McClelland No. 5120 Fragrant Virginia Blend

McClelland - No. 5120 Fragrant Virginia Blend.

A mixture of different colours, from black to light brown, including a fair few chunky/longer ribbons, and very well hydrated. The only notable flavour in the aroma I recognise is a sort of sweet one, I get nothing particularly sharp, or the usual McKetchup smell.

On to the smoke: I only get a slight aromatic addition, at first, but if I'm honest it's enough to put me off; it's not that it's bad, it's just not my thing. I get a sort of floral/perfume note and this spoils it. I get none of the Virginia qualities that I normally find appealing: bread/dough. To me, it has a lot more of the sharper varieties. To be fair, I find the causticity calms down somewhat and the flavour improves a little. A few things I find good: it doesn't bite and the burn's good.

The nicotine's mild and I don't like the room-note.

To me, it's only worth two stars:

Somewhat recommended.

This is a very fragrant mixture of several different virginias in a fine ribbon cut. Components are red, dark stoved, and a sprinkling of golden that add up to a lovely mixture. At first glance this tobacco appears to be your atypical goopy aromatic; extremely moist and reeking of a fruity essence aroma, but that's where it's similarity basically ends.

After 20 minutes with a bowl's worth of tobacco on a paper towel, it had finally dried out enough to be smokeable. At first light, the room filled with an aroma that I liked very much, but my six year son had no real opinion on other than it smelled good and didn't stink [a good sign!]. I found it to burn quite well at this point, despite it's original problem of being overly moist.

While the fruity essence is very evident upon lighting, it did fade considerably until about a third of the way in when it resurfaced again and began to play off the richness of the red virginias. This part of the smoke was good; a constant flux of sweet, then tart, then rich, and then sometimes all of the above, albeit a little mild for my taste.

The best part of the bowl is the latter third. By this time the dark stoved tobaccos kicked it and what a wonderful flavor that lended itself to what had been going on in the middle third. This didn't last long however, as the moisture problem mentioned earlier began to take its toll and the constant relights necessary to keep it going made it a less enjoyable experience than it could have been. Left was a small unburnt dottle, but fortunately no goop which leads me to believe this tobacco merely suffers from excess moisture.

Summary: This tobacco has great potential as a "crowd pleaser" and reminded me of some of the finer points of the McClelland's aromatics without the goopy oily mess that they are known for. The leaf is of good quality, but on the negative side; I am mystified as to why McClelland feels it's necessary to add this much moisture to a bulk blend before packing...it's ridiculous!

One great thing about this blend though, is that it has absolutely no bite whatsoever!...nada! As such I think this is a great tobacco for new pipe smokers or as an introduction to viginias. I don't think there's much here for the veteran, unless your looking for something nice to smoke in a social setting, or a lighter sweet morning smoke.

Bottom line: a mild and flavorful tobacco of a complex nature that needs a hell of a lot of drying time.

This review is based on a small sample. I liked what flavor I got, but in general, did not find this particular tobacco very flavorful. The stoved nature of the Virginias does help balance the blend and it's not as fatiguing to smoke as some of the other McClelland bulk VA, but that said, there's not much taste to the tobacco, and with that in mind, I can't really get enthusiastic about it. I will update this review if I change my opinion... I may need to try it in a wider range of briars.

I didn't get any tongue bite, but did find the back of my throat getting dry with a bit of a tickle on one large bowl smoked in a pot. It came rather moist in the pouch and required a good bit of drying to achieve a reasonable moisture level.

Super Fresh Ketchup is how I describe this blend. After a day with this tobacco, the remaining 11 oz. was jarred. Don't get me wrong it was a-ok. The fragrance is the bag is overwhelmingly fruity. It has a fresher version of the signature McClelland aroma. I just found it to taste like an aromatic blend I used to buy at the mall tobacconist as a teen. A little too moist, and a little over the top for a person whose tastes have developed. I tried air drying, some time in the briar, and DGT to no avail. I usually like Red Va. We'll see what several mos. do. Like another reviewer mentioned. I like the component parts here, it just needs time to mellow. Will report back.

A nicely mottled red and black Virginia blend with the occasional flash of lighter leaf. A very slight Vanilla/fruit pouch aroma accompanies the love-it-or-hate-it McClelland vinegar essence (I love it). Not too sticky or moist. The topping does not come through to the flavor, the room aroma is only slightly different from straight tobacco. This is not an aromatic. On the plus side, it smokes cool, evenly, and with nice thick smoke. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a lot of flavor. More than #2000 and #2050 mind you, and what you can taste is nice. The slight tongue tingle doesn't morph into zest, the mid-level shows some hints of chocolate-like smoothness but never goes anywhere. DGT very slightly enhances the flavors and sweetness, but not enough for my taste. This would be a nice blending tobacco, and perhaps a nice starter Virginia for the new smoker.

5120 is a mostly dark wiry and fairly wet ribbon cut with almost no scent in the tin. It's difficult to keep lit during the first part of the bowl, but eventually takes the flame and burns well. At first, this tobacco has a mild, slightly sweet taste which grows a little sour and sharp as I progress through the bowl. By the middle of the bowl, the tobacco is burning well and the taste settles into a very nice, slightly sweet, natural tobacco flavor. There is some bite throughout the bowl, but I suspect that if I took the pains to dry this tobacco thoroughly, most of the bite, and maybe most of the burning problems, would abate. This tobacco has a lovely natural tobacco aroma and a mild, natural taste that I like a great deal. Unfortunately, with all the great blends available, I'm not willing to mess with this one. If you're willing to take the pains to find the right moisture level, this might be an outstanding tobacco.