McClelland Frog Morton's Cellar

I'm smoking it... just now. Bought in Switzerland in 2013 at a top end price, it's really very expensive, here in Europe. Packed in an aluminium tin, quite nice, but mainly functional to preserve a perfect moisture, helped by the whiskey soaked oak chunk inside (!)... the result is terrific: sometimes I think that yankees do it better. Medium cut, not very rough, nice mixed colour, quite dark.

Scent: really good, no doubt, with a seemingly natural good whiskey flavour.

Taste: not strong, nor really full bodied, but tasteful. Maybe not so soft as only super-EMs are, but no biting at all, and satisfying.

Room note: not intrusive or heavy, it's ok, and easy.

Burning: a bit faster than my ideal rough mixture, more on the easy side.

Best Briars: the good ones...

My goodness, not the best tobacco I've tried in my life, but this blend is good. Recommended. It lacks only a bit of strenght, and is unfortunately so expensive...

You know this blend doesn't need another review. Seems the reviewers fall into two camps, those being introduced to English blends and those who prefer english blends. I still can't really quite get over the whole McClelland Katsup smell in their Va's, Bar b Que sauce is the pleasant way some folks have described frog morton. Smells like soft mellow latakia with katsup on it to me.

However, after the charring light it tastes like tobacco, a pretty mellow, easy going, causal blend, burns cool, stays lit, though the taste doesn't vary much it's an interesting taste.

It took me a few years to get around to trying this blend. I'm not going to ever turn it down, but I don't know if I'll buy it often. If a friend were asking me about trying their first non aromatic and didn't want a VA/PER this is the blend I'd direct them too. It's inoffensive.

If you have yet to try this outstanding blend, what the hell is wrong with you???

The tin note is very strong. The latakia plays a light role in the scent, and the whiskey bounds through like gang-busters! Fantastically sensual!

The light up is very mild, and creamy. The flavors are only there for an instant, and tempts you to puff again, giving you a peep show of their potential yet again. Its like a game of cat and mouse of sensuality that leads you down a road to Frog Mortons cellar, where you come to the realization the journey was half the fun, the finish is yet to come.

The bowl smokes down effortlessly, and by the time you reached the end, you tear slightly, wishing there was more. Kinda like that night in Panama City that you keep mentally reliving (not the one where you see Grandma Naked....)

Please, do your tastebuds a flavor, and try this blend!

Very simple but superb blend. A solid light and sweet latakia blend perfect for any occasion and easily an all day blend. Not gonna hit heavy with the latakia but has enough going on to give you a smile while you puff. It gets very creamy with age which gives it some added depth all together. It hurts to see this one no longer produced but luckily I have a few tins for the future!

Frog Morton’s Cellar

Yet another post-mortem review for another dearly departed McClelland blend.

Frog Morton’s Cellar holds a special, sentimental place in my heart, as it was one of the first blends I really, truly fell in love with. First off, The Hobbit was the first book I ever read (so FMC had that going for it). Secondly, FMC had “that smell” – the smell I was initially in search of when I (quite literally) awoke one day with a vision, a revelation – a message from God – that pipe tobacco was going to be my salvation from the pricey purgatory and malodorous netherworld of cigars.

As a novice pipe enthusiast, it was a couple of years before I discovered tobaccoreviews.com. I posted a number of reviews back in 2016, the vast majority of which I went back and deleted once it became self-evident to me (as well as anyone else who may have read them) that I had absolutely no idea what I was talking about when it came to reviewing, evaluating, or appraising pipe tobacco. (Only three of those reviews from 2016 remain, the only three I feel to have largely gotten more or less correct). After a self-imposed sabbatical, I presently believe myself capable of commenting on the rudimentary results of my exploratory research into those things deemed worthiest of being found in a briar.

One of the reviews I deleted (I am pretty sure) was a glowing (flaming?) over-the-top, 4-star evaluation of Frog Morton’s Cellar. After posting said review – and a more careful re-reading of other reviews of FMC – I was struck (dumbfounded) to learn that FMC was, in fact, an aromatic blend. As an apprentice pipe smoker who started with aromatics, I quickly became somewhat of an osmotic with regard to aromatics. (In point of fact, chemophobic would be more apt a term, as I mostly enjoyed the tin note of aromatics – it was only after their ignition that I encountered difficulties: the applications of chemicals, the tendency to burn hot, and the fright of “ghosting” were all issues for me). So, I was somewhat embarrassed and more than a bit chagrined with myself for having been so unsophisticated and naïve to have posted such a blushing review of FMC (an aro, of all things).

After McClelland ceased operations, the only thing really left to buy was Frog Morton’s Cellar (another indication -- I thought at the time -- that FMC was an unexceptional blend). The only reason I purchased an additional 2500 grams of the stuff was the faint hope that I would someday be able to unload it on ebay for a considerable gain (once all the other Frog Morton merchandise had been bought up). Suddenly, and quite sadly, this blend that I initially loved so much had become too light, too airy and too soft for me (I was seeking big, bold, full-flavored, robust tobaccos -- the more nicotine, the better). As a result, I’ve been eyeing my 37 cellared tins of FMC rather dejectedly ever since.

