McClelland No. 925 Nine 2 Five

I am certainly no tobacco expert and these are only my personal, subjective impressions. My take on 'historical' English and Va blends, and more recent attempts at re-creating them, is that stronger, less sweet, punchier Virginias were used. The challenge for McC, I think, is that they have lifted the bar with regards to conditioning Virginias, that previous generations would have never thought possible. So to re-create a blend from yesterday involves taking backwards steps in more ways than one.

In this tobacco therefore, I taste Virginias that are coarser, because they have to be, than I am used to from McC. There is a fair amount of pepperiness here. Everything else in this blend is perfectly ordinary.

This is a good tobacco, but McC makes better tobaccos in their own right. I will prefer them in future, rather than the sentimental journey offered here. As Mary Astor said, the problem with sentimental journeys is one notices differences rather than sameness anyway.

I picked this up from ye olde tobacco purveyor yesterday on the strength of the reviews on this site. I have smoked McC before during my 15+ years of chasing the ever elusive dragon of pipe tobacco contentment, but I have never smoked anything like this before. Please be fore-warned...this is my first review. I am also from Canada so I spell weird! In the pouch it smells to me like any other English that I have sampled, which have been few. My favourite thing about this style of tobacco is the leathery smell, from the latakia. So I packed a pipe and right from the pouch it smoked great! Minimal relights and no gurgle or moisture issues, which is saying something for anything from McC. The taste is unlike the other blends of English style tobacco I have tried and have been starting to really enjoy. Sweeter and maybe some chocolate essence hidden in there somewhere. Just enough if this unknown flavour to keep me looking for it with every puff. I started really huffing on this and received no punishment from the tobacco at all. No bite, a little bit of a cool feeling actually on the tongue not unlike the menthol cigarettes I used top sneak when I was a teen, and flavour like crazy. It actually made me hungry but I was like a fat kid with a candy bar and did not want to put it down long enough to make a sandwich. I have been looking for my Holy Grail blend for the entire time I have been smoking pipes, I think I have finally found it! Highly recommended especially for beginners and as an intro to English with one caveat, you won't want to polish off the other stuff you have on hand you'll be too busy scarfing this away!

Extraordinary was the first adjective in the product description and I couldn't agree more. It is also very well balanced. MC reports this to be a replacement for MM965 however I find it has more in common with the original Balkan Sorbranie. Rich, creamy and complex.

I'm going to be aging tins prepared from a large bulk order - I suspect that these fine ingredients will age very well. Particularly since this has no ostensible casing other than what the VA cavendish brings to the party and it is so well balanced.

With all its strength, it has no harshness or bitterness. It also holds my interest through large bowls and relights are a dream even after a few hours.

Nicely done.

This is such an interesting tobacco, and I was surprised that it had to be added.

In the bag, 925 smells very much like a VaPer, sweet and earthy, despite the lack of Virginias in the blend. At first light however, I swore I was smoking a burley blend, despite the lack of...well, burleys.

I agree that the Orientals and the Cavendish speak more loudly than the Latakia, which makes it a very one-dimensional blend. It's tasty, but nothing that will make you do cartwheels around the yard. It smokes slow and extremely cool, with no bite or bitterness noted.

925 is the same from the front of the bowl to the finish, making it kind of like the mac n' cheese of pipe tobacco: It's comfort food that you can smoke.

I have never had Dunhill's 965, though I have smoked Orlik's version. I do like the Orlik blend,though I find it bites some. 925 is a much better smoke(IMO) with no bite at all. Now that my smoke shop carries this it will be a main smoke for me. So far I haven't been let down by McClelland at all.

Another blend that I have purchased early on my pipe journey. I think that the Cavendish is a bit too much in this blend. I think that it is a bit too sweet. I have not tried the Dunhill original, and honestly I am not sure that I would stand it line or pay to try it anyway. This is not my cup of tea, but it is by no means bad. I will keep coming back and see what happens down the road.

I requested this as a Sample from Pipes & Cigars with my last order and was pleasantly surprised that they sent me 4 Oz. I remember years ago smoking Dunhill 965 and it was high on my rotation list. "Nine 2 Five" is not as full as the 965 but it is a plesant smoke. The Latakia is lighter then I'd like, the Oriental is good and seems to round things out. All in all a decent blend however I prefer Old Dublin, it is more consistent.