Mac Baren Amsterdamer

(1.89)
Hollandsche Rooktabak Fijne Snede. Fine cut. It used to be, as per the picture, Hollandsche Rooktabak Middel Snede, a medium cut. You may know the Amsterdamer from your last holiday trip to France, a blend of choice tobaccos, blended after an old dutch recipe. He's flavored really mild with a touch of licorice and has excellent burning qualities. This traditional loose-cut blend from South American and African Virginia tobaccos, as well as Kentucky from South America and far East is a wonderful treat for pipe smokers that look for a tobacco with a strong character.
Notes: Previously produced by Imperial Tobaccos; and before that, owned and produced by Seita, it is now owned and manufactured by Mac Baren. From Mac Baren's website: "A typical Dutch blend based on the finest Virginia and dark fired Kentucky tobaccos. The Virginia tobacco origins from 2 continents and adds a natural sweetness to the blend. The dark fired Kentucky contributes to taste with a slight smoky note due to the fire-curing. Different tobaccos each with their own distinctiveness are masterly blended to perfection to create the greatness in Amsterdamer. The blend is a loose cut pipe tobacco which makes it easy for the pipe smoker to handle."

Details

Brand Mac Baren
Series Amsterdamer Blends
Blended By Mac Baren
Manufactured By Mac Baren
Blend Type Other
Contents Burley, Kentucky, Virginia
Flavoring Licorice
Cut Ribbon
Packaging 40 grams pouch
Country Denmark
Production Currently available

Profile

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

Average Rating

1.89 / 4
0

4

8

6

Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 10 of 18 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jul 10, 2011 Mild Mild Mild to Medium Pleasant
I bought a pouch for 6 euros in a Tabac shop in France. A shag cut, light aromatic tobacco. The taste reminds of cigarettes but without the awful aftertaste. There is a light licorice topping and maybe other flavors to hide the fact that this tobacco is made with lower grade leaf. In other words, a shag cut made for the masses with lower income in mind. That said, I like it for what it is. Do not expect a mind blowing experience but, I could see why this is a popular tobacco in France. Cheap, good burning qualities and a decent amount of flavor that is not overly shadowed by the topping. One of the best drugstore pipe tobaccos available in Continental Europe. Recommended for it's kind, a traditional Dutch blend.

Virginia lover
5 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Oct 05, 2017 Medium Mild Medium Tolerable
I bought this tobacco when stopping in at Vanuatu on a cruise and this was the only pipe tobacco available. As I was not familiar with it I read some reviews trying to find out what I had bought and was worried about the low rating, however I was pleasantly surprised that this is not a bad tobacco at all.

It does come fairly dry in the pouch but I am used to mainly tinned tobaccos so this may be down to the packaging. It was not what I would call too dry but actually perfect for immediate smoking.

The aroma in the pouch is fairly neutral with a slight hint of a cigar leaf smell as indicated on the tobaccos listed for this blend. The pouch I have has "Fijne Snede" on the front rather than "Middel Snede" but I guess this is the cut?

It is made in the EU by the Imperial Tobacco company and was relatively inexpensive at about 6 euro equivalent. All in all a good tobacco for the price.

Pipe Used: Ashton
Age When Smoked: Fresh
4 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jun 11, 2017 Medium Extremely Mild Mild to Medium Tolerable
I bought this tobacco remenbering the smell i knew more than 30 years ago...whem my grandfather used to smoke it, reading his newspaper in the garden. It was delightfull. But nowaday, nor the smell neither the taste of this is a great one. Too dry right from the pouch... So flat in flavour... A little harsh if hight puffing, and boring if smoked slowly. At least, not a tobacco i'd recomend as it is from the shop. I mean the reason why it's so sold here in france is that it's avalable everywhere and a low cost tobacco. But few days ago i tried something interresting. The reason amsterdamer has changed so much resides in the laws. Nowaday, adding cumarine to tobacco is illegal in the industry. But tonka beans are legal to use in our food as an aromate, so they're easy to purchase. The fact is that i shruded some tonka bean, and poured with my amsterdamer pouch in a jarre, and remoisted it a little. The miracle is here. Definitly that's not a great tobacco, but the smell i used to know when i was a little boy is back. The taste is nice too.... I think that's the only way i'll smoke amsterdamer. The brand is no longer seita. This tobacco is now blended by mac barren.
Pipe Used: Lacroix
PurchasedFrom: Local tobacconist
4 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
May 17, 2015 Mild Very Mild Mild Tolerable
This is another fine example how everything regarding pipes got worse in recent years.

