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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doc'spipe	06/08/2010	Mild to Medium	Mild	Medium	Pleasant
I smoked this over 30 years ago and don't remember much of the experience. I have re-aquainted myself with Dark Twist Roll Cake only recently and am very happy I did. Beautifully prepared discs for smoking, and an ample quantity to boot. No overt tin aroma upon opening the tin (dated Jan. 2010), but on deep sniffing, there is the slightest essence of what reminded me of molasses. Loading was a breeze - I took several discs, folded them length-wise, and put them in my pipe like I do with my flakes. It took to the match very readily and remained lit throughout the bowl with only 2 re-lights. The moisture content seemed just right as there was absolutely no tongue bite, not did it ever smoke hot. There was a subtle taste of molasses/brown sugar throughout. There was the dominance of Virginia as I am used to with a Mac Baren's tobacco, but not as strong as with some of Mac's offerings The overall experience was quite enjoyable. The taste actually reminded me of treacle, or a brown sugar-like sweetness. There was no change in character with the smoke from first puff to last. No goopy dottle, either. Just a nice gray ash at the completion of the smoke. A mildly sweet, very pleasant tasting tobacco with just a hint of spice that would be suitable for an all-day smoke. No real tongue bite, but more of a palate irritation if smoked too fast. I would recommend sipping at this one as you will be rewarded with a unique sweetness in taste that is truly satisfying. I thoroughly enjoyed Dark Twist Roll Cake and give it a solid recommended without reservation.
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Lombard65	05/23/2010	Mild to Medium	Mild	Medium	Pleasant
How many stars I see! But anyone is reading these reviews who have smoked 30 years ago? This was a really good tobacco, with a nutty constant smoke, very smooth, with a mild sweetness of the Virginia tobacco. Today is definitely changed, all his old qualities are missing. Today there are blenders who are much better than Mac Baren!
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PHOBOS	04/23/2010	Mild to Medium	Mild	Medium	Pleasant
I received four pouches this Mac Baren blend with eigth years aged. A gift. Perfect, dark colors, sweety tastes, no bites and nice aroma. I like Mac Baren blends and this smokes well, pleasant, great flavor with hints of spice and sweetness.Great pipe tobacco.
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strongirish	04/14/2010	Medium	Extremely Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
I like MB blends and it is no surprise I like this one as well. When I first recieved this blend, I thought it was kind of bland at first and toyed with putting it in the cellar to age for awhile. But I tried a few more bowls and each time I liked it better. Now that I have smoked over 50gr of this I find myself reaching for it quite often. It has a nice spicy, creamey flavor, a really nice room note and it satisfys. In the tin it has a fresh VA type note to it and the little disks are very attractive and contain mostly a medium brown colored tobacco. It is a little too moist when first opened and improves greatly with some drying out. It packs rather tight in the bowl so you have to be careful not to pack it too tight, even if you rub it out a lot. It takes a few lights to get going and I find I have to relight a few times while smoking it down. It creates a very dark ash, dark grey and black and it burns down slowly and does leave some dottle at the bottom of the bowl. It is slow burning thus producing a cool flavorful smoke but if puffed to aggresively it can bite. This too me is a great blend, it does need some care in smoking it and prep, but worth it. A fine MB blend that I will keep around. I recommend trying it.
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parttime	01/31/2010	Mild to Medium	Very Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
I received a couple oz as a gift didnt think much of it at first. It's a very nice looking tobacco the coins are moist and pliable.I have smoked it by folding the coins and loading and drying a little bit to crumble and load, either way the flavor is great, hints of spice and sweetness that last the whole bowl if smoked gently. Having smoked primarily heavy english blends I am amazed that this has now become one of my favorite smokes. I find it smokes best in a large bowl.
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Misanthrope	01/15/2010	Mild	Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
Got an initial taste of something like caramel but with very light sweetness. Became close to boring by the end of the bowl. Smokes very well though.
