Aged Virginia tobacco (Re: Mcc VA Woods)

[tedski]

It's simply amazing what some years can do to a Virginia tobacco blend. When I first started pipe smoking, I was literally trying everything under the sun. I quickly found out that fresh Virginia tobaccos are quite tart tasting, will smoke hot and cause tongue bite like you were sucking on a cactus. The McClelland brand was expecially known for these aspects.

Over the years I've developed a better smoking technique (re: puff s-l-o-w-e-r ) and have purchased several pipes that bring out the good Virginia flavors while keeping the smoke cool. In addition I've found that aging Virginia blends is the best thing you can do to maximize the good and minimize the bad aspects.

Case in point. I smoked McClellands Virginia Woods several years ago and did not like it much for the reasons mentioned earlier. Well, I received some recently in a trade. The sample was from a 1998 tin. Well I must say it was positively excellent. Barely a trace of tongue bite (even though I puffed a bit faster than normal) and smooth flavors of maple and honey throughout the tobacco.