McClelland Christmas Cheer 2003

Christmas Cheer is the straight Virginia series that Kansas City-based McClelland released once a year, in limited numbers, from the 1980s until the company's closure in early 2018. The series' idea is to present a single Virginia batch selected from that year's harvest on its own; each year is thus considered a separate record, and the year on the tin defines the blend's identity. The 2003 release was prepared the same way, with selected matured Virginia leaf pressed into cake and tinned as broken flake. Records indicate it's among the early-2000s harvest releases. Unflavored Virginia character dominates the smoke: natural leaf sweetness over a bready, herbal base, with a faint tang and a lemony sharpness in the background. Nicotine dose is measured, while flavor intensity is pronounced; it burns cool when smoked slowly, but tends to bite the tongue when rushed. Since the flake's moisture can run high straight from the tin, airing it before packing is common practice.