McClelland Frog Morton on the Town

I've tried FM's Cellar and this blend, and I prefer the cellar. To me, this blend is a decent smoke and I do enjoy it, however the longer I have smoked pipe tobacco, the less my opinion has become of the FM's (Cellar used to be one of my very favorite blends). This is not to say that I don't reach for them from time to time, but whether I am right or wrong, when I do, I feel I am reaching for a significantly cased tobacco, like a cross-over between an uncased English and an aromatic. I could swear that all the FM's have a vanilla-plus-something-else casing (I've never heard anyone say this, just my pallet speaking). Again, I'm not saying this is bad, just not what I often find myself wanting as much now that my pallet is more used to less-cased tobacco (sorry if you disagree, this is just my two cents). And again, I still enjoy Frog Morton on the Town occasionally. For me, of these two Frog Morton's however, this is the lighter, less full-tasting. And whether this is cased or not, it is a fine and enjoyable taste, both the FM's (yes, they are similar), easily all-day smokes if you're hooked on them as I once was. Light latakia, a little cavendish, vanilla, and something else-- I have a hard time tasting the orientals, at least as I know them in many otherblends.

To start: FMOTT is NOT- it's NOT a Balkan, it does NOT have that smell typical of McC's ketchup, and it's NOT an aromatic....what it is.... FMOTT is a very well - blended, sweet and tasty English. It's the 2nd FM I have tried, better than Froggie when he was by my camp out here in da bayou-that fo tru:)

What it is....well, its is, a very well balanced, smooth, lighter than creamy, low level Vit N blend. It is forever slipping soft-sweet undertones of ....marshmallows type yumminess into the high quality well prepped baccy [English ] blend.

It's akin (literally) to McC's Legend-which employs Basma's sibling Drama to achieve a subtle earthiness. Basma is just plain sweet, but in FMOTT it's more of a turbinado sugar sweetness, a kind alternative to casings in that it comes across as what it is, a very sweet time-hybridized Va. It's to sweetness what Perique is to spiceness.

I'll try the rest of Froggies blends, even he Stave-based solely off the 4 star reviews. Then I will then decide if its a 4. FYI, this tin was nearing 3 years in the cellar, as I have finally learned the value of aging tins prior to smoking. Spot On McC, well done indeed!

First I would like to say that when I first bought this I was not very impressed as I'm used to smoking much stronger blends of tobacco so after I had smoked a couple of bowls I simply put it away in a drawer and basically forgot about it. Then last week as I was packing things up to move to a new apartment I found this 100 gram container of Frog Mortons On The Town that I had put away back in 2009. I had fully expected to just throw it out as it had been sitting in the drawer for nearly 7 years but to my surprise the tobacco was still in near perfect condition. So I did what every other pipe smoker would do. I packed some into a pipe and smoked it. I still found it to be somewhat weak in flavor but then I'm used to smoking strong English blends which are heavy in Latakia but I found that this tobacco had aged quite well and I would actually go out and buy more, if for no other reason than to stash it away for another 7 years and surprise myself again.

This is a very fine blend. Generally speaking, it is bit less rich than the original Frog Morton, but with a bit more depth and complexity - The latakia is not quite as far into the foreground as the original blend, but the addition of the oriental leaf (basma, I believe) adds that little bit of tang and spice that really carries the blend.

The tin note is very woodsy and smoky, and would lead you to believe that the latakia will be more dominant in the smoke than it actually is. The cavendish and the hint of topping add a bit of sweetness to the tin note, while the oriental (and the typical McClelland "twang") add something a bit bright, spicy, and citrusy.

The blend does come just a bit moister than I would usually prefer, so I've found that a few hours drying time is helpful - it also helps mitigate some of the relighting that typify most topped/cased blends. Drying is certainly not necessary, as the tobacco isn't so moist that it won't stay lit - it will save you a few matches if you dry it, but it won't cause you heartache if you don't.

The smoke itself is terrific. The latakia is its usual campfirey, woodsy, smoky self, but rather subdued. The cavendish adds some body and sweetness to the smoke itself, and the oriental makes it shine. FMOTT hits the sweet spot for complexity - there's enough going on that the bowl changes throughout and different leaves shine through at different times, but not so complex as to confuse the palate.

