McClelland Captain Cool

I can't believe that I have failed to review Captain Cool as I've smoked it on many occasions. As some of you fellow reviews know, I love Vanilla Cavendish and this one is a tasty treat and really biteless. I mix mine with Five Brothers (a stout burley loaded with strength but offers little flavor of its own), and relax in Vanilla heaven. Lots of perfection here as McClellands can mist, soak and bathe leaf like no other.

This just maybe the best all around aromatic out there today. First of all it is really tough to add mint to any blend and not have it simply take over the blend.....try Frosty Mint to understand. They have done a really excellent job allowing you to enjoy the mint.....ok what they call peppermint without killing the other flavors. There is some nice vanilla and also some caramel and chocolate flavors passing through. Now the peppermint does remain the main player but not distracting from the other flavors that pass through your mouth. The blend burns very easy and surprisingly does not seem to bite much at all. Nicotine is very mild so if you like to inhale this is perfect. Room note as you would expect is mild but you can actually smell a bit of peppermint. This is one of the best aromatics I have tried and will be buying more in the future. As far as Frosty Mint, while it is almost unsmokable it is fantastic as a blender certain blends but just a dab will do ya as it is super strong in mint flavor.

This is a good example of truth in advertising: a premium aromatic with no bite. The tobaccos appear to be of good quality, the flavoring is artfully applied and the burning qualities are significantly better than many other heavily cased blends. Best of all, it smokes COOL and smooth -- the flavor iteself is far superior to the like of Capt Black, an enticing melange of vanilla and mint.

I keep only a small number of aromatics on hand as I normally prefer strong perique and latakia blends. Oddly enough, over the last couple of years, I've found myself reaching for this more and more often. I now consider this to be one of the only four-star American-style aros I've come across, along with Autumn Evening and Classic Burley Kake. I was pleasantly surprised, to put it mildly.

I bought this blend thinking of Captain Black because of the name. Captain Cool is different in strength and flavor - mild and keeps his cool when smoking. Puffing hard doesn't earn you tongue bite like most other aromatics. In fact, I tried hard to make it bite on purpose but couldn't. The flavoring is also quite nice with hints of mint. Some days the flavor is too weak for my tastes, that's when I switch to something like Captain Black or otherwise. Overall a very nice, cool smoke that is quite mild.

Upon opening the tin this stuff looks and smells great. The tobacco is quite colorful. You almost want to pick it up and eat it. Vanilla and caramel are two of my favorite flavors and they are very present here during the smoke. My only complaint would be that the tin seemed to empty very fast. It lasted me only about a day and a half and alas it was all gone. I would compare this to Mac Baren Vanilla Crème However I think the tobacco in this is higher quality . Certainly the opposite end of the spectrum from those big bags of goopy drug store aromatics . There really are very few really good tinned aromatics for those of us who like a little candy once and a while and this is one of the best.

Pipe: Savinelli Quarter-bent

Weather: Cool, sunny, not humid.

Mood: Amused

Modifications: Denicool crystals in lower third of bowl, Savinelli balsa filters (6mm; replaced as needed)

Packaging: 50g tin

Initial Impressions: This tobacco has a very airy smell to it, as if it were almost a weakly mentholated cigarette tobacco; at least that's what it reminded me of. The tobacco, as usual for the McClelland line, was damp and I immediately set about drying it for a couple of hours. The dark/light blend of ribbon-cut tobacco had no stems in it.

Unlit Taste: A very cool and "tobacco"ey flavor.

Lighting: No problems. An initial sizzle wasn't followed by any kind of nasty, steamy biting. Tamped well and relit fine. I was able to smoke the entire charge of tobacco without any further relighting.

Smoking (First Third): A noticeable menthol flavoring is present as a top layer, with a solid butty Burley base and some hints of what seems like vanilla. The smoke was cool and unoffensive. This can be smoked fairly rapidly, increasing the danger that, with regular smoking of this, that I'll forget to puff slowly with an English and pay dearly.

Smoking (Second Third): The flavors started to meld together, with the vanilla giving way to a more nutty flavor. The room note remained pleasant and the flavors, while not complex, were good. This finished out cleanly and turned into a nice, grey-black ash that didn't foul.

Smoking (Bottom Third): The Denicool crystals don't smoke, they just absorb moisture, tar and nicotine. And they do it WELL.

Aftereffects: This seems to have low nicotine, meaning no head swimming or racing heartbeat. It was cool and pleasant in taste and after a good tooth brushing, I was ready to talk to non-pipe smokers.

Overall Recommendation: THIS tobacco is intended for the daycarry pouch and for any pipe you could throw at it. This is for when company is over or for when you're fishing on a nice autumn morning. For an aromatic smoker, this is a mild and cool blend; a nice cheese danish with your morning coffee. For a lover of heavy, rich tobaccos, this could be a nice change of pace for the tongue. I give this a good recommendation, smoke it regularly and give generous samples to friends who need good pipe tobacco, making sure to dry it before I give it away.

I was very excited to purchase my first tin of McClelland?s Captain Cool, after hearing such great words about the product.

As soon as I opened the tin I could smell a wonderful world of vanilla, butterscotch, a hint of something like nutmeg along with the sweet smell of the 50/50 mix of dark and light Cavendish. The tobacco was very moist so I set some sit out on a piece of paper for a couple of hours before smoking. This only enhanced my excitement for the office I had set it out in began to smell of the wonderful flavors.

It packed very easily and even after sitting for a bit, still had a sizzle upon lighting. Right away I could find the hints of the tobacco coming through above the casing flavors. This I enjoyed very much being a fairly new smoker discovering all the wonderful flavors involved with tobaccos.

The first third of the bowl was much the same as the second. The vanilla is perfectly matched with the butterscotch flavoring and yet is not overpowering and as stated before, there is a taste of real tobacco that also comes through. As Britt Park stated I too detect a hint of menthol as well. This keeping with the "cool" idea. The last third of the bowl required a pipe cleaner or two to rid the moisture that was steadily growing. After that the last third lost a bit of the real tobacco punch and nutty butterscotch menthol flavors and settled into mostly a mild vanilla. Very enjoyable down to the end of the bowl.

I really tried to provoke this ?Captain Cool? into smoking hot, but it stayed calm and cool the whole bowl. There was no hint of tongue bit what so ever. It produces a puffy white smoke and provides bystanders with a very pleasurable room note. McClelland nailed this one and I recommend this tobacco to any new smoker looking to broaden their horizons just a bit or for someone looking to sit down and enjoy a good, cool smoke without having to worry about the craft or concentrating to hard on their objective

FOR AN EVERYDAY SMOKE IT IS GREAT. THE MINT IN THE BATCH I GOT WAS NOT VERY PRESENT AT ALL. A GOOD BURLEY BLEND AND MUCH MUCH BETTER ON RE-LIGHTS. IF YOU GET TIRED OF CAPTAIN BLACK THE TRY THIS FOR A WHILE. MUCH SMOOTHER.

I let this dry out for 6 hours as it seemed a bit moist. Took only 3 matches to finish the bowl. No bite, which is an accomplishment for an aromatic. Sort of a vanilla, caramel flavor. I didn't get the mint, but I eat lifesaver peppermints every day so I'm a bit minty already.

One of the very top 5 aromatics. If I was limited to only smoking aromatics, this would be a must have.