McClelland Royal Cajun Ebony

This is a very nice blend from McClelland's. The Kentucky leaf is in the background but it helps keep the blend interesting. This blend is very mild to me, but if you have a sensitive taste then this would be a great smoke. If you smoke it slow it is light and simple, but good. If you smoke it like a fright train then it gets spicy and it gets a latakia flavor coming out. No tongue bite at all. I can see how people may not just love this blend the first time, it is not a complex blend that will knock your socks off. But if you have time to just enjoy it for what it is you will find there is more to it than what you first thought. If you are looking for strong flavor or taste get another blend, you want a very well made simple and mild smoke look no further.

This was a very smooth smoke, I felt much smoother than what I could remember of the "Dark" version. It had a very interesting flavor, much different from other VA's I've had. I liked it, but I probably wouldn't buy another tin. Even though it's quite mild on the pallet, it has a scent very similar to Latakia IMO. Very interesting blend though not really one of my favorites. I look forward to trying the last of the three blends in the series.

A nicely prepared flake that I found a bit to moist from the tin and therefore let dry for several days. It was worth the wait since relights were greatly reduced. Easily packed, it smoked cool and dry without any bite. The fire curing and stoving is not the same as a tobacco that acutally contains perique but the resulting taste was both rich and sweet. Give it a try.

I found this to be a very unique blend, full on flavor while still mild on strength. A slight taste of turkish and oriental creeps in, slightly salty and rustic. Worth trying.

Tin: Made a clinking noise in the unopened tin. Coarse, chunky cut. Ebony or coal black. Standard McClelland sweet raisin aroma lacking the strong tone of RCS. Perhaps a tad sticky. Didn't feel overly moist.

This tobacco seemed to be two different tobaccos. One week after opening the tin, it changed, for the better. Airing out must have helped.

Burn: Took a little effort to get it lit and keep it that way, with puffing. Generally burned all the way down to ash. Consecutive bowls sometimes leave a significant dottle.

Taste: Initially, sweet fruit fragrance. Mid-bowl: Seemed to be an admixture of sorts, none strong enough to be single out, woodsy, chocolate, cloying, sometimes unnatural, or what. Bottom: Sometimes woodsy.

If puffed lightly, it does smoke cool, a menthol cool; zesty, if puffed hard. No tongue bite.

An odd thing happened halfway through the tin. Three bowls gave a strong sweet caramel, marshmellow, and cotton candy taste, maybe due to incomplete blending.

Perique: The only association to Perique is a light pepper feel when the smoke is directed straight onto the tongue.

Moisture: Significant gurgle persists, leaving a small bit of wetness in the heel.

Nicotine: essentially none

Overall: Liked somewhat; decent, in that it is mild. RCE would be easy to smoke all day.

I wanted to open my first tin of this after it aged two years, but I couldn?t wait, and opened tin # 960206, which I think means that the tin is almost a year old. In my two years of pipe smoking, I have sampled almost all the different types of tobacco (virginia, burley, oriental, perique, cigar leaf, Nicotiana rustica, and Cyprian latakia - Syrian is still in the queue) to get a good feel for their characteristics and flavor before I tried this. Virginia is my home base, smoking that is; I live in Montana.

Cajun Black is different from all other tobaccos that I have tasted. It?s marvelous! Cajun Black quintessentially illustrates why right now is the pinnacle period of pipe smoking: The art of tobacco has evolved to its greatest height in history. With so many pipe tobaccos available on the worldwide market, one could ask, why invent a new kind of tobacco? Smoking this I see the answer: for the pleasure!

The tin smells slightly sweet, earthy, tangy, and slightly smokey. It is slightly moist in the tin, which is typical of most tobaccos. It burns as well as any tobacco I have smoked. The first light tastes like virginia tobacco plus a clean earthiness, sweet, complex, and very pleasing. I can go fairly quickly into the mouth-to-sinus back- feed mode, which I reserve for my favorite virginias, but usually not until the last third of the bowl. The tobacco smoke is richly flavorful, yet mild on the palate. And the flavor is unique. I?ve been experimenting with different blends, and making my own blends of blends, and this is something new altogether. It?s a flavor that tobacco should be, somehow; it?s like discovering a new place that feels immediately like home. It?s at home in all the pipes I have sampled it in, including a large briar with a tall, narrow bowl, a meerschaum, and several pipes with graphite bowls. The flavor is a combination of raisons, ponderosa pine, earthy smokiness (we all struggle for words here), and just good old tobacco.

Some reviewers comment on the level of nicotine. I get a nicotine buzz every time I smoke (I smoke every other day) and Cajun Black Ebony is no exception. Despite the large scale corruption of tobacco into a pleasureless vector for an addictive drug (cigarettes), pipe smoking can still be enjoyed for the pure pleasure of it. This tobacco is what pipe smoking is all about. Every time I smoke a bowl of this, I am disappointed when it?s finished. This is not because of a lack of nicotine (I am nicely floating on it), it?s because it tastes so good that I don?t want it to stop!

I seem to be going through this tobacco faster than any others in my drawer. It mixes very well with McClelland 5100. I can?t wait to try some of the other in this series, which other reviewers say are a little smokier in flavor. The tins beckon me from the dark closet...

This is the sweetest of the cajun black series, but it still retains a bit of spiciness and a nice complexity. This blend is very dark, but it lights well and smokes cool and dry. I found this tobacco supplied a nice flavor of raisins with just a hint of cinnamon and pepper. I didn't like it quite as much as the Dark blend in the same series, but I did find it to be very enjoyable. Much like the other two, this blend was also smooth on the palate. I would recommend this one for those looking to try the series who don't like their tobacco to be very spicy. If you do, the Dark blend is for you.

This rich & pleasingly complex blend creates an immediate appreciation for skillfull blending and excellent curing of components. Flue-curing and stoving of the Virginia and Burley have been accomplished without the usual excessive oils that leaves one needing to wash hands after handeling. Again the Cajun Black brings a sweet, smooth and smoky presence to the blend that would not otherwise be found. Earthy and primal, this blend is not to be missed by pipesters desiring an interwoven experience of both towering influence and counter points of resonance attesting blending skills not easily earned.

Meerschaum Man Smoking a CAO Dunhill Man Pasha

The gentleman who runs McClelland together with his wife (I forget their names), handed me 3 tins of these newest McC creations at the 2006 Chicago Pipe Show. I was trying so many different things at the show, I did not want to further confuse my palate. I simply took the tins, thanked him and waited for the right moment to open. The dithyrambic description on both tin and the round card under the lid would you have you believe that this is one of the most unique, extra special creations to hit tobaccodom, and let me tell you, they're not kidding. This is not mere marketing bravado, as is the case with so many other things I've tried. This really is a great blend of excellent Virginia sweetness and just the right touches of sour and salt to taste, probably eminating from the perique. Taste is everything here, with tin aroma being much more pronounced and McClellandy than the room note. Aroma dissipates quickly. There is great complexity on the tongue and nothing to interfere with the interplay of delicious flavors. This is a conoisseur's blend for the most discriminating and purist of smokers. A friend of mine who is not a great fan of McC even admits that this is one of the finest things he's ever tried. I am eager to pop the lids off the other two Royal Cajuns, but will hold off, allowing those to age for awhile longer. Besides, I picked up so many other things at the show I'm still working through. Congrats to McC for debuting something really grand and different and for not skimping on quality. Now, please don't change the blend!

Five of five stars