McClelland Grey Havens

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.

As I look at the other reviews of this particular blend of pipe weed, I think you either love it or hate it. I fall into the former category, but it took me a while to get there. I bought a tin of it last month during a trip to Kansas City, Mo. My wife said to me, ?Mike you?re in KC MO. You have to buy a can of Mac C?s.? She being a LOTR fan said I should try Grey Havens. I was apprehensive. I didn?t like burley, being a fan of matured Virginias and VA Perique blends. The tin wasn?t cheap either. I?m not really a fan of the burley because of disasters like Cherry Mixture # 79 or various drugstore blends that I loaded into a Dr. Graybow when I was a teenager and pipe-smoking neophyte. Have no fear; this is NOT one of those blends. Upon opening the tin it had MacClelland?s signature ketchup/fermenting fruit aroma and revealed dark orange and mahogany ribbon. The blend is a bit wet and needs a few minutes or in very humid areas a few days to dry out. If you are a fan of burley blends, try it. It?s a nice change of pace from aromatic blends and is a great transition to non-flavored tobacco. If you absolutely can?t stand burley blends, try this one, you?re in for a treat. The VA?s provide a great top note; the Perique is piquant and the burley lends a nutty flavor to the blend that rounds out the whole.

Thumbing through the recent reviews,I came across a review of this blend. I totally forgot I had a tin of this in my humidor. I got it out and looked at the date of production on the bottom. 1999! I was excited to try this again. I had originally purchased this because in my opinion it smokes extremely well in a meerschaum. So I opened the tin and..WOW!!..one of the things I love about this blend is that "rotten fruit smell", which seemed to have strengthened with the aging process. I then filled a very interesting meerschaum I have (which is a bust of President John F. Kennedy!) with the tobacco and lit up. All I can say is once again WOW!! My recommendation is buy some tins of this and put it away for 6-7 years...this in my opinion is one of the finest blends in it's category! While I am not a fan of the other blends this firm produces..this is fantastic! I will soon be buying more and putting it away...Highly Recommended!!

I purchased two 100 gram tins of this in a row a couple of summers ago, and I truly enjoyed this blend. A saw a negative review on this blend by Serad and it surprised me very much. I think that this tobacco smokes very much like 2015 only it is already rubbed out for you. The only problem I had with this tobacco was that the tin emptied very quickly. It was not packed in the tin very tightly and as you filled several bowls the level dropped very fast. The 2015 is bulk blend and seemed like the wiser choice in the future. However if you like Virginia -Perique blends this one should not go untried.

This is an ok tobacco I don't know why it hasn't gotten better reviews than it has. I have a hard time tasting the Perique. But it is there. It could be nicer than it is. If your looking for a Burley/Virginia/Perique blend Kingfisher & Junkyard Dawg are much better than this.

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 surprised by the understated yet satisfying character of this tobacco. It's a little like herbal tea, sweet and light.

The initial tin aroma leads one to think of mashed fruit, though not overwhelmingly sweet. It smokes moist (which I personally like) and that mild sweetness comes through nicely. The room note is also sweet and understated.

This blend would not appeal to lovers of strong english blends, I don't think, but mild tobacco lovers who are put off by the heavier aromatics should like GH just fine.

The Rev

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.