Mac Baren - Cube pipe tobacco reviews

Review

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Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
< PREVIOUS Showing reviews 61 through 79 of 79 reviews of this tobacco
alix	01/09/2007	Very Mild	Strong	Mild to Medium	Tolerable
This tobacco is unfortunately like many other MacB offerings - good leaf used, but with so many toppings/casings that you can only tell the quality of the leaf from the fact that it burns well. It's sad that cube was marketed as something epic when it's just yet another ridiculously overcased/topped blend. The flavourings used were a rather ``unique'' combination. If only much less flavouring had been used overall, this tobacco would be bearable.
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DoctorThoss	11/07/2006	Mild	Strong	Medium	Pleasant
Although I normally don't like aromatics, I was favorably impressed with this at first, so much so that I bought a couple of extra tins. Over time, however, my appreciation of the flavor was smothered by poor burning qualities and tongue bite. This is probably nirvana for those who smoke aromatics on a regular basis, but I can't see much to recommend this. The tobacco does appear to be of decent quality, though, and I wonder what this blend might be like if the blender cut the amount of flavoring in half.
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dixcreek	10/11/2006	Medium	Medium to Strong	Medium	Pleasant
Very strange indeed. But strange is not in itself all bad. This blend tends to do better if you let it dry out just a bit. Strange thing about this blend is that the taste changes through the bowl. Kinda reminds me of the old Seven-up candy bar I remember as a kid.
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Bezoar	08/12/2006	Medium	Mild	Very Mild	Pleasant
THe only good thing i can say about cube is that the package i have was a free sample sent to me buy a gentleman running away from aromatic tobacco. I should have followed his heed, and run away from cube. It has a great pouch smell, but thats where the pleasure ends. The burning tobacco has no real flavor to it, and the only time i got a strong taste from it was the 3rd time it went out, and then i was able to taste coconut when puffing on it when it was still out. And I managed to severly burn my tongue and mouth with this blend. after 4 days i still cannot taste anything other then vinager or super sweet earl grey tea.
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sonoma	08/05/2006	Very Mild	Strong	Overwhelming	Very Pleasant
Having just finished a complementary review, I was reminded by the fact that most of my critiques have been favorable. That track record ends now. MacBeran?s CUBE can easily turn a well-constructed piece of briar into forever damaged goods. One of my billiard ladies was violated beyond emotional forgiveness. This blend will seduce you with it?s fancy hazelnut coffee and milk chocolate-cherry aroma, but it also contains an awful artificial sweetness that remains undetected until you light this ghastly mix. Oh, it will bring the ladies running with its room note, but why, you?ll just send them scurrying when you light-up your strongest Balkan blend to quickly cleans your palate. If I could give it no stars, I would. Meanwhile, have a nice day.
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cell biologist	08/03/2006	Mild to Medium	Extra Strong	Medium	Very Pleasant
My first bowl of this was appealing, I enjoyed the unique flavor combination of dates, coconut and the rich variety of tobaccos. The second and several subsequent bowlfuls were absolutely hideous because of an overwhelming acrid detergent sensation in my nose. I?ve read about ?soapy? flavors, which in aromatics have been variously described as perfumy or cloying, but this was more than soapy, this was literally reminiscent of detergent, as in when you weigh out sodium dodecyl sulfate (a.k.a. sodium lauryl sufate) in the lab and it?s fine dust rises to your nose and permeabilizes the olfactory epithelium. It is not pleasant. A piercing, sharp, bitter sensation. I can only guess that there is coconut extract in the Cavendish portion of the tobacco (sodium dodecyl sulfate is a component of coconut milk) and under some conditions, too hot, wrong pipe, whatever, the detergent concentration reaches critical micelle concentration and starts piercing membranes and denaturing proteins in your sensitive membranes. I?m totally guessing here with this image. But Cube has redeeming value. You can dilute it (maximum about a third Cube) with other tobaccos and it adds a very nice flavor without that acrid detergent onslaught. For this I give it two stars. Oh, but the box is way cool.