After smoking the last of my jarred FMC (in what now seems like a distant childhood memory), I never opened another tin of it -- until today.

I really wasn’t looking forward to doing this revised review of FMC due to the expectation it would become my first 3-star recommendation (or – perish the thought -- perhaps only garnering a 2-star endorsement) given my “new-and-improved,” more experienced (elitist/highbrow) palate.

Having sampled quite a bit of FMC in the past, and not having smoked any of it for at least two years, I decided to put all of my prejudiced notions aside in order to craft a more accurate, fair and balanced review.

Wow -- never have I been so pleasingly and pleasantly humbled . . .

Presentation: The people who put this mix together really knew what they were doing. A beautiful, black-and-tan (mostly black) rough, mixture-style of coarse-cut that looks oddly inviting and pleasing to the eye.

Tin note: Great whiffs of wood, scents of sweet smoke; very Latakia forward. In no way did Frog Morton’s Cellar smell like an aromatic to me (I didn’t detect any whiskey, unlike many other reviewers had).

This stuff tasted great, from start to finish. I loaded a considerable amount of FMC into a rather large Jeppesen bent brandy (basically, a Danish house pipe with more than 2-inches of chamber depth), and it performed flawlessly, from beginning to end. Beautiful, thick, creamy smoke. Dry, cool-burning -- never hot, no bite -- and no relights. No moisture, no dottle; only fine, white ash remaining after all was said and done.

Is Frog Morton’s Cellar something I would smoke again? Absolutely, without question or equivocation.

Is Frog Morton’s Cellar something I look forward to smoking again? Yes – absolutely – without question.

Is it a problem for me that Frog Morton's Cellar has hardly any nicotine to it? No, not at all -- I will take taste over nicotine in this particular instance.

Is it a problem for me that Frog Morton's Cellar is still -- and always has been -- an aromatic blend? Hell. No.

Would Frog Morton’s Cellar be a tobacco I would consider cellaring? Absolutely, without question – and in retrospect, I am so glad to have purchased as much FMC as I did, when I did – my only lament being that I didn’t procure more of it when I had the chance. (Most regrettably, Frog Morton’s Cellar was the only one of the Frog series that I tried).

My sincerest apologies to Frog Morton's Cellar for whatever misgivings or reservations I may have harbored about your honest, truthful, upright integrity as a quality mixture.

This Frog Morton’s Cellar review has been the most unexpected, most enjoyable and gratifying bombshell reconsideration to date. Unquestionably, 4-stars.

This stuff is just fantastic. It smokes cool and can't bite. The smoke is thick and full of flavor. Maybe not complex, but full and satisfying. You feel as though you could chew on the smoke. It smokes to ash with the flavor maintained all the way through the entire bowl. Sad that it's no longer available.

All the words are said. I Just want to leave here all 4 stars for this legend. Sometimes i would like this tobacco to move on but its not a big deal since the taste and room note are so great!

I was extremely excited to finally try one of the famous blends out of Frog Morton. Happily, I found it at a local B&M for a decent price. Upon opening the tin, there was something odd about the tobacco. It was hard, and cube cut. Nowhere on the tin did it say anything about cube cut. Alrighty then, it’s a mystery folks. So, in picking up this oddly tough, rough, and charred tobacco, I tried to break a piece off. Man oh man, this stuff was tough. After countless minutes of attempting to roll it out, I took a knife with a serrated edge. I’m telling you, devoted reader, I think it dulled my knife, that’s how hard this stuff was! I had to think here, hard and long. Perhaps it’s like a plug, and didn’t need to be broken down. So I attempted to shove the cube into my largest pipe. Miraculously it fit, so time to get a smoking! The topping is definitely wood, and it lasts throughout the whole bowl. It was extremely hard to keep lit, but I finally got a nice smoldering going. Halfway through the bowl, I noticed the tobacco had completely combusted into an open flame, charring the bowl of my pipe. In an attempt to ash the pipe, and put the fire out, the flame strengthened, and engulfed my favorite Nørding. In a panic, I threw it out of my car window on the highway, where the flaming pipe was run over by a semi who was not expecting such turn of events.

All in all, I’d give my experience an 8/10. The strength was mild, the taste was very woody, and it burned hot hot. Lost two points for destroying my pipe, and scarring the poor trucker who almost flew off the road.

My go to smoke. Consistent flavor and satisfaction. This is the only tobacco I will not allow myself to run out of. Sweet and never any bite even when the pipe gets hot. It's the Latikia that makes it. I store mine in a large glass jar. A smoke for any piper who enjoys a constant satisfying smoke!