McClelland Beacon

I only had a tin of this in the cellar and finally got to popping it after it aged nearly three years. It is a great VaPer and finds its way between three and four stars for me.

Anyway, to the leaf itself. This is another great use of Virginia from one of the masters of that leaf. It is a shame McClelland is no more as of this time as there processing of Virginia was so unique and fantastic that any of their Virginia blends are immediately identifiable from the tin note and from the first puff. And they pretty much all rock.

While a great deal of attention for McCleelland goes to their use of the red leaf, Beacon shows they can also do justice to both orange and lemon Virginia. This is citrusy and I loved it. Having tried Beacon Extra, I did expect to love it, but I thought it would be a little weak for my tastes.

All the talk of the Virginia should not distract one from the fact that there is perique in the blend. It is not a large amount, and anyone who has smoked Extra should expect that, since the latter has more perique and, IMO, is not very heavy on the condiment. In fact, I found Beacon Extra to be about the perfect amount of Perique so I anticipated this to be too light for my tastes, but I was pleasantly surprised that it was a good amount of perique. It didn't add as much spice to my tastes as it did body. It brought greater depth to the wonderful Virginias and I never felt cheated by a smoke that was too weak.

As I started by saying it is between three and four stars and my preference of Beacon Extra would normally doom this to 3 stars, but where the perique lightens up in Beacon, it does allow more of that fantastic Virginia base to shine through, so I am rounding it up to four stars.

This is a lighter VA Per consisting of lemon and orange VAs and a little bit of perique. It's a light bodied and sweeter VA Per. It has the flavors you'd expect from lemon VA but it's substantial and has a rich flavor. It's great on a summer afternoon or evening. Just an excellent smoke. I smoke this in the summer or when I want a smoke that isn't too heavy with perique. I used to smoke a lot of in your face perique blends but I am finding that I look for more subtly now from my perique. More often than not I smoke Saint James Woods but enjoy Beacon for a change of pace.

Wow what a fantastic virginia experience. Very natural and burns great. Plenty of flavor but mild and smooth. Slightly sweet, fruity, and perique-y, but certainly not enough sweetness or perique-ness to turn anyone off. If you enjoy medium strength virginia blends and have not tried this yet, this should be on the tippy-top of your list imo.

Looks nice and smells like a McClelland blend. Very strong taste with heavy dose of perique. Very hard to light and keep lit. The smoke is heavy and seems to stick to everything, wife hates the smell, REALLY hates the smell. Tar buildup in the pipe is interesting to clean up, like telephone pole creosote.

Given a choice I would opt for 2105, but feel the Frogs are far smoother and easier to deal with. For me it is not sweet enough. If you like Blackwoods flake with perique, this is the stuff. Buy a blow torch to keep it lit.

Bottom line, only wasted $7, could have been worse.

One of the all time vaper blends, in my opinion.

Beautiful high-sugar bright Virginia’s rounded out with a citrus tang. The perique has that aged, dark and figgy feel. Stout, yet easily approachable. A bit of the McClelland sauce in the background.

I truly give thanks that I was able to pick up a tin of this remarkable tobacco before it was discontinued. It’s a shame that our peaceful hobby has been so vilified that true works of art like this can no longer be appreciated. Smoke it if you can find it.

This has the strongest ketchup tin note of all of the McClelland VA's I have tried. I happen to like it, but man is it strong. The flakes are thick and a bit damp. I found the best bowls to be cube cut and dried for 20 minutes or so.

The flavor is quite balanced and smooth. The perique is barely noticeable to my palate but the tingle in the nose on the retrohale is present. I also do pick up a bit of white pepper and slight, very slight raisin notes here and there. The top grade McClelland VA's are the star of the show, as I expected. Slightly sweet, a bit of grass but mostly toasted bread and mildly earthy. Given the types of VA's used I expected more citrus but didn't really get any...but I am not disappointed. Great mild VA with some light spicy notes.

The tin date was in 2009 when sampled in 201I. I stoked a bowl after drying & rubbing it out some. I didn't think I was going to like this but I persevered. It was a little sharp initially but quickly faded. After a little burns off, you're left with pure VA/Per tobacco flavor.

This is a good VA/Per blend that burns fairly slow and stays lit really well. The Virginias in this blend are very sweet and my overall impression was... a blend that anyone partial to VA/Per blends would enjoy.

For me, this mix seemed a little too light on the Perique & became a little bland after mid-bowl. I like VA/Pers & this is a pretty good one. Escudo is still the number one VA/Per in my rotation along with Salty Dogs which is as enjoyable as Escudo with slightly more strength.

A mellow, sweet smoke with a bit of spice. Throughout this tin I've had trouble drawing a lot of flavor from the flakes even when rubbed out. Seems to burn hotter than other VA flakes.

Don't think I'll try this one again as there are so many other VAs out there.

Tried almost all PCCA blends except tudor castle and I like jubilee more.

take it slow with beacon and you'll be rewarded. at first try I was carried away, so yes, it can bite 🙂 for me the cube cut works better than fully rubbed.

EDIT: I've done a little experiment with beacon and dunhill london mixture. With both blends I was having similar problems and I thought It takes a thief to catch a thief 😛 so I fully rubbed some beacon and mixed it with LM. 50% first. results were promising but mcclelland virgina was overpowering. so I changed the ratio to 1/3 beacon + 2/3 London mixture. WA-A-O-OW! improved burning qualities, cooler, less to no bite and the flavor profile is much more complex now. I just invented my own --medium-- nightcap 😛 okay I didn't but give it a try if you can, I suppose this ratio will work with several latakia/oriental or latakia/turkish mixtures