McClelland No. 2010 Classic Virginia

In my "never ending journey" down the Virginia super hiway I decided to stop at the 2010 McCelland Rd. A pleasant stop it is. I have sampled, and reviewed several of McC. bulk blends lately. All have been good/great. 2010 comes as a broken flake.......mostly brown, some golden/red. As with most Mc blend, I find that drying, and fully rubbing out this blend benifits it greatly. Flavor is semi-sweet, mild, and yes.....zesty. This may not be my #1 choice, but it is amoung many that I like. Will it get better with age..probably. I have enough faith that it will. that I will be cellaring some. At this price I don'y beleave that I can go wrong. For now I rate This at * * *

With a pouch aroma of this broken flake exhibits a typically fermented scent.

The flavor runs from gold to red virginias with orange in between. It starts off sharp, but smoothes out a bit as the bowl runs out.

Fresh from the blender, this is a flavorsome, if simple, flake.

Chamber Gauge: Narrow

While this is not my favorite McClelland, I like it pretty well. Sometimes, I find that just stuffing it into a pipe without much concern does best, although I've tried rubbing it and drying it as well. Nice flavors, nice strength, nice natural tobacco. I can't complain, especially for the price.

update::: just smoked the last bowl, and decided that this is really better than I thought, though I'll leave my rating as is. Detected a little onion powder and soy sauce after thinking about it a little, around midbowl. This will have you wondering whether you're eating dim sum or smoking a pipe at times, but the tobacco won't leave you hanging.

A very nice straight forward virginia. Typical McClelland aroma due to their fermentation process. 2010 ages very nicely and quickly, so I recommend putting some aside for a few months or more. The aging brings out a sweeter fuller smoke; the "new" stuff is a little weak. Also, allowing the batch to air seems to make a difference. Mixing some perique produces some great Cajun Half-n-Half.

aj

I'm working my way through a quarter pound of this delightful, straightforward Virginia and enjoying every puff. For me, a straight V is something I like for a couple or three bowls a week, mainly when I'm relaxing in front of the TV in the evening. 2010 fills that need perfectly.

I like to take a generous pinch of the broken flake and rub it out vigorously and thoroughly until it's literally in ribbons and load it into my big 30-year old Ben Wade freehand. A two-match lightup, and I'm good for nearly an hour of pure enjoyment.

In the pouch, the aroma is not ketchupy like some of the other McC blends, more herbal and citrus-y. On first light, it's quite mild, but with a fine assortment of flavors. A little spicy, a little zesty, a little herbal. By about a third of the way through the taste becomes more robust, the flavor more uniform, but also just a little ashy. I particularly like it's very low tendancy to bite. It finishes softly, leaving me looking forward to my next round.

I highly recommend it, especially to those beginners who have not yet savored the delicate flavors of a pure Virginia.

A straight up virginia flake, and damned good at it. It's called a classic virginia; I'm not sure in regards to what, but I like to picture some of the founding fathers taking up a pipe to smoke something not a whole lot different than this. And hey, I'm a Libertarian, so I can tell you those guys knew their stuff. 😉

Virginias were of course the first type of tobacco, and if you ask me, McClelland has successfully made them the best. This is a no-nonsense rich, meaty smoke with no crap to get in the way of the excellent tobacco. Doesn't bite as much as some virginias I've seen, even other McC blends, but of course it still bites a bit (not as much as my friend's fire hot sauce: take it like a MAN!). I seem to favor the lemon virginias a little more, but this and Nightcap bulk are turning into my staple smokes. Unless I see something I really want to try, I might never buy a tin again! Four stars.

2010 is a beautifully cut broken flake that smokes exceptionally well with almost no bite. Unfortunately, it has a strange bitter taste and aftertaste that I find unpleasant after a few bowls. Too bad. This one coulda beena contenduh.

A nice brown/yellow flake that has been partially rubbed out. Moisture content is just right for easy packing and a long smoke without relights. This one is straight VA. Beyond my wife's complaining about the room aroma, I just didn't enjoy the taste and the lingering aftertaste. One dimensional and very flat in all bowl sizes and various pipes. In addition, although I experienced no bite by puffing very slowly, after several pipes my mouth felt extremely dry. McClelland has other blends in their line that I enjoy much more.

This is an entirely competent lighter sweet Virginia blend, pressed into fairly thick flakes and served up broken. As many others have mentioned, it's not the blend you want if you're looking for heavy VA body, 2010 plays on the yellow and orange end of the VA pool.

Construction, as always with McClelland, is flawless. It burns very cool and very clean. It can easily be stuffed as broken flake or broken up further. It never burns in a temperamental way, doesn't require many relights, and burns to good ash.

This is a perfect component to add to red VAs or for lightening up a heavy blend. I use it primarily as a blender, and it's well suited for that. It is very useful for bringing down the temperature of a hot blend or for adjusting the burn rate of finer cuts. It also presses and stoves well with other VA, although if you stove it long it'll lose some of the high notes.

I give it a solid two stars, it's super easy to blend with and brings a lot of desirable traits to a home blend, even though it's not going to knock anyone's socks off alone.