McClelland Town Topic

I moved to Concord, New Hampshire last year and was pleased to find a cigar shop that had a few pipe accessories and tobaccos. Your standard stuff; some house blends, most with heavy Cavendish, and a few cheap tins. But, sitting on a low shelf, absolutely covered in dust, I found a tin of Town Topic. I wasn't surprised in reading that it was a Maple - it's New England, after all, and Maple can be found to flavor just about anything (maple pecan ice cream in a few months!). So I bought it, and did enjoy it.

The smell in tin is great, as is the room note. My wife approves. The taste is a bit more relaxed, though the maple is definitely there, along with a smooth bit of Cavendish, but not too much. I only like Cavendish in small doses for a bit of sweet taste and coolness. It does burble in the bowl a bit if one smokes too quickly. All in all a solid aromatic, good especially for cooler weather.

This is a so-so tasting aromatic in the typical American fashion of mostly cavendish-processed burley. The tin says "delicately flavored" and that is certainly true. I did get a faint taste of the advertised maple, with a much more pronounced room aroma. I dried this out for 15 mins prior to smoking and it performed better this way than fresh from the tin. I did not find this to be an overly gooey product, although it felt that way on the fingers when I loaded the pipe. One of my subjective judgment factors for aromatics is how much moisture they produce. Thankfully, this one smoked fairly dry.

I don't find this one to be the equal of McClellands Tastemaster or Easy Street in their Premium Aromatics line. The tin aroma was more overblown in this one and the flavor was too faint. I was grateful that I didn't find the medicinal quality of flavor in TT as I did in their Holiday Spirit. This is not for me but if you enjoy a very sparingly flavored maple cavendish blend that stimulates those around you more than yourself, this would be one place to start.

​Sweet, smoked, heavy on aroma and tongue biting. Despite all flaws, sometimes it's delightful, but not for long. I can recommend it to only a true aromatics lovers.

When you open the tin your assaulted with a sublime maple scent. The tobacco is moist but lights well and stay lit. A very mild unassuming smoke. It won't bite even if you huff and puff. However, if you do that you'll miss out on the very subtle maple flavor. The room note is the best aspect of this blend. Reminds me of Sunday pancakes. If your looking for a mild smoke then this blend is for you.

Well lets see what we have here... a heavily cased black cavendish with a smattering of golds thrown in. In the lab, this blend tested negative for nicotine. Initially I was alarmed by the feel of the tobacco straight from the tin, but found that it did perform rather well under fire. For the next go, I left a bowlfull out on a plate to evaporate... after 24 hours it felt drier but still unexpectedly moist. I'm guessing that the "time-honored tradition" involves a humectant, very possibly PG -- this tobacco just has that kind of taste to me, although it did not coat my mouth. Speaking of taste, I did taste maple, albeit a rather chocolatey maple. Slow draws are a must to reach the full flavor potential. McClelland, I'm sorry but overall I just wasn't real impressed. But I will give this blend props for never gurgling, pooping in my pipe, or stinging my mouth no matter how I smoked it. Ho-hum.

Not so bad, not so good... I was disapointed by this tobacco. After a very good surprise with ''Mellow Mack'' from McClelland, i tryed ''town topic'' and will not buy it again.

This is a very mild basic aromatic tobacco. upon popping the top you will be greeted with a maple/pancake aroma and a moist tobacco. My tobacco was tinned in August 05 and I had some trouble getting/keeping it going. Considering the moisture level of the product going into the pipe the results were fairly dry with no real nasty cleaners resulting from smoking. The taste of the tobacco was flat at best with a much more pronouced aroma than taste. Typical aromatic I guess. Considering the townsman line at 16.00 for 8 oz this tinned version is overpriced. I paid 10.00 for a 50 gram tin at the local B&M