Mac Baren HH Pure Virginia

(3.37)
A blend composed of both air dried and flue cured Virginia tobaccos. HH Pure Virginia is 100% Virginia tobaccos from North America and Africa. Both continents have a high reputation for growing the finest Virginia tobaccos in the world. Like all tobaccos in the HH family this blend has no top flavour and only the absolute necessary casing in order to emphasize the natural tobacco taste. You will experience the natural sweetness and “grassy” taste from the Virginia tobacco.

Details

Brand Mac Baren
Blended By Per Jensen
Manufactured By Mac Baren
Blend Type Straight Virginia
Contents Virginia
Flavoring
Cut Flake
Packaging 50 grams tin weight
Country Denmark
Production Currently available

Profile

Strength
Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild -> Overwhelming
Flavoring
None Detected
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
None Detected -> Extra Strong
Room Note
Pleasant
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unnoticeable -> Overwhelming
Taste
Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild (Flat) -> Overwhelming

Average Rating

3.37 / 4
41

32

7

2

Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 10 of 82 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Sep 28, 2015 Medium None Detected Medium to Full Pleasant
The red Virginia in this flake offers fairly tangy, dried dark fruit with some earth, bread, sugar and wood, and is the star component. The brown Virginia is earthy, woody, bready, sugary, mildly floral, tangy dark fruit sweet as a supporting player. There are streaks of bright flue cured Virginia that offer some tart and tangy citrus and an ample amount of grass/hay, and a little sugar and floralness, plus a hint of spice. The description emphasizes the grassiness, but I think the earthiness is a touch more noticeable. It doesn’t have much complexity, though the contrasting flavors of the Virginias are melded together by the hot pressing, which is responsible for a slight fermented sweetness in the flake. There is a slight sour note here and there, which I tend to notice a shade more after the half way point, but I don’t find it distracting. The strength is medium, while the taste is a step over that line. The nic-hit is a couple of slots below the strength level. Has a few small rough edges. Like other flakes in the HH series, it breaks apart very easily, and is moist, but not overly so. Whether or not you decide to dry it any speaks to personal preference, but it’s good to go as it is. Burns cool and clean at a slightly slow rate with minimal relights, and sports a very consistent, well balanced, deeply rich, punchy flavor that never weakens. Has no harsh spots and won’t bite, though I recommend a slow to moderate smoking cadence for best effect. Leaves virtually no moisture in the bowl, and the red Virginia after taste pleasantly lingers a little. Has a sweet room note. It’s not quite an all day smoke, but it is repeatable. Three and a half stars.

-JimInks
88 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Mar 04, 2016 Medium None Detected Medium Very Pleasant
This is a very fine Virginia and as deeply rich and earthy as the best Virginia blends on the market today. The leaf has certainly been aged well as the fermented flavor you would expect from a ripe Virginia comes through in waves. And, also like well aged straight Virginia, the flavor deepens and offers a variety of sensations as the tobacco is consumed. I am off to purchase more tins for my cellar as something tells me wonderful things will happen when I re-visit this one in a 5-10 year old tin! Mac Baren, you done good with this one!

Pipestud
68 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 02, 2016 Mild to Medium Very Mild Medium Pleasant
Mac Baren - HH Pure Virginia. I love EVERYTHING about this blend!

The tin contains three rows of flakes that are quite slim and dark brown in colour. The amount of moisture is better than many sealed tins, it's only slightly damp. Mine isn't in desperate need of drying, yes, that would raise the standard to perfect but I find it good enough to smoke right away.

I crumble my flakes as opposed to the fold and stuff method and this is easy to rub to a decent texture. Whilst doing so the only notable aroma I get is a straight up Virginia one; any extra casing must have been added very sparingly.

I find the smoke 'savoury' tasting. I struggle to detect many sweet nuances from this compared to many straight Virginia's. What I do detect is a slight saltiness from the smoke; not acrid or full but a delicate addition. Also, I get the least grassiness I've had from a straight Virginia, it tastes as if there's a tiny proportion of Burley in there to me; a slight nuttiness, making it even more savoury.

This burns resplendently. Once it's lit it is very independent. I only need my tamper to maintain it. My lighter's only needed if it's not puffed often enough.