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writer_robin	06/03/2006	Mild to Medium	Medium to Strong	Mild to Medium	Very Pleasant
To paraphrase a movie review, "For those who like this sort of tobacco, this is the sort of tobacco they like." I'm not a big fan of aromatics for much the same reason that cannibals don't eat clowns: they taste funny. I prefer my smokes to have a strong dose of perique, so that will of course color my review. My local B&M dealer, who knows my preferences and who hasn't steered me wrong yet, talked me into trying it. He was watching World Cup soccer on TV, so he may have been a bit distracted at the time. But since the price wasn't too outrageous, I bought a box. After smoking several bowls to clean out the taste of the Penzance I had last smoked in the pipe, I finally got just the taste of Cube. To be honest, it is quite pleasant in both aroma and taste. Maybe I just have a funny sniffer, but in the pouch it seemed to smell more of chocolate than of coconut. And as Cellarmaster mentioned, it is indeed a nice "bump in the road." I also found it a bit difficult to keep lit. The room not is quite pleasant, however. But as I said earlier, I'm not a big fan of aromatics. And even though it doesn't have any perique (sigh), I'll continue to smoke it, but not more than once a week or so. Ad when it's gone, I'll have a nice box for storing my Kajun Kake!
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Pipestud	04/14/2006	Mild to Medium	Very Mild	Mild to Medium	Very Pleasant
Surprisingly.... Absoultely delicious! I believe a fair review of a blend means to compare it to others of its genre rather than compare it to something of an entirely different make up. A Clydesdale and a Thoroughbred are both horses, but there are a few differences in the breeds. LOL! Mac Baren's Cube is a delightful change of pace for Virginia lovers. I am not sure Latakia hounds will appreciate this one but it is very similar to a medium strength straight Virginia with some very special and heavy aromatic touches. Cube is a Burley/Virginia combination that contains black Cavendish that bears a sweetner. I loved the way this blend packed, stayed lit and smoked mostly dry to the very bottom of the bowl with little effort. This is an aromatic that tastes like tobacco and will offer about the most enticing room note I've ever encountered.... Sweet, yet tobaccoey! I would highly recommend Cube to anyone who enjoys tobacco taste with some added sweetness and a room note that will bring the ladies running. Ain't nothin' not to like about this offering.
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erz316	04/14/2006	Mild	Medium to Strong	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
It seems to me that master blender Halberg has some working to do. The only good thing i can say about MB Cube is that you get a cool looking box when your done with it. I dislike this blend, a lot. when i first opened the pouch that's inside the box I smelled an overwhelming odor of artificial sweetness, similar to coconut. I packed a bowl and began smoking the abomination. the room note is very sweet, but not an identifiable sweetness, it just smells artificial. the taste at first was nothing noticeable, but as i went on the initial flavor on my tongue as i drew in was unbelievably salty. the taste then proceeded to change to an unbearable sweetness as i held the smoke in my mouth. I would not recommend this at all, i promptly threw out the rest of the weed and now i keep change in the box. The only reason to buy this is to get the box, but at 15 dollars, i think you could just go to a cigar store and pick up some free cigar boxes.
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clifswin	04/14/2006	Mild	Strong	Medium to Full	Pleasant
This is an aromatic for when you want an aromatic. That is, it has a lovely, sweet, hard-to-define flavoring that so dominates that I can't detect any tobacco flavor at all. The flavor is very nice, it's just not a tobacco flavor. It seems like the leaf in this was carefully selected for its ability to support the casings, and to burn evenly and well, while not interrupting the enjoyment of those casings at all. I suppose it's possible that part of what I'm tasing is Virginia and that the overall taste is so balanced that it's essentially seamless. If it seems I'm confused about how to respond to this, that's because I am. As a purely aromatic smoke, it's a great success. As a tobacco, it's... it's... it's not tobacco. If I could put whipped cream on it, it'd be a delicious desert, but as a pipe tobacco it's confusing as heck. Tobacco for people who don't like tobacco?
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justsmoke	02/26/2006	Mild	Medium	Medium to Full	Very Pleasant
Straight to the point, this is an excellent blend! Anyone that is turned off by the marketing of it should disregard that bad decision and give it a try because the tobacco is top notch. I myself reluctantly tried it after meeting a rep of the manufactuer at a pipe show, and I'm damn glad I did try it. The tobacco has one of the most pleasant aromas that I've come across while at the same time having real flavor. It tasted much like the Virginia flake that I regularly smoke in my opinion. I like to rotate my smoke from Va. to English to an occasional aromatic. Now as far as aromatics go, like most people, I feel normally they just smell nice, but don't have any flavor. This is where 'the cube' seems to break from the pack and has a great flavor to match the delicious room note. You'll have to have an open mind because as I said, this is one aromatic that actually delivers on flavor too, but give it a try. Besides, buy it in bulk (I found it at Knoxcigar) and it's much more affordable. I think it will suprise some others as it did me, but then again, that's why we keep trying new blends.
