McClelland

[tzinc]

McClelland was run by a couple who retired and that was before I started smoking pipes. I always wondered why didn't the McClellands sell or pass on their recipes?

Recipes do switch hands in pipe tobacco amongst different companies. In fact a whole company line like Dunhill can get moved onto another company.

From what I read McClelland was one of the top brands with many great blends - why didn't they pass it along?




"Smoke your pipe and be sile

 

[mso489]

The McC blends weren't a recipe you could put in a looseleaf notebook. They were labors of love, season by season, tobacco source by source. It was their input of labor, expertise, and real artistry. It's like asking if Picasso couldn't have sold his brand to me so I could carry on with it. Well, I can't. Blending reaches a point where it is almost completely an art, and that is where McC lived.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

why didn't they pass it along?

Because their recipe was physical. It wasn't something that could be written into a recipe. And, some of the leaf involved is no longer produced. Some involved very specific kinds of fermentations. They did the right thing. Their blends were not just mixes of this and that. They put themselves into each blend. No other pipe tobacco company comes close to what they were doing. It cannot be repeated by someone else. It was the hand of an artists.

Rembrandt can't just hand down his business to someone else to do. It doesn't work that way.

 

[anotherbob]

or to put it super simply, they didn't want to.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

Mcclelland was more than a recipe of ingredients, it was their entire process that made them unique and special. Which explains why no one else has been able to come close to copying it. Further, they had very high standards for the leaf they used which became difficult to impossible to acquire. This may have been the primary reason they shut down the operation. They apparently didn't want the McClelland reputation to be muddled by selling out and having lower quality product being sold under their name. They apparently were happy with the money they had.

 

[SmokeRings79]

If you're interested to learn more about the brand, there are several episodes in PM Radio podcast where the couple is interviewed (before the closed. Try from episode 324, and then there are about 3 more. All are called "Mike and Mary McNiel). Also, Country Squire Radio podcats also did couple of episodes about them shutting down (I think one of them is called "end of an era", another is "life after McClelland" and one is "The McClelland follow up" where they raise the same question as you did). I started about a year ago, so I've never tasted thei blends myself, but it was very interesting.

 

[The Clay King]

McClelland was gone before I got my first clay pipe...
Never got to smoke McClelland tobacco in a clay...

 

[Inspired Idler]

Anyone know if the McNeil's are mentoring anyone or documenting their processes for future generations? I understand that the quality leaf they required is not available, but that doesn't mean it will never be available again. It would be a shame to lose all of the knowledge that pushed pipe tobacco to its pinnacle.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Anyone know if the McNeil's are mentoring anyone or documenting their processes for future generations? I understand that the quality leaf they required is not available, but that doesn't mean it will never be available again. It would be a shame to lose all of the knowledge that pushed pipe tobacco to its pinnacle.

When John Lennon Died, so did the source of all of his songs. He had kids, but I wouldn't equate the noise they tried to make in the 80's to be anything like their father's work. Artist's kids have tried to emulate their dad's... nothing ever works. You just have to let it go. You missed it. Sorry.
Stuff you enjoy now, will most likely die at some point too. And, you will be telling someone 20-40 years from now, "you missed it. Sorry." It's a never ending cycle. A symptom of the mortality of life.

 

[mso489]

I don't know if they had any understudies, proteges, or apprentices; I never heard they did.

 

[Inspired Idler]

When John Lennon Died, so did the source of all of his songs. He had kids, but I wouldn't equate the noise they tried to make in the 80's to be anything like their father's work. Artist's kids have tried to emulate their dad's... nothing ever works. You just have to let it go. You missed it. Sorry.
Stuff you enjoy now, will most likely die at some point too. And, you will be telling someone 20-40 years from now, "you missed it. Sorry." It's a never ending cycle. A symptom of the mortality of life.

I don't know that that's a good analogy for this scenario. Inputs, processes, techniques, etc. can be reproduced reliably. Sure, artistry is needed to create a blend in the first place, but after that it can be repeated indefinitely. The only way it dies at some point is if the knowledge is taken to the grave. What a shame.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Anyone know if the McNeil's are mentoring anyone or documenting their processes for future generations?

Nope, once they hung it up, they walked away into other interests.

 

[Chasing Embers]

What a shame.

