McClelland Blending Perique

Bought it out of curiosity at a time when I knew very little about Perique. Opening the tin you are greeted by pitch black ribbons. I wouldn’t say sticky but they are very moist. Tin note is pungent but elusive, very difficult to pin down. It seems tar-like [swamp gas and] combined with a mushroomy smell with something sweeter: licorice, molasses, bitter chocolate and possibly oatmeal biscuits. After drying a small sample the smell of mushrooms is much clearer and more dominant. Some reviewers mention the shitake kind. I am not sure about that, but shitake are known to smell “shrimplike” or even “vaginal” which is close to what I get…

Now I HAD to smoke a bit by itself. I took my small Petersen pipe and loaded it. I used the dried bit because directly out of the tin it wouldn’t even light. First puff… Ok, it’s strong. And what is more, it is a very strong smoke without much flavor, smoky is the best description I can come up with. It is felt almost tactilely leaving a burning sensation on the tip of the tongue and especially on the nose akin to what you get when you eat very hot chili peppers. Yes, it’s actually experienced as a form of PAIN… After a few puffs it produces hiccups. Happily my Petersen is very small… So, on its own it’s not pleasant to smoke and I did not detect many aromas. It would have been nice to smoke something mushroomy, but the tin note does not translate to the smoke. What can I make of the experiment of having it alone, what does Perique contribute to a blend. It obviously must add strength but what about aromas? Is it smokiness?

I tried to add some to a few tobaccos I feel confident I know, just a little bit to see what becomes of them.

I started playing with no.24 McClelland’s Virginia flake. I rubbed it and added a small amount (around 10%) of the black fermented leaf. What did I get? It became smokier, more charcoal-like. On the one hand it toned down the sweetness of the Virginia and the elusive note of the Drama leaf no.24 contains, is eclipsed. I also get a bitter note after the first half of the bowl. Surprisingly I find it has enhanced its burning qualities. Maybe I added more than I should, but the addition of the Perique masked some of the qualities of no.24 which I so much like. It was not a bad smoke but I won’t use it again with no.24. Next I tried a healthy dose of Perique around 30% with a mix of one third each Basma, Smyrna and bright Virginia, a mix which I do at home and also know well. Now this blend has some high aromatic notes from the Virginia and Basma and lower sweeter notes from the Smyrna, it is mild and without much body. The addition of Perique to this blend I think cut – without obliterating - both the highs and lows, added weight, strength and a dark smoky aroma. Do I like my mix with Perique? Yes, it’s not bad, it makes it bolder and since this is a smoke I usually have early in the day, the addition of Perique might make it potent enough for use at later hours.

I’ m not going to bore you further with my experiments, I’m just going to say that if you enjoy micro-blending, having a tin of pure perique is a must. I haven’t tried other pure Periques, so I cannot compare McClelland’s to any other. Yet, as a general observation it added smokiness to all the tobaccos I used it in and a black peppery tactile tingling sensation as well. It also reduced tongue bite in some burleys. It affects burning qualities. But overall for me it’s not easy to imagine the result as sometimes the fact contradicted my intuitions. Happy that I bought it once but it’s not as indispensable to my ‘microblends’ as my precious oriental leafs…

I dont know how else to rate this than 3-4 stars-I have worked a 2 oz. tin for months now, mkxing very small ratios to Dunhill flake and/or Solani ABF. This has greatly improved my appreciation of this unique toby.

Kept with a wet disc in mason it keeps well. Dont attempt to smoke it as is....its a great condiment rather than the sandwich.

Perique is the reason I smoke a pipe. This perique is great. I add to straight virginia blends. I add to rubbed out dark star and navy cavendish and let sit in a mason jar for a couple weeks. Adds a wonderful spice and fermented depth to blends that I love but miss perique flavor.

