McClelland Grand Orientals Pipe Tobaccos

For years, McClelland has been searching and obtaining individual Oriental tobaccos from the Macedonia, Thrace, and Turkey areas surrounding the Aegean Sea. The following blends have been developed using only the finest tobaccos grown in the mountain districts, using only the prized smallest leaves with the most pronounced incense-like aromas from the tips of the plants. These, then, are the direct descendants of the famed classics in seed, in soil, in selection, and in their systems of production

A very important tobacco from the mountain slopes of mainland Greece (western Macedonia). Small, heart-shaped leaf is grown from Samsun seed. Katerini leaf is light golden in color, delicate, elastic, porous and robust. It has a more subtle aroma than Samson, but notice its especially sweet, mild curry-like flavor.

Samson grows in the Black Sea region of Eastern Turkey. This is the finest Samsun Maden-Canek leaves. They are small, thin and elastic with a mellow, pleasant, distinctive aroma. Their sweet taste is like the sweetness in a nut meat or sunglower seed. Taste what comes of 350 years of experience.

Agonya is the famous Turkish tobacco from the Sea of Marmara district of Yenice. This is the anciently famous area of Troy or Illium. Agonya leaves are wide, fine-textured and oval with bare stems. The taste is mellow, the fragrance subtle. When the Greeks followed Helen to Troy, they were after booty but they were a few centuries too early to share this elegant treasure.

Yenidje Supreme with Latakia.

Oriental tobacco cultivating began in the 1600s around the villages of Yenidje and Kirdzhali. The classic Basma seed introduced there is believed by some to derive from an ancient Venezuelan variety of Nocotiana Tabacum named Barinas. The very finest Xanthi still comes from the original Yenidje area of western Thrace just north of the modern town of Xanthi. It is this area that the legendary Yenidje leaf, which is thin, full-bodied, flexible, with fine veins, full of oils are grown. The best leaves are quite small, yellow to brown, with a pleasant, delicate aroma and sweet, mild, fresh flavor. This blend is without Latakia and is known as the 'Queen of Tobaccos'.