Aromatic or Clan Shaw?s Honeydew Cavendish, and they all have this deep rich flavor, slightly sweet and toasted. McClelland?s Honeydew vaguely reminds me of Deep Hollow. But where Deep Hollow is bland and undefined in terms of flavor, strength and structure, Honeydew is unambiguously intricate and dense, yet mellow and temperate. It is an excellent option for those seeking to leave behind artificially aromatic blends, and a great introduction to pipe smoking in general.
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Horse Bodotes	01/27/2004	Mild	Very Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
This one caught me completely by surprise. I am not a fan of aromatics in general, but when a friend offered me a tin curiosity got the better of me. I like the cut, color and smell of the leaf in the can. The semi-rubbed leaf has a wonderful color and looks quite rich, and the smell is earthy and fragrant. The topping is very lightly detectable, but not at all unpleasant. A little on the moist side, but nothing that a day or so of drying out won't cure. So far, so good. Upon lighting, the taste and aroma is that of a good Virginia plus the slight fruity addition of the topping. Contrary to my expectations, I find that the topping adds some depth to the blend. The tobacco is easy to light and tends to stay lit even when moving about. The flavor stays fairly consistant throughout the bowl; slightly stronger and less sweetness towards the finish. I started by fully rubbing out the coarse cut leaf, and I still do occasionally for a smoother smoke. But now I mostly pack the leaf as it comes out of the can or only slightly rubbed. I think that it smokes a bit better sweeter and holds a light better this way. This is a wonderful blend to smoke while up and about. I often light up Honeydew while tending to the Barbeque or walking the dogs. This blend has changed my (formerly) solid resistance to aromatics. No, I'm not going to give Blue Note another try, but I do enjoy this mild Virginia blend.
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Danno	12/16/2003	Medium	Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant
I am just getting 'round to a review for Honeydew. A friend passed over the last half of a tin, which I polished off in good time. I purchased another, which sat for a few months, then was smoked over a week, finishing up today. This tobacco is a rough cut, very pretty in the tin, not much "ketchup" aroma, more peppery to my nose, very "irish flakeish". Lightup is rather uneventful, frail wisps of smoke give way to a gentle taste experience. It certainly is a competent cake builder, and smacks of a quality blend of virginias, mostly sweet but not offputting to the non-aromatic crowd. Room note is pleasant, albeit heavy. I like this blend the most of the Baker St trio, it being welcome reprieve to my latakia inured palate. I will cellar a few tins.
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Blackhorse	10/29/2003	Medium	Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
I was very pleasantly surprised. This is the first McClelland flake tobacco I?ve tried that is light enough for a breakfast or brunch smoke. I could detect a light topping in the tin aroma?some say honey?it doesn?t remind me of the melon honeydew aroma, but it?s light enough so that I can?t fully get a handle on it - enough to tag it. Neither can I detect it much in the taste of the smoke, but others near me can and several have commented as to it?s lovely quality: ?"like pumpkin bread baking"?"it reminds me of when I was a child and my mother used to bake cookies, and the like"?that from a woman at work. It?s always amazing how powerfully evocative an aroma can be. I was near a hero to that lady, as she walked around with a warm and dear memory for the rest of the day. Be that as it may, this tobacco parts, packs and puffs very nicely and has a fine medium taste. It seems to me to be one of those rare tobaccos (to me NOT an aromatic, per se) in which the light flavoring makes the smoking experience infinitely better than if it were not present. It works with and compliments the tobacco instead of frosting it like a layer of mud. I like this very much as I?m now exploring other light flakes such as Astley?s 109, Dan Pipe?s Hamborger Veermaster, Reiner?s Long Golden Flake, Bjarne?s Flake de Luxe and the like. They all fall into a category to me that is labeled: Excellent Smoking Experience! This is a 4 out of 5.
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Stan	09/26/2003	Medium	Mild	Medium	Pleasant
This is a very pretty broken flake in the tin. Neatly arranged, like little golden bricks. Enough for aesthetics already, but an admirable arrangement. No need to rub out much if at all. Unlike the other 221B series, which are very cool english/virginia blends, this is a bright flake. The flavoring, honey or whatever, is light and it enhances the natural sweetness of the bright virginia leaf used. A very nice, dry smoke for a scented flake. But very tasty and sweet. They say Irish flavors, which may sound like it is in competition with Erinmore Flake, but this blend does not have that level of intensity in sweetness or flavors. More body (and flavor) than Germain's Medium Flake but not as cool as Dunhill's Light Flake. All in all, a delightfully, sweet smoke. It burns steady once you accomplish the initial surfacing lighting. However, a warning. Don't break it up much, smoke slowly in a medium bowl, and don't rush doing things while your puffing this one, or else it can nip and get hot. A few smokers have complained about the potential heat, and with reason as this is a bright virginia flake, but you can control it by a very deliberate puffing or sipping pace. This is a quality, aged blend. It burns well, so don't fear it going out. But you want it to stay relatively cool so you can enjoy the flavors. It is not as hot as some other bright virginias which I can't control as well, but I can only smoke a bowl a day of this. (The tobacco stayed fresh the three weeks in the tin while I smoked it occasionally.) I don't know if more aging will cure that potential problem, but you can control it pretty much on you own. A unique blend for a golden virginia, and I liked it but not all of the time. It's worth a try and a tin or two in the cellar, like me.
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NEWMAN	09/25/2003	Mild to Medium	Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
This nicely prepared mix of medium brown VAs is in my view a partially rubbed out flake rather than a course cut. I packed all bowl sizes without any further rubout and a cool, sweet and effortless smoke resulted. The tin aroma had only the slightest hint of the typical McClelland vinegar and it and the room aroma were most inviting. It's probably one of the better lightly aromatic VAs to smoke in consideration of others but lacks the punch of my preferred VA and VA/Perique blends. The light casing did not overpower the tobacco taste but was tastefully present in the background and faded as the smoke progressed. If you're in search of a milder VA flake, give this new release from this renowned blender a try.
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David Cimino	08/30/2003	Mild to Medium	Very Mild	Mild	Pleasant
This is a light tobacco that is good as an early morning smoke or an all day blend. It smokes smooth and cool. Don't let the name "Honeydew" scare you if your hesitant about aromatics. The flavoring has been applied with with reserve. It has a great tin aroma and room note, but again the flavoring is delicate and remains subtly in the background. It smokes well all the way down the bowl and becomes a little more medium bodied and flavorful as the bowl progresses. Overall I think McClelland has done a fine job with this much anticipated blend. If you like this blend, you may want to try Peterson Irish Whiskey.
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SFC/E7	08/19/2003	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium	Pleasant
This is another first for me with McClelland's 221B Series Honeydew. The tobacco has a mild aroma upon opening the tin, the cut is a Flake and needs to be rubbed out a little. The taste is not a sweet aromatic like one would be lead to believe by the name of Honeydew. This one could nip your tongue a bit if not smoked like a Virginia, the gentleness is there if one will take their time and smoke it slow. Honeydew presents itself IMHO as a satisfying tobacco in the Irish traditionand with a delightful aroma, and a subtle sweetness as the tobacco slowly blends the fragrant of the flake into one enjoyable gratifying taste. Smoke it Slow, Enjoy it Longer
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