POSITIVE: read the silver lining below.

NEGATIVE: Boring flavor. room note is OK. Flavors don't develop. over all pretty bland and boring.

SILVER LINING: I had purchased some Mac Baren Vanilla cream after I got the black ambrosia. I decided I didn't want to waste it so I mixed the two on a whim. to be honest the vanilla cream is a bit TOO vanilla for me. I was pleasantly surprised by this. both tobaccos came together and made up for the boring bland black ambrosia. the flavor was outstanding. it was a rich creamy smoke that had a tangy after taste that lingered for some time that made my mouth water. I am not sure what caused this but I may even consider buying another tin and making this blend again.

Overall, not worth buying. (unless you want to try my blend.)

Love all, as Christ would, and peace to my brothers and sisters of the leaf.

Subjective: This stuff bites the tongue and has a nice aroma, but tastes like garbage.

I found it burns a little hot so it is best "sipped".

Packs well, and burns pretty thoroughly with a light pack and a slight tamp. This blend for my puffing pace left a slight bit of wet dottle in the bottom, but not goopy, just some dampened ash in the varying pipes I have tried. The tobacco itself burnt pretty good. The tobacco is a mild-medium flavor, sometimes sweet, sometimes stronger. It has a quality that another likened to Rattray's Dark fragrant, and it is like that but just a bit of a stronger DF. This was one of my first pipe tobacco's when I first started a couple of years ago, so it will always be in my rotation. I liked it, it has a nice room-note, and is a good smoker and on side-note, I didn't get any bite, but again, like most tobaccos I have tried, it does get a bit more acrid at the last 1/4 of the bowl.

Update:A little deeper into the tin I am noticing an almost sticky sweet aroma and taste. Not fruity but more of a honey and caramel taste. Sip, dont gulp and the aroma and bouquet shine through. Patience is quite a virtue here. Be patient with Mac Baren, be rewarded.

Also note that this is not "GOOPY" aromatic as some suggest. The base tobacco here is 100% virginia according to the label and the manufacturer's website. All virginias are sugary and going to bite if you smoke them with intensity. The actual tobacco here is very high quality, and it performs just like a pure virginia.

Smoke this one slowly. A leisure pace is pleasantly rewarded. I like it and buy it occasionally.

The tobacco was a bit dry coming out of the tin but not terribly so. The tobacco itself looked wonderful in the tin, a nice mixture of black to blonde ribbons, and the aroma was decent but not what I would call ambrosial. To my nose anyway, all European blended tobaccos have an aroma that sets them apart from American blends--sort of a grassy, musty, hay-like smell. I have a number of Canadian relatives (and yes, I realize that Canada is not in Europe) who smoke Canadian cigarettes and I get that same sort of odor from their cigarette smoke. Ummm, not really that pleasant.

At any rate, packing the pipe was easy and, probably because the tobacco was a bit dry in the tin, it was very easy to light and keep lit throughout the smoke. As for taste, this blend is nearly tasteless; so if you don't want to experience a mouthful of heavy tobacco taste, this is a good blend for you. The room note is nice (and there's that hay-like smell of Virginia tobacco again.) With Mac Baren blends, you usually need to be careful of tongue bite but the Black Ambrosia had none and I think that had to do with the fact that the baccy was somewhat dry and didn't take a lot of huffing and puffing to keep it lit. So if you want to avoid t/b, you may want to dry this blend out a bit if it isn't already.

Not a memorable smoke by any means but not too bad for Mac Barens and it may give me the courage to try some of their other offerings.

Update: not to crazy about it i tryed it yesterday and really wasnt impressed it tasted kinda bland i dont why last time it was good. Still if your new to pipes give it a try.