It's just tobacco and not a good enough reason to bemoan someone for taking a rest after 40 years of hard work. Too much other tobacco out there.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I don't know that that's a good analogy for this scenario. Inputs, processes, techniques, etc. can be reproduced reliably. Sure, artistry is needed to create a blend in the first place, but after that it can be repeated indefinitely. The only way it dies at some point is if the knowledge is taken to the grave. What a shame.

I think that what is boils down to is that Mike and Mary have decided this. Our feelings and such... phhhht.

Believe me, I was a McClelland fan for years... but what do we do? I just changed the genre I preferred and turned to a different company. Not much else I can do about it.

 

[smudgersmissingleg]

Wish I had started smoking a pipe a few years earlier as i'd have a lot more Mcclelland in my cellar than I do. I bought some Christmas Cheer on the secondary market which was very expensive but worth every penny.
I'm glad they didn't sell the recipes to a big company as I'm sure it just wouldn't have been the same.

 

[cigrmaster]

MC, was a mom and pop operation and at their age they had enough. I owned my own business for 27 years and I called it quits. When you own your onw business for that many years usually two things happen. You get so greedy you start making mistakes. and lose focus of what the business was about. Or you sell at the right time, get out and live happily ever after. Yes you leave some money on the table but the rest of your shit is safe and you walk away as clean as you can. My diseased father who owned his own corporate Law Firm for over 40 years I ways told me bills and bears make money and pigs get slaughtered. I only neglected his words when I didn't get out of CMGI fast enough. It was ok as AOL split 3 times. When I though the time was I dumped INTC i..e intel. Bought it for 15 sold it off at 31 and then never made another trade on the stock market. I did my private lending from 1999 till 2020. I was much more comfortable with the types of people who were business owners who couldn't use a bank. I was always in first position as banks were never ever involved with these deals.

Every deal was above board, no screwing around as people wanted to be the loop. Please were always trying to sell my shares in certain deals. My old man sold some and bought some with my accont. He fucked a couple of times. My guy totally screwed up and I took a 25,000 hit because Steve didn't count right. If that were they only deal I was lucky as when 2008-2009 hit, it was a shit storm. I only had money in the federally reserved banks that were insured to 250,000. if you had two names on an account you can get 500,000 insured at one bank.

I maxed out at Chase Bank and I am almost maxed at Wells Fargo. I keep wondering if chase wil. Probably not as my oldest daughter is on the account with me know. She will be an Attorney by then and people will live in fear of me. Having a lawyer in your family is like having a .50 caliber Ma Deuce in the back of your pick- up truck. It means you a going to show who is in charge and who ever doesn't like it, just light em up.

 

[sablebrush52]

Recipes are a starting point. What made McClelland different was that the NcNeills oversaw every step of the process, from picking out the leaf they were going to use, through careful and sometimes complicated processing, to final shipping to stores. Instinct isn't something that can be quantified into a recipe or a description. Instinct begins with the selection of leaf, and it's all different from season to season..

McClelland was the McNeill's baby and they did not want it trashed by others. It's simpleminded to think that a written recipe is an equivalent.

Frankly I think they did the right thing by retiring the line when they retired. I realize that there are people who would be happy to smoke dog turds if it came from a tin labeled McClelland's. I'm not one of them.

McClelland is OVER, DONE, FINITO. Get over it.

There's equally good tobacco to be had today. Go look for that.

 

[tzinc]

Okay so the leaves they used were high quality and they used unique processes I get that.

At the same time I'd rather have some sort of Bengal Slices or Three Nuns or Nightcap or Early Morning Pipe than none at all.

I mean you can still get John Lennon songs even if sung by another singer. Maybe it is not so good but you can still experience some version of it. But I get it people have different views. Maybe one's view is affected by whether they got to smoke McClellands or not.

 

[sandollars]

Nope, once they hung it up, they walked away into other interests.

And took their ball with them

 

[sablebrush52]

Okay so the leaves they used were high quality and they used unique processes I get that.

At the same time I'd rather have some sort of Bengal Slices or Three Nuns or Nightcap or Early Morning Pipe than none at all.

I mean you can still get John Lennon songs even if sung by another singer. Maybe it is not so good but you can still experience some version of it. But I get it people have different views. Maybe one's view is affected by whether they got to smoke McClellands or not.

So dog turds in a can labeled McClelland is fine with you? Because you're not getting McClelland in that tin. Another solution would be to buy some empty tins, steam off the label, and glue it onto whatever you have at hand. It would amount to the same thing. What you don't understand is just how much processing went on, and how it varied from batch to batch, and the the eye on that was Mike McNeill. No Mike, no match.