McClelland Dark Star

I believe this may be one of the least understood tobaccos out there. The problem is the typical McClelland problem they have with all of their blends: moisture. When you open the can you immediately smell the "ketchup" smell that you should have expected. This is where you should stop what you are doing and set the can back down with the lid off for a few days, if not a week. I truly believe that the drier this blend is the better it is. I even had some out for too long and it got completely dried out- it smoked better than ever. Drying out also helps rubbing out and packing. If you smoke it right away, get ready for some major tongue bite. The smoke is extermely tangy as well. The dried out stuff however is a dream. It has a fullness and richness only found with well stoved virginias. This stuff reminds me of homemade oatmeal raisin cookies, sweet and rich. It doesn't need any DGT but does well if you happen to by necessity.

Tiramisu? Lemons? This is tobacco for god sakes. So let's stop talking about food. If this tobacco remind you of any food at all, it's ketchup. And really it's the Virginia sweetness and the vinegary acetic qualities that make it taste and smell a little bit like ketchup. But if you're spending all your time evaluating tobaccos and trying to connect them to different plates of food on a table, you're doing something wrong.

This is a legendary tobacco. And the fact that it was hard to get before and impossible to get now just adds to the legend. I bought quite a bit of it years ago, and I still have it. This is not my favorite Virginia blend but it is rather unique. First off it absolutely tastes like a McClellan product. Pretty sure it's full of glycol. But that's okay. McClellan was always that way. It's one of the few tobacco's out there that has a rubbery texture. Yes this tobacco was taken a little bit too far in some direction, and it fundamentally changed it. It is difficult to get dried out. It is difficult to light and keep lit. But believe it or not. I once had a truly Great smoke working on the roof of a large building in a rainstorm smoking this stuff. It made a bad day into a pretty good day. And I spend enough time with dark star to to really appreciate it. Strong Virginia taste, mild and smooth with a little bit of fermentation flavor. Also seems thick, like it hides a lot of qualities that will come out later. Pretty darn unique. I experienced no tongue bite at all. But trying to smoke a blend that with a very high moisture content can do that to some people. Relight after relight, I don't envy guys that try to smoke this stuff with wooden matches. If you get your hands on a can of this stuff. Smoke it and enjoy it. Don't bother aging it. That will improve nothing. And understand that you will never get your hands on another tobacco that tastes like this one.

On my travels and having run out of Lakeland tins, I'd put down my pipe as there just didn't seem to be anything worth buying (tried Tinderbox blends but didn't feel like carrying on with that). Then one day stuck in Thousand Oaks and, hey ho, a cigar shop with a small selection of tobacco tins, mostly by McClelland. Somehow Dark Star was on my map, can't recall why, so I bought a tin. Lovely tin.

Ketchup. Hmm. Oh my god, this is like that Soap thing isn't it. To my nose this smelt like fruit; plums, raisins. Or actually just really nice tobacco. Very nice smell.

Dark, thin slices that don't break apart too easily.

Difficult to keep lit, yes. Rubbing it out helps. Reasonable strength, little bite.

Quite flavorsome and certainly dark and rich.

If it was readily available would buy some more.

I second briarroot's assessment.

The flakes come very moisty and hard to rub out. After trying to dry them in different grades of humidity at last I've catched the best. Almost totally dried and chopped a bit in a food processor like Pipestud's method the tobacco packed very well and burned easily. The very dark virginias offered a mild taste of sweetness and spicy touches of a fine blend. Nicotine dosage seems to be light at the beginning but usually satisfies my needs when smoked in a medium capacity bowl. I strongly do not recommend this tobacco to beginners. It is very hard to pack and light so a beginner would leave his pipes away because of it.

Reviewing this one mostly to note that, for me, this blend absolutely has to be aired out before it can be smoked. It has the strongest McClelland Ketchup smell of any blend I find, and it's not just in the tin aroma. I pack a bowl of this stuff, and if I don't wait at least an hour (4 hours is better) before I light up, I'm getting nothing but vinegar for the first half of the bowl.