Nicotine? I think it's just below medium, it's a nice strength for my taste.

I think this is a completely unique straight Virginia. It's not just the usual sweet and grassy affair that I get from most Va's. Total perfection: highly recommended.

Four stars.
Pipe Used: Strambach Vienna Meer'
PurchasedFrom: The Danish Pipe Shop
Age When Smoked: 4 Month
40 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Oct 07, 2015 Medium None Detected Medium to Full Tolerable
JimInks' review is right on... this is bang in the middle of the road virginia. Nice flakes (typcial MacB 1.5mm CNC Router type flakes, none of your random bacon-chips stuff here) which rub very easily into fine ribbon. A bit more moist out of the tin than I would ordinarily smoke, but smokeable as is or easily rectified with a bit of drying.

This is not as sweet as either Capstan offering, and has none of the complexity of something like Reiner Long Golden or even Mac Baren's other virginia-based blends. Also without the MacB honey or maple flavors. It's just dead-ahead virginia. Easy to get along with and a nice introduction to the genre. This won't probably be strong enough in nicotine to appeal to the long-time Va smokers or people who prefer big strong burleys a la C+D. But as a gentle autumn puff for the casual user, I'd say this blend has lots to recommend itself. Exhibiting the same softness of overall profile as the Capstan Gold, I suspect that ten years in the cellar will make this blend magical, and that's where the rest of my tins are headed. Quality stuff, and worth putting a few away.
Pipe Used: Various briars, medium to large
Age When Smoked: new
33 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Nov 08, 2015 Medium Mild Medium Pleasant
More than the middle-of-the-road to me...this is a very good Virginia Flake tobacco. I like the "pure" taste and while similar to other straight Virginia flakes/plugs/Ready Rubbed offerings, I find this a notch above many others.

Easily an all-day smoke and one for most any size pipe...Moisture level is perfect and easy to rub out...

...Another impressive flake in the MacBaren HH series...
Pipe Used: group 3 to 5 size
PurchasedFrom: smokingpipes.com
Age When Smoked: 2 months
25 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jun 08, 2017 Mild None Detected Mild to Medium Pleasant
As always, Mac Baren gets an A for presentation. Nifty embossed gold wrapper that perfectly fits the beautiful looking, admirably symmetrical dark brown flakes with spots of gold. Wonderful tea-like fragrance in the tin. A bit wet and I ultimately dried this thoroughly to enhance the natural flavors, but I did not "crispify" it. It worked best with a small amount of moisture remaining. It didn't seem to care if it was rubbed out or folded and stuffed, as I couldn't discern a single iota of flavor difference. Since it took the match better when rubbed out, that's how I smoked most of the bowls.

I admit that I'm a huge admirer of the Mac Baren HH series concept. Even when the blend doesn't hit my overall preferences, I like what hot pressing does to their output, and I especially appreciate it when they keep the honey and sugar in their respective jars and make a perfectly natural blend. There is no Mac Baren tongue steam inherent in any of the HH blends, no pastry-like phony saccharine sweetness - just honest to goodness tobacco taste. This one is kind of a conundrum at this point, as I really found very little of the usual straight Virginia descriptors to apply, even the "grassiness" that Mac Baren claims. I did find a little sweetness, but I mostly tasted tartness and sourness with a nice background note of maltiness. This is a soft but spirited tobacco, with a provocative zestiness and tang (thanks to the red VA) which was nicely and just noticeably offset with a hint of citrus. Almost zero complexity but with a decent depth to the smoke. I think this one will age brilliantly and my other tins are headed to the cellar. I liked this and declared it "good" but it's not a great blend... yet! I do think there is some greatness there, but it needs to age awhile first. Kudos to Mac Baren for the HH series. None are currently in my rotation (ODF being recently displaced by SG's Lakeland Dark) but I sincerely applaud the effort. Once again, I find it difficult to disparage a Danish company from producing Danish products, but these more English versions are more to my taste.
21 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Sep 09, 2017 Medium None Detected Medium to Full Pleasant
As I started to appreciate straight Virginias during the past few months I was looking forward to try Mac Barens shot at a straight Virginia blend. As I love the HH-Line, for their unspoiled, natural tobaccos I chose HH Pure Virginia.

