The "Ketchup" thing

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I really like a lot of McClelland blends, in fact they have many of my favorite blends. I always notice the unique aroma when I open a tin, but it's never something I find offensive or have to "get past." Whatever the "unique" aroma of McClelland tins is, (I've never been able to put my finger on a description, to me it smells like good McClelland tobacco), I hope they never try to do away with it or change it.
 
I agree with the "power of suggestion" hypothesis. The sense of smell is highly subjective and lacks any objective way to test whether two (or more) people are "receiving the same signal." If you've ever been to a wine tasting, it's common for a group leader to say something like, "Does anyone else detect that note of raspberry?" Maybe no one mentioned it before, but soon many will have announced that they found the raspberry. I suspect as soon as something is labeled, others will be influenced to find it or something similar to apply the label to. I used to think that the tomato smell was a marketing dirty trick started on message boards by anti-McCs. Still do.
 
Oddly enough, I was making spaghetti for lunch and I cracked open a jar of Newman's Own Roasted Garlic & Peppers... yeah, it smelled a whole lot like some Frog Morton...!
 
I found that smell in the MB Mature Virginia, Frog Morton and GLP Cumberland, and this point I associate that smell with what's going to be a tasty smoke.
 
YEAH :cheers: A new aroma for McC's 'bac ! Spaghetti sauce :twisted: :twisted: :cheers:
 
I guess I need to dedicate a fine Italian pipe to an Italian sauced tobacco. Does oregano cause tongue bite?

Maybe that is why I like the tobacco? It makes me think about food!


*walks while dragging knuckles*
"Food ....good....uggg...."

:pig: :pig: :pig:
 
puros_bran":v3ny0pfr said:
...Whats odd to me, with as big a part as nose plays into taste how come no one ever complains of tasting it?
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pb: I suspect that the principal reason is that the vapors that people are calling "ketchup" are highly volatile organics that are among the first things to burn off. By the time it mixes with all the other combustion products in the smoke, there's probably not enough of it left to tweak your olfactory nerves, much less your taste buds.

For my part, I've never understood the association of "ketchup" with McC blends. For that matter, I don't get the persistent assertion that all GawHogg weedages are "soapy" either, but then I long ago quit trying to account for the subjective vagaries of individual tastes. It's clear that some people perceive things very differently from the way others perceive them.

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I smell the McC sourness, usually in the tin. It ain't all McC's, either: usually the lighter and/or not-as-matured type stuff. It airs out after a while, and I've never detected it in the smoke, but incidentally, I get along better with the really dark, dense McC VA products. I'll add to what Vito said...it's clear people perceive things differently, and they take very different courses of action discussing and dealing with such results. :lol:

Don't tell anyone, but I sometimes detect this same scent, very faintly, in Union Square. It's a conspiracy.

8)

 
In high school, I worked fast food. Taking out the trash always had a pungent sour aroma that I associated with all the ketchup that was thrown away. I thought of it as a soured ketchup smell. (I was once chastised that ketchup doesn't sour because it has so much vinegar...I'm not trying to be technical, just descriptive.). Anywho, that smell is almost identical to the McC Va smell. So, I totally get the ketchup reference. It doesn't smell like ketchup, per se, but like a derivative of it. My first thought, the first time I opened a tin of McC Va was...sour ketchup!

Despite that less-than-pleasant sounding association, the smell doesn't bother me at all. I enjoy McC Va's a lot, and get no flavor from them while smoking that reminds me of the tin aroma.

 
Kyle Weiss":bmd799z4 said:
...Don't tell anyone, but I sometimes detect this same scent, very faintly, in Union Square. It's a conspiracy.
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Kyle:

You might be right, but if so the conspiracy is most likely a microbial one. I'd sooner suspect fermenticular collusion before I'd believe there's any plotting between GLP and MMcN. There are so many differences between their weedages that I suspect their respective approaches to blending are as different as...well, Beatles and Rolling Stones. :mrgreen:

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I'd rather smell a bit of natural fermentation than something unnatural (or maybe the absence of smell). Some of the anti-microbials used in tobacco that's meant for food makes me raise an eyebrow. What happens when these synthetic products are ignited? Luckily you probably get more toxins driving in morning traffic or smoking a cigarette (and not inhaling).

