McClelland No. 5110 Dark English Full

When I first encountered 5110 DEF, it looked like a cavendish until I opened the bag and witnessed the undeniable aroma of latakia.

Initial light past the top 1/3rd, the latakia was definitly dominate. From this point I noticed a sweetness. I assumed there was a sprinkling of VA present. Around midpoint I also caught a hint of roasted chocolate; faint and nice. By near bottom, the sweetness was long gone and the above roasted hint had subsided.

I have never smoked Frog Morton to compare 5110 to it.

I smoke mostly VAs but could smoke 5110 for the change of pace.

Description: The tobacco is primarily black and very dark brown, with a few ribbons of dark brown in the mix. The cut is on the large side, sort of a wild cut, with the lighter ribbons intermixed. When first received, this was extremely moist, and a small sample took the better part of three days sitting out and spread across a flat surface to get to a more typical moisture level, but was still sticky to the touch and clumped together when pinched.

Smoking this moist and as arrived, it was very sweet in a non-tobacco way. I don?t know how else to describe this other than to say that the sweetness seems to be separate from the body of the smoke itself. It smoked wet, hot and uncomfortable in the mouth. Despite a high latakia content from the description, there is little body to the smoke and was the proverbial ?hot wet air? smoke.

After leaving it to dry, a very nice smoky aroma emerged that was quite pleasant in a hickory barbeque sort of way. This lights much easier when drier, but continues to be overly hot for my palate and/or technique. The flavor itself was much more complex than when smoked wet. There were moments of flavor that poked through the wall of discomfort reminded me of Frog Morton, which I have not smoked in about a year. I was unable to complete the bowl.

I cannot get past the heat, bite and lack of body to enjoy this particular blend and condemn it to a mason jar for a sentence of not less than one year to hopefully mend its ways. In fairness, I should point out that I have a somewhat tender mouth. While I feel that I have not done justice to this tobacco in providing a review on just limited input, I am unable to bring myself to further torture my tongue to obtain further insights into this particular blend.

October 2002

5110 is a dark coarsely-cut ribbon with a small amount of lighter tobacco mixed in. In the bag, it has a somewhat sour smell. Lit, it tastes of Latakia with a certain sour undertone. It comes too wet for my tastes and takes a fair number of lights to get going well. The cut is also just average--I found a fair number of stems in my sample and there seems to be a lot of tobacco dust as well. Once lit, this tobacco smokes nice and cool, as a Latakia blend can, although from time to time the Virginias do rear their heads and bite a little. Nothing too drastic, though. This isn't a bad tobacco at all, but there are so many better ones out there that I doubt I'll be smoking it again.