This tinned premium is too expensive for the strong aroma to be ignored. There are too many other good - by comparisons, great - blends for the money.

If you are considering trying this blend and are a fan of something on the level of Rattray's Black Mallory, then try regular Frog Morton instead. That blend has true beauty without a prohibitive amount of stink (but it's faintly there).

All share similar characteristics. They all smoke much better in corn cobs than they do in briar. They are all soggy with humectant. They are all beginners' smokes.

FM was mild, smoky latakia with chocolate flavor. FMOTT was very mild latakia with a creamy caramel flavouring. FMOTB is a four-star blend that I am hoarding to smoke in my cobs, a true delight.

This? Eh? A failure. The worst of the line. No flavour. Maybe it does have Syrian latakia. Whatever. It still sucks.

Four stars!

When I had my 5 year old son smell to the tobacco (he's really in to daddy's pipes) he said it "smells like a burrito." LOL! Anyway, the proportioned dose of Syrian latakia plays well with the Virginia and Orientals. There is a nice balance of sweet, smokey, and a little spicy. I don't think this would be an all day smoke for most people, but it is a good everyday or almost everyday smoke.

BTW, this is a great blend for breaking in pipes (which I previously struggled with), as it leaves good cake, and is easy to smoke to the bottom. The smoke is pretty consistent throughout the bowl.

It's a very mild blend that is a break from heavier Latakia blends and for those who don't like blends like Dunhill's My Mixture 965 because its's too heady and robust.

Thick, wide, rough-cut ribbon which is sticky when new. Using fingertip concentrations and gravity makes it easy to pack. The brown predominates the black tobacco.

Using new tobacco, it leaves moisture in the pipe, with gurgle in the bowl. Something in the FM series keeps the Frogs from drying out-left uncovered, it doesn't dry quickly. When allowed to dry, it filled the room with that "ketchup-clove" smell. This was done for several hours and it became fairly, maybe half, dry, and still required a bit of frantic puffing to keep it lit. That way, the tobacco tended to burn all the way to the bottom with one relight.

FMATP is a "remarkably cool-smoking" tobacco that non-smokers would not find much to object to. It does not have a strong taste or aroma. Is this a Latakia blend? Where's the Latakia? There is a touch of sweet, creamy, light-brown Syrian Latakia with black stoved VA.

There is an initial sweetness of cavendish, then a smokey spiciness of Syrian Latakia mid-bowl, but not a lot of this taste or aroma. It has such a sweet taste, it may have been sweetened, with the Latakia providing a nice, low, smokey effect. It is much sweeter than FM.

FMATP has a rather sweet, carmel taste and aroma, tempered with soft, smokey Syrian Latakia.

There is not much to the room note, leaving a subtle woodsy and sweet raisin scent. The mildness would indeed make it an everyday smoke.

The nicotine content is low, and like FM, I got little tongue bite, but rather mild lip scour.

The flavor of this blend is defined by the latakia and the virginias, with the orientals intermittently appearing. Seemingly cased in molasses, this casing renders the blend quite sweet and smoothes out the edges. It smokes very cool.

Frog Morton Across the Pond is very rich and flavorful and possesses a certain monotone simplicity. This works well in a chamber of any gauge.

I know some people don't like the McClelland Syrian blends because the virginias, they say, are too strong and take away from the orientals (if and when they are present) and the latakia. Granted, these are not English or Balkan blends in any recognizable form. However, judged as virginias and Va/Per's with condimental leaf added, I think they are interesting and pleasant.

This one, at first (smokes 1-8), reminded me of the Syrian Super Balkan (again, admittedly misnamed) that I smoked a couple of years ago. It was sweet, incredibly cool-burning, with a unique metalic tang which sometimes tasted like Worchestershire sauce.

Then, during smokes 9-14, it mellowed out to a uniform, almost monochromatic citrus flavor. Not my favorite at that point, and it sometimes gave me an upleasantly irritated throat. Maybe this was the flavoring some have noted.

Finally, in smokes 15-19, the sweetness came back accompanied only by a kind of flavor I can only describe as "toasty." Quite nice.

Of all the McClelland Syrians I've tried, I like this better than any of the others besides the "Super Balkan." FMATP is not good enough to break into my top five English blends, but still worth a try.

Enjoy while you can!

A cigarette is to be smoked. A cigar is to be enjoyed. A pipe is to be savored.

I rate this blend 7.8 out of 10.

Also, this is the only one of the Frog series that I got that McClelland ketchup smell from in the tin.