I personally like the funky smell of fermentation, which more times than not, smells like vinegar. MmMmMmmm sauerkraut! :D

I can smell McC's "ketchup" scent. I like it and I'm not a big ketchup fan.
 
I once caught a brief whiff of it from a freshly opened tin of C&D Riverboat Gambler. The smell reminds me of tomato soup, just one of those things I suppose.
 
I had always assumed that vinegar was, in fact, used in the production process somehow or another. Reading that it isn't, I can accept the smell is caused by something naturally occurring, I see no conspiracy there.

I am surprised, shocked even, to hear folks say that there is no scent at all. I can assure you that it is not simply the power of suggestion with me. My first tinned tobacco was Blackwoods Flake. I was expecting something sweet and sugary (something along the lines of a cross between PA and CBW). When I popped the tin, I immediately ran to the internet thinking there was something wrong with it. Someone explained to me that the worse it smells, the better it will taste, and it sure seems like those are sage words. To this day Blackwoods Flake is one of my favorites and I keep multiple tins on hand at any give time and it still smells the same.

Ok, so maybe its not a ketchup smell per se, but there is definitely some sort of vinegary/ ketchupy/ BBQ Saucy thing going on. But whatever it is and for whatever reason it is present, I'm fine with it. It could be magic fish urine and I still wouldn't give up my beloved Blackwoods Flake.
 
Vito":909v33ce said:
Kyle:

You might be right, but if so the conspiracy is most likely a microbial one. I'd sooner suspect fermenticular collusion before I'd believe there's any plotting between GLP and MMcN. There are so many differences between their weedages that I suspect their respective approaches to blending are as different as...well, Beatles and Rolling Stones. :mrgreen:

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Excellent. My subtlety wasn't too subtle. :lol:

Dave_In_Philly":909v33ce said:
It could be magic fish urine and I still wouldn't give up my beloved Blackwoods Flake.
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Shhhhh! They're listening!

8)
 
Dave_In_Philly":pna77jiw said:
...But whatever it is and for whatever reason it is present, I'm fine with it. It could be magic fish urine and I still wouldn't give up my beloved Blackwoods Flake.
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...er, the implication being that there's something wrong with magic fish urine?

Hey...that's at least as good a description of, say, SamGaw's 1792 (aka Cob Flake) as the colloquial descriptor, "dead mouse in a tin"...maybe ever better!

And I'm not giving up my 1792 either. :mrgreen:

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I get the meaty acidic / vinegar / catsup smell from them too, I find it weird that they are the sweetest tobaccos even though they smell way different. When I got FVF my first impression was beef jerky with out the spices , or just dried beef. When I smoke it though I get buttery sweet croissant rolls as the flavor and scent. :scratch: Oddness, very much so. :tongue:
 
So vinegar is a byproduct of fermentation. The curiosity is in wanting to know more about the curing process.

I was flipping some compost piles which were releasing massive amounts of steam. I was intrigued how much it smelled like pipe tobacco. I know they stack the tobacco in a press and steam it. I wonder if they are not exposing the tobacco to the early stages of composting.
 
J Soshae":5sy86guv said:
So vinegar is a byproduct of fermentation.
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Possibly. "Fermenting" is a specific process, where the anaerobic bacteria I suspect (via Pease, etc) might have different "output" when doing their little thing inside a properly-sealed tin or jar. Depends on what they nibble on and in what space they do it. Kind of like how cabbage smells one way when we process it, versus re-fried beans, or too much salmon...etc... :lol:

8)
blaming it on the dog/cat/chinchilla
 
I don't ,know, smelling "sweet and vinegary" is much more abstract than "like ketchup". I can imagine what ketchup smells like much better than sweet and vinegary, I think that's the only reason they do that.

They do the same with wine, to a much bigger degree. It gets very strange lol

--Alex
 
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