Robert McConnell Original Oriental

This is a lovely mixture, to look at, smell and smoke. Contrasting colours, a pleasant aroma and then a mellow combination of flavours come your way: fruit, honey and spice without any hard edges to it. If this is "an old man's smoke" then I must be an old man!

Recommended.

Ach. Ach. Ach.

I've made a big mistake here. I thought this blend would be like a pipe version of Tor Oriental cigarettes.

By that I mean sweet, flavourful with an aromatic aroma.

It is none of those things. It's what I call an old man's smoke, or maybe old skool as they call it these days.

As I said I bought this blend in error. I could detect a musty, leathery odour before I even cracked open the can. Maybe that raises a question over the canning process I don't know.

So, it was without any great surprise that opening the tin revealed a damp dark mass of tobacco, that immediately brought to mind my horrific encounter with a certain squadron leader.

The smell that I detected before I openned up, was there in abundance and carries through into the smoke. To some this style of tobacco is the very epitomy, to others, like me it's just ghastly. Ir smokes down to a hard flaky ash and I have a nasty suspicion that I may have to break out the alcohol and salt.

Not for me then and up for an urgent trade, with nary a teaspoonful missing.

Don't make the mistake I did, and do your research before buying.

The blend that I currently smoke and also my first ever Robert McConnell. Very complex aroma and nice oriental taste. The Latakia is not powerful, added only for complexity. The taste is offered mainly by the sweetness of Virginia and the spiciness of the Orientals with the Cavendish added to temper the strength. A real symphony of aromas. I love it! It will always be in my collection.

A fairly monochromatic smoke for me, and I've gone through nearly the whole tin trying to figure out my reaction to that one somewhat spicy, slightly smoky note (presumably mostly from the Macedonian). On the whole, smoking in taller pipes have left the last of the bowl a bit on the harsh side. I've enjoyed this more in wider bowls. I would suggest that if you want to understand a Macedonian blend, this is a good one to try. It does have an interesting room note! A good, rich flavor on the whole, without the overwhelming N some such blends can have. A natural tasting underlying sweetness to balance that spice and smoke. Since I know there are many tobaccos out there I would rate a 4, the question arises would I rebuy this particular tobacco, assuming my tastes don't change much more. In this case, the answer is probably.

Revised review 2016-3-5 I guess tastes change from when I first tried this 5 years ago. I now find this a very" creamy" Oriental forward blend. Most of my experience with a blend of this type comes with some heat, but not this one. I don't know if it is the Cavendish or Latakia that tames this one , but neither show themselves in the taste. In smoking this blend back to back with EMP , I find them very similar, including the cut.

I believe that I will be stocking up

Very nice, very enjoyable, mild smoke, with an excellent but not overpowering oriental flavour. Burns quite quickly but never hot. I prefer slightly stronger tobaccos, otherwise I would rate this a 4 star.

McConnell calls this blend "Oriental" without much more detail because the experience of this smoke is as simply put as the name describes. It is a very pure, un-messed-around-with, oriental blend that any tobacco purist who does not like heavy additional flavorings will enjoy. This blend is done in a very traditional English fashion. It has a great spicy-satin taste that doesn't bite and a mild room note that seems to somewhat match the taste.

Oriental is my second favorite blend. This blend has a robust quality and an excellent balance of flavors. It is the most complex blend I've ever tasted. From the first puff to the last there is swirl of flavors varying in sweetness and pungency. I can see why some reviews here have rated it unfavorably if the smoker was expecting a classic English blend with overpowering latakia content rather than a balanced blend with latakia being used to compliment the Turkish and oriental leaves. It makes a great nightcap along with a snifter of cognac. It seems to favor thick walled briars and it likes to be savored slowly. It rates a solid 4 stars.

This blend is a relaxing blend that does not require the smoker to contemplate its minutiae. The main reason for this is that the blend is exactly what it seems to be.

I tend to enjoy this blend around a campfire.

I'm still not done with my first tin, so maybe I will discover that this blend has more to it than I am detecting, but right now it seems like a good example of your standard English mixture.