McClelland - Craftsbury Series: Virginia Woods pipe tobacco reviews

Review

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Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Showing reviews 1 through 20 of 60 reviews of this tobacco NEXT >
Hurrian	05/24/2013	Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Pleasant

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Uban	04/14/2013	Medium to Strong	Extremely Mild	Full	Pleasant
Just cracked a tin marked 00 & lit up straightaway to break in a new pipe - Hilson Jr Extra, NOS, 14 mm long, 40 mm high, 17 mm bowl, 30 mm outside (thick wall). Great Va flavor, slight grassiness, rich base notes, mildly sweet & cool. Has aged superbly & has absolutely no bite. Delightful.
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BurleyTwirp	03/12/2013	Very Mild	Strong	Very Mild	Tolerable
very disappointed and confused. it has an overly-artificial top flavor. Similar to a captain black offering. Not quite as prevalent, but present enough to be an absolute turnoff to anyone who dislikes the artificial and chemically taste of that style of aromatic. BE WARNED! check out some of the older reviews of this blend, and you'll find several others who feel the same way. One reviewer mentions a very wet bowl post-smoke. Another clear indication of too much chemical additive. You'd think McClelland knows their audience. I don't know what they were thinking with this one.
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CoolPilot	12/01/2012	Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
A spicey blend, with a sour taste, quite particular. Maybe too sour for my own preferences, but a nice smoking all the way. I would rate it 2 and a half stars..
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Ted Bratton	10/09/2012	Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
Wonderful and pleasant tobacco. Very light body in the mouth but full of flavor in the nose! Fruity, lightly sweet, lightly barbeque, lightly vinegar/sweet&sour. Suprisingly complex for such a mild blend. Behaves perfect. If you enjoy Orlik Golden or red virginia dominated blends, you will almost certainly like this. If you like latakia or stoved tobacco in your virginia blends, you will like this. If you only enjoy perique heavy virginia blends, this will probably not be your favorite. If you can't stand McClelland's standard 'topping', then you will not enjoy this. Fantastic recommendation as a first tobacco as well!
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Virginia lover	02/05/2012	Mild to Medium	None detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
Tin marked 07. The preservative smell is light and the tobacco is quite moist upon opening. Another variation on matured Virginia tobacco ribbon cut. A very good winter smoke, burns well from the newly opened tin. I will dry the tin for a few weeks to see how this works out. Update After some drying, this tobacco delivers a nice flavor that is malty with some fig finishing. It is one smooth smoke that is not overly sweet. As for the woodsy aroma, I might be confusing it for the malty taste, of course I am a Latakia smoker as well so that would play tricks on my taste buds.
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Hash	10/08/2011	Mild	Very Mild	Mild to Medium	Tolerable
This is a nice smoke. I could see me buying more of it for the winter. I kind of taste the ketchup steak sauce taste lightly in the first half of the bowl. only get the slightest woods aroma every once in while. i have changed this from 3 to 4 stars. i have grown to really appreciate virginia woods
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Puffingstuff	08/02/2011	Very Mild	Extremely Mild	Mild	Pleasant to Tolerable
The tin I will rate is dated 06 on the bottom and it had turned almost brown from the smoke in my local tobaccnist's shop. I had tried Virginia Woods back in the late 1990's and was not to impressed, so I thought I would revisit the blend and see if my taste buds had changed. Opening the tin I did not smell the McClelland humidfier scent that some refer to as a Kethcup smell. I have smelled it in many other McClelland blends, but not this one. The smell is of mown hay and mellowing slightly fermented Virginia leaf. Lighting the blend was easy but it took a while to really get the taste going. After I let it settle down, the nice billowy smoke tasted of sweet murky Virginia and the nico was quite stimulating. Take it easy with this, don't rush it. This blend is delicious but I don't get the "woodys" aroma that is suppose to be there. Well done McClelland.
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Trippwire	07/24/2011	Mild	None detected	Medium	Tolerable
This is my first straight virgina, and I'm still not too sure about it. When I opened the tin I got the tomato sauce smell, and could taste it a little in the first few puffs. The strength of the tobacco builds the more I smoke it, the last bit is the best. I would describe this tobacco as high frequency, none of the earthy flavours here, just sweet and sharp. This could easily burn your toungue if you're not careful. I'm not sure if its this tobacco, or virginias in general, but although its good quality, this one is not for me.
