McClelland British Woods

This blend has a wonderful woodsy flavor with enough strength to make it interesting. Looking for that one special blend for an evening front porch smoke?

BW seems to be to be the best balanced of the McClelland Latakia blends as the the Macedonians come through nicely. (Being of Macdonian heritage, McClelland got my attention by just mentioning Macedonian on the tin!) I'm not a big fan of the Frog Morton series as being too much of a one note theme but BW satisfies with reasonable complexity. My wife consistently rates BW as the best room note to her...so that's another plus. A solid English that I'll always keep around.

I cannot believe that I have not reviewed this yet. It is probably because I spend too much time actually smoking British Woods blend. It is always aging in my collection. It is in my top five medium English blends category.

There is simply no downside to this tobacco once it has been aged for a year or so and the moisture is reduced for my tastes. It is quintessential medium English in strength and taste, being as substantial and smooth as velvet on polished brass. The flavor is round, supple, complex and clean. Your pipe bowl smells good after the end of a smoke and your taste buds are ready for another bowl immediately following.

British Woods is not very sweet (despite a touch of casing), more rich like dark chocolate and earthy. It does not contain the high-end flavors of bright tobacco. The Orientals are flush with flavor, yet without the sharper notes of other venerable and favorite medium English blends, such as Squadron Leader or London Mixture. It is as sophisticated like Renaissance, but BW is soft at the points where Renaissance would be tangy (the little bit of Syrian Latakia is Pease's offering makes Renaissance nearly a full English for pungency alone). Renaissance has veins of flavor working harmoniously, while BW is round in tension like a droplet of dew.

Where there is something a bit muted about Royal Vintage Latakia #2 and the Frog series (both blended by McC), BW sings just below breaking glass and deeply enough to rumble the rafters. It is restrained and refined, with moments of glory, like the best of Old England herself at times.

Whether you like McClelland's style or not, they are a unique blending house, with few peers and exceeded by none.

This is a fine "crossover" English blend, meaning that it has both a decent hit of latakia as well as the kind of mild sweetness I associate with quality aromatics. The base tobaccos seem to be typical McClellands fare: high quality, sweet, and tangy. The latakia and orientals seem to be in equal proportions, and they combine to provide a very nice incense/pine needle quality (but without much of the campfire flavor I enjoy in latakia mixtures). It's considerably more complex than most other McClelland latakia mixtures (excluding Wilderness and Legends), but still a far cry from the many GL Pease blends available in this range. It's unusually sweet for an English blend, enough in fact for me to wonder if it's been flavored somewhere along the line. In that respect, it is similar to the Frog Morton series. In fact, this blend evokes the Frog series in many ways, only it's a bit stronger. Burning qualities are typical for a McClelland blend -- it takes a few lights to get it going and then burns smoothly to the bottom of the bowl.

Other than the Frogs, the most natural comparison is to Boswell's Northwoods. While the flavor profiles are remarkably similar, British Woods is positively anemic compared to Northwoods. Northwoods is a "full" mixture with a noticeable amount of nicotine and a heavy flavor profile, while British Woods is on the lighter side of medium. I prefer stout blends, so British Woods seems a bit lacking to my tastes. Nonetheless, British Woods is very nice blend that may just hit the spot for those who prefer to avoid "latakia bombs" or are new to the world of English tobaccos.

If this is English tobacco I guess it would be located in the Channel just off the coast. To me this tastes like Frog Morton with just a little sweetened black Cavendish tossed in the pot. Don?t think it is a bad blend, even with the Froggy curse, just nothing I prefer to smoke. 2.5 stars.

Revised 04-13-2005

This is by far MC's best English style blend, but my taste buds have wandered toward other blends in this genre of late. This blend is a bit moist upon opening the tin which has the typical "catsup" odor that is unique to this blending house, but lights fairly easily. The problem I have with this blend is that it tends to burn a bit hot when fresh. Two years of aging seems the proper age in order to enjoy this blend. I think that this is too much to ask of the consumer IMO. Other than that, you can not go wrong with this deliciously complex blend.

I think I got a really bad quality tin. I have noticed that McClelland has some inconsistant quality issues fom tin to tin time to time. The tobacco was overly moist and had an alcoholic tin aroma as if it had been cased in vodka. There seemed to be almost entirely dark stoved leaf with just a smidgen of lighter. In the smoke I was not sure if there was any Latikia at all or oriental. All there seemed to be was dark stoved leaf with almost nothing else. This has got to have been a mistake.

- Cautiously not recomended, may work up enough nerve to try it again

I've always had issues with McClelland, especially their vinegar/ketchup Virginias. I like their aromatics (like smoking a Krispy Kreme, some one once said when he smelled my Best of Show), but hadn't come round to trying their English/Oriental offerings.

Someone was kind enough to send me some British Woods. Beautifully tinned and lovely presentation! The mixture is visually very attractive. Then again I don't know what type of Latakia they use (I couldn't even taste the Macedonian leave), but to me is very different from the ones I'm used to (i.e., from Pease to Peterson/Dunhill to Hearth&Home).

Like in Seattle Evening, the Latakia here has kind of a funky taste, at times sour, very pungent, but always bland in strength and, if I may say so, rather dull. Perhaps I was expecting too much form all the hype surrounding this tobacco, but it just didn't deliver.

I forgot how much I miss McCelland. It’s been a number of years since I had one of their blends. But I do still have few in the cellar that I’ve been saving. With what’s going on in the world today between the markets and the corona virus you’d think the world is coming to an end. So, it’s a perfect excuse to break out something from the secret stash before it’s too late!!!

This tin is vintage 2006 so it had a lot of time to mellow out. The tin tone is very rich and pleasant and not as big or sharp on the nostrils as other English blends. Maybe all the age mellowed it out and it is without the classic McCelland vinegar top notes. The smoky fragrant latakia leads the way followed by lightly floral undertones from the Orientals and I’m also getting a slight spiciness and a touch of Virginia’s sweetness.

The moisture level is perfect, and no drying time is needed at all. The smoke itself is very rich smooth and creamy with no harsh notes or the slightest chance a bite. It never gets hot. I get a consistent soft sweet and smoky flavor with slight sweet and sour notes in between. This is one to savor and enjoy.