Robert McConnell Scottish Blend

McConnell got this blend Scottish Blend right! Tin note is a mix of smoky hay, earth floral and slight sweet raisin/fig.

Charring Light is slightly sweet with faint raisin and well balanced blend of Virginia and Latakia. While the tin description calls this a “Robust Classic”, I would agree with Classic but my tin had nearly two years on it and I found this blend to be medium in strength with a smoothness and good interplay between the Virginia, Latakia, and Turkish well through mid-bowl. The Perique is also light but adds a nice peppery taste as you reach the bottom third and continues through the end of the bowl leaving a light gray ash..

Moisture content is perfect from the tin and only required a relight after the Charring Light. I found this blend to have no bite and I smoked it slow and allowed it to briefly rest occasionally, allowing the harmonious flavors to ebb and flow throughout the bowl.

While I prefer English, V-Flake, MV and VaPer, this is the Best Scottish Blend I have tried to date and I will purchase more to cellar. I would give it a 3.5 of 4.

Bought in Switzerland at average price for quality tobaccoes, at opening is pleasant, correctly moisted, with a quite delicate smell. Quite little latakious, as we usually expect from a scottish.

Aroma: light and quite complex, pleasant

Taste: good, smooth, elegant, complex and hard to find a definition, but lacks in something, maybe a typical recognizable trait... is much more STRONG than you can imagine, after 3 or 4 bowls in an afternoon you can go knocked for the kick...

Room note: not invasive or too persistent

Burning: good, correctly slow, if you puff only a bit too much it can easily overheat the pipe

Best Briars: EM & co. dedicated, gives its best in small pipes

Well, it's a good and elegant but shifty, difficult to understand, mixture: escapes to a clear definition and is a bit inadvertently too strong, by me.

This is a medium aroma and nic blend.when you open it the spicyness fights the woodyness in a confusing way.packs easy needs a little effort to light.burns from cool to medium hot with a bit moist.the flavours are more spicy and earthy with a decent dose of woodyness in a sweet base.for sure not a strong scottish like the dunhill blends.you can start your afternoon with it in a decent but not exciting way.if you want to try a scottish blend without strong flavours and taste but also not flat experience that's your blend

Virginia, Latakia and perique combine to make a soft yet firm presentation. And the leaf that McConnell's was famous for (the Virginias), are rich, dark and tasty. A special blend that has never quite been duplicated by K&K, although they certainly are giving it a good effort.

Well.....you will just have to salivate over the fact I broke open a tin nearing 30 years of age on it, courtesy of a pipe dealer in Sweden, who has been cellaring this for a very long time. The Virginias take the forefront due to their aging, and this blend presents itself as a delightful, mild, smoke. The room note is wonderful, the nic hit is mild, and the Orientals blend perfectly. Simply awesome. I shall mourn when I finish this tin, which should serve as an ode to cellaring fine pipe tobacco.

Curious… I bought this from a shop in Edinburgh in rode rot try Scottish from Scotland (whatever that means 🙂

Spicy smoke. And under notes of rose and strawberry jam.

Hard to keep lit.

Not as moist as people suggest on opening tin.

Its ok… Ive had better. I will finish it up and try other blends.

UPDATE: 2nd go…. much nicer. Dried fruits and spirits flavors. Smoother and still moist in can 2 weeks after opening as the can has super tight seal.

UPDATED AGAIN!! 😛 Smokey, yummy, delicious. Acacia honey, BBQ, brandy, dried fruits. Its goooood! Will buy more

Growing on me.. Enjoyable.

I recently decided to get back into English Blends after a 10 year hiatus, having switched to smoking only pure VA's, VA /Burley and VaPer's.

At this stage I'm looking for lighter to medium English blends; not the Latakia forward tobaccos I formerly smoked such as Charles Fairmorn Lancer's Slices, Esoterica Margate & Penzance, etc. So I ordered various tins based on some reviews here.

My goals above have been met, and my take on this tobacco is pretty much in synch with DenizBeck below. However I do not detect any Dextrose or flavoring.

This is a very, very nice English blend, with nice balance, restrained Latakia, and the VA, Orientals and Cavendish are well balanced and all contribute with no one leaf dominating the experience. It is complex, smooth, very easy to smoke and stays lit really well.

