Mac Baren - HH Mature Virginia pipe tobacco reviews

Review

Please log in to add or edit a review. If you do not have an account yet, you can sign up for one here.

Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
< PREVIOUS Showing reviews 61 through 80 of 89 reviews of this tobacco NEXT >
Ixtlan	12/29/2008	Medium	Medium	Medium to Full	Strong
Full Flavor Virginia that is easy on the pallet. No known casings to this and room note is of tobacco leaning towards cigarettes. This great when you have been smoking aromatics and sweet tobaccos for a while. It has it's own mild sweet taste as Virginians tend too. I find it a real good change from the aromatics I generally smoke. It is good to clean the pipe of the casing residues from them also. The wife doesn't like it much though because of the smell is too close to a cigarette (which she smokes (She does go outside to smoke also). It is a nice change from the sweet aromatics and has no burn or bite.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Budman	12/14/2008	Mild to Medium	Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
This blend has it all. The highs the lows and everything in between. Mac Baren blends have always been too sweet or would bite you like a rabid dog. HH Mature Virginia is a pleasure from start to finish. It has the sweetness a good VA should have but when pushed into the hot zone there was no bite. In addition to the great balance in HH the billowing smoke this produces is a plus. Room note is some what civil since no one at the home front complained. Mac Baren got this one right. Now, will it stay on the market? One can only hope! If you are a Virginia fan order it, you won't regret it.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Sailorjack	12/06/2008	Mild	Very Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
Love the smell of the ripe,fruity,mature Virginias in the tin. I don't even have to smoke this one to enjoy it.Just running the tin under my nose is enjoyment enough. I am not going to get too descript here but lets just say that when I smoke this the word LUSH comes to mind. As a straight Virginia they don't get much better than this. An excellent blend absolutely but I wouldn't call it spectacular. Far and away the best Mac Baren offering I have tried though. I rate it a solid 3 1/2 stars.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Notanuftime	12/06/2008	Mild to Medium	Very Mild	Medium	Tolerable
This is a smooth smoke! My first impressions upon opening the tin was that of fermenting grapes. Definitely too moist to load up immediately, but a quick fluff and it's ready to go in about thirty minutes. This is a classy presentation of tobacco...in the tin, in the bowl, and lastly, in the aroma. Alas, this blend is no longer listed on the MacBaren website so I fear that it may disappear too soon. Highly Recommended!
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
cigarman43035	11/02/2008	Medium	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
All i can say to add to all the other reviews is that this tobacco is VERY smooth and has NO bite for a virgina! I could not believe it! VERY good smoke, i think it is as good as Hal O' the Wynd but without the bite! Buy some and try it you will see that it is worth it.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Big Nick	10/31/2008	Medium	Very Mild	Medium	Pleasant
WOW!!!, what a heady and intoxicating smoke. You can tell this is something speacial as soon as you pop open the tin. The sweet, smokey and fermentation aromas slap you right upside the head. The first couple of bowls were a little dissapointing due to the high moisture content right out of the tin. So I spread out a couple of bowlfulls(one word or two)onto a papertowel for about an hour, then I loaded up my Peterson Irish Harp B10 and fired it up. #@%&^$ did I hit the motherload!!! What a Bonanza!!! The rich, sweet intoxicating smoke filled my mouth, my head, hell my whole body (which is 6'-2" 240lbs.). I almost thought I was doing something illegal. This stuff is so good, its Pavlovian. Every time I see that Irish Harp pipe I start drooling. Sick but true. Wether you smoke English, aromatics, Balcans,I don't care what, you've got to try this stuff. Because of this experience I have to thank the Pipestud for that Irish Harp pipe, I will never look at it the same way again. And to MacBaren for hitting a 500 footer into McCovey cove, Hella Thanks!!!