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Adguru	01/10/2006	Very Mild	Mild to Medium	Mild	Pleasant
Blue Note, Petersons Sunset Breeze and now comes MacBarren's Cube. I find it very similar to the two Amaretto-flavored blends that preceeded it. But, I do like the cube cut and after careful consideration I think it has a better tobacco base than the other two. Right now, it is my favorite aromatic. But, as a disqualifier, and of course it is a big disqualifier, I mostly smoke Balkan blends.
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bobspipe	08/05/2005	Mild	Medium	Medium	Pleasant
I tried this when it first came out and was intrigued by the packaging as well as the appearance and presentation. I liked the blend of flavors at first, but then just found over time the blend of flavors to disintegrate to a weird combination of flavors that didn't hold together as well. Its out of my rotation, but would consider circling back around and trying it again.
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drauh	07/17/2005	Mild	Very Strong	Extra Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
OK, I'm afraid I have to disagree with my esteemed colleagues. It's been a while since I smoked an aromatic, barring the occasional Sail Yellow or Fribourg&Treyer Vintage cavendish, so I thought I'd give it a try based on the reviews here. It just reminded me of why I switched to English blends. The primary flavor is vanilla, and there are undertones of other casings. I suppose the room note may be considered pleasant, but I felt it was overpowering, rather like a 'Guido' at the local disco who's drenched in cheap aftershave. I rather regret buying this, now, seeing as it's pretty pricey. Ah, well. Maybe it'll improve with time. One may only hope. For now, I'm sticking to Nightcap and Raven's Wing.
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Ebola	06/24/2005	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium	Pleasant
This tobbaco is really quite goood. I'm unable to put my finger on the flavoring but it is definitely there but not so overpowering as some, i.e. Blue Note. Could flavor the pipe however.
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DUPE.1512	06/11/2005	Mild	Medium to Strong	Medium	Pleasant
Very unlike MacBaren's quality burleys like london blend and golden extra. This is merely expensive packaging and a slightly cased tobacco blend with hyped up advertising. I'm just glad I got to sample this and did not buy it.
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Ducksbreath	05/07/2005	Extremely Mild	Strong	Very Mild	Very Pleasant
Mac Barens isn't fooling anyone with this expensive, trendily pagackaged offering. For this money you could get a basket pipe and an ounce or two of bulk ! And I heartily suggest that the novice do exactly that. Cube does smell nice, a combination of fruits, nuts and some kind of perfume. Not at all hot smoking, very unlike the more traditional "hot" MB blends, but lacking their subtlety and honest taste. Not for the lover of rustic, American burleys or English blends (as I am). A spineless tobacco with a delightful topping (but you could have guessed that going in).
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Baloo	04/25/2005	Mild	Medium to Strong	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
As I prefer VAs, flakes and english-type blends usually, I´m always a bit aware from spending my money on a 100g tin of an unknown tobacco. But from time to time I´m looking for a change of pace and I try an aromatic. On my last visit at my local tobacco dealer, he highly recommended MacBaren Cube as one of the best aromatics available. Despite it´s rather pricey (I guess it´s the most expensive blend you can buy here in Germany) I followed his advice and gave it a try. I must admit, MB Cube is really a wonderful tobacco. It comes in a nice silver-coloured, dice-shaped wooden box, you can still use as a tobacco container after finishing this weed. In the MacBaren line of aromatics it sure is the top blend. The flavoring (can´t really pick what it is) stays ´til the very end, not overwhelming the tobacco taste and leaves a very pleasant room note. For an aromatic lover this could be an ideal all-day smoke. What keeps me from a 4-star rating, only is the high price. If you´re into aromatics, try MB Cube, you won´t regret it. 8 out of 10 in my personal rating.
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The Cellarmaster	01/21/2005	Medium	Medium	Medium to Full	Pleasant
Very rarely will I smoke an aromatic blend, but this one was just a little different. This was not the goopey sugary topped tobacco that I would have expected. Rather an ecessence of tropical flavors. Cocconut, Vanilla, Black pepper, Berry in just the right amount, as it did not hide the flavor of the quality tobacco which serves as the foundation of this very interesting blend. This may not be for all but let me assure you, I am a tobacco purest, I do not like anything to get in the way of my tobacco flavor. This blend however can be a nice change of pace, a little bump in the road. Many blenders will hide inferior tobacco with heavy flavoring. Not here. Quality is first in the mind of this blender. I strongly urge my tobacco purest bretheren to try Cube, disapointment will be rare.
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