McClelland Oriental Mixture No. 12

This has all the hallmarks of a McClelland blend. Heavy on Va., and light on everything else. It seems to be the way with this company. I have tried literally dozens of their tobaccos and have found precisely 4 of them that have hit the mark that they advertise.

So light are the amounts, that you are left wondering if they left out the condiment leaf entirely.

This may be pleasing to the more timid smoker, one that does not want a full tobacco flavor. But, if you actually like to taste all of the components in a blend, this is not recommended.

Very little flavor. Once in a great while the VA would show up, but otherwise very bland. This is from a tin dated 2004.

I am reminded of sticking my head over a pot of boiling water and tasting the steam. I have no idea what they do to the tobacco that goes into this blend, but it must be akin to the cellular maceration that turns normal tobacco into cigarette filler. I fail to see how a blend with Virginias (McClelland being known for good, serviceable Va's), Latakia (Most pungent of all varieties) and oriental (the king of flavor) can come together and create a blend 100% less than the sum of it's parts. After a thorough drying out, serves well as tinder for lighting campfires.

Tin Aroma: Pleasantly smoky to my Latakia-jaded nose, but with that sweetness that heavy oriental blends always seem to develop.

Physical Characteristics: a variety of shapes and sizes to the individual pieces in this blend, ranging from larger dark broken flake pieces of matured virginias to smaller ribbon cut orientals, spaning the whole spectrum of tans and light browns.

Notes: I smoked a 100g tin that had aged for three years. Packing and lighting were relatively easy, though I did have to let the can air out a bit before it would light easily. I seem to have this problem with a lot of tinned tobacco, so it is probably me, and not any one manufacturer. The sweetness from the aroma never really showed up in the smoke. Almost all of the flavor I got was an interesting interplay between the Virginias bright notes and the musky Orientals. During the tin I smoked, there were a few uteerly enjoyable bowls when everything went right and a few abmoniable bowls in which I ended up dumping half of the tobacco in disgust. Most every bowl however fell midway between the two extremes; a nice enough smoke, but plagued with relights and a constant threat of tongue bite. I am beginning to think that either my technique is horribly flawed or that stoved Virginias just do not agree with my chemistry.

Verdict: This was a little too straightforward for me, and the 'matured virginias' bit the heck out of me, so I probably won't be revisiting this blend soon.