Old Dominican Glory Maduro

[brass]

I finally caved in and got a tin of Old Dominican Glory Maduro. The reviews for ODG Natural were lackluster but a bit better for the maduro leaf blend. This was my first McClelland blend, if memory serves me right.
I opened the littl can and as usual, leaned over to give it a sniff for the tin note. I literally jerked my head away on picking up the infamous McClelland smell. I sometimes have a hard time identifying with review descriptions of tastes and odors but I immediately understood who so many have described the McClelland tin note as ketchup and vinegar. I'll refine it a bit and describe it as the sour smell of ketchup leftover in a day old cardboard box of fast food chicken. I wasn't sure I would be able to get past the tin note but I pushed on.
ODGM comes as a very nice broken flake, not to moist or dry. The flakes had the same weird smell as the tin notes. After lighting, the odor subsided and I was moderately rewarded with a medium bodied smoke of mild Virginians. I didn't pickup any real cigar taste, just the occasional fleeting hint in the background. I was busy and couldn't give the blend my full attention but would give it two stars.
My first impression of Stogie, Key Largo, Billy Bud, Robusto, and Havana Day Dreams cigar leaf blends was more positive. I think they were more robust. But frankly, I have yet to try any cigar leaf blend that jumped out at me from the first bowl as a great smoke. I grew to appreciate each and would give them maybe 3 stars but none are a goto blend for me. For my tastes, Stogie and Key Largo were the best of the bunch.
I lit up my second bowl this morning and the first puff emitted the ketchup odor. It settled down quickly but again, didn't reveal anything to me out of the ordinary. I will say that ODGM is distinctive as it doesn't include any Latakias as do most other cigar blends.
I'll update this report as I get familiar with the blend. It is not unusual at all for a blend to grow on me significantly after working my way through a tin.
Pax.

 

[mso489]

As long as you don't go looking for a cigar experience in a pipe, cigar leaf can be a pleasant constituent of a blend. Billy Budd is about the best I've encountered so far. I've been tempted by Old Dominican but no one has expressed much enthusiasm; I love their tin, the gold against orange.

 

[settersbrace]

Mso489 hit it on the head. If it's the Maduro taste you want, smoke a Padron. If a hint of cigar leaf is desirable in your pipe tobacco then the above blends will fit the bill. I always detect more of a cigar room note when someone is smoking Robusto or something similar but I only get gentle hints of it while smoking. Someday I'm going to just stick an 1-1/4" of cigar in a pipe and see what it does when drawn through the briar.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I will sometimes stuff the nub into a pipe, and after having smoked it down that far, it is like a continuation of the cigar. But, cigar leaf in a blend is something else altogether as MSO pointed out. I do enjoy quite a few, and Old Dominican is one. Key Largo and Virginia Spice are favorites. I notice on tobacco grower sites that a lot of guys will use the plants used for cigars in their pipe blends, quite often. I will also add a little wrapper to some of my smokes sometimes just for something unusual. But yeh, if you want a cigar, grab a cigar. But, if you want something unusual on its own, try on of these cigar blends.

Good post!
Oh, and I love that McClelland smell.

 

[andrew]

This is one of my favorites, the first time I had it though it was from tins my B&M had popped and were selling in bulk. It had some good age on it, like 8 years or so, and it was really spectacular. I still enjoy it but the newer tins I've tried aren't like that first time that got me hooked. Still though it's one of my favorite Va broken cakes

 

[brass]

I don't look at pipe tobacco cigar leaf blends as a cigar surrogate. My understanding is that cigar leaf adds body and smoke volume to a pipe blend. I have to strain to detect the cigar taste in any of the blends mentioned above.
IMO, cigar leaf blends form a distinct class of pipe tobaccos, e.g, VaPers and English. I like to keep one of these in my rotation for a change of pace from the more common Lat, Virginia and burley blends.
I did smok a couple more bowls of the Dominican Glory Maduro. After the the ketchup smell burns off, I can appreciate the Virginians in this blend. For some reason, DGM reminds me a bit of some of the old OTC pouch blends. Don't know why, since those were mostly burley blends.
I have a thing for flakes and Kakes and DGM broken flakes are really lovely and burn well. I assume they are made from krumble kakes but not sure.
I don't have any 8 year old to try like Andy has mentioned but because of the Virginia ingredients, can understand why DMG would age gracefully. Best I can do is dry out a couple of bowls before smoking.
Pax

 

[andrew]

Brass let that tin sit with the lid on for a few weeks, if you don't let McC Va blends breathe for awhile you really don't get the flavors. Everytime I've smoked a Va from McC's without letting it breathe first I've been pretty dissapointed, but then after letting it breathe for at least 2 weeks the Va's start to really transform and you get the flavors that are supposed to be there.

