Mac Baren - Dark Twist Roll Cake pipe tobacco reviews

Review

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Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
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Scamp	04/17/2011	Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium to Full	Pleasant
I was inspired to buy this tobacco after reading some of the reviews on this site, and I have to say I wasn't disappointed. This is a tobacco to enjoy in the garden on a nice sunny day with a cool pint of ale and a good book, preferably with a large bowled pipe to get a nice long smoke from it. This is a fairly slow burning tobacco any-way, but I found myself wanting more if using a smaller pipe. I would recommend putting the coins of tobacco into the bowl as intact as possible. I found this a very pleasant smoke that starts off quite light and spicey and develops as you smoke down the bowl into some very deep and complex flavours. Thoroughly enjoyable, will definately be buying it again!
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Chasm	04/09/2011	Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
My ratings: * = Bleh. Could not finish tin, dumped. = Passable. Finished tin, but didn't really look forward to it. * = Enjoyable smoke and would purchase again. **** = Great smoke. Loved every puff and want more now! This one gets a fail - one star. I wanted to like it... the coins of rolled tobacco are fun to look at an play with. But as I have never been into flavored 'bacs of any kind, this one just didn't do it for me. Too sweet, too moist, and with none of the depth of character I like in a smoke. I dreaded having to pack this one and eventually had to call it a day and dump it.
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rintrah	03/24/2011	Medium	Mild to Medium	Mild	Pleasant to Tolerable
Decent leaf.
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Perique_Churchwarden	03/05/2011	Medium	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
If you wish to switch from Aromatic blends and/or sweeter, smoother tobaccos to something with a little more Spiciness and more "Earthiness" to it's taste,I would Highly Recommend starting with this blend. This blend has much more a Spicy Flavour than any mild or even aromatic blend, but is mild in and of itself when compared to tobaccos with Fuller and much more Robust taste. This is a very nice "beginner's" blend if you want to get accustomed to tobaccos with more robust and spicier flavours. Of Course even tobacco connoisseurs will appreciate the smoothness and subtle robust features of this blend
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TheSmokinDragon	03/04/2011	Mild to Medium	Mild	Medium	Pleasant
Finally opened a 100g tin of this blend, didn't know what to expect here with it, complex/smooth....very very nice! As a video from Mac Baren suggested, just take a few coins, stacked (#-depending on bowl size) fold in half and stuff in pipe/tamp and your off to the races....it will have a lower burn-temp this way, so not to heat up the sugar in the Vs too much and thus you will have no Mac Bite :-) Grab a few tins and enjoy it slow-sip'in style
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Gilthoniel	02/18/2011	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium	Pleasant
With a name like 'Dark Twist Roll Cake', you know it's going to smell good enough to eat in the tin. This is a lovely, mild, sweet tobacco with a spicy edge, with that 'honey on toast' Mac Baren flavour very much present. I don't know how they are able to offer it so cheaply, but I doubt you could find an aromatic of this quality for such a low price, unless it's another of the Mac Baren line. 8/10 for the quality, 10/10 for the price.
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JohnnyMcPiperson	01/28/2011	Mild to Medium	Mild	Medium	Very Pleasant
This blend was the beginning for me of a progression into a whole new genre of tobacco blends. I started with aromatics, was stuck in those for about a year, then moved to English, spent about a year and a half to two years mostly smoking English and some VA, then I discovered these roll cake blends with Va's and other tobaccos like cavendish and burley rolled in sometimes with perique and whatnot. Needless to say this blend ushered me into a whole new realm of flavors and even a new way of smoking, where I had mostly been a heavy puffer with thick clouds of latakia filled smoke, this blend along with PS Luxury Bullseye Flake taught me to slow it down and sip the pipe like a hot cup of tea. When I did this I began to experience a new and very different way of smoking a pipe. This blend when properly sipped and savored lends to a complex, deep, dark, rich and smooth smoke. The flavors are not easily explained but very intriguing. I recommend this blend to those who have already moved from aromatics to English and are now looking for something complex and maybe not so powerful to enjoy and take their pipe smoking to a whole new level! For me it represents the height of pipe smoking and the relationship of blend to smoker and the exchange between the smoker and the blend, where the smoker must earn the flavor he seeks by giving his pipe attention and carefully coaxing the smoke along without being to hasty or impatient, it is a blend for the relaxed, contemplative smoker with a mind to match the complexity of the blend!
