Interesting discussion re McClellands. I started smoking their products around 1980. I went to dozens of pipe shows over the next 15 years or so where the merits of various tobacco were passionately discussed, read every word of The Pipe Smokers Ephemeris, and had more lengthy discussions of tobacco in phone conversations than I could ever count.
I do not recall any discussion where anyone complained about McClellands having a ketchup or vinegar aroma up until the advent of the internet and alt smokers pipes in the 1990's, or that McClellands used PG on their tinned or bulk 2000 series products. One prominent ASP poster who loved Gawith products beat the anti-McClelland drum incessantly. I have said here before that having had the experience of opening tins of Rattray's that were indisputably made by Rattray in Perth (not that hard to find in the early 80's) I find the McClelland tin aroma identical. So, to me, I smell what I think Virginia tobacco made from leaf or strip diverted early from the cigarette monopolies ought to smell like. Heavily sauced "Virginia's" from God knows what third world countries, where as far as I can find out the tobacco is initially processed into strip suitable for cigarettes, will never develop that smell. The accusations about PG similarly strike me as off base. McClellands tinned products are packed at a high moisture content as that is how Mike McNeil wants to pack his product. In a shop environment, I know one tobacconist who stopped carrying McClelland bulk flakes because they dried out faster than competing products from Lane, Consolidated, etc.that indisputably had PG I have never had any of the McClelland products discussed here that have the waxy feel of PG.
I suppose this discussion has been had here many times before, and I have not really added anything new. Manufacturers, including McClellands, have all had to learn how to deal with the raw (or more likely, processed to some extent by others who might or might not do anything differently than what they do for cigarettes) ingredients available to them. Their strategies will differ, and they will succeed to varying degrees. There are a few Gawith products I like, several Germain/Esoterica blends that I enjoy, and some of the products introduced by MacBarens in recent years are very good. There is nothing wrong with having a personal preference for any of these over McClellands, or vice versa. But the raw ingredients and their initial processing can be, and as far as my own research takes me, is, very different.
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