I just smoked a bowl of a mixture of this Perique mixed with equal parts of Carter Hall and McClelland's blending Latakia. It was a VERY good smoke! I imagine that most would prefer using a much smaller portion of the Perique, but I loved the "zing" of Perique I got with using about 40% Carter Hall with 25% Perique and 35% Latakia. It burned very well, right through the bowl. It was so much better than smoking Carter Hall straight and I can see this mixture being the way that I smoke through the tub of Carter Hall I recently purchased.

This is an excellent tobacco for what it is meant to be used for, which is to be used in very small amounts as an enhancement to other blends. I have tried adding this to several blends with mostly positive results (the negative ones were due to poor judgement on my part). I have yet to ever try this tobacco straight in any of my pipes for fear of both ruining my day, and possibly tainting one of my pipes, but I suspect that at some point my curiosity will get the best of me...

Excellent blending tobacco that I use to make my mixtures. In Virginia, Latakia and Oriental mixtures do not use more than 5% because it is overwhelming. Only with Virgina it can be added more to 10-12%. Smoked alone it was not very peppery how that I expected, but more than a medical drug.

Although I have used this for blending for some time now, I've always listened to those who have said not to smoke it straight. I finally worked up the nerve to try a straight bowl and I was kncked back by it's fullness and strentgh. Although it was overwhelming I'll probably smoke it straight again in the future.

But not very often.

Gotta try it once by itself, right? Haha... the tobacconist tried to tell me off of it, but I had to know what pure perique tasted like to differentiate it in other blends... and wow. I lasted about 5 minutes and I had to dump the pipe out. The strange thing is, the taste is extremely minimal with this perique (unlike the perique used in Pease's blends which has a distinct brandy taste). McClelland applies vinegar to all their blends, including this. I suppose it's to offset alkaline tongue bite with an acid, but for goodness sakes, this stuff is so naturally acidic that to add any more is insane! You light it up, and immediately your nostrils and the back of your mouth flare up. This stuff is literally like eating a habanero pepper.

After I dumped out the pipe, about two hours later, I got an entirely different pipe and lit up Cornell and Diehl's 'Opening Night'. Now I know what perique tastes like, I can detect it in various blends. As I got down the pipe, I noticed that there was apparently a ton of perique in 'Opening Night'... but there isn't. We are all familiar with certain things ghosting your pipe and marring the taste of later blends, but this stuff is so darned powerful it ghosted my mouth for the rest of the day. I had to wash my mouth out with listerine!

I'm sure that there are better blending periques out there, since I have had them in several different blends, but this does make a nice addition to a ribbon cut Virginia to offset some of the tongue bite and offer a unique taste.

But only use a tiny bit! I stuck about five ribbons in a relatively large bowl with some Embarcadero and it was a full-blown VaPer.

Honestly to my surprise, it wasn't as strong as I expected it is going to be based on everything one can read about it.

Smell: Exactly as it is written on the tin. I usually take tin descriptions with a grain of salt, this was spot on, cooked fruits and mushrooms. I took my trusty cob, as I didnt want to ruin any briar with it. Just a small pinch to be on the safe side.

Taste: The taste however was quite different from the semll for me. In the mouth what hit me first was a meat or umami taste (I refer to smoked+spiced salami in my youtube video review) with some mushrooms. I couldnt find any cooked fruits like from the tin aroma. There was a good amount of spice, even some that I would image an incense-burner that they use in the east would taste like. Around 45% umami+mushroom taste, 45% spices and 10% acidic/fruity/earthy quality. The experience changes when you take this to retrohaling. Pushing it out through your nose the spices take over. You get what most people talk about, the strong spicy notes and the umami/meat taste goes to the background.

It's a beautiful addition to pipe tobaccos, a really interesting mix of flavours and smells. I highly recommend to try it smoking straight for anyone who loves blends with perique in them. You'll understand and appreciate them even more. Just me careful and prepare some sizzling water to the side, so you can rinse out yoru mouth regularly... 🙂

My video review on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLnmwg6pkKA