Robert McConnell Old London Pebble Cut

This is a wonderful tobacco to smoke as first bowl of the day, when your palate is absolutely clean, so you can taste all the subtleties it brings. It's a pretty complex tobacco, the format Va-O-Per is unusual even in a mixture; upon opening the tin you're overwhelmed by a dried fruits smell and the tobacco is incredibly moist, so leave it open for a while. When it will be at a decent moisture level, you'll find it's easy to rub out and to pack. The smoke proceeds easily and regularly, the blend is sweet for the Virginias, but still deep thanks to the Oriental presence and the hints from the Perique.

Upon opening the tin the McClelland famous vinegar smell really jumps out at you. The first few pipes of this were hard to light, hard to keep lit, and had quite a harsh bite to them. I left the lid off for a few days to let the smell and the moisture escape and now it has become a very fine smoke. Try airing it thoroughly and smoke it as the first pipe of the day. Very rewarding!

Reading over the other reviews, I'm kind of confused. I am a McClelland Virginia enthusiast. Pebblecut, though, never ceases to confound me. For the record, I find it quite unlike any other McClelland Virginia that I have tried. I don't know the source, but there is a sharp edge, a harshness, in Pebblecut that both repels and attracts me. I find this same characteristic in GLP Barbary Coast. I'll smoke a bowl, say "hmm, that's kind of disconcerting", and I'll put it back on the shelf to get some more age. Then I'll find myself thinking "maybe I just misunderstood that flavor, maybe it is really, really interesting. I'll have to try that again."

My recommendation rating, therefore, is not necessarily permanent. But Pebblecut is a challenging, complex smoke, very unique - and therefore worthy of trying.

You either like the Virginia tang that this blend delivers, or you don't. I love it myself. I read one of the reviews saying that this blend is cased with vinegar. That, of course, isn't true, but there is a vinegar-like quality to the tin aroma. This is one beautiful pressed tobacco, and once you get it broken up sufficient to provide a good pack, you are in for a real taste treat.

It is McClelland's to the core. You can tell that careful blending goes into this mixture and it consistently satisfying.

I highly recommend this blend and it ages wonderfully.

Outstanding! This blend is a mainstay in my VA/Perique rotation. Such a unique yet consistent taste and burn. I love McClelland flakes, so I knew I would probably enjoy this before I even lit up. Two tins later, I was right!

Aroma: Typical McC's smell. Maybe even more pungent if you can believe it. On par with McC's VA. No. 24 or St. James Woods

Visual: Partially broken flakes consisting of reddish brown with streaks of dark gold.

Texture: I find most McClelland flakes to be just a tad moist as was the case here.

Pack/Pipe: In general, I fully rub this tobacco out. It seems to behave a little better for me than just loading it as is. I smoked this in my entire range of VA flakes pipes, but mainly in two medium Nording Freehands, Dunhill Redbark Pot, Ashton xx Pebbleshell Pot and Ashton xx Pebblegrain Apple. A light hand in packing seemed to help this burn well. More moisture = more tang.

Light/Burn: Usually took three matches to get this going. But then only one or two more to get to bottom. Usually end up with a tiny charred puck of tobacco at end. This tobacco burns slow!

1st 3rd: Immediately get a wallop of Tangy VA and a unique flavor I can't quite put my finger on. But I like it! Semi-sweet in a lemonade sort of way. Burns warm, not hot.

2nd 3rd: Still plenty of tang, however, a lesser type of sweetness and a cooler flavor now come to the front. Often needed a relight mid bowl.

Final 3rd: Tang is still there, however, it is now smoking a bit sweeter and cooler than at any other point in the bowl. One more match to finish

Notes: This tobacco is the one that got me hooked on VA/Perique flakes. nuff said!

Stogie rating of: 9 Magnifecent Montecristos

Appearance: The excise stamp on the can indicated the 1st quarter of 2017, but the warning inscriptions about the harms of smoking were already new, sample 2018. So the tobacco involved in today's review is about five years old. The tall, narrow tin contains 100 grams of originally cut flake. The long strips cut from the already dark baked plug have become almost a shade of wenge over five years, so it's hard to understand what varieties the tobacco is made up of without knowing the composition. But even against the background of dark baked virginia even darker cavendish and a small amount of perique. The manufacturer didn't skimp on glycerin, and that's why the tobacco humidity is a bit excessive, it should be dried up a bit, perhaps by force, considering the fact that the mixture of glycerin and propylene glycol absorbs water from the air well. A pleasant addition is the fact that from a long strip of flake you can always tear off the necessary amount if you want to roll it into a bowl without having to grind it into separate fibers.

Flavor: dense, a little heavy, but not too intense. Notes of dried apricots, figs, dark raisins lead the way, followed by a woody note, a touch of walnut, a small amount of yeast dough, barely noticeable behind the fruity notes. A small amount of honey sauce is present to lighten up the cavendish a bit more, but it doesn't ruin the finished tobacco.

Taste: smooth, mild, moderately bright and just as moderately dense. Notes of prunes and honey stand out a bit, but almost in line with them are woody notes supported by figs and spices. The scant amount of perique, as Germans usually do, is nevertheless enough to give some peppery note on the retrohale. The sweetness is medium in the beginning, but drops to moderate during the smoking process, so it confirms that part of it is of artificial origin. The taste of the tobacco does not change during the smoking process, but becomes much more monolithic. In my bents woody notes were slightly more pronounced. The tobacco is very sensitive to overheating, and does not tolerate rushing. It almost immediately begins to warm the pipe, becoming bitter and giving water, which makes the smoke moist and biting. If you smoke it very slowly, on the verge of fading, it does not even think of biting, burning evenly, but trying to fade because of its moisture. The strength of the blend is medium - 20x40 pipe went on the edge of a slight nicotine hit. Tobacco burns into gray ash without lumps, leaving some moisture in the pipe. The aftertaste is woody, extremely unstable.

Taking very slow temp of smoking, the smoke in the room is hardly noticeable, having only a hint of woody-fruity odor with a hint of plum.

The bottom line. This is one of the few "old-school" tobaccos left on the market that still gives some imagination of how blends were made half a century ago. Unfortunately, the hand of the market has touched it too - the Orientals are gone, replaced by Cavendish, the amount of glycerin has increased, rounding out the taste to reduce the difference in Virginia of different harvests. Nevertheless, its extremely smooth and mild flavor is the benchmark to which many producers aspire. This tobacco is certainly worth a try if you have the opportunity, although it may cause some difficulty for the beginner in terms of smoking pace.

deeply sweet tasting blend. not everyday smoke for me but it is a welcome desert blend from time to time. the cut looks like extremly long flake to me.

Very good tasting tobacco. I smoked it after rubbing it intensively otherwise it lights hard. Do not let it dry it loses it's quality.

The following review is for the European-market version (made by Kohlhase- Kopp instead of McClelland, I believe). Old London is a good vaper/oriental blend. Its a little bitey and sour but if smoked slowly yields a really nice, robust flavor. The VA's are definitely in charge but the orientals round it out and the perique adds spice. I'm a fan of Kohlhase-Kopp's work on this and especially the Rattray's VA line, and I'm looking forward to trying more of their Ashton blends. I'd recommend OLPC as an occasional change of pace for VA fans.