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sirchud68	01/08/2010	Mild to Medium	Mild	Medium	Very Pleasant
This is my second go at a MB blend, my first being Roll Cake. I've been smoking a pipe for only three years and sometimes puff like crazy but still haven't had any bite with either MB tobaccos I've tried. I have smoked cigs for 20+, maybe that turned my tounge to stone. Dark Twist has a great "spice" to it. Kind of cinnamon'ish? I love this stuff. I say that about most tobaccos I've tried, but DT really caught me. I find it a little stronger then roll cake, too. If you haven't tried it, what could it hurt? Opened a tin that I aged for a year and man, what a wonderful malty scent. Taste was much improved as well.
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Mister Moo	11/23/2009	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Tolerable
I agree with comment(s) below that this is a flat tasting product that can take non-seasoned pipers to the edge of tongue-bite and beyond. It's sole saving grace for me is the lovely presentation in the tin - practically perfect, small slices of beautifully packed flakes. There is so much MacBaren product around! It's easy to find, the price is reasonable, the 100g tins are bulletproof, the packed appearance is flawless and I honestly WANT to like it but, for my palate, 95% of it falls short. Dark Twist was another try and it landed, again, in my MacBaren "also ran" category. It isn't bad - it's just nothing special. In a world of products that include MANY special blends, nothing special is not worth buying.
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DK	10/05/2009	Mild to Medium	Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
This blend sums up everything that is wrong with Mac Baren's, in my opinion. This is an unrefined, flat, overly mild blend that bites at the least provocation but that has a nice room aroma. There is a light spiciness in the smoke that promises something good to come but it just doesn't happen. It's not a bad smoke; certainly I found it preferable to Plumcake - but it's nothing that a long time pipesmoker could call a "reference" blend. If I hadn't had such good success with Mac Baren's Symphony and, to a lesser extent, their Navy Flake and Virginia #1, I'd suggest that I just don't care for the Danish style of tobacco blending. Then again, Alfred & Christian Peterson have produced many noteworthy blends. I think Mac B's caters to a niche group of smokers (those somewhere between full fledged aromatics and natural English-style blends) and does quite well with it, I think. This one just isn't for me. Most Mac Baren's (with the exception of Symphony) will not find their way back into my cellar. But one classic blend forgives all!
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langston302	09/21/2009	Very Mild	Very Mild	Very Mild	Tolerable
Ok I have enjoyed many MB blends but sadly this one just missed the mark for me. I found the flavor profile to be flat and somewhat boring. I was hoping to find a wonderful dark robust smoke in the tin but was greeted with a weak and lightly aromatic smell. I decided that trying it would have to be the way to go. I found that it takes to flame well either rubbed out or in its original disk shape. The smoke flavor was flat and uninspiring. I had no problems in draw but I felt like I had to puff like mad just to find flavor. This bl;end would be good for someone just entering the pipe world but not for the seasoned smoker.
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pipe_organist	09/10/2009	Mild	Mild	Medium	Pleasant
I've returned to the Mac Baren blends after years of avoiding them because of some rather mixed memories of them from my pipe-smoking days as an undergrad at Oberlin. I was smoking Golden Extra and Scottish Mixture in those days, and probably owing to being inexperienced, and smoking cheap pipes, had problems with tongue bite and gurgling, wet smokes. Having been bowled over by my experiences recently with Mixture Flake, I decided to venture into their roll cake blends. "Roll Cake" isn't available at the local B&M, but this blend is, so I bought a tin to give it a whirl. Here we go: Dealing with handling and packing these little roll cakes is new to me, so there's a learning curve, but I'm getting the hang of it. Being a fan of fully rubbing out flakes, I've been trying the method of just squeezing the little birds eyes between thumb and forefinger then packing. I'm still experimenting with this. As for taste, the initial light renders the flavor of a very high-grade cigarette. It's not objectionable, I just wasn't prepared for it. As I got into the bowl, the dark spiciness of the blend along with its sweetness from the cavendish became evident. It's a subtle but nevertheless complex flavor, sometimes on the sweet side, sometimes dark and rich like a strong espresso. I don't know if it's an issue of packing, or the pipes I've tried this blend in, but it does smoke hot and wet if you're not careful. This is a blend that demands good packing and slow sipping. I suspect I'll replenish this after it's gone, but so far I'm preferring Mixture Flake over this as MF is a bit more complex in its flavors. Regardless, this is a nice blend and so I do recommend it.