Honestly, other than not being a strong mixture, the back tin label description summarizes it well. The contents on my tin's back label states "a rather strong mixture in the English style, made of full Bodied Black Cavendish, naturally sweet Virginia, smoky Latakia, exotic flowery Orient Turkish and a pinch of spicy Perique, which is very balanced and rich in aroma".

Highly recommended from my perspective.

The new 100g tin is now pale-green, reminiscent of moss. Great tin-art, like virtually all McConnell blends. Two shepherds with their dog. Funny enough the description on the label doesn't mention the Kentucky, whilst the sticker on the bottom of the tin does. It also says "full proportion of Leaf Latakia" which I contradict.

Cracking the tin you'll be greeted by lots of black ribbons, interlaced with red and brown ribbons and very few bright ones. Still the Latakia is rather smooth and not obtrusive. Wonderful tin-note of Latakia smokiness, sour and woody Orientals and some nuttiness. There's also a somewhat alcohol-ish and fruity note to it. The tin-note truly reminds me of scottish Highlands, a field of green and a shepherd smoking his pipe in the rough landscape. Great!

In the smoke Scottish Blend is delicious, delicious, delicious! The componenes create a smoking experience with depth, and the Latakia does what it's suppoed to do: season a tobacco blend, not dominate! Buttery, creamy, smoky, earthy and woodsy and with some sour and peppery tones to it. Pleasantly mild sweetness, with a fermented character.

I plead for there being some Perique present, that sports the sour-peppery notes I know and love about the Perique. In fact the K&K website description says there's some Perique in it: "B. Cavendish with bright Virginias and various spicy tobaccos like Latakia, Orient and Perique" it says. The typical Kohlhase & Kopp dilemma... 4-5 various blend descriptions floating around, each one contrary to the others... I'd go on a limb to sa there's B.Cav/Virginias/Perique,/Kentucky/Oriental in this blend, I definetly get a Kentucky nuttiness, and the Periues piquancy. Don't even mind to contact K&K for clearification, they won't tell you whats in the blend, that's my experience with it.

There's also a very, very mild flavoring and Dextrose added, which I guess contributes the fruitiness and sweetness as well. How do I know? Easy...you can find all of McConells (as well as other brands additives) on this website: https://service.bmel.de/tabakerzeugnisse/index2.php?detail_id=104486&site_key=153&stichw_suche=scottish+blend&zeilenzahl_zaehler=2

Scottish Blend is - aptly named - a blend with a good amount of not too sweet, unflavoured Cavendish and a moderate amount of Latakia whilst having a tolerable, almost pleasant roomnote and a broad variety of ingridients. Great aroma! Sour, sweet, smoky, hearthy, leathery, nutty...it has it all!

Robert McConnell - Scottish Blend.

One of my first reviews that I didn't think much to so have decided to re-post.

A mid-size ribbon, with an equal quantity of brown, yellow, and black pieces. I usually find the moisture good.

Scottish' has lots of flavour. The Kentucky adds a definite character, but doesn't rule the smoke. This is prevented by its counterparts. The Turkish and Latakia form a buttery, woody, support, with the Cavendish and Virginia sweetening the smoke. The smoke has a fairly thick texture, and is of medium a temperature. I've never had a bite from it.

Nicotine: medium. Room-note: pleasant.

I can see why this has been around for over a century. Highly recommended:

Four stars.

Scottish Blend, this is the only real Scottish mixture from Robert McConnell. The other two, Scottish Cake and Scottish Flake, are not Scottish at all. Both don’t have Latakia and both don’t have unflavored Black Cavendish. Scottish Cake is a Virginia/Kentucky mixture and Scottish Flake is a Virginia/Perique mixture. That said, Scottish Blend is a good and tasty mixture, even if a typical Scottish mixture contains a little bit of Latakia and in Scottish Blend there is a lot of it. Black Cavendish is correctly unflavored and Virginia is of good quality. Kentucky and Turkish feel less but they blend (mix) the mixture very well. In my personal rating system (from 1 to 10) my score is 8 and three stars.

UPDATE: 2017 – 11 – 05: At the moment I think this is the best Scottish blend you can find in the market. For this reason I add a star. 4 complete stars.