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
BriarBurner	10/21/2008	Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
Old Heinrich hit a home run with this blend.Came moist in my tin & took some air-drying to get the ribbon cut just right.Packs just right and once lit the sweetness greets you right away. After a few slow, steady, gentle puffs that smokey flavor starts to blend in along with a light citrus like taste I cannot put my finger on. Does not disappoint from first light down to the white ash .One of the better virginias I've smokedin my 45+ years of Briar Burning Bliss.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Rolly	10/12/2008	Mild	Extremely Mild	Mild to Medium	Very Pleasant
This Virginia is probably the best I've ever smoked. It's much better than Samuel Gawith's Full Virginia Flake which in my humble opinion has no taste at all. This blend smells strange when you open the tin but after lighting it's very pleasent. And it's also very tasty. There's even something like rum or whatever in it. I don't know if it's because of some kind of flavouring but it's great anyway. The best part is that it has absolutely no tongue bite. This Virginia blend is highly recommended to newcomers as well as old pipe smokers.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
BriarChef	09/10/2008	Mild	Extremely Mild	Mild	Very Pleasant
First bowl was dried out a wee bit, but the heavenly aroma wafting from my tobacco drying device (a paper plate for those of you in Rio Linda) made me toss all discipline to the wind and load up. Sauna Syndrome ensued at mid-bowl, so DGT was advised. Holy (expeletive deleted)! Brown sugar, caramel, tobacco, molasses, more tobacco...intermittent bright notes of citrus. Delicious. Second bowl dried just this side of crunchy...into a tall Radice stack. Almost spontaneous combustion with a single match. Nice brights, settles down quickly. More culinary metaphors came immediately to mind...dark rum, some spice, vanilla, malt, citrus...Freaking Great!! This now replaces McClelland Christmas Cheer 1992 as my Christmas blend. I intend to load up my "Yule Log" Autograph, smoke half a bowl on Christmas Eve, then fire that big bugger up on Christmas morning while I unleash the Beasts of Bethpage for their annual Christmas present opening ritual. This involves gnashing of teeth, foaming at the mouth, loud growling, some biting and clawing, jumping on the furniture and lots of face licking. Dogs. Man's Best Friend Indeed.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Glorfindel	08/21/2008	Medium to Strong	Extremely Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
A solid 3 stars from me. HH Mature VA has a slight smokey scent from the tin similar to some English mixtures I enjoy - in the same spirit as a hickory smoked flavor. It is quite different from the McC VA's that I enjoy so much and I was searching for similarities but found virtually none. I think the Mac Baren flavoring/curing process masks a bit of the naturally grassiness and light body of the VA here, but perhaps that was their goal with the "matutred" flavor - whatever that means. For my tastes, Mac Baren went just a little too far in over-doing this wonderful tobacco. With their casing and "smoke curing" they lost something of the natural VA essence I prefer. It has a rich smokey taste and is very satisfying, however, and I solidly recommend it. Burns evenly and continuously for me with no bite at all. Roomnote? Probably not too nice for non-smokers. I find the HH Mature VA and the McC line of Christmas Cheer and McC 2010 to be entirely different animals. This one is worth a try for smoething different in the VA genere if, like me, you are used to the McC version of VA tobaccos. Good Draw to You! :)
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
LtMac	08/12/2008	Mild	Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
I received this as a free sample pouch and after smoking a couple of bowls I immediately ordered some tins to cellar. HH Mature Virginia is a very mild, sweet, and smoky Virginia. Maybe it just my imagination, but I get the distinct flavor of hickory smoke (such as what one would taste in a barbecue sauce) every time I smoke this. It has a good flavor of which I just can't seem to get enough. My wife and daughters say that it smells good when I smoke it, so I give it a pleasant room note. I don't notice much nicotene, though. I like this Mac Baren tobacco and highly recommend it if its one you haven't tried. I give HH Mature Virginia four stars.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Sylvian	07/22/2008	Mild	Extremely Mild	Medium	Pleasant