Cracking up the lovely, classy, yet simple designed tin with it's intriguing rich yellow that has the Mac Baren lions on it I was instantly interested in how this one would perform in the pipe. Inside there's the typical and very classy golden wrapper paper Mac Baren uses and three rows of Mac Barens evenly cut, thin flake slices. They know how to make a flake cut, sure thing! 1,5cm in thickness, ~ 11 cm in lenght and 3cm in width the flakes break apart quite easily, which hints towards there's little to none glue applied! Optically seducing with their rich hue of mostly medium bron, bright brown and few bright-golden speckles.

The tin-note is very inconspicuous and natural. Slightly honeyed, mildly fruity, bready and tobacco-y and I could swear I perceive a faint vinegar-ish note to it, especially when cracking a fresh tin. Comes very well conditioned for a flake cut. Not too moist, yet demanding at least an half-, better one- to two hours of drying time. But it can be smoked right away, if properly rubbed out!

Slow and cool smouldering in the bowl HH Pure Virginia offers a rich aroma with some depth to it. Mildly notes of stoved fruits that underline the delicous somewhat bready and/or nutty aroma. A little earthy and very tobacco-y, fairly tangy and spicy for a straight Virginia. In the background I perceive some notes of grass and hay. Honeyish sweetness is always present, that is rather unobtrusive and mild, I'd bet this is all natural sweetness, none added to it.

Pretty bold for a straight Virginia and very rich in flavors this is one of the most complex straight Virginia blends I had. Diversified and refined it offers a enticing smoking experience that's far from being one-dimensional or boring! Definetly a blend I'll integrate into my rotation. Very All-Day suitable due to it's rather digestible strenght, this truly is a gem within the countless straight VA offerings.

4/4 stars for genuine, honest and interesting pure Virginia blend that is living up to the name of Mac Barens HH-Line - unspoiled, tasteful, rounded. Favorited!
Pipe Used: Clay Pipes / Various Briars
17 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
May 19, 2016 Medium None Detected Medium to Full Pleasant
I think this is a masterpiece. This seems to be as close an experience as you can have to smoking Virginia tobacco straight from the farm to your bowl. It has obviously been cured and fermented but it has no topping and a nearly undetectable amount of casing. Smoking uncased Virginias isn't a very pleasant experience. Some amount of casing is necessary to reduce harshness and fix any inherent rough edges of the leaf. The casing used here does not intrude upon the flavor at all.

This blend of Virginias tastes grassy. Occasional hay, earth, spice, and vague natural sweetness pop up. No honey, citrus, or molasses here. I sense a medium strength with a bit of a kick. I hope to see this released in the 16oz boxes so that I may age some!
15 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Dec 20, 2018 Medium None Detected Medium Tolerable
Very similar to MacBaren's own Virginia blend (yellow pouch), this is a very nice flake, full of flavor, rich in taste, and easy to smoke. Unlike many Virginias--especially those under the MacBaren process--this won't bite.

It has a woodsy, slightly toasted nuance, very natural, with almost no sweetness to it (unlike, say, Dunhill's Light Flake or Orlik's Golden Sliced). I think this is a very good, high quality smoke, unpretentious yet satisfying and flavorsome in a most natural manner. Good stuff!

Pipe Used: Parker
PurchasedFrom: Joshua Ward
Age When Smoked: 2 years
12 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Oct 09, 2015 Medium None Detected Medium to Full Pleasant to Tolerable
Robust and full tasting for a straight Virginia. Fuller than Pease Union Square. Smoked a full tin.

However this does not have the sweetness of Pease's or Mcclelland's Virginias. But you can tell this is a Virginia from the get go, as there is that citrus taste but subdued due to pressing.

Cool, forgiving, and steady burning for a Virginia flake.

Flavor pumped up but not the sweetness. Not dark tasting.

Almost too much richness for me. Recommended for a heavier dose for straight Virginia fan.

Pipe Used: Arlington
PurchasedFrom: Smokingpipes
Age When Smoked: New
12 people found this review helpful.
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