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MisterSmith	01/19/2011	Mild to Medium	Mild	Medium	Pleasant
Rich, dark and sweet. A cool smoke. Taste matches its pleasant room note. If, like me, you are relatively new to pipe smoking and you want to venture beyond aromatics to something slightly stronger with a more complex taste then I think Dark Twist is for you.
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radioisotope	01/09/2011	Medium to Strong	Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
This is pretty good stuff. Slightly aromatic but there there is still a great viginia smokey flavor. Cavendish adds a nice sweetness. Has a pretty nice room note too. I would give this 4 stars but it leaves my tongue raw.... Smoke with care.
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John Offerdahl	01/08/2011	Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
Dark Twist is a roll cake tobacco consisting of dark Virginia, golden Virginia, and a spiced cavendish. Thus there is an appeal for both the Virginia smoker and the aromatic smoker. The cake is cut into disks between the size of a dime and a quarter, and then tinned. A nice aroma pours from the tin when opened, but with a hint of the underlying Mac Baren ferment. The disks rub out fairly easily, but I found the tobacco easier to handle if I first quartered each disk with sharp scissors and then rubbed. The flavor is nice from the initial light through the bowl. But I was bothered by something in the tobacco; my mouth became extremely dry as I smoked. Sometimes I find it necessary to drink water or tea with a pipe, but with this tobacco a liquid was essential (I have the same reaction with some perique blends). With my favorite tobaccos, a drink isn't a requisite. The cavendish added a dimension to the Virginias that was interesting, but I think that if I want spiciness I’ll go for either 2015 (a McClelland perique blend) or Dark Star. And the real focus of this tobacco is on the Virginia rather than the cavendish, anyway. The tins of this tobacco are huge (3.5 ounces) and the price is right. It’s not as inexpensive as tobacco shop bulks but less expensive than, say, a top of the line McClelland. So it’s a good value. Like any Virginia tobacco, this one will burn your tongue if you smoke it too quickly, but if you relax and enjoy the slow pleasure of the smoke, Dark Twist can have some nice rewards.
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quantumboy	12/15/2010	Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
I don't smoke many VA-CAV blends, but this one is really good. It is absolutely full of flavor, easy to smoke, with a sweetness and richness that is simply satisfying. I liken it to Peter Stokkebye's Bullseye Flake, which has Perique but tastes somewhat similar due to the addition of Cavendish. Very nice for a relaxing afternoon when you want to think more about the beautiful weather rather than what you're smoking.
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WmZiggy	12/01/2010	Mild to Medium	Mild	Medium	Pleasant
I have been on the MB "World Tour" for some months now and recently picked-up a tin of Dark Twist. What a pleasant smoke. I wasn't surprised, as I am finding on this journey that MB produces quality products and exciting blends. Tastes can vary, but in terms of quality, moisture content, price, and presentation (such as this Curly Cut) MB shows their years of experience and expertise with the leaf. This is a nice slow smoke with a subtle sweetness of a lower note that's difficult to name. Perhaps brown sugar, but not that sweet. It is complex, never boring. Easy to pack, burns dry and clean and does not bite. This is a wonderful evening smoke with Scotch.
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grumpyoldprofessor	11/23/2010	Medium	Very Mild	Mild to Medium	Tolerable
I have tried and am still trying to get the hang of this one. It packs easily, stays lit and burns nicely. I just can't seem to get beyong just thinking it's ok. Smells wonderful in the tin, but tastes too bland for me. Not as much sweetness as I hoped there would be. I've smoked 3/4 of my tin and will keep on trying. I will say that it is at least worth a try.
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Bulldog Jeff	10/28/2010	Mild to Medium	Mild	Medium	Pleasant
This is not my every day smoke, nor do I crave this, but every time I smoke this, I enjoy it and say "Why don't I smoke this more often?". Somewhat sweet, somewhat mild Virginia flavor with a deeper note to the background and a little tickle of spiciness. That deeper note in the background is NOT the nutty maple syrup cavendish Mac Baren is known for. I'm not sure what it is. Its pretty good though. If you showed up at my house with a tin of this, I would gladly smoke some with you.
