McClelland No. 2040 Cyprian Mixture

This was no Balkan at all but some species of vanilla-cased aromatic. I purchased a 2 oz bulk baggie, fired up a bowl, and thought I was smoking a luxury blend of Captain Black. Vanilla is indeed the predominant tasting note, and I simply cannot understand how any reviewer, on this or any other pipe and tobacco site, can miss it. That said, this will be a big hit with pipesmoke haters, who will surely love the room note, just as my Mom loved Dad's Captain Black and very little else he stuffed into his pipe. I should also add that, in my mouth, a pronounced bite was apparent from the very beginning. My palate (but not to mine alone) informs me that 2040 is an epic fail. I gave this bag to a friend who enjoys aromatic blends. (2040 also raises the serious question of different mouths experiencing the same tobaccos in very different ways. There's no accounting for taste of any variety, and here we're talking about physical human variations in tasting apparatus, and thus for human variation.) I love McClelland tobaccos, but they've apparently done something to this mixture that causes it to depart from the blender's tasting notes - seriously: "no flavoring"? - and certainly takes it out of the Oriental/Balkan category.