That's unacceptable.

But I've done more to accommodate lesser tobaccos.

So why the 3 star rating? Because if you let it dry a bit, 95% of the vinegar flavor disappears. What's left is one of the purest, smoothest, most naturally sweet VA experiences out there. The "pressing and stoving" of the Virginia leaves has kept the bright, sweet VA character while introducing a fuller dimension to the smoke. It's getting towards winter here, and the best way I can describe Dark Star is to think about the way fresh cut maple (normal McClelland VA) smells, then think about the way your house smells when you burn aged maple in a wood stove (Dark Star). The presence of the constituent VAs is very much a part of Dark Star, but there's more going on. Something mellow and dark and, well, comforting.

I tried this blend after reading that it resembled Ratray's Dark Fragrant, which no longer tastes as rich to me as when I first smoked it several decades ago. I see no resemblance at all, none, beween Dark Star and Dark Fragrant--apart from the adjective, that is. These days I find Dark Fragrant, like most cavendish blends, boring, almost flavorless, though undeniably sweet smeilling. The room note of Dark Star is equally pleasant but with a much more complex taste. When I smoked Dark Star right after opening the tin I too found it "spicy," as others have described it, but a little too rich for my taste, rather brassy in fact. And I couldn't get it burn evenly. So I put it aside for about four months. When I returned to Dark Star recently I found it had definitely improved with aging. It is still rich and complex, but it now makes for a somewhat more subtle smoke. My only complaint: even after I rub this tobacco out, it remains very coarse, even stiff, almost like little shreds of dessicated shoe leather. And I have trouble keeping it lit. I prefer a tobacco that packs, and draws, more evenly.

In the past yeasr or twohave discovered VA Flake tobaccos.I've lcome to like several differnt ones. Along my journey I discovered Dark Star. A very deep rich, in my opiinion, smoky tobacco remieniscient of McLelland's Cajun Black. Dark Star to me has a full taste and feeling in the mouth and a pleasant aroma even just french inhaling it. It is a bit difficult to keep lit if it is not rubbed out a bit. I wouldn't recommend a fold and stuff process though as it is rather dense and doesn't take a light real well this way. I find that if I rub it out between my palms it breaks up just nice enoughto fill my bowl easily. However rub it too much and it has broken into too little peices for my liking but it does light easier. It reminds me of a cube cut when I rub it out thoroughly. the wife says it smells a bit strong to her but them it seems our other halves are wired different sometimes. A smooth ,pleasant rich and medium to lightly full feeling and flavor. I would recommend it to any VA or VAper smoker. And it'also named after one of my favorite Grateful Dead songs!

The first time I tried this blend, I experienced many of the same problems that my fellow reviewers have noted. First, it is very finicky to rub out. The tobacco looks like beef jerky and has a very similar grain structure. Secondly, it is very moist and hard to keep lit. Rubbed out, it reminds me more of chewing tobacco than pipe tobacco.

I bought my first tin of this stuff more than a year ago and had no real intention of ever buying it again. But time went on, and like many have also said, there is nothing else like Dark Star on the market.

The second time I bought this tobacco, i decided that there was a simple way of resolving most of the issues involved with it. I took the entire tin of tobacco, and methodically rubbed it out into an old cigar box, spreading it evenly along the bottom. I then let the box sit on the shelf for about two days before transferring the tobacco back to its original tin.

The next day i simply opened up the tin, loaded a bowl of my nice, dry, loose flake, and very much enjoyed the depth and flavors of the stoved Va. Only recommended because it burns much too hot, if i puff constantly for twenty seconds, the bowl becomes too hot to hold and i am forced to set the pipe down.

This is not a bad tobacco, its just not for me. It seems to smoke well and rubs out ok after some drying. The flavoring seems to mask alot of the natural flavor. My wife seems to love it. Definatly a high quality aromatic so if you like them I would give this one a try. It does tend to get a little harsh toward the bottom of the bowl which seems to be normal for flavored tobacco. Like I said its a good tobacco its just not for me.