Dating McClelland Tins: The Definitive Answer

[Bradley]

I just received a letter from Mary McNiel, the President of McClelland
Tobacco Company in response to a letter I wrote her regarding the
stamps on the bottom of their tins. Her reply, summarized:

The first two numbers are the product number.
The next two numbers are a batch number used for internal purposes.
The last two numbers are the year the product was tinned.

There you have it. Case closed.

[Bill]

Post by Bradley
I just received a letter from Mary McNiel, the President of McClelland
Tobacco Company in response to a letter I wrote her regarding the
The first two numbers are the product number.
The next two numbers are a batch number used for internal purposes.
The last two numbers are the year the product was tinned.
There you have it. Case closed.

Not closed. What number indicates the brand of ketchup used in
production? Was it Heinz? Hunts? What?

[gonz]

If it's Heinz, I'll have to boycott McClelland too. lmao & j/k ;)

Thanks for posting the confirmation, its very helpful info. Somewhere I
read the middle pair of numbers was the month, but I have tins with 13
as the "batch number" ... which certainly makes more sense :)

I wish all MFR's would mark their tins in this fashion. At least I have
this to look for when I go to the local shops. Certainly is exciting to
find something tinned 3yrs ago, isn't it? Maybe I just need to get out
more haha. Honestly though, I have tins dating back to 2000, found at
locals just recently. Exciting to me as I've only been buying tins for
about a year now, and already I've got 5-6 year aged stock, by luck,
and without the "aged" premium.

Now I gotta go look at/for more McC tins :D
it's the little things that make me happy.

[arsenic]

Post by Bill
Not closed. What number indicates the brand of ketchup used in
production? Was it Heinz? Hunts? What?

There is NO other brand of ketchup than Heinz! Heinz rules ALL other brands!

YaY

Ron

[OldBriar]

Post by Bradley
I just received a letter from Mary McNiel, the President of McClelland
Tobacco Company in response to a letter I wrote her regarding the
The first two numbers are the product number.
The next two numbers are a batch number used for internal purposes.
The last two numbers are the year the product was tinned.
There you have it. Case closed.

Thanks so much for this information. Going through some Frog Morton
and comparing the dates I put on some tins of the Frog and finding
they are as much as 2 years older. Yippppppeeeeeeeee!

OldBriar

Life is good!

[JtN©]

Thats fantastic news ... but cant they narrow it down to month it was
tinned in? For example if it was tinned in January 03 that is almost
an entire year older than if it was tinned in December of 03.

JtN ©2005

[Planetary]

Post by JtN©
Thats fantastic news ... but cant they narrow it down to month it was
tinned in? For example if it was tinned in January 03 that is almost
an entire year older than if it was tinned in December of 03.

The closest we could get to this would be finding out the batch dates,
and we simply don't have enough visibility into this.

Maybe if McCelland were to create a web site and publish such details...

-Jason

[Bradley]

I don't know much about tobacco growing, but for wine grapes and
potatoes there is one harvest per year. This is why wine is dated by
year, since the actual month in which it goes into the bottle is deemed
irrelevant. Think of your tins of McClelland blends in terms of
vintages by year instead of actual time in the tin. It would be
interesting to do a comparison of various vintages of the same blend--a
vertical tasting for tobacco.

[Planetary]

Post by Bradley
I don't know much about tobacco growing, but for wine grapes and
potatoes there is one harvest per year. This is why wine is dated by
year, since the actual month in which it goes into the bottle is deemed
irrelevant. Think of your tins of McClelland blends in terms of
vintages by year instead of actual time in the tin. It would be
interesting to do a comparison of various vintages of the same blend--a
vertical tasting for tobacco.

Understand what you're saying, but the changes which occur outside of
(and prior to) the tin -- while noticible over the long haul -- are not
precisely the same types of changes that you get when a tobacco is
aged, and the leaf is blended, tinned, and begins to meld and consume
its limited oxygen supply. For many tobaccos, differences are
noticible in a few months, and the first real aging milestone is at
about 6 months.

So, while a stockpile of harvested tobacco does change over time (and
blenders must account for and be creative with such changes), for our
purposes, the clock starts ticking when the tobacco is tinned.

-Jason

[z***@gmail.com]

Blenders strive to maintain the same flavors over time in their product
- tobacco tinned at a particular time will not necessairly come from
that year's crop. That's why McClelland makes Christmas Cheer, to take
advantage of the best "vintage" tobaccos they can get in any given
year, which they can't do in their other lines if they hope to maintain
consistency.

[Joe LaVigne]

Post by Bradley
I just received a letter from Mary McNiel, the President of McClelland
Tobacco Company in response to a letter I wrote her regarding the
The first two numbers are the product number.
The next two numbers are a batch number used for internal purposes.
The last two numbers are the year the product was tinned.
There you have it. Case closed.

That case has been closed for years, but thanks for thinking of us... ;-)