McClelland Bombay Court

A long time favorite from McClelland's and always a rewarding smoke. I get the Latakia flavor I am looking for as well as the enhancements the Orientals and Virginia tobaccos add. Actually a semi-sweet blend and truly unique.

Pipestud

McClelland - Bombay Court.

Finally, after being messed around by the U.K. postal service, with there sur-charges, package processing, and official delays, I finally received my latest trade from my American pipe-pal Franck, aka Gentleman Zombie. For this trade, as well as brand new blends, we agreed to swap a few 'opened but not so fond of' tins. This is one of those; what do they say? one mans trash is another mans treasure!

Firstly, I'm unsure of the age so I can't comment regarding that, but it's just old enough for the broken seal to have made the hydration perfect. The ribbons are a fair divide between dark brown and black, and they're medium in size.

On the back of the tin it says "natural sweet flavour'; that's the one word that I wouldn't associate with this, it has a raw, full flavour, but not a sweet one (to me); unless that's meant rhetorically! I enjoy this kind of Latakia, it's not that smoky, but more woodsy. The Oriental/Turkish play a good role in completing the flavour: these are easily tasted and accompany the Latakia impeccably. To be truthful, out of the three it's the Virginia that offers me the least in the way of flavour; maybe a slight grass note, but nothing too pre-eminent. The nicotine? To me this is medium in the dictionary definition of the word! It burns superbly: hardly any re-lights, only some odd tamps, and no dottle.

Now the room-note: I like it quite a bit, it's nothing extraordinary but it's good nevertheless.

This also makes an incredibly good first smoke of the day. For the mornings alone it warrants four stars!

Franck, once again, thanks pal!

Recommended.

And yet another truly perfect offering by McClelland. I am glad that I stocked up on this before McClelland closed its doors.

I have just compared a tin from 2000 to a more recent one from 2015 and let me tell you that both of them were equally fantastic. I love just about everything about this tobacco. I love the artwork of the tin (who wouldn't?), I love the name Bombay Court (envisioning a scene set in India straight out of E.M. Forster's A Passage to India), I love the cut of the tobacco and I love the smell and taste of this wonderful product.

It has the exactly right amount of smoky Latakia, which is always there to keep one's interest up but never intrudes too much. It has those rich and slightly sweet nuances of Virginia, which are barely there but without which this whole blend would not work either. And most of all, there is a whole lot of Oriental tobacco which is herbaceous and somewhat "dry" (as in dry Chablis). All of this makes for a subtly refined and complex tobacco, which has to be smoked at the right pace and in the right mood. It is quite mild, but refreshingly so!

Bombay Court - one of my all time favorites, a tobacco that cannot be rated highly enough.

4 out of 4 stars.

This happens to be a favorite of mine but I'll try to be unbiased. I bought a tin about a year into my pipe journey in 2015. I was just starting to explore a variety of blends and McClelland was still readily available. From the name of the blend I expected something perfume-y out of a kind of oreintalist fantasy involving ornate wall carvings, sheer, gauzy drapes and a sleepy tiger. What I got was one of the most memorable Balkans I've ever tried.

The tin note is decisively barbeque-y - classic McClelland - with a pinch of pines and moss and diesel. It heralds some deep virginias done in the McC fashion and a very fine mixture of complex orientals and a backbone of latakia.

The taste - I can't separate the taste from my strongest memory of smoking it. I was at 1200 ft one a mountain outside of Telluride, CO sitting on a boulder which, in turn, sat in the middle of a flowing brook. My brother and I loaded bowls (I used my camping pipe: an old Royal Star Dublin whose walls were thick enough to be used as a cudgel) and puffed away during our break. The virginias set the tone with a deep, dark plum while the orientals provide a crisp top of spice like the cold, sharp air whipping through the tops of the trees. The latakia comes in somewhere in the middle of the profile adding a complex pine and backwoods fire aroma. Extremely well-balanced and always puts me in mind of a walk through thick alpine woods. If smoked right it's one of those balkans that feels so deep you can almost sink beneath it.

One of the reasons I love the pipe is the ability of taste and smell to transport us through space and time. If this smoke can bring me back to the San Juan Rockies than it's a winner for me every time. As a tobacco it's easy to load, the broad cut means that it will pack with plenty of room for air unless you're a jack hammer with the tamper and I find this to be the best way to load Balkans. It burns evenly to a fine ash and only requires a few minutes of drying. It doesn't seem to have much nicotine.

If you want something similar I'd recommend GLP Odyssey as the closest match I've found, SPC Plum Pudding being next. Magnum Opus has some similarities and Balkan Supreme can hit some of the same spots. I could make comparisons to Penzance and Wilderness but that wouldn't help you much.

If you can get some take it outdoors into the woods, that's where it's best suited. Enjoy.

