McClelland St. James Woods

The "ketchup" smell when you open the tin is potent, but not so much in the smoke, and it does weaken as you progress through the experience. The tangy dark fruit, wood, bread, earth, and slight floral notes of the red Virginia melds well with the sugary, fruity fermented, woody, earthy black stoved Virginias, which in turn works well with the perique. The perique is a little peppery, earthy, woody, plumy, raisiny, and fig-like as a supporting player. The strength is almost medium, while the taste is medium. The nic-hit is a couple of steps past the mild level. Won't bite or get harsh, but does sport a few small rough edges. I dried the broken flake out a little, which helped the burn rate, and the flavor stayed intact. It's not very complex, but it does burn a little slow, clean and cool with a very consistent sweet and spicy flavor, and isn't far from being an all day smoke. Leaves a little moisture in the bowl, but no dottle. Requires some relights. Has a pleasantly lingering after taste, and lightly stronger room note.

-JimInks

While Sam Gawith's St James left me a bit disappointed and wanting more perique spiciness, this one delivers in spades! Another McClellands masterpiece! This one is just about perfect as a VaPer, with a generous heaping of everything I crave in those special blends.

The perique meshes much better and more fully in this one than the SG SJF. There is the occasional separation during moments in the bowl and from bowl to bowl, but overall this is one of the most harmonious VaPers its been my pleasure to smoke. This will be in my constant rotation. Dry this one out a bit (perhaps more than a bit!) and enjoy. And, good news to you (we) cellar dwellers, this blend, while wonderful from a brand spanking new tin, becomes ambrosial with a few years of aging on it.

McClellands rules in the virginia and vaper categories! On the other hand, the tin of SG FVF I just cracked may just give the House of McClelland more than just a run for their money. Review coming up in about a month - stay tuned!

Sugar and spice and everything nice. This is one of the best balanced VaPers on the market. Equal influence from both components. The Virginias are superb. Wonderfully sweet. The Perique is superb. Wonderfully spicy. The fruitiness from both abounds. This isn't just a home run, it's a grand slam. I like it better than Kajun Kake which, until now, was my favorite VaPer.

Mild to medium in body. Medium in flavor. Burns very well and even.

Wow! This is a geat blend. My experience with perique thus far has been limited to petersons irish oak. Which I love' its in my rotation but wouldnt be an all time everyday smoke. So with St. James I was looking for more of the pepper pop but was surprised of the cool and mellow of this blend. It is mastefully blended with top quality va and just the right amount of perique that doesnt over take the blend. Its not in your face aggressive like irish oak can sometimes be. In fact the buttery smooth taste of sweet va reminded me of hal of the wynd so much I thought i must have packed the wrong tobacco.

I aired this about 6 hours as its quite moist from the tin. The broken flakes are very moist and dark with a great fruity Va smell. This is slow easy burning with no bite. Smoking flvours lasted throughout the bowl. I recommend this for newbie VaPers like me. But its a tremendous smoking experience no matter what your usual taste are. Im very impressed with McClelland, and this blend will only get better with age. Med level of nicotine.

The expected McClelland tin note. Presentation is semi-moist, dark, broken flake. This one will benefit from being rubbed out and dried for 30 minutes or more. Ideally, this blend would be jarred and aged for at least a year. The longer the better with McClelland Virginias. Since that's not always practical, I suggest at least 30 minutes drying time, if not an hour.

Very smooth smoking VaPer with a touch of creaminess on the charring light that is vaguely reminiscent of GL Pease's Fillmore, though not as stout or as Perique-forward. This soon gives way to the classic McClelland Virginia tang.

McClelland blends three very similar VaPers: Beacon Extra, St James Woods, and Bayou Sliced. And I would recommend them in that order. But all three are excellent choices and I recommend this one to any VaPer smoker without hesitation.

