McClelland Captain Cool

Very nice mild aromatic. Would be the perfect smoke for a new pipe smoker. Hints of vanilla and mint were detectable throughout the smoke. Burns well when dried.

Caption Cool... The note on the tin says “a hint of vanilla and a touch of mint”. Neither was found in the tin aroma, which seemed more cherry like. After a 15 minute drying time under my desk lamp, it was now show time. Light up was easy, followed by clouds of mild aromatic smoke. The casting is very low keyed vanilla taste, with something else, maybe that touch of mint. The mint becomes a little more apparent as you smoke down the bowl, and especially, in the after smoke mouth fell. I found this baccy to be free of any bite or harshness, just lots of mild thick smoke. Overall a very pleasant and low keyed experience. Being somewhat of a novelty, with its hint of mint. Would I buy more? Sure, I can see myself enjoying a bowl or two of this stuff, every now and again. But for now, the tin I have will suffice. If this blend sounds worthwhile to you. You need not worry; McC did their part, very well indeed.

The mint flavoring seems to be a complete mystery on this one. Some will tell you it's overpowering, some will tell you it's not there. Not sure if it's an issue with inconsistent packing or mouth chemistry....

I don't get any mint but the vanilla comes through very nicely. A nice body and smells great in the tin. As advertised, will not bite and quite cool smoking.

I wish I could get some mint flavours because otherwise it's fairly lacking in complexity. I get get the sweetness of Cavendish and vanilla flavours and that's about it.

A very flvourfull and tasty blend, I just wish It was a bit more complex and had more mint.

**Just bought another tin today to mix with some very strong Burley i got from C&D that'll make your head spin! This is obviously a play on words to intice Captain Black smokers into trying a better product based on the same recipe. This is more like 1Q but the added menthol or mint really cools it down. Buy this for the room aroma and mix with something strong. On its own there isn't enough flavor or strength..**

McClelland's take on a Captain Black White type blend but using top grade leaf and definitely on a higher tier quality wise. I got a 1Q appearance and cut, Black Cavendish and Virginia Cavendish with a familiar Vanilla / Mint aroma. The aftertaste has a sweet mint finish that makes it very unique. Absolutely the hardest blend to make bite (if it is even possible) and while the bowl might get hot if you blast furnace it, the smoke never heated up enough to bother me and the vanilla / mint topping smoked as cool as ice for me. The only drawback is the lack of Nicotine so I added some 5 Brothers and it was delicious! An excellent newbie tobacco to start as the leaf is high quality, it wont bite and it's aroma is what one thinks of when a pipe is mentioned.

This is an AROMATIC. If you hate aromatic blends, then don't buy this! (And for all of our sakes, PLEASE don't REVIEW this!)

Now, having said that, I give you- my review:

The tin description is apt for this one. This is a MILD, COOL SMOKING blend with subtle hints of vanilla. The tobacco is of above average quality from what I can discern, and I would expect no less from the Masters at McClelland.

Though it feels slightly moist in the hand, the tobacco packs and lights with EASE, and smokes DRY and COOL throughout the bowl. Unlike most aromatics I have tried, this one actually tasted better the farther down the bowl you go, developing into an almost nutty, butterscotch flavor towards the end.

You can puff hard on this and it won't bite you. It will smoke warmer and lose flavor, but it will not bite you. Crazy. The addition of natural mint was a great call. I was leery about any pipe tobacco with any association with Menthol in it. This does NOT have Menthol in it! It does contain a very small amount of natural mint leaves- not enough to make it a mint themed smoke, but a vanilla smoke that smoked COOL.

If you like aromatics, or if you prefer "natural," non-cased tobacco but want a change to something mildly sweet (but not artificial or cloyingly so), then give this a go.

I bought a three dollar Missouri Pride cob pipe just for this tin, and it was a good investment.

***EDIT***

I find myself uncharacteristically smoking bowl after bowl of this blend. I don't really like aromatics that much. Really! Somehow, however, I can't stop smoking this. It is definitely cementing itself as one of my permanent selections.

When I smoked this blend I had a cold but I really enjoyed it because of the mint casing that is in this blend. The mint acted like menthol and really comforted my cold!

Delightful and lives up to its ?cool? name, because cool it is. Almost arctic cool, but I have yet to find a blend that I could not toke up carelessly, puffing indiscriminately and not get some discomfort. It just you?ll have to try hard with Captain Cool or C&D?s Green River Vanilla for that matter.

The mix is about equal parts red-brown to black, smelling like a traditional American Cavendish aromatic, but not feeling as such because Captain Cool is properly humidified and not sticky.

I did not get big flavor when puffing, but a smooth, mild taste with a touch of complexity for indoor, winter puffing. I tried it for the latter. Some natural tobacco flavor does report. I like this better than its Lane competition. Easily an all day blend one could smoke even with an upset stomach.

This burns dry and leaves a very clean pipe. My wife loves the burning aroma and that the house does not smell of burnt socks or cigarettes the day after.

CC has a traditional, American black Cavendish aroma and taste, without the chemical attributes I associate with popular aromatics. Compared to C&D Green River Vanilla, the C&D is similarly pure, but more austere, a little bit stronger in flavor, less complex and tastes more like vanilla when burning.

I do sense a genuine vanilla but little of mint flavor from CC. CC loads easier than C&D due to GRV the latter?s cut and dry texture.

I will buy this again if I cannot get a McClelland bulk equivalent to save some money. However, I do not anticipate that it will dislodge my favorite vanilla Cavendish blend, 191 from P&W. CC and 191 do different things and complement the other.

One of the top-of-the-line aromatics. I love vanilla and one of my standard smokes is MacBaren Vanilla Creme. This is better, I think. Very aromatic in the tin, to the match, it is rather tame. Plenty enough vanilla but not overpowering, and something else. McClelland says it is mint, but I didn't really notice mint so much. There are some nutty undertones in this. All in all a very good smoke with high quality tobacco that you can actually taste. I'll be keeping this in my rotation.

When I bought this tobacco I was hoping for a lot of mint flavor. I never found it. But this is still a pretty excellent aromatic. You can see mint leaves in it. Maybe you can smell them in the can. But I find this to be an excellent vanilla blend. I don't mean like some drugstore blend. This is a silky smooth creamy vanilla blend, with a large amount of flavoring. Not in production anymore, but I'm glad I bought a few cans of it. No one does aromatics like McClellan. Captain cool proves that. The room note is absolutely crowd-pleasing. This is a fun blend to smoke, especially at picnics and family reunions. You will be showered with compliments.