McClelland Smyrna No.1

I heard good things about this blend, but for me it came as somewhat of a disappointment after my love affair with Katerini Classic. I found the flavor to be sweet, almost too sweet and very one dimensional. I liked the blend at first, but became bored with it quickly. The tin note and room note were very similar to Katerini, however the smoke just didn't stand out IMO. Packs well, burns well, sweet and mild, you may enjoy it coming from aromatics, it burns much better than the traditional American aro.

I rarely give a tobacco a low rating as I find I enjoy most all tobaccos and can find something good to say about most of them. I struggle to do that with this one. I just tastes plain hot and bland to me. Very one dimentional. It presents itself nicely in the tin, mostly small rough cut brown leaf with a few whole leaves thrown in. It has the nutmeg smell I get from most Turkish tobaccos in the tin and it loads quite easily into the pipe. It came at a good moisture level in the tin and it lites quite well, one the first light after the rise for me. On the first puff, it emits the very fragrant aroma of the Smyrna, which is kinda aromatic with a spicey overtone. I like Smyrna in a blend as it adds charactor, but in the proportion this blend uses this leaf, it is just overwhelming to my pallette. It is so spicy that that is all I taste all the way down the bowl. It tastes hot to me, though my pipe in reality stayed cool and I experienced no tongue bite. It burns all the way down in the pipe to a light grey ash and little dottle and no moisture. I would imagine this would make a good mixer with other blends, but as it stands alone, I do not recommend it at all.

This puppy really settled down and mellowed out after opening and leaving it to rest in the tin for a week or two. Yet another winner in the Grand Orientals series. Smyrna is similar in some ways to Samsun and the much lighter Katerini. By comparison, however, it is richer and more dense than Katerini, and a bit darker and more earthy than Samsun, with what could be perceived as undertones or suggestions of fig, cinnamon, and some other light spices. It is a bit two-dimensional and simple on the palate, but its focused, balanced flavor is sufficient to carry it on its own merits. Like the rest of the series, it lights and burns flawlessly, down to a light grey powdery ash, with no goop or mess. Won't bite or burn hot, but if you go ballistic on it and puff like a freight train, it can dry and numb the back of your throat, like most Turkish blends with a fair amount of nicotine. Prefers to be sipped and savored from a small bowl to explore its smooth, rich flavor, or worked more intently from a large bowl to kick up its spicier side. Unlike Katerini which is more delicate and better smoked in the morning or early afternoon, this is an all-day anytime smoke with plenty of flavor, but still smooth, mild and sweet. Tasty Turkish satisfaction. Well done. Three stars.

Still working on the first bowl of this new blend in the Grand Oriental series. A very different direction from the first offerings in this line, I think McClelland has a real winner! A fruity, raisin-like quality in the first aroma from the tin does not carry thru in the bowl. Herbal, light, complex flavor and aroma is present immediately. If set aside, a vanilla component is apparent from the unlit bowl and, after relighting, an entirely different profile is presented. It's a little hard to keep lit at first, I think it would benefit from a brief drying out. Definitely worth trying, if only for a tobacco that is very different.

In the tin, this is a medium-light colored blend, with a whole, small Smyrna leaf on top (my tin had 2!). The fragrance is strongly and assertively sweet (that adjective will appear frequently in this review) -- kinda like a good VA flake turned up to 11 -- with a vaguely herbaceous spice in the background. (I'm not adept at disentangling the influence of constituent tobaccos, so don't know how much of that is due to the VAs in the base blend; I tried tearing and smelling the whole smyrna leaf, but couldn't discern a bouquet significantly different than the tin as a whole.)

The smoke reminded me of a good navy flake or VaPer blend, but with more honey and a bit less pepper. It's an extremely rich, sweet smoke that maintains an almost fermented complexity, but avoids becoming saccharine or cloying. Think gourmet Fig Newton with a hint of white pepper on a bed of sweet hay, and you're getting close. Every once in a while, there's an evanescent, fleeting moment of something completely different, like green olives, or brown sugar. It stays interesting (and sweet) to the bottom of the bowl.

Virginia and VaPer lovers definitely should give it a try for a slight change of pace (without crossing that dreaded line into a topped aromatic).

UPDATE: Having let my tin breathe, and trying this blend in other pipes, I find it to be more assertive, with a peppery, perique-like nip. I don't find myself craving it very often, but it's definitely an exotic, quality tobacco.

I was a daily fixture at my local brick and mortar pipe shop when McClelland introduced the Grand Orientals series to some hoopla. They were all rapidly opened and tried by all; including myself. I don't know what I expected, but my prime reaction to the whole series was disappointment. I was in the thick of my English blend adventure at that time and they just seemed very foreign and didn't fit in. Older now and more mature, I wanted to give this blend a second chance and find out what it had to offer. On opening, I discovered Smyrna No 1 was not nearly as damp as most McClelland blends I have tried and was, probably, smokable right away. After a short air out, I lit my first bowl. Like all blends it had to settle down. On relight, I found it to be a subtle nuance of many little tastes and aromas all mingled into a fabric. At the end of the first third, the whole tenor of the blend lowered to a more flavorful level that I enjoyed - while it lasted. The bottom third was the least part of the smoke for me and trailed off to a neutral finish. Though interesting and unusual as Smyrna No 1 is, I have a complaint about it that it shares with many other blends I have smoked; its too weak in it's overall presentation. In the final analysis, Smyrna No 1 is too subtle and too nuanced and leaves me craving more from the smoke. Most of us have experience with oriental tobaccos as an ingredient in a more complex blend; like an English mixture. That brings me to the issue of blending with Smyrna No 1. I tried it in various combinations with a range of other tobaccos and discovered that it only seemed to work with latakia (English) mixtures. This Oriental has the persistent ability to mask and tone down other tobaccos in blends I am making. That capability affects Latakia blending to a lesser extent than with other tobaccos I am using. All in all, not a stellar smoke by itself. However, it is easy to see it's stellar application in English blending and I recommend it to all smokers at three stars.

This blend did indeed have that one tiny leaf on top of the ribbon/loose flake blend. So this was my second Grand Oriental -Drama being the first.

This blend is -as been mentioned- earthy, maybe woodsy, with a rich heavy smoke. I have tasted this Izmir in several Balkan blends.

On their own, Orientals to me are too one -dimensional, very good but too focal, if you will. I do love them in Balkan and English blends.

I cannot recommend enough how much one can learn from isolating individual components of our favorite blends, and the Grand Orientals are a good starting point.

This was my first try to orientals, what a nice surprise. Will be trying all the grand orientals. A slow go is best for this blend.

I enjoy all Orientals and after ordering several tins of the McClelland series, I was very impressed. While English Blends, medium to full, are my usual tastes, from time to time a lighter, subtler sensation is the order of the day. This particular blend is a highlight for me.