Most highly (and unexpectedly) recommended. Tasty virginia, ripe, sweet and heady. Develops nicely without building up on nicotine too much. Leaves the pipe practically dry, and the smoker thinking of having another bowl of HH Mature Virginia.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
orka	07/11/2008	Mild	Extremely Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
I wholeheartedly concur with all the reviewers below. This is a superb blend, and I cannot recomend it enough. I am pretty sure there is a top flavouring in this one, could very well be rum as suggested earlier, either way it only heightens the experience. In my virginia book, this beats Old Gowrie. It's more expensive than the regular Mac Baren's, but I don't mind terribly much, it's still below other premium blends' price range and, might I add, worth every cent. Edit: As time has progressed since I made the initial review I have discovered I might have been a bit over enthusiastic when I wrote the original review; and I have also re-evaluated my ratings system somewhat. This means I'm removing one star. While this is still a very nice tobacco, it's just not floating up there with the real stellar blends. Also, I have begun to wonder whether or not it really does beat Old Gowrie; O.G blossomed in unforeseen ways some months after opening the tin. But that's another story. Regardless it's not fair to compare the two based on their main ingredients alone, as they don't really share any other characteristics than that.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
PfeifenRaucher	05/01/2008	Mild to Medium	Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
When I do smoke Virginias (which is not that often) I like them when their taste leans on the sweeter, dried fruit side rather than the grassy, oat-like side. HH Mature Virginia definitely fits my preferences in this regard. It also has a slight smokiness that I think of as being more associated with English blends - a nice touch indeed. This blend does for Virginias what MB Navy Flake does for burley. They share a lot of similarities in taste and smoking qualities IMHO (both have that distinctive Mac Baren touch that people seem to either love or hate). Both quite mildly cased but not totally "natural" in their flavor The only negative thing for me is that it does not change taste down the bowl at all really, making it bit of a boring smoke in anything other than a small-sized pipe. That resulted in a loss of one star for me. That said, if you like Mac Baren's other products I cannot see how you would be unhappy with this one.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Ankara_Dave	04/24/2008	Mild	Mild	Medium	Pleasant
One word: Fantastic. I review this not to really add anything that has already been said, but to ensure the 4-star average is maintained. I brought a tin back from a recent trip and only want more. I also gave my boss a couple bowl fulls, he fully concurs with the high quality of this blend. The next time my mule makes a trip here, she'll have at least ten tins! I just hope I can stretch out the one I have until then. This has earned a permanent spot in my rotation.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Packer	04/02/2008	Mild to Medium	Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
After 40 years of pipe smoking, and running through the usual phases of aromatics to heavy latakia blends, I have finally gotten around to Va. blends. Kid in a candy store comes to mind. I have tried most all of the Stokkebye, MacBaren,C&D,and Samuel Gawith Va. blends. To date my go to blends have been SG Best Brown, and Full Va. flake. I have acquired several pounds of 8-10 blends to cellar. Space being a factor I will be making room for Mature Virginia. This tobacco smells great in the tin, and better burning in my Ser Jacopo Maxima Bulldog. Very good moisture in the newly opened tin. Nice texture, easy pack/light. Good taste from beginng to end. Cool clean dry burn. I can find nothing to say bad about his blend. I'll be ordering several tins for cellar and consumotion. I'll be glad to see this blend come out in bulk.....bet your @#$$ I'll get some for the cellar. **** for sure
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Peterschaume	03/25/2008	Extremely Mild	None detected	Mild	Very Pleasant