While Amsterdamer never was a high class tobacco its current incarnation is a bad joke. For starters they changed the entire blend. There are no more Java tobaccos in it which were one of *the* defining criteria for an old school dutch blend. But also the taste is gone and replaced by some sort of cigarette flavour i really don't care for. If i want the taste of cigarettes i go out and buy some, there is really no need to manipulate that into my pipe tobacco.

The burn is hellish fast as it has always been in this blend. If smoked too hot its very prone to tongue bite. This is not helped by the pouch being used to pack it is notorious for being unable to keep moisture.

The room note also turned unpleasantish but it never was that great anyways.

If you lived in Europe and started your pipe career early enough it was damn hard to avoid this blend weather you could enjoy it or not. And if nothing else it at least was cheap, another thing that this blend lost. It is not worth the € 8,- they ask for it at all.

I really want to find something positive in the current incarnation but all that comes to mind is its nostalgic pouch.

Overall i cannot recommend this blend any longer unless you feel *really* adventurous and ran out of stuff you have not smoked yet. Which is a pity because the old school dutch blends are a dying breed as it is, no need to further advance that by deliberately ruining them.
Pipe Used: It went trough rotation.
4 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jan 20, 2015 Medium to Strong Medium Medium to Full Tolerable
The good news first (as it's rather short). I loved the shag cut and the packaging (a dark blue box with, I believe, a smiling Cossack on the front). It was easy to pack, though, for me, it didn't take a match too well (which was a surprise as the tobacco was not wet)—after several attempts to get it going, I was finally off to the races. Unfortunately, this was pretty much a one horse race.

As other reviewers state, this is a light aromatic. The bag note reminded me, vaguely, of maple (no licorice here, for me). So, surely, there is a topping here. On the snork though, I got a hint of cedar, the maple largely disappeared. The cigar leaf is faint both in taste and effect. Mostly I got just a plain tobacco taste, Virginias (I think. I didn't catch where the burley's were in this blend, or the Kentucky either, for that matter) and maybe some perique, as there was a pronounced pepperiness to my bowl (either that or some really sharp Virginia. There is no perique listed, but it really gave off that perique like "pepper" effect. Really, probably a result of some low grade Virginia). It smoked harsh and left quite a bit of residue in my pipe.

The overall effect of this blend reminded me a little bit of Stokkebye's Nougat. Amsterdamer shares that same "tinny" taste that Nougat gave me. I'm skeptical about the quality of the tobacco used in this blend, I doubt it's top grade. Unlike the other reviewers I got quite a Nic charge with this (it came at me in a sneaky fashion, low at first, higher as the bowl proceeded).

Altogether, Amsterdamer's not a displeasing smoke, but it's certainly not one I'll be coming back to (I also paid about the same as the other reviewer, around six euro).

Happy Piping!
Pipe Used: an all-purpose Kaywoodie
PurchasedFrom: A pipe shop in Paris, France, 2013
4 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
May 03, 2014 Mild to Medium Mild Mild to Medium Tolerable
I smoked one and a half kilos of this Dutch tobacco (this tobacco is produced in France, but the recipe is dutch). Really it is a tipical dutch taste. Lightly flavored, it is an all day long tobacco and it doesn’t cloy. The taste is almost neutral. You can smoke it straight but it is also good as a blending tobacco specifically to dilute the other mixtures (too strong or too expensive). In my personal rating (from 0 to 10) my score is 6 and two stars.
4 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Nov 05, 2019 Mild to Medium Very Mild Mild to Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
After numerous years of pipe smoking, I finally decided to taste this classic among the classics, at least for French pipe smokers. It used to be the tobacco that my father smoked all day long, all year long. This pouch reminds me of his numerous pipes lingering in the Citroen 2CV we had back in the days, and smelling the delicious aroma with my nose in the pouch is among those souvenirs that will last a lifetime. This was in the 80's.