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Sweetbriar	10/23/2010	Medium	Medium to Strong	Very Full	Tolerable
this is a great/fun blend. great smoke in the winter here in montana. dark twist gets a bite rap and its usually not bite, it's spicy hot. i like to add things to this blend as well. try a strip of dark star between a couple coins. yup, a really good blend that makes my temples sweat and glasses fog. am i really the only one?
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hockey01	10/22/2010	Medium	Mild	Medium	Pleasant
It's a wonderful thing to open a new tin of this blend; the aroma is divine, something on the fruity/spicey spectrum. Unfortunately, the wonderful aroma doesn't translate into wonderful taste, however, but you have to expect this of Virginia tobaccos, I guess, which can be on the grassy side. It's fun (and easy) to pack the pipe with the little swirls of tobacco; sort of a unique pipe filling experience. The room note is unusual and not really noticeable as you're smoking. It's almost as though you need to leave the room and, when you come back, you say, "Ah! There's the room note." And it's a pretty good one. One of the reviewers below mentioned that this blend needs to be smoked slowly. Amen to that and it seemed to smoke easier after the first re-light than when it was first packed into the pipe. I've had a 3.5 oz. tin of this sitting in my tobacco 'stash' for, oh, probably several years now and with proper re-hydration, it always makes a good come back without losing aroma or flavor. Obviously, this is not a blend I smoke every day but I do like a pipeful now and then and enjoy its fruity aroma.
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sonick	10/11/2010	Medium	Extremely Mild	Mild to Medium	Very Pleasant
Wow! This really is a superb tobacco. A very high grade tobacco, sliced into coins that are extremely convenient for packing a bowl. As others have said, pack this tobacco loosely. Let it pack itself. Very light compression. Minimal rubbing of the coins. The taste is divine. extremely deep and complex, but it doesn't present itself boldly, you have to sip and contemplate. If you smoke too fast, you'll miss the mark completely. It doesn't make heavy smoke, and hates to be smoked fast. The initial char is a bit tingly/bitey, but it goes away; leaving way to one of the most enjoyable tobaccos I've known. I can't even remmeber all of the various flavor notes I experienced via the ounces i've smoked. Pack it light, smoke it sloooooow, and you will be rewarded with an amazing complex, deep smoke. Brush with water and cleanse your palate before this smoke, it is subtle, but amazing.
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Snakeypoo	09/04/2010	Medium	Mild	Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
Verry nice and relaxing
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babysinister	08/04/2010	Mild	Mild	Mild to Medium	Very Pleasant
DTRC is excellent tobacco. Muted and subtle but rich and flavorful nonetheless. The quality and sublime flavor and even the sidestream of this blend remain sedate yet persistent throughout the smoke. The tiny coin-shaped cake cuts burn at a desirably (for me) low level. But you're not supposed to puff just because it doesn't send out volumes of thick smoke; just let it come along in little slow sips. Nurse it and sip it and it will respond - do not attempt to resuscitate with brutal puffing to achieve an intensity that is not needed here. As with all other tobaccos, I do not puff away seeking a nic hit that is not there and, as in the MacBarens I've tried, is not supposed to be. When I smoke a bowl, afterwards it still retains in my sensory memory the subtle flavor and aroma that it delivered - in unspectacular yet indelible manner. This almost Proustian, lingering recall of its qualities may explain why those of us that love this blend experience the need to reach for a tin, without "knowing" why. And what an easy pleasure to fill and to keep lit. Let it air and dry out a good time. It smokes better on the dry side, like other MacBaren blends. But don't let it go all the way to bone dry. I experienced absolutely no bite with this tobacco. Remember to sip it slowly. Highly recommended.
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Claudius Stradivarius	07/25/2010	Mild	Extremely Mild	Mild	Pleasant
Dark Twist is not a dark roll cake by all means. It is rather light brown. As much as the tin aroma was great, spicy and sweet, I had to seek some sort of taste and strength. Too bad...
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