This tobacco could be very good if well packed, however, it might disappoint some Virginia purists if usualy packed. First, I'll describe the usual packing method (3 steps). Indeed, there is a lack of smoothness, it is not sweet but spicy. This compared with a real straight Virginia (as Samuel Gawith's Full Virginia Flake). However, it helped me to remove the taste a little too much pronounced at the bottom of the bowl for a 37 years dedicated to FVF pipe. I had applied three times the S/A treatment and I hesitated to use the harder oven + charcoal treatment. The taste doesn't been removed at all, despite this highly recommanded method, but it just needs three bowls of HH Mature Virginia (I'd allowed to depose a thin layer of ash by shaking the pipe after use) so that the taste had disappeared altogether. So, I use this tobacco as a kind of renovator for Virginia's pipes which were too deeply flavoured by several years of dedicated use. As said, it's a good tobacco, despite what I said below, about use it as a rejuvenating treatment. It is certainly not what I look for, in a pure straight Virginia (what it is not, according to the description of the composition, on the official website of Mac Barren: 22 tobaccos are blended, but only 15 Virginias are used in the blend. So,7 are Orientals and Burleys, at least, for those who are described), but it remains a pleasant tobacco, when you are a little nauseated by the sweetness of Straight Virginias and when you don't want to change for the taste of Latakia nor Turkish+Latakia. The smell from the opened tin seems to promise a taste that you wish to remove from a pipe too much flavoured. But it is also very smoky. What is very surprising, because even a Latakia+Turkish (Samuel Gawith's Squadron Leader) was unable to remove the taste. I don't understand how the tobacco may serve this purpose, but it works. So, if only smoked with an usual packing method (but read below), this tobacco deserves 2 stars, but the using as a treatment deserves 4 (highly recommanded). ;) After this particular use, turn to the tasting, which will be much shorter. IMO, this tobacco doesn't taste memorable if you pack the bowl in the most usual method. It is spicy and smoky and nothing is reminiscent of a "Mature Virginia". However, as it was said, if you use the Frank method of packing, the flavors promised by a named "Mature Virginia" tobacco really stand out and there is a sense of smoking a completely different product. Do not use the Frank method would miss out on the qualities of this tobacco. There, it deserves a least 3 stars. As has been said by the other reviewers, this tobacco doesn't bite and do virtually no heating, which can also be recommended to break-in a new pipe.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
JEM	02/23/2008	Mild	None detected	Mild	Pleasant
If you want a mild, sweet tobacco, this it is. It smells like raisins in the tin and has a light, pleasant smell when smoked. It packs well, is moist, easy to light, and stays lit. I didn't get any tongue, even when puffed hard. I started off smoking aromatic tobacco, moving to Virginian tobacco, and now I enjoy more powerful tobaccos. When I went back to Virginian tobacco, I found this one very mild, compared to what I've been smoking.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
NEWMAN	01/20/2008	Very Mild	Extremely Mild	Very Mild	Pleasant
This nicely prepared ribbon cut had a good moisture content from the tin and packed, lit and smoked easily. Even with more aggressive puffing, it didn't act like a blow torch as some of the other MacBaren VA blends and smoked dry and cool without the need for relights. I didn't sense much taste development during the smoke and although sweet, found both the flavor and strength less than my preferred VA & VaPer flakes. However, if you're looking for a mild VA, this blend might work for you.
Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Pipestud	11/07/2007	Mild to Medium	None detected	Mild to Medium	Very Pleasant
I really looked forward to receiving my pouch of this newest of Mac Baren's blends from a friend who got it for me at the recently completed Chicago Show. I just finished another pouch that I recently picked up at the Kansas City Pipe Show and believe that the tobacco from this batch is a notch or two stronger in the strength department than the first batch I tried. This is a nice, medium and slightly sweet Virginia that is the same from the top to the bottom of the bowl (kind of unusual for Virginia tobacco which usually changes RPM's while being consumed). It loaded and stayed lit well. It is also a mid-grade in the strength department and I cannot recommend this blend to those of you with a carpet of chest hair. I don't have a carpet of chest hair and the hair on my head is in retreat.... So, I liked this Virginia blend a lot. Again, if you enjoy medium flavored and slightly sweet Virginia leaf that offers no suprises while smoking, then here you go.
< PREVIOUS Showing reviews 61 through 80 of 89 reviews of this tobacco NEXT >