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TK Pipe	04/21/2011	Mild	None detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
Virginia woods … Yet another fantastic Va. Smoke from McClelland, the likes of which few others seem to be able to match. No anise, harshness or soap here, just smooth, satisfying slightly sweet Virginias. One of my all time favorites. Four stars for sure.
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RyeWhiskey	02/08/2011	Mild to Medium	Mild	Medium	Very Pleasant
This is one of my favorites. When you open the tin, there is a very nice spicey type scent. Packing is easy, the tobacco was a bit damp out of the tin and it seems like it wouldn't stay lit but oddly enough it does. Tamping takes it to the bottom nicely, but for me it usually takes a one time stir to finish the rest. The room note lingers, and does indeed remind me of the some forgotten woods somewhere. It has a sweetness on the tongue and the tobacco taste is in the medium range compared to my stronger blends. I didn't get any tongue bite from the pipe and I puff in a fairly quick pace since I like a large amount of smoke wafting about. I could literally smoke Virginia Woods all day.
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Thwarp	01/14/2011	Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
Opening the tin took me back to younger days as a child around Thanksgiving or Christams time when homemade Minced meat pies were comming out of the oven. A tad bit of sweet & spicey and the tang of currant raisins , fruit and all those wonderful things they put in that pie came out of this tin and into my nose without McClelland intetntion to do so. As you can imagine that Minced meat is a very complex old fashioned pie so this smoke may seem complex but its not. Its sweet and mildly acidic (when compared to the acid of #27) at the same time and the two blend very well together to become one. Then theirs this nice mellow smokey quality to it that wraps this well bodied toby up nicely. Its definately worth trying to see if its for you.
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John Offerdahl	01/08/2011	Mild to Medium	None detected	Mild to Medium	Tolerable
Upon opening a tin of this, you immediately notice the typical McClelland acetic acid smell. As I’ve often said, don’t let it sway you! This tobacco is worth the time to smoke! Virginia Woods is a ribbon-cut darker blend of stoved Virginia, red Virginia, and bright Virginia tobaccos. There may be some sort of slight topping to it, because it is so sweet a smoke, though I can’t say for certain. I think it is a good tobacco to introduce the pleasures of Virginias to an aromatic smoker. Like a lot of Virginias, Virginia Woods is a little shy. But with patience, the real nuances and undertones of the flavor will come through after a few minutes. Puff gently, because it also can probably bite, as most any Virginia is likely to do. The tobacco lights easily, but the charring light will only act as that – to char the surface so that after a tamping the second match will really ignite the tobaccos. The burn is relatively clean, though I found I need a pipe cleaner a couple of times during a bowl. The further you smoke, the sweeter the flavor. The tobacco is a good one to DGT, and upon relight the flavor comes through rich and dark. There’s a good hint of the spiciness of Dark Star or 2035 here, but also the creamy smoothness of lighter Virginia tobaccos. Overall, this is a nice, mild smoke for a Virginia, with the good sweetness typical of the variety. I don’t keep it around all of the time, but if in a tobacco shop and I spot a tin I’m likely to buy it.
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Poppy	01/07/2011	Mild	Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant

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HappyOne	10/13/2010	Mild to Medium	Very Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
I wasn't sure what to expect with this one. It seems to occupy an area between a really nice aromatic and a high quality VA. It displays qualities of both but neither overpowers the other. Pleasantly balanced. I think I will buy some to lay down for a few years to see how it changes.
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strongirish	06/16/2010	Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
Well, this will be a review of two Virginia Woods! Why you ask, well because I came into a can of this from 1998 and to be fair in reviewing it, i also bought a can of fresh VW. It has to be two because with 13 years of age on it, this blend matures into a sweet mana that will just melt onto your taste buds. Wonderful stuff it is. But in smoking a new tin, it is still a great, non biting, smooth and creamy Va smoke with a touch of the woodsy aroma claimed on the can. So many other reviews of this blend they are calling it an aromatic, but I don't get that at all. What i get is the ketchup/vinegar typical of this brand and maybe, just maybe a sweet topping I can't place, but no more than a lot of other VA tobaccos, with only a few exceptions, all of them are cased. This tobacco has the MC aroma upon opening the tin, perhaps stronger than a lot of them. The tobacco is a wide ribbon cut in a reddish dark mix and it is somewhat moist. Even my tin of 13 year old is still moist. After letting it dry a few hours set out, I packed it into my pipe which it does easily, and lit it up. It took several tries to get it lit, but once lit it stayed that way only requiring one relight until the bottom of my pipe. It smokes nice and slow and smooth with no bite, and the taste is a sweet dark VA flavor with a pretty nice room note. It burns clean all the way down to a fine grey ash with almost no dottle at the bowls bottom. I find this to be a very pleasant smoke fresh, but aged, it really is fantastic. I am going to buy some more and put it into long term storage in my cellar. I highly recommend this aged, and still recommend it fresh as it's a very nice smoke.