 

[brass]

Thanks, Andy. Good to know.
Pax

 

[bluesmoke]

I love this stuff! it's not a cigar, but it is what it is--tasty, and does what a lot of burley-based blends wish they could do so well .

 

[philobeddoe]

I have grown to love that McClelland smell, it portends great things to come.

 

[oldgeezersmoker]

I am not familiar with Old Dominican Glory Maduro. I have smoked a fair amount of Dominican Glory Maduro, though. Dominican Glory has a much, much higher % of cigar leaf than the Maduro version and tastes more like a cigar than any other tobacco I can think of, but I don't like it (I am also a cigar smoker) nor have most reviewers been impressed. The Maduro Dominican Glory is a favorite, though McClelland Virginia's in general are my preferred smoke, and I might only go through two or three tins of this variety in a year. The maduro is very much a condiment used to enhance the Virginia. As Mary McNeil stated at a pipe show decades ago, "We're all about the Virginia's" and the principal taste component of DGM is a typical red/stoved McClelland taste with a little added base note, at least for me. The best of this type of blend was, IMO, Elephant and Castle New World. Dunhill Cuba and Sobranie Virginia # 10 were also very good, but none of these were cigar taste forward.

 

[edwinbaz]

Key Largo is on my to-try list. I haven't smoked many cigar leaf blends, but I found Hearth & Home's Strikeforce to be quite tasty, although it also has latakia, orientals and perique.

Spectre was an interesting inversion of those stogie blends. Latakia leaf inside a cigar. Reminded me of a time I tossed a 1oz sample of an english blend in the small humidor I kept my cigarillos in while I went to restock on mason jars. I forgot about it for a week. When I smelled what the latakia did for the cigarillos I decided to just leave it in. Those little inexpensive suckers turned into the most fantastic 15 minute smokes I ever had.

 

[virginialover]

Cornell & Diehl - Billy Budd is my favorite blend with cigar leaf.
John Patton - Dark Horse is also a good cigar leaf mixture but without Latakia.
I agree that adding Latakia to cigar leaf, in the right proportions, creates a luxurious smoke.
I tried McClelland - Dominican Glory and was underwhelmed, their Virginias are the best for my taste buds though.

 

[skydog]

Since I've been smoking fewer and fewer cigars over the past few years I've occasionally reached for a pipe tobacco that has some cigar leaf in. So far I've enjoyed Key Largo but including the McClelland VAs makes Dominican Glory Maduro a very special smoke. Might have to crack a tin of it from my cellar once I finish this Key Largo I have open.

 

[sumusfumus]

Very interesting reading through all these postings, reviews, and opinions about these special blends that contain some cigar-leaf as an ingredient.
I wonder just what the smoker expects from these blends when they light up the first bowlful? No smokers have indicated that the pipe tobacco was transformed into a cigar-like pipe tobacco, but that the cigar-leaf was almost undetectable. Most opinions seem to indicate that the cigar-leaf added some body, creaminess, and more/thicker smoke volume...but little else.
I would think that the goal of adding some amount of cigar-leaf would be to influence the flavor of a blend, whether subtlely or prominently. Blends with a more than condimental amounts of smokey Latakia/Perique would probably overpower any small amounts of added cigar leaf. Some of the above mentioned blends seem to fit into this category....thus, no cigar flavors/aromas.
I have no experiences smoking any of the blends mentioned in this thread. If I were to choose a cigar-leaf blend, my first choice would either be "Seersucker" or "Virginia Spice"...neither contains any Latikia. In fact, I'll think I'll order both for trials.
Because of reading about cigar leaf blends in some other forum threads, I decided to mix my own by adding some cigar leaf to tobaccos that I had on hand. I simply took a pinch each of Maduro Cigar Leaf, Cubed Burley, and match-Elizabethan, and added these to an equal volume of Lane Ltd. "HGL". Fantastic, aromatic smoke! Yes, I know that the "HGL" has small amounts of Latakia, and there's a speck of Perique in the "Elizabethan"....but somehow it all works, for me. The aroma is beautiful, like an exotic incense, and it smokes mild, smooth, and creamy. The added cigar leaf, along with the other tobaccos elevates "HGL" to a totally new more complex, nuanced, level. My new favorite blend. The end results were no as expected. The mixture smokes and tastes like a more complex pipe tobacco, and not a smelly, overpowering cigar. And I'm fine with that.
Thanks, to forum members for giving me the inspiration I needed to experiment with blending tobaccos, etc.