McClelland Captain Cool

When I want to smoke an aromatic blend, the mild blends from McClelland can?t be beaten. The casing is fairly mild, but very pleasant. The tobacco is quite moist, as aromatics are wont to be, but it burns nicely nonetheless, and tongue bite is almost impossible. A great aromatic to keep on hand.

Captain Cool is a fair smoke from McClelland. It has a nice roomnote and it smokes cool.It has a hint of mint in the aroma and is nice for the cool fall nights. MZMN

Not as good as Mellow Mack, which is definitely tastier. Like the other McC aromatics, it's sticky and wet but not goopy. It is supposed to have some mint flavoring, but you can't feel it in the tin aroma or in the taste: what you can feel is just a slightly fresh impression on the palate. Overall sweet, with some evident vanilla notes, not unpleasant at all. If dried a bit, it behaves much better.

Anyway, the one and only king remains Mellow Mack!

This is a delightful blend for the aromatic lover or an english blend smoker who wants a gentle change of pace. The aromatic quality is mild to medium with a very pleasent room note. The vanilla is apparant with just a light touch of mint. Another flavor - that I can not identify - is barely noticable in the background. It arrives just slightly damp in the tin. It lights well, stays lit even if you take a 10 minute break - and as promised burns remarkably cool and even throughout the bowl. You can not make this tobacco bite even if you try! The pure tobacco taste comes through well and is always upfront - somewhat surprising for a aromatic. Overall, I would describe this blend as a mild and more interesting comparision of Hunters Blend Retriever. If you want a mild change of pace or perhaps have suffered some tougue bite and need a break - this blend is worth trying. I smoke it on a regular basis.

In the tin it's a moist mixture of just about 50-50 black and dark brown strands. It has a strong sweet-sour aroma which I find pleasant.

This packs and lights easily, and true to its name, smokes cool. I suspect there may be some menthol or other mint flavoring. It produces rich billowing smoke in which one detects sweetness, vanilla, maybe caramel, and surprise, some actual tobacco taste. I'd class this as a strongly aromatic tobacco but not as powerfully so as say Lane's BCA.

So if you like unapologetic aromatics you'll find this very satisfying. If not, you won't.

I haven't smoked this yet, but P&T Magazine said of this blend: "It is refined and not overpowering, but there is no question that this is an aromatic....maybe some vanilla, maybe caramel, maybe something else. The pleasant surprise is that the Virginias come through with the wave of a match, along with an unfolding sweetness, and a crowd-pleasing aroma captures the room. Yes, it tastes like tobacco, refined and delicate tobacco. Enen at lighting, this is cool, and just stays that way no matter how provoked. This is not remarkably cool, it is astoundingly cool, and you could puff all day without fatigue. Highly recommended for the aromatic fan."

I'll do a review on this when I pop my can, but for now, I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt.

This is not my usual kind of tobacco, sticking mostly to latakias and the occasional dark virginia. I tried this because of a review by William Serad in the latest Pipes and Tobacco magazine. The name is derived because this is an attempt to create a cool burning aromatic.

Captain Cool has a strong aromatic casing not unlike many of the Lane bulk blends many of us started our pipe smoking oddysey with. I hope that most of us have moved on to real tobacco since our youth. Captain Cool comes very damp. I have left some out on a paper plate for 5 days and it still has not dried out. Even after drying it like this, it still sizzles as it is lit. I would hesitate to put this in a good pipe, because it would take a while to smoke that flavor out. Captain Cool does burn quite cool for this sort of blend and I guess if this is what you want, this is a good blend as aromatics go. The flavor is pretty much what you would expect from a sweet aromatic.

Save this for when you want to impress women.