McClelland Black Shag

Opened a tin of this tonight. I had the tin aging in my cellar for a good 3 years. Interesting cut this shag, it could easily be put in a rolling paper and smoked like a cigarette if one was so inclined. Gold and dark tone tobacco with a sweet Virginia aroma. I decided to be nostalgic and packed a bowl in my calabash. Smooth smoke but not as satisfying as I would have hoped. I would have fancied it a bit stronger smoke based on the description on the tin. It had a nice sweet taste and a bit of a bite from what seemed to be orientals. The room note was pleasant and unobtrusive. Certainly a sipper even in the bash probably due to the fine cut of this offering. Going to try a smaller bowl next time. The jury is out on this one, I will have to smoke a few more times before I decide if its worthy of the cellar shelf.

Enough has been said, said by Sherlockians far less knowledgeable than myself, but said all the same, as to how, in spite of the name, 221B Black Shag is nothing like what Holmes actually smoked, so I won't belabor that point.

I have occasionally found it sad that there are so few blends found today that employ black Virginia. It really is a wonderful tobacco providing such an interesting take on Virginia by right of such a simple process. It then donned on me that there is no real need for very many examples, as black Virginia is a tobacco best left by itself. It simply does not blend well. Its good, dry, toasted flavor is fine by itself, but will cause any other tobaccos it is blended with to taste bland, bitter, or already burnt. This is what has happened with Black Shag. Even something so endearing as McClelland's red Virginia is rendered very weak and flabby tasting in the combination affected. I even smoked this stuff on the streets of London and it didn't help. Rattray's Black Virginia, composed of 100% black Virginia, by contrast to Black Shag, realizes to unsociable nature of this type of Virginia, and that wonderful tobacco, for me, proves my point.

Regards,

A. Morley Jaques

I love shag cuts, I love virginias, I love Sherlock Holmes....so why don’t I love this? I’ve tried to find a redeeming quality (besides the cut) but am unable to do so.

If you had told me this was just Virginia I wouldn’t have believed it. The leaf is very dark, very mature looking, but the flavor is thin, and what you experience in the tin is not reflected once lit. I have aged this several years and thought it might shine with age, but sadly no.

I think Holmes could and would do better..

Like a number of other reviewers here, I had to try this simply because I am a Sherlock Holmes fan. This does not have the usually strong ketchup smell associated with a lot of McClelland's Virginia blends. It is there, but is very muted to me. This is a fine blend that lights and stays lit well. It produces a nice amount of smoke. I sometimes detect a slight peppery flavor about mid- bowl. Nothing offensive at all. The wife really does not like the smell that much, so it gets the pleasant to tolerable rating on room note. It burns down to a nice ash at the bottom of the bowl. YMMV, but all in all, I would recommend this blend.

I was a bit disappointed. I was expecting a stronger mixture.

Quality is obvious but it lacks taste. Too bad!

I thought this was decent. It did not make much of an impression on me. It will be only an occasional smoke for me, but it is decent enough that I will smoke it once in a while to mix things up. The shag cut packs and burned pretty well. Had not so good results in a small pipe. It went better in a medium one for me. Seems to go ok with coffee.

It just had that already burnt taste like when you smoke half a bowl and then let it sit all day and get back to it later to me off the start- probablly due to the dark va not being a good blender. I like dark va alone. Just not my cup of tea. By far I think Mclelland has better blends.

I could see some english smokers really liking this though, so I will say try it. Just don't order more than one tin till you see how it treats you is all I'm saying. I like the #25 va more than this. The cut is simillar but it is rich dark stoved va without the latakia. I'd rather see more latakia in the 221b honestly.

I like the honeydew in this series much better and that is on my "A" list.

Beutifully shag cut. Bouught this at JR's out of whim not knowing anything about it. Not bad but nothing to rave about either. Very fruity and reminded me a bit of Dunhill Royal Yacht but then it has been a long time since I had that. Burned well. Something missing. Perhaps it is just that I don't like a full Va Stoved blend and need more latakia but this will not be a regular. I will keep it stored for a break from my usual English and Oriental blends that I prefer much more.

I found this to be a very boring smoke, which is common for me when smoking a blend that is mostly stoved Virginia; however, McClelland did make a few that I enjoyed; dark star and Blackwoods Flake to name a few. This is not one of them. I have a few more tins in my cellar and will put them on the selling block as I have no desire to smoke anymore of this.

I find this to be lacking any soul. It is monotone and weak. On top of these two attributes, it also lacks enough sweetness to compensate for its shortcomings. I ended up blending most of the second half of the tin.

McClelland across the board sells at a premium now and this one is not worth the extra cash. There are several stoved virginias that are better than this that are still produced today; Wessex Brigade Dark flake is one such blend.

If I had to give one positive on this, it would be the cut. It is not the long curly shag cut that you would see in five brothers or some of the GH blends; rather, it is shorter individual pieces. It packs easy and smokes great once you get it lit. It can be a little fussy at light up though which is not uncommon for McClelland.

I am a huge Sherlock Holmes fan. So I had to give this blend a try. Well it sure is not what I had hoped. This is probably something the worlds first consulting detective would have smoked. Kind of an unemotional blend that just doesn't hit the mark for me. Sort of a pleasing non-descript smoke. Nice tobacco taste but nothing really jumps out with this blend. I could smoke this at any time but I know I would get little pleasure just a nice decent smoke. Perhaps I need to store it in the toe of a Persian Slipper.