McClelland Royal Cajun Special

This deserves an A for effort and a D for execution. The smoke is very mild, nothing like the much loved Perique that they claim to dopple.

No real vitamin N, and it does tend to bite when I work it to get a little flavor. Not my thing, but by all means try it yourself.

I want to like this tobacco. In fact, I do like this tobacco. But the reason I say I like it is because there is nothing that it does that could cause you to dislike it. Unless of course, you want to taste the tobacco in your pipe. I've been trying it in small bowls,medium bowls,large bowls and finally in an old Peterson's meerschaum. It seemed to start to hit its stride in the meerschaum for a minute or two but then fizzled out again as far as taste goes. An intriguing tobacco without a strong personality. I intend to dedicate a new meerschaum to it and see if I can find more to recommend it. One day later: Instead of a Meer, I chose an old olivewood bent from South Africa. For one reason or another I hadn't smoked it hardly at all. Well, it was a match right from the start. Beautiful! Wonderful! I like it so much I may never smoke any other tobacco. still can't give it four stars simply due to the fact that not everyone has a spare pipe just sitting around waiting to be used for this weed,also, its way to hard to keep lit. This is a tobacco that will compliment other blends as well as being a good smoke in the right pipe.

I enjoyed this quite a bit. The flavor is different from other tobaccos, and strikes me as unique. I would describe it as sweet, smoky, a bit citrusy, and a bit peppery. It's not a strong flavor, and it won't overpower you. Quite enjoyable.

The only real negative about this tobacco was the A1 steak sauce smell it had in the tin.

It was a little moist, so I dried it out. Packed well, burned well with no gunky dottle.

The flavor was slightly sweet and smoky, and this was consistent through the bowl. Very mild tasting with no bite, could be an everyday smoke. I think it might be a little better with age.

This is a fairly complex blend, it has a spicy start with some notes of citrus, maybe lemon zest. As the bowl progresses the flavors get richer and more heavy, the sweetness goes away and the layers of chocolate and perique (or the simulated perique) start to take the forefront. I prefer this to many other dark and complex blends because it does not have the heavy nicotine that is almost always associated with this style of tobacco. It also does not have the tomato smell associated with some of their other blends.

I would describe RCS as a light aromatic that is smooth, mild and sweet, i.e., it under powers rather than overpowers. I experienced no bite nor did I get much of a nic kick that I like in my tobaccos. The Cajun Black tobacco is touted by McClelland as ?the first new type of leaf processing in 40 years.? I won?t doubt its word but I found it ever so reminiscent of a couple of sweet, black cavendish processed blends my local tobacconist suggested to me and that I smoked in my younger years or that you may very well have smoked in your neophyte pipe smoking years. However, the coarse cut of the tobaccos in RCS is atypical of the longer cuts found in many cavendish blends. RCS is another of those blends that I will defer to newbies as I?m sure they will like it. On the other hand, I suspect that many veteran pipe smokers, who prefer a more natural tobacco taste and more strength, will find Royal Cajun Special not so special in short order.

A cigarette is to be smoked. A cigar is to be enjoyed. A pipe is to be savored.

I rate this blend 8.0 out of 10.

This is my least favorite of the series. The Cajun Black doesn't seem to have the prominence in this blend that it enjoys in the other two. Overall, this blend is sweet and mild, reminding me quite a lot of a high quality Half and Half. The room note is delightful and the tobacco seems to burn well. It has the typical bite expected from a Virginia concoction and is rather smooth on the palate. However, this one lacks any depth and its flavor, although not unpleasant, just doesn't make me want to keep puffing. I found that this blend was really average and while I don't consider this a bad tobacco, I certainly would recommend the other members of this series first.