McCranie's Currituck

Physical Charisteristics: a mix of severa lcuts, each representing one of the constituent tobaccos. There are light strands of Burley, broken pieces of flaked Navy Cavendish, and both ribbon and broken flake virginias. This is quite a melange! A bit moist for my tastes, though most tobaccos are when first opened. I dried the sample out for a few days in a plastic baggie before smoking.

Tin Aroma: This is unmistakably a McClelland blend. The 'spicy ketchup' scent gives it away immediately. A hint of clove or a closely related spice adds to the overall aroma. I do not mind the ketchupy smell, but it does somewhat obscure the natural tobacco scents that I so much enjoy.

Packing: This is a bit easier to pack than I thought it would be, but the variety of cuts hold each other well, making it pretty easy to make sure that I have a balanced sample of the blend.

First Bowl: As with any new blend under consideration, I first tried it in a meerschaum. The charring light went easily and the second light brought forth volumes of smoke with nary a hint of trouble. Burns quickly, though some of that may be the result of my drying routine. Still, this seems to burn a bit quicker than most blends I smoke. Burns evenly all the way through the bowl, with very little change in taste of smoke quality, again, this is the result of the differing cuts clinging together nicely.

The Full Monty: Though there are quite a few different tobaccos in this blend, the experience is not as riotous as I expected. The balance between ingredients is good, and the overall effect is like smoking a seven layer cake; the dominant flavor at any given moment seems to be whatever I choose to concentrate on. I suppose a good analogy would be listening to a multi-layered piece of music, where you can follow the drums for as long as you want, or the horns, or any other instrument, but the others are still there, playing right along the whole time. The ketchupy aroma fades somewhat towards the second half of the bowl, but it is always there in the background. Not an unpleasant thing, if you do not mind it, but if the ketchup from McClelland blends turns you off, you might do best to avoid this one as well. There is a decent nicotine content here, but not overwhelming. While there is some spiciness to this blend, it is not too spicy to exhale through the nose (my test for the strength of Virginias), and overall, this is well-balanced. or my tastes personally, there is a bit much cavendish, but it does help cool down the virginias and the burley, so I suppose it must stay. An excellent Spring blend, for smoking both in or out of doors, and with a pleasant enough room aroma not to offend too many folks. It does impart a bit of that spicy ketchup scent/flavor to a pipe, but the lingering scent came out of my briars after one or two bowls of something else. This blend gets along well with most things I drink with a pipe (beer, tea, coffee, wine, scotch) though it does not shine with any of them in particular. It does equally well to a clear palate or to a muddled one, and drinking water with it does not add any more subtlety to the blend. Overall, I would say that I enjoyed the couple of ounces I smoked, but will probably not rush out and buy more immediately. It does not grab me, and with so many tobacco choices today, a merely good solid blend is not enough, but if you are looking for something that is easy to smoke all day regardless of your eating/drinking/puffing habits, and don't mind the McClelland 'ketchup', this may just be the thing for you.