This is my favorite blend. This makes up the majority of my cellar. It's rich, creamy and with a good dose of perique. Red virginia tang makes up most of the flavor with the creamy black virginia and the perique. It's a really well balance, rich flavor. It's a very well blended and harmonious mix. Sometimes I add blending perique to straight viriginias but I can't match the harmony in SJW. Something about the pressing and aging I guess that makes this blend so well integrated. The quality of the tobacco and blending is top notch. I'm a big McClelland fan in general. I won't say anything about tin note or moisture level because it doesn't matter does it really? The tin note doesn't come through in the smoke. Just dry a bit to suit your taste. I'd rather it be moist and flavorful than bland dry and boring. This is fairly sweet but more of a red flavor than yellow or golden virginia if that helps. The black stoved viriginia does add creamy sweetness but maybe not as much sweetness as lighter virginias.

As far as aging this stuff it's really well aged by McClelland out of the gate. It doesn't have that rough around the edges thing like other brands (I won't name names). I've smoked after aging in the tin for a couple of years and it gets even better.

I don't usually like Virginia blends; the common bright leaf reminds me too much of cigarettes. This dark Virginia & Perique blend is a completely different smoking experience, very rich and aromatic. The scent in the tin has a hint of fruitiness, but I couldn't tell whether this was added flavouring or just the natural aroma. Definitely no casing (i.e. no Cavendish); the taste of the actual tobacco is rich and somewhat acid, like a fine Maduro cigar.

The cut is unusual (these days at least): broken flake is like a sliced block, 1-2" long, almost 1/16" thick slices. It needs to be rubbed. Rubbed & carefully filled, my large pipe took 2 lights but then burned very evenly for well over an hour. The tobacco is quite dense, so a pipeful contains more than the average: I've rated it Strong, partly because the long burn makes a pipeful more of a "hit" than a fine cut.

The Perique is subtle rather than dominant (IMHO). Fairly easy on the tongue, although a little hard on the throat if I smoke a lot. I can't add much more to the excellent descriptions others have posted except to say I like it, I like it!

I wouldn't recommend this for a novice smoker, but highly recommended for the rest of us "sophisticated" types, and a most unusual blend.

This review is based on a tin dated 2002.

Preparation: This tin had five years of aging, which I cannot compare to more or less aged tins, but it was good. Like others have noted, this is best after some months mellowing in an opened tin. I found that after 2 1/2 months after popping the tin, it really began to sing. This isn't work, but it does take patience. Packing is user-friendly. I just stuffed it in and lit it.

Smoking characteristics: After proper preparation, the tobacco did not bite and burned at a nice even rate. The ash could be a bit sticky and made it difficult to smoke all the way to the bottom. I'd recommend dumping out the ash after 2/3 of the bowl to alleviate this problem.

Flavors: This had a wonderful balance of earthy, bitter (in a good way like coffee), sweet, meaty, toasty, oily, and cigar-ish flavors. Mostly it remained in the lower registers. However, toward the end of the tin after it had dried out too much and was rehydrated, I found it got much sweeter and creamier. Don't know why; tobacco's mysteries are unfathomable.

Value: Out of a 100g. tin, I got 35 smokes. For comparison, let me note that with the same pipe rotation I got 15 for a 50g tin of Samuel Gawith FVF. Given that you can get 100g of St. James Woods for 12-15 dollars, this is a good buy.

Aftereffects: I hate to sound like a broken record, but concerning perique allergy, if you have it this one might not be a good idea. My eyes got bloodshot at night after I smoked this. Not bad enough to make me stop smoking it, but there it is. This only matters to those unfortunate enough to share my particular reactions to this condimental leaf.

Overall: This is a classic Va/Per, a must-try for all fans of the genre. Again, be patient with it and you will be rewarded.

McClelland- St. James Woods

Wow, as I’ve become a fan of the Virginia Perique blends, this is the cream of the crop for me.

I have a hard time trying McClelland blends as has been said before you can’t find them anymore and well if you do prepare to pay, however a pipe club friend gave me the last of his tin dated 2016, and wow. I’ve only smoked one bowl but must say nothing can compare.

The tangy Virginia’s are there and they are something I’ve been searching for dearly in other blends, the Perique never overpowers and compliments perfectly.

These blends do what others still strive to complete, good luck going back to other blends after this one.

Perhaps McClelland's most appreciated true VaPer blend, St. James Woods is rich and compelling with creamy smooth Red and dark Virginias of unusual maturity, combined with a restrained yet generous hand of St. James Parish Perique. The combination is not only electrifying, it is a one of a kind flavor presentation, for sure. Virginia/Perique fans, rejoice!