McClelland P.M. Pipe

Among the many English blends I've smoked I'd place this one just above average. I find it just a shade weak in two areas. Needs a little more Virginia sweetness and flavor and a stronger presence of Orientals. Other than that, it's pretty tasty. The Perique is very much welcome here. It fills in some of the flavor gap. I guess I'm nitpicking a little too much. It's still a pretty good smoke.

Medium in body and flavor. Burns well. Worth a try because we all taste things differently. You might just love it.

Big fan of English and Latakia blends here. I'll give it one thumb up. Pretty good flavor overall, but the Latakia is a little too subtle for me to give it a score of 4. The blend of various tobaccos plus whatever they topped it with gives a nice plumlike sweet flavor. Uncle Nic is present but not obtrusive. This is supposed to be comparable to Dunhill Nightcap, but I can't comment on the similarity as I haven't tried that yet.

I'm a new pipe smoker-and even newer to English blends-so please bear with me as I attempt to describe what I taste. I'm very fond of P.M. Pipe. The flavor is full and very nice. I really enjoy the blend of Latakia and Virginia; the interplay between the two is quite compelling.

Perhaps this is due to inexperience, but I can't detect the Perique or Oriental, and as such, the blend seems somewhat one-dimensional. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, and I can see myself looking for just this simplicity at certain times. In my limited experience, however, this is not a particularly complex blend, and would be more ideal for an evening of conversation than an evening of contemplation. I'll probably keep some of this on hand for those evenings when I want a lot of flavor without having to pay attention.

McClelland - P.M. Pipe.

A medium size ribbon, with a good moistness, one or two stick-like pieces, and a far higher proportion of black to brown. The note from the pouch is typically English.

It's very well behaved mechanically, and gives a fairly cool smoke. I get quite an enjoyable flavour, one where it isn't only an English Lat-Bomb; the Latakia's flavoursome, but has a calmer character than is often found. The Perique adds a touch of extra body to the smoke, but seems stronger at the beginning of a bowl. To me, the Orientals take until a third of the way in to come through, they almost switch places with the Perique. And when they do come through I get a good hit of sourness from them. I find the smoke more enjoyable from here on. Also, around this point, a mustiness rears its head. P.M.P. doesn't bite me, whether sipped or stressed.

The nicotine? I find it medium to strong, with the onus being on strong, not enough to tick 'strong', though. The room-note's alright, I guess, but I'm not concerned about that!

This is good, but not worth quite enough to gain full marks.

Recommended.

This is a good blend. Smokey sweet and creamy but every McClelland English that I have had including Frog Morton on the log is like this. They all have the same flavor profile but some different components amped up for each blend. This is would be exactly like 5110 if the Virginia was stoved. The perique needs to be amped up more. I want to feel and taste that pepper and have some nicotine.

A Lat forward medium English with a healthy slug of Perique. The Vas in this are very good; sweet and citrusy. This tobacco is beautifully balanced and weighted, each of the components can be tasted and they also meld together into a harmonious whole. This tobacco is complex enough to focus interest. It is not a pack and go affair, altho its burning qualities are exceptional.

The Vas in this really do lift it above most entrants in this category, and the Perique is a bonus. Kudos to whoever put it together.

Minor negatives are some ammonia presence, possibly from the Orientals, and a slight, and I do stress slight, bitterness as the bowl progresses. I suspect the latter indicates a small proportion of Green River or other Burley, but that is pure guesswork on my part.

Well worth the purchase price and if it didn't suffer somewhat in comparison to McC's other offerings in the style, I would have given it 4 stars.