This is from my tobacco log and dates from 2002 and I will say this blend is better now than my 2002 thoughts! This is a wonderful blend that contains the dreaded Virginia and as if by magic the Virginia burn I expect to occur never happens. Maybe Virginia tobaccos are not all that bad and with the right tobaccos it can even become something I may start to embrace! I am not sure what gives this the smokey flavor but whatever it is I am glad it is in this blend to help mask (is that the right term) the Virginia tobacco that I am still wary of.Overall this tobacco is one to buy again and again!

This was my first Latakia. If all Latakia are like this, I am hooked. I am not an experienced smoker, this isn't going to be some profound review that compares this to a wide range of tobaccos. To date, I have smoked mostly aromatic tobaccos. Today I found out what I missing out on by not expanding beyond my comfort zone. The first thing I notice upon opening tin is that this smells nothing like what I have tried to date. It smells of wood smoke and cedar to me, an almost black pepper spice to it. I find this intriguing. On the first light, it is again the smell that hits me. More spice and wood smoke roll over me, the faint memory of BBQ smoke comes to mind. Being a huge fan of BBQ, I begin to salivate just a little. Second light and now my first real taste. The taste lives up to the promise of the smell. So much flavor and somehow the smell just enhances it all. Again I feel like I am tasting hickory smoke and spice, with just a touch of sourness to it all. Some how this vinegar background note unifies the whole taste experience for me. The taste is smooth and even throughout the whole smoke, unlike a lot of the other aromatics I have tried. I get to the end of the bowl and keep re-lighting that last little bit hoping to prolong the experience just a little bit longer. I think I might be in love. I will definitely be stocking up on this tobacco.

Just popped an 05 tin I caught on eBay. Now I know why people chase old tins of tobacco. This blend is lovely, mild/medium, smooth as a babies bottom. Slightly sweet with chocolate overtones and a hint of latakia. A truly elegant refined blend for the quite moments of your life. And it leaves a fine tobacco aftertaste.

Perfect moisture and burn direct from the tin. For me this is a relaxing morning pleasure. Light ,lively and engaging. Perfect with a cappuccino.

As with all McClelland blends it has a unique aroma in the tin, I love it, some do not. Bombay Court burns slow and cool, will not bite, and displays a variety of flavors.

McClelland blends are a tremendous value for the money because most are dry in the tin and smoke slow. You do not pay for moisture or PG. As a result a pipe can last a long time.

This is great smoke to DGT since each time you put a match to it the flavors explode with billows of sweet smoke. Use a clean pipe, you want to enjoy the subtle flavors without ghosts of the past intruding. I have not tried a new tin, but will give you a run for the old ones.

This is one of my first ventures out of the aromatic category so keep that in mind while reading my review.

I found the Latakia to be a dominant flavor in the first half of the bowl which I like but not quite as strong as is in this blend. Several of the other reviews say that the Latakia is very much on the back burner so that tells you that I don't mix much of it in my home blends. I do enjoy the last half of the bowl more than the first half as the sweetness marries with the other flavors more. I find this blend a little harder to light than other tobaccos I am used to smoking but I did purchase the tin and haven't allowed it to sit uncovered for any length of time.

I smoke this blend in a Danish Freehand that I made myself out of plateau briar. I can tell you that even after saying what I didn't prefer in this tobacco that it is extremely clean tasting, even and cool burning and that it does not bite. I have also smoked it exclusively since I purchased it 4 days ago which says a lot for it's ability to please the smoker. I will surely be looking into more of this company's blends. Oh and the wife who is used to a Peter Stokkebye Black Cavendish or Blue Note fragrance said this one could be smoked in the house. WOW!!!

I am surprised I never reviewed this tobacco as it has become one of my favorite morning smokes. When I first purchased a tin of MCC Bombay Court I was just getting started in the pipe hobby and I wanted to see what an Oriental forward blend was all about. I recall thinking it lacked any flavor and after 2 bowls threw it in a jar and put it on the shelf. After a year or so I came back to it and with a more mature palate, I lit up another bowl. Wow! what a fool I was, maybe I still had to get the film of propylene glycol and cherry off of my tongue from the bad advice I got starting with aromatics when I lit that first bowl. Or maybe like many pipe smokers I just found that there are different tobacco's and they all may be enjoyed in the right pipe at the right time of day, and just maybe I did learn a thing or two about how to taste tobacco and that there are proper mechanics needed to get the best out of a smoke. Either way this stuff is fantastic if you like Oriental forward blends, in fact I would say it is one of the very best. Skiff Mixture, L.J. Peretti's Oiental #40 and Tashkent along with GLP Chelsea Morning and Bombay Court are the pinnacle in my experience. The tin note is McClelland VA faintly present with spicy Orientals. There is a woody/nutty smell and just a whiff of Latakia present. Very nice. The flavors are best described as slightly sweet, buttery, creamy with dry wood and light spice. The sweetness I attribute mainly to the VA's with the Cyrian Latakia also contributing and the rest of the flavors come from the great Eastern leaves used in this blend. I enjoy Oriental smokes in the morning when may palate seems most sensitive to subtle flavors... and this does go will with coffee. I have found it to perform best in a wide, shallow bowled pipe. A best in class Oriental.