Now back to 2019, opening the pouch has been rather a deceiving experience. The topping is much lighter than I recall, it seems the tonka/vanilla/coumarin aroma is faint. The tobacco itself doesn't smell much of anything, annd I can not detect the topping that has heavily ghosted a pipe that papa offered me.

However, filling the pipe is a very simple operation, it can be smoked with no relight required, the tobacco burns very well and rather cool, the flavour is balanced, with no tongue burn. I can easily categorize this one as an all day long tobacco. While certainly not top grade, this smoke is pleasant and sweet.

In fact, too sweet for me... This is much lighter than semois tobaccos from Belgium, and this could be good for non-experienced smokers, but I find that something lacks, both in strengh and flavour. Which gives me the idea of blending this one : my guess is that a 50/50 mix between Amsterdamer and a Florina Vieux Semois could spice things up, while restoring the tonka flavor that the current production lacks. To be tried ! Or, thanks to its very good burning qualities and rather neutral smoke, mix this with which ever tobacco you find difficult to maintain lit, or with mixtures that are too strong.

Overall, a nice, cheap, decent and honest tobacco. It didn't send me back to my childhood, but I can recommend it to today smokers.
Age When Smoked: Fresh from a 2019 pouch
3 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Oct 25, 2017 Mild to Medium Mild Mild to Medium Pleasant
Amsterdamer is no more, and no less, than the traditional French "Tabac brun" but with a slight, sweet, topnote added (maybe brown sugar or sugar cane). The tobaccos are identical to the Scaferlati family but what makes it different is the topping. Uncomplicated with a mild to medium taste it is ideal, I believe, for those seeking an all day smoke that doesn't require their full attention. It packs without extra rubbing out required. It lights and burns very well. It doesn't bite. It might become harsh and hot if you puff too hard; but will not at a normal pace. Mostly we are dealing with a simila taste to the Scaferlati rouge, but milder in its earthy flavour; the unique topping seems to be prevailing but it stll remains pleasant. There is no development of complex flavours. Still, I find it offers a different experience. It does tend to get a bit bitter towards the end but the proportion of burleys is high. Being produced by Mac Baren (not sure when they took over ownership and production but I would suppose beginning of 2016 like the Scaferlati series), it guarantees it will be of better quality than the previous versions. I heard a lot of very negative comments about Amsterdamer over the years. Frankly, I deem them undeserved: I have smoked several tobaccos that are worse. If you like the Scaferlati series and are curious about trying them with a topnote, Amsterdamer might be worth the try. Not a grand tobacco but as I never tasted anything quite like it I would enjoy occasionnally when I don't want to pay attention to what I'm smoking.
3 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Nov 19, 2016 Mild to Medium None Detected Extremely Mild (Flat) Tolerable
Gentlemen, don't waste your time; this is cigarette tobacco.

Apart from a pleasant, fig/dates burley pouch aroma, it is utterly uninteresting. Burns hot, incredibly fast, tastes ashy and bland. Very thin ribbon/shag cut (like cigarette tobacco). Room note is unsurprisingly like cigarettes, albeit a tad more pleasant. Works well for roll-ups though (or pehaps if you prefer to inhale the smoke) but that's not the point here.
Pipe Used: Corn cob
PurchasedFrom: Local tobacconist in France
3 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jun 14, 2016 Medium Extremely Mild Medium Tolerable
I too bought this when in France where it's very cheap, certainly compared to pipe tobacco prices in the UK. On that basis I decided to chance my arm.

The tobacco is very dry and cut in thin, long strands. The taste is quite cigarette-like and not totally unpleasant. Despite being dry and it burning quite quickly there wasn't any tongue bite. But for the price I would give it one star, however some pipers might find it an acceptable low-cost, day-to-day smoke or to blend with tobaccos that they find too strong so it gets two.

I keep a large jar that I call my "compost heap" into which go tobaccos that I've tried and don't like so don't want to smoke the whole pack. Miraculously the result of this random blending and a bit of maturing often turns out pretty well. I think that fate awaits the Amsterdamer!
Pipe Used: Mr Brog
PurchasedFrom: France
Age When Smoked: Fresh
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