Four of five stars

Although this is not my first choice in Oriental Blends, I have found a BIG difference between smoking a tin from this year and a tin from 1996.

Overall, I find this blend to be a middle of the road for this genre, tasty, smooth, seldom needing a re-light. The latakia is in a good proportion, not top heavy like many English Blends.

Rich, satisfying, burns to grey/white ash without heel moisture. The flavor is consistent throughout the run of the bowl. Slightly sweet in the beginnig, with spice infiltrating on the way down the bowl.

Just a nice smoke.

Because this blend is so mild and unflavorful, I am afraid I tugged too strongly on my Moretti Dublin and paid a horrible price - tongue bite -- which, for me anyway, is quite rare.

The leaf here is broken up like a puzzle with different sized and shaped pieces everywhere. Once I got the stuff packed properly (no small task), it then put up a struggle when I tried to light it. All this work for a fried mouth - oh joy!

Anyway, should a light, semi-sweet and scorching Oriental flavor be your cup of tea, then you will be delighted with Oriental #14.

I have decided to christen this flavor of English blend DirtSugar.

The sweetness just makes you want to keep puffing more and more. I had no difficulty with bite or over heating.

A highly recommened blend.

This blend tends to bite if not smoked carefully and could use more latakia. It's just that there are a lot of other blends available by McClelland like the Frog Morton blends and #2045 that I can't justify purchasing this again.

I did receive comments from the wife that it smelled good.

It's no mystery to most folks that McClelland produces a fine tobacco. For those looking for a good balkan type blend, look no further...this is a superb choice. The flavor is rich and satifying from beginning to end. The balance of oriental, latakia and virginia makes for a most pleasurable smoke. You'll find nothing overbearing in this blend, and once the bowl is finished, those turkish taste buds will cry for more. To top it off....this blend has good lighting and burning qualities..... all of which makes for a tobacco that one can definitely be loyal to.

The tin aroma is quite sweet and caused by the rich virginias in this mixture. While it claims to be heavy on latakia, the initial and consistent taste from 14 is a sweet, robust virginia flake.

14 is a wonderful, powerful, delicious English. Those of you who like Dunhill's Nightcap will enjoy this. It's in the same vain: an English mixture heavy on the taste of dark virginia. For those of you who prefer C&D: God help you.

ngandhi

Packs easily... Can't complain about that. I lit 'er up with my Prometheus torch, and puffed away. It wasn't long before I had to re-light it again, but that's okay.

It's a little on the spicy side, but otherwise quite mild, and there's no better word for it than "slightly unusual." I'm not used to this kind of blend, but it wasn't bad.

Deeper into the smoke, the spiciness gets a bit sharper, and honestly, I didn't care to finish it. Otherwise, I'm glad I smoked it, but wouldn't be terribly excited to have another go at it.

I did bite the hell out of my tongue with this, and so I would suggest airing it out first. Towards the end, though, you can blow pretty good smoke rings if you want. It's pretty damned thick.

Physical Characteristics: a variety of shapes and sizes to the individual pieces in this blend, ranging from larger dark broken flake pieces of matured virginias to smaller ribbon cut orientals, spaning the whole spectrum of tans and light browns.

Notes: The 100g tin of this I smoked had been aged for three years before I opened it. A little trouble getting it lit, but that is my cross to bear. I prefer my tobacco dry to the point of no return, so your mileage may vary, as they say. A musty, 'dry' taste pervades the first half of the bowl, giving way in the second half to a spicy, sweet flavor, but it comes with a price. The flavor does deepen into a classic (to me anyway) Oriental taste, but I had to pay particular care not to burn my tongue. During a few bowlfuls it felt as if I was playing hide and seek with the tongue bite demon. I find it very distracting to have to pay such careful attention to my smoking technique that a quarter bowl can pass without me enjoying the taste, concentrated as I am on not damaging my taste buds.

Verdict: Not a very complex blend, and probably not going to see regular rotation at my house.

Appearance: It's mostly chopped dark brown and black tobacco with a few strings of lighter Virginias running through it. There are dense chunks that remind me of McClelland's #2035, and a nice helping of Latakia.

Packing and Lighting: Since this mixture reminds me of a tobacco available locally called "T's Special English" (supposedly a house mixture), I anticipated a similar burn and packed it in my Savinelli Autograph. It packs easily in the slightly conical bowl and should burn cool and smooth in this wonderful pipe.

It was just a little difficult to light, but once it gets lit it seems to burn quite well. The initial flavor is very subdued, and slightly earthy and musty - not at all what I was anticipating. It tastes a little peppery and blowing smoke out of my nose increases that little sensation quite nicely.

Exposition: As the burn settles in, so does the flavor; this is very mild compared to what I smelled in the pouch. It's a nice morning smoke so far, as the sweetness is only a background for the spicy Orientals and some rather nice Latakia. My only problem is that it falls into a taste category which is better filled for me by "T's Special English".

The Story: Approaching the middle of the bowl, I've been constantly fighting with tongue bite. I think this is due to the cut, as I prefer tobaccos either more finely cut like #965 or flakes and plugs. This feels like it wants to go out on me, and I think I overcompensate by puffing just a little too hard.

The flavor is deepening and losing sweetness - it's earthy and spicy now, and I think I can see where the flavor is headed. The bottom of the bowl should be quite tasty if this keeps up!

One thing I like about this tobacco is the smoke density. A couple of short puffs brings me enough smoke to blow big, thick grey rings which hang in the air quite nicely.

Denoument: OK, here at the bottom of the bowl I'm finding a lot of earthy Oriental flavor; the sweetness seems to have gone away completely. It's a nice cap-off, providing quite a bit if fullness if I blow the smoke out of my nose or french inhale lightly.

Pros: Smoky and spicy, this is a nice full-flavored tobacco that is light in nicotine content. The flavors alter in interesting ways as it is smoked down, and it gives generous quantities of thick smoke to play with. Also, despite my suspicions to the contary, it burns quite easily to the bottom with few relights.

Cons: I had trouble with bite, and the lack of complexity. It was decent enough to smoke but I doubt I'd go out of my way to get more. Well, unless someone else would smoke the first half of every bowl for me, that is.