Robert McConnell Scottish Blend

A fairly middle-of-the-road English style blend. Scottish has a nice balance, and a bit of subtle nuance as the Latakia and Oriental mingle with the Black Cavendish around the ever-present Virginia.

No particular leaf jumps out at you, they are all pretty muted. Like the overall blend, nothing really stands out. This is a nice smoke that doesn?t have an overpowering room note. One reviewer suggested that it could be compared to My Mixture 965, and I have to agree. Turn the flavor and fullness knobs down a few notches, add a hint of Perique and you have it.

You could smoke this all day. You can ? I won?t.

Scottish Blend: An English blend with Cavendish, a light English blend, an English blend with burley, an English blend with peat, an English blend made from floor sweepings of various English blends, or wha?eers thrufty. Take it from me, even though it is farmed out to Sassenach, McConnell?s IS Scottish Blend - hey, there?s a thistle right on the tin, for Peat?s sake. If the pipe world let this blend settle the confusion, it could do no better.

Scottish Blend is a beautiful mix of thin ribbon cut reds, blacks, and cream colored tobaccos packed neatly in its oil stained paper doily inside a somewhat compact 50G tin (I hate the sickly avocado green pseudo-toile label). The aroma that emerges on opening the tin is intoxicating. If you like Latakia and Turkish, you are in for a treat, my brother. Moisture content: ideal. Almost packs itself.

The charring light releases a glorious mix of oriental tang, soft mesquite campfire, and, surprise! sweet black Cavendish, (which just occasionally pops up once or twice early during a bowl). By mid-bowl it has settled into a wonderfully smooth, balanced groove of lataturkish with the Virginia starting to work.

By the home stretch the sweet is gone. The Turkish and Cavendish have left the party, and your old pals the Virginian, the Cajun, and the Cypriot stay to finish the last few drams with you? cool, mellow, smoky, joy.

This tobacco probably won?t satisfy the true ?Balkan Vampires? as one genius reviewer put it, or the diehard clubmen who regularly bathe themselves in Nightcap and wake up every morning to a bowl of Early Morning, but it is a great walk on the wild side for just about anybody else. In fact, if you don?t really crave Latakia, but occasionally enjoy Early Morning, Aperitif, or Presbyterian Mixture, give Scottish Blend a try. Certainly one of the best of the mild Latakia blends.

This is an intriguing, almost disconcerting blend, with some sweetness to it, and IMO very tasty. This should be on the full strength side. It contains enough Latakia to make it noticeable, but not to the typical English extent. The deep smokiness of this leaf is present as a background note, giving it a certain earthy nuttiness to remind the smoker this is something of an English (well, make it a Scottish) blend. The Perique, on the other hand, is barely manifest, to the point that were it not for the blender?s description I don?t think I would have noticed it.

It is the sweet element that disconcerts. Whereas the use of Cavendish processed leaf can also be found in English style blends,like Dunhill?s 965, in Scottish Blend it seems to be overly present. Maybe this is due to the fact that Dunhill?s mixture contains unsweetened brown Cavendish, while McConnell?s rendering uses the sweet, steamed black variety. This seems to establish, IMO, a kind of taste and aroma contradiction. Even though SB is a rich tobacco, a bit over the medium strength line, the Black Cavendish seems to mellow it and provide a syrupy backdrop that just seems at odds with the Latakia element (kind of mixing a bit of Captain Black white label with an English. Some may even think of this as a Frog Morton type of blend). And yet, somehow, the concoction pulls through and achieves quite a palatable structure.

Once lit the aroma does not seem to bother those around, and the density of the processed blend allows for a long, leisurely smoke. I don?t think I would smoke this one constantly, but every now and then this is a worthwhile experience. Not for the beginner, this tobacco can be an interesting change of pace for English style smokers, or a transitional tobacco for those seeking to switch from aromatics to English style mixtures.

Good stuff, this is a pretty standard milder english to me, very tame, very even smoking and cool burning, no bite. Enjoyable while doing other tasks, I used to smoke this when we would go out and shoot pool, back when you could smoke in a pool hall...

I first smoked this blend 20 years ago and, although I loosely maintained use across two years, didnt really 'get it' at the time. Tiring of a Lakeland mixture (G&H No.25 - a mandingous blend) which I had smoked for ten years I revisited Scottish Flake and immediately realized its character; an intriguing and delightful taste mosaic of virginia, turkish, burley and cigar leaf. As has been noted, this flake is friable on opening and shortly may be found to smoke dry. I hydrated the flakes (no rubbing out) with mineral water on a squeezed out sponge, in the tin, overnight and the result was a quiet delight. I now regard this hydration technique as crucial in my enjoyment of flakes such as this, for example; Germaine's Rich Dark Flake, a loosely related, stronger dark blend. As received, the tobacco may be said to be asleep. Hydration wakes it up and leads to contentment for the smoker. A superior rendition of the palette of the blend is experienced, the erstwhile dryness giving way to a more mellow smoking experience. One must take pains not to over-hydrate and make the tobacco soggy but if this occurs it may, of course, be left to dry some. Aeration of new tobacco is often quoted as desirable but I think one might mistake the apparently moist condition of such as Germaine's RDF. The stickiness and shine denote tar and oil rather than moisture content and only after I hydrated it did I realize what a classic that blend is.

In the tin it smells something like smoked meat, which I found surprising, and nice (however some of my mates said it smelled horrible). When lit, it delivers the nice smoky taste. All in all a good tobacco.

I bought a 1oo grams tin of Scottish Blend because I wanted to experience a traditional, old- time blend. I must say that I was quite satisfied. The tin smell is great, but you will directly notice a strong adding of Latakia. In general, Latakia is not my cup of tea (thats why I normally avoid english blends), but here, it matches the blend beautifully. Packing my pipe was absolutely easy. Even though the tobacco was quite moist, it lit very fast and stayed so. No relighting was necessary. I found it quite strong, but with an elegant, relaxing taste to it, noticing the in my opinion high amount af Latakia again. It has a pleasant room note, being quite spicy and not too nasty to your non- smoking family or friends. But, you really have to be a freind of blends like this one. They have an own, unique taste and character that made them famous. But thats nothing for everybody! It was a fine trip into the world of the traditional blends, but I think I wont smoke it regularly.

UPDATE 23rd of October, 2010

Since I turn to prefer english blends, this one has become one of my favourites. It has grown on me since I firstly smoked it. It's a great pleasure smoking it and I can smoke it anytime of the day. It's a high-quality, steady and balanced english mixture but somehow doesn't get boring. Excellent smoking qualities. Even though I was a little doubtful about it at first, I learned to love it in the meantime. Highly recommended.

I acquired 4 tins and noted serious inconsistencies from one to the other.

One tin would prove to be divine and the other harsh and unpleasant.

I will stay away. there are a lot of consistent good English mixtures available.

This blend reminds very much of MacBaren's Mixture Scottish Blend. I like this take on Scottish blends better, however, as the flavors seem to be easier to discern and appreciate than MacBaren's tendency to leave a mottled, confusing impression on the smoker. Not so easy to pack as the broken flake is pretty stringy and moist but burns great once you get past the first tamp. The room note is somewhat cigarette-ish but with a slight sweetness that makes it pleasing. Flavors I got were of honey, buttered toast, and almonds. Taste gets a little flat near the end of the bowl but worth trying.