McClelland Blue Mountain/Balkan Blue

I have gone through three tins of Blue Mountain, obtained from three different sources, only one of wich I actually intentionally purchased. I still have yet another tin sitting on my shelf, unopened, which I won, with several tins of Frog Morton, at the Richmond Pipe Expo this year in the silent auction.

I had high hopes for this blend as I am a fan of the Maclelland "sweet latakia" style, their FM line being a favorite of mine. Sadly, I now know what "monochromatic" means in regards to pipe tobacco.

It is not that it is a bad blend, far from it, there is just no depth to it, nothing to grab your attention. It does light well and burn through easily. There is a bit of that smoky/latakia flavor but I found it rather flat and un appealing.

Since I already have it, I believe the tin I currently have shall sit in my cellar for awhile. Perhaps it shall benefit from a few years worth of aging. Otherwise, I shall put my money toward better, for me, tobaccos.

I will say that, if you are looking for something very bland, this may be for you.

Well, highly overrated in my opinion. I know I smoked a 50gm pack of 759 at least once around twenty years ago and can't quite remember it's character in relation to the original smoking mixture which I settled on between the two. But, The 759 version at the time was billed as "For those who were captured by the charm of the original smoking mixture but desired a greater proportion of oriental tobaccos..." IIRC. I couldn't detect much oriental in Blue Mountain. It's predominately a broken blackish cake with a few lighter strands. It seems McClelland has almost took a cavedish process to this blend with a round, creamy sweetness to the heavier latakia character. Sounds like Frog Morton as someone mentioned in a previous review. I found this too monochromatic in character and overly processed as an english blend for my taste.

Since I never had the opportunity to try the original I can't tell you how close of a match this is, but I can say that it does hold true to a Balkan style blend, nice smokey latakia, and some oriental sweetness, but that is about it, I would suspect a bit of aging might be best for this blend , so buy to tins one for now and one for the cellar

I am finishing a tin I opened a few years ago, and has been properly stored. It was the same as I am finishing the tin. McClelland has a very distinct and heavily cased virginia base they use, which smells a lot like ketchup when you open a fresh tin. It's rather sweet as well, and so I have always considered this brand to be aromatic crossover. Their blends never pass medium intensity, and are very fragrant which is a big plus. They produce thin smoke and are always sweet which is not something I'm always in the mood for. This particular blend has all those traits, and is enjoyable. It's got a careful measure of Latakia and nice oriental leaf giving it an overall exotic perfume. The flavor is light and slightly sweet. My biggest issue with this tin is that it clearly has a high amount of humectant to the point that I can taste it. If you've ever tried vaping, you know exactly what PG smells and tastes like, it's kind of like musty steam, it's light but noticeable and can be smelled and tasted. This prevents me from buying this again. That said, I have enjoyed the whole tin, it's a very pleasant light balkan blend.

Dark, medium ribbon cut. Moisture out of tin is ok, rather on the dry side. Smoking conditions are unsatisfying. Unusual choice of Orientals, which occasionally release acrid tastes. Scrumptious smoky/leathery Latakia, and rather faint Virginia supporting the mixture. Each of these three plays its intended role, not any dominates. All more or less harmonious, forming a low strength English Mixture. On the other hand it’s a kind of monochromatic, don’t look for complexity. I would enjoy having it considerably heavier, deeper, ampler, creamier, richer, fuller.

The producer says, it was an attempt to create a copy of the famous “Sobranie 759”. Back in time I smoked a lot of “759” and “Balkan Sobranie” and I don’t think they got close at all. Anyway, BALKAN BLUE remains a somewhat recommendable smoke, not among my favourites, though. I shall not buy any more. But - since it is really mild, you could use it as an all-purpose, all-day pipe filler with tolerable “exhausts”.

light English blend not a huge amount of flavor if you like McClelland English blends (I don't) check it out does have a nice vanilla flavor that comes and goes