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Davetopay	04/08/2010	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
Good stuff. Just not what I had hoped for. I wasn't expecting this nougat/maple/caramel candy coating. It reminded me of that Benjamin Hartwell Evening Stroll that Altadis makes, but with MUCH better tobacco to hold up the casing/flavoring. It smokes reasonably cool for a mostly VA ribbon cut blend, the VA notes are in there, just WAAAAYYYY down in there. The sweet spot for me has been just past the halfway point in the bowl. I am not going to swap it away, but I don't know if I'll seek it out again. Spring may just be the wrong time of year for me to smoke this as the flavor package makes me think of cooler weather. I will continue to revisit this as curiosity warrants and see what develops. I would certainly tell all the aromatic lovers who are looking for a more tobacco-y experience to check this out. ...for reference, this was a tin dated 2007. Your results may vary.
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Alguhan	09/26/2009	Mild to Medium	None detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
A very tasty tobacco as I expected from McClelland's Virginia blends. It has a natural sweet-sour (spicy?) tobacco flavor. I chared it and results were great. Burns very well, slow and cool. Smokes dry with a nice flavor balance. It is fruity tasty on the tongue and you can detect also the deep flavor of the stoved Virginia. Even if it has a long lasting smoke, which I like to enjoy a lot, my nicotine needs weren't satisfied. But no problem, I'll prepare another bowl with this sweet cookie quickly! An all day creamy smoke for me. I warmly recommend it for those who like enjoying natural tobacco flavor.
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DeadMensPipes	09/16/2009	Medium	Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
The appearance of Virginia Woods in the tin, and the tin note, reminded me of the blend, "Reserve 1928," which is private-label produced by McClelland for the Tinder Box stores (and retails for slightly less). The leaf and cut appear to be identical. I cannot quite describe what the scent is (caramel-like?), but it is very unique and not as pronounced in Virginia Woods as in 1928, but I'll bet it is the identical chemical, cure, or topping. And, it comes through in the smoke as well. You can still taste it in your mouth the next day, although it is a pleasant aftertaste. Although Virginia Woods does not require more than minimal relighting, the blend out of the tin is decidedly too moist. It starts out tasting sweet. No bite. But then started burning hot, and even when I was not puffing, the stuff made a "snap, crackle, pop" hissing sound in the bowl. I never was able to smoke it all the way to the end, as the last fifth of the bowl was soggy - not the fine grey ash associated with typical gourmet English blends. The batch of Virginia Woods I tried did not have that smooth, sweet taste I have enjoyed from other English blends, which I attribute to whatever flavoring or aroma has been infused in the curing process. It's not bad, mind you, just not the greatest. It's an okay smoke - way better than any drugstore blend. But, I would not go out of my way to order some again. Two-stars. UPDATE 04/09/2010: Put the snap-on plastic lid on the tin and let it sit for a few months on a bookshelf. The contents dried out a little. It made a big difference. Smokes much better. Whatever flavoring was added seemed to have disappeared. Mostly just tobacco taste/aroma. 06/09/2011: Sat in the tin for another year. Smoked clean, cool and dry to the bottom of the bowl. Not bad at all. I have to agree with Bob Smith: "It ages wonderfully." Very good with a cup of coffee. I might actually buy another tin if the price is right. Bump to three stars.
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Coskun	08/29/2009	Mild to Medium	None detected	Medium	Pleasant
McClelland do it again...This is very good stuff...I ve smoked with my Porsche Design pipe then use several different pipes...I like this blend... Ketchup is always around (not like blackwoods)...Moisture perfect for me...Easy to pack and lit... Creamy taste and cool smoke...No bite ofcourse...Nicotine level is low...Smoke slowly and feel light Virginia sweetness...
Showing reviews 1 through 20 of 60 reviews of this tobacco NEXT >