Perhaps the best way to put it is to say that all of components play very, very well together, without getting in each others way, and each having a chance to shine in their own right without overshadowing the other players.

There is a topping here, but I'm not sure what it is, exactly. Some other reviews mention vanilla, but I'm not picking up on that...there is a certain added sweetness at play, but I've found it to be a very non-specific sweetness.

As you'd expect, the intensity of the topping is substantially impacted by age. The fresher the blend, the sweeter the topping is; age goes a long way to dull it's influence. I'm currently working through 14 year old tin, and the sweetness of the topping has all but vanished, replaced by a different kind of sweetness that comes from the aging of the Virginia in the blend. To my own palate, age (even at 3 years) goes a long way to improve an already solid blend.

Although FMOTT works nicely in cobs and briars regardless of shape or size, I think it's at its best in a briar with a fairly large bowl. The added size gives the blend time to make the most of its complexity, and the added smoke filtered through the tobacco at the bottom of the chamber gains a greater richness.

Ideally, I'd give FMOTT 3.5 starts, but I'll round down to account for the tin moisture and the topping which can be just a hair too present in a young tin.

After clearing my palate with a roll and a bit of green tea I got out the tin of Frog OTT that I purchased a few weeks ago and popped it open. I was immediately met with a plesant smell that I perceived as sort of floral and citrus-like mixed with the familiar smell of latakia. This is interesting and not quite what I expected, but then again I'm not that familiar with oriental tobaccos. I'm not sure how much of this to attribute to topping and how much to the tobacco, but I suspect that at least some of it is topping.

After lighting up a bowl of OTT in my Savanelli churchwarden I experienced a cool rich smoke similar to that of Frog Morton, but with significantly less latakia and significantly more of something else, which I can't quite place. I want to say this something else tastes and smells almost like orange peel or something. This stuff is much sweeter than any other latakia blend I've tried. Like the plain old Frog I would sware that the smoke seems almost too cool and I'm tempted to say that there may be a touch of menthol or something in this, but if so then it's so cerefully measured that it doesn't effect the taste. This stuff appears to burn down to a clean gray ash, and for some reason (maybe I was just trying harder than usual to smoke cool) I found this going out more easily than the original Frog.

Perhaps I'm just a latakia nut, but I think I actually liked the original Frog better. This may grow on me though, and I have a feeling I'm going to be buying more than one tin of this in the future.

This review seems almost unfair. 1) This blend is no longer available for 99% of smokers. 2) The small amount I was given is 5 years old, which has only improved its already wonderful flavor.

A truly wonderful English blend. The Basma truly does bring forth a vanilla note. The blend is well balanced, offering more sweetness than typical mild-med English blends. The age has obviously attributed to the melding of the notes, as it is very consistent all the way through the smoke. Much more can be said but peak through the reviews and you'll glean enough.

A greatly missed blend but I am glad I can say that I had a chance to smoke it before its departure. 9.5/10

I have had a few Frogs in my day but not this one until a good friend of mine brought some in to the club. This jarred tobacco was from a tin dated June 2017. I just really do not have the words to adequately describe this other than it has a wonderful English/Balkan smell that you could just about tell even blindfolded that it was from McClelland. An expertly blended and tasteful blend with the Basma adding just a hint of sweetness. As with just about all of McClelland’s blends if you can get some and it is in your budget I would do so. Gone but not Forgotten.

Well, at first when you open the tin, you are welcomed with a strong aroma of Latakia and Orientals.. Quite strong and inviting. It has a large ribbon cut, and perfect moisture. It packs well and lights easily. Requires a few relights at first then it is a smooth sail. The star here is the orientals. It is after all an oriental blend, the latakia here is just a sidekick that provides smokiness and probably some nicotine as well. It isn't overly complex but certainly interesting and keeps switching the taste profile from Orientals to mild Virginia sweetness and back

A dark brown tobacco with a pleasant smoky sweet tin note. Dark, rich, earthy with a touch of sweetness. Has a mellow sweet campfire flavour. This is an exceedingly well balanced tobacco with a nice level of complexity. Overall very smooth. Notes of raison, vanilla, burning leaves, charcoal, mustiness, nuttiness and maybe a touch of citrus at times. One of my favourites.