McClelland Classic Samsun

I bought this tin in 2008 because it showcased one of the lesser utilized Turkish components, Samsun, and i was looking to find a good sample that might isolate its profile without Latakia, as the smokiness might mask the flavor. I smoked half a dozen bowls and shelved the tin. It seemed unremarkable.

Well, I pulled this after pouring through about fifty half finished tins that I threw in a box after moving into my new place. I thought, maybe I missed something.

Years later (8 years), it's still moist! Hmm. What do they put in this stuff??

In my reassessment, I find the spice is standard, the Samsun doesn't stand out, the bowl doesn't seem to develop through the smoke, and the blend is mild. Not a favorite.

Here's a couple stars for trying something new.

It is kind of tough to review such a blend as this. Kudos to McClelland for putting together this series to allow people the opportunity to discern the flavors of individual leafs that are often buried within other blends. So often you hear Oriental and Turkish without realizing all the different tastes that those labels encompass.

So with that I do recommend this to someone to garner the taste of Samsun, because it is definitely the star of the blend. So much so, that the McClelland scent haters will rejoice at the lack of signature Va smell issuing forth from the tin. I think that is how it should be with the GO series as the Va should just be along for the ride, offering minor sweetness to the blend.

That said, I am not too crazy about this blend as the taste of the samsun is just a little too sour for my palate and I feel it just needs something else and this, perhaps, is the reason it is more often used in the condimental sense. Not even the fact that the tin was six years old when I popped it could save this one for me.

So I don't recommend this for a tasty smoke unless you are, perchance, a die hard oriental lover which I am definitively not. I do recommend trying out the series for what it is. A chance to taste the different flavors of oriental strains of tobacco. It is for this reason that I will continue to try them all out as well, but I likely won't reorder any of them.

The word I can better think of for describing this blend is: Neutral. For the good and for the bad. There´s nothing to criticize about it, but nothing to praise either. As I said, this quality can be good or not so good, depending on personal preferences and different moments. In other words, for me it´s great to smoke it early in the morning, when the tasting buds are flowering and need something delicate and elegant, or it can be good as well to "clean" your taste, just in the sense Francis Poulenc used to say that Mozart was to clean your ears after Wagner; but on the other side it´s flatness can make it become very boring.

What happens to me is that every time I smoke it I say: Wow, how nice is this!, but I almost never feel like smoking it again. I have to force myself, to say it somehow. Weird, isn´t it?

It tends to become a little bitter towards the end, as most orientals do.

Unfortunately, the orientals come off as too subtle and diluted. You would get more oriental "punch" from one of McClellands virgina-oriental flakes. Upon opening the tin there is a slight acetic tang characteristic of McClelland of coarse with elements of brown sugar-like sweetness and lesser chocolate. Smoking wise, it has a round character, very mild with a slight sweetness and more so monochromatic. One of the blending components I think is green river black cavendish which I find as a detraction. That sort of cavendish to me has a marshmallow-like taste that surely doesn't compliment premium leaf. I wish the samsun leaf had a better platform to present itself.

Was hoping for something more, a pleasant and very mild blend with nothing much standing out as far as flavor goes. This would be a good blend for a new smoker to break into Orientals, just not my cup of tea.