McClelland Grey Havens

As someone who really enjoys many of McClelland tobaccos, I must say that this is a flop. For the amount I spent I would have been better off buying 5 pouches of Borkum Riff, for that is by far a more satisfying smoke than Grey Havens. This tobacco never seems to "happen"; it smells OK in the can and is cut right with the right moisture content, but then you light it and there's very little flavor, and so you think-- "Ok, this has got to cook a bit before it starts to taste good.". And so you smoke it, and you realize that the topping is getting to taste a bit chemically, I really don't know what it is, although I get hints of synthetic vanilla and butterscotch coming through, but there's still really very little actual flavor, not even the tobacco tastes like much at all...then all of a sudden, within a 3-4 puff window, this stuff gets hot and ashy and astringent, and you know the bowl is over...like I said, disappointing. And this happens regardless of which pipe I try smoking it in. On the other hand, the room note is pretty mild, and I guess as a social smoke it wouldn't be half bad if you could deal with it. It is a "quality" tobacco, as far is the type of leaf and blending and packaging, etc, but it really is nothing special and there are plenty of OTC and bulk jar tobaccos that outshine this stuff for a quarter of the price if aromatics are your thing...as I said, if I'm going to smoke a flavored aromatic, then let it be a flavored aromatic.

Recommendation: Swipe a couple of bowlfulls from someone and give it a try before shelling out $12 for a can of this stuff.

Sorry McClelland, Darkstar and Blackwoods are like manna from heaven in my book and you'll still get my $12/can for them every two months until armageddon, but this blend just plain doesn't do it for me.

UPDATE 1/15/09: Alright, alright--After a long time to dry out and mellow together, it's not too bad. Not my first choice, but not a horrendous as my original impression. Quality leaf...

Somewhat recommended...now

I'm not sure what it is about Grey Havens that perplexes me. Sometimes, I find that I thoroughly enjoy smoking it; others, I merely tolerate it until I've managed to smoke the bowl's contents. I have problems identifying any of the constituent tobaccos in the mix (were it not for my ability and willingness to read the label on the tin and the reviews, that is) other than perique. I'm a seasonal perique fan. For me to thoroughly enjoy anything containing the spicy weed, I must have cold temperatures and hot coffee. Lately, however, the area in which I live has been experiencing unseasonably warm weather, and I'm sure that has clouded my analysis of this tobacco. Grey Havens isn't a bad tobacco; I just simply have many others that I prefer to spend money on.

I believe that GH has been highly underrated by most of those whose reviews appear above. I bought a tin reluctantly based on the reviews. My tin was unlike most Mc Clelland blends, having the perfect moisture content. If you even think you like burley blends, you owe it to yourself to try a tin. And if you don't think you like burley, based on experience with drug store brands, give this one a try. One of my top three burley favorites following Stonehaven and Dark Strong Kentucky.

Update 12/23/05. My last tin of GH was not quite as good as were the earlier ones. I mixed it with 2035 (50/50) and found it even better than my original experience with this blend.

Update 7/30/07. While never a great fan of aromatics, GH ranked near the to op the list. As I grow less enchanted with aromatics, so does my liking for this one.

Add a star if you like aromatics and two stars is aromatics are all you smoke.

Liking burley mixtures, I had to try this blend from McClelland. I must admit when I first smoked it right out of the tin, I wasn't too impressed. It has a light flavoring, but I can't quite determined what it is, burley, VA and a touch of perique. I was hoping for a little more flavor from the perique.

I put the tobacco in a mason jar and let it sit for about 3 weeks, and then tried it again. Wow! It tastes like a completelly different tobacco. The burley had a nice nutty flavor, good sweetness from the VA, and spice from the perique. I convinced, the longer this tobacco ages, the better it will get. As other reviewers noted, it is a good warm weatner smoke. If you like burly based tobaccos, give this one a try.

10/3/06 I'm going to have to downgrade my recommendation on this tobacco. The last couple of times I smoked it, it really started to bite. I thought it would mellow out in a couple of months, but that's not the case. Mc Clelland has much better tobaccos than this one.

The only Grey Havens I have tried has been aged five years, so my impressions may differ from the others due to the aging.

The tobacco was a bit damp, but a bit of time sitting out solved that.

The first 1/3 of the bowl was Burley all the way, until the Virginia got going well. The Va seemed to like to pop up boldly, then run back into the background. The topping was very mild, and the Perique? well, I had to double check when I first started smoking this blend. I was sure there was supposed to be some. It just stayed so far in the background that it was hard to tell if the taste I was getting hints of was Perique or the topping. McC says it?s a hint of Perique ? and they speak the truth.

Overall, this is an interesting smoke, and I enjoyed it. It smoked cool, and other than the finish which left a bit to be desired (bitter), I would not turn my nose up at it. But I doubt I would buy it again either.

A very bland tobacco that has the right componets, but at what I believe are wrong levels. I really like Burley tobacco,but the burley here is tired,and faint. The Perique is somewhere in there,(so they say). The Virginia componet is way back in the background,and can barely be heard. Try again Mc.

I was not too terribly impressed with GH. Although it smoked evenly and quite cool, I found the taste a bit flat for a blend that's supposed to have perique ("a hint of perique" is accurate advertising).

I found GH extremely moist out of the can, almost damp. I had a lot of very unpleasant & bad tasting condensation while smoking, to the point where swabbing with a cleaner did little to counteract. In the end, I had to manually drain the pipe! Suggestion: after initially opening the tin, leave it exposed for a few days to dry it out a bit.

Although I liked the "hint" of perique, it's an even toss-up between Gray Havens and Deep Hollow.