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Psyktek	09/02/2009	Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium to Full	Unnoticeable
I'm going to have to try this with some drying and, perhaps, in a different pipe. Let me say that I do like this tobacco, but it's more of a love/hate relationship. The charring light and the first true light bit like crazy. It's done this now thru several bowls. But I have to say that the rest of the bowl is very pleasant, although somewhat neutral. I don't have the most refined palate, and I tend to smoke when doing other things, so perhaps I need to pay more attention. I just don't get the "sweetness" that others have mentioned, but then I rarely get that with Virginias. There's no urge to get rid of the rest of the tin, in fact I find myself turning to it more frequently than other, more familiar blends. Maybe I just have to keep trying it and come back and revise this review later.
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viscfab	07/24/2009	Mild to Medium	Mild	Medium	Pleasant
Awesome. The discs have an outstanding fig / caramel aroma. Tastes good, burns well and delivers a nice aroma. One of the best pipe tobaccos ever made. You can fold two disks and plug into the bowl of your pipe or rub it and crumble it. It shall be savoured slowly, to get the full experience without overheating, as this blend has plenty of sugars that can convert into hot steam. Aroma in the room is great too, natural and not overpowering.
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schnorrer	07/04/2009	Mild to Medium	Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
The Virginias lead with a pronounced maple-syrup flavor, followed by a coffee-like background. The "coin" cut offers the advantage of the slow cool burn of flake with the easy packing of ready rubbed. The aroma and taste are sophisticated enough to smoke indoors at a fine bar or restaurant, and yet the coins burn cool enough to make it a good outdoor smoke- even in a wind. This tobacco doesn't bite me at all.
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Oldman	06/24/2009	Mild	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
I really haven't experienced any tongue bite at all. Don't know why others say it "bites". This is, to me anyway, a very nice tobacco, not harsh at all and a very very pleasant smoke. I really like it a lot. I am an very experienced pipe smoker (over 50 years now) and tend to not rush the experience. It also takes to putting it down and re-lighting later (DGT) very nicely. Neil Bell
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Beer	06/17/2009	Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Tolerable
Another fine coin cut tobacco from Mac Baren! Having already smoked Club Blend (very mild) and Stockton (medium strenght, nice flavor), I can say that this one rates approximately similar to Stockton: not heavy in nicotine, but with a nice body and moutfheel, and with a nice rich taste... if you smoke it slowly. Read my reviews for those two other tobaccos because the differences are minimal. The coins are rather soft, of a golden brown color, and most of them have a very dark center of the delicious Mac Baren Cavendish. Packing is easy, and it burns great: slow but not exceedingly so. It tends to burn a bit faster than Stockton, and hotter too: what I noticed is that while Stockton will go out after not puffing for a while, Dark Twist will keep burning! I recommend a wide bowl for this tobacco: it smokes particularly fine in two pipes I have recently acquired, a Castello Collection KKKK and a L'Anatra "Pettinata, and they both have a 22-23 mm wide bowl. I recommend that you sip this tobacco truly slowly: not only because it is slightly astringent and spicy on the palate (not exactly bitey, but... tingling), but because it's the only way to appreciate it completely and avoid thinking "I smoked a bowl of hot air". The taste is only moderately sweet, with burnt sugar, caramel, some peppery spiciness, some nuttiness and a great yeast/freshly baked bread fragrance. Some black coffee, too. Overall very recommended: I can't say whether I prefer this one or Stockton, because both are small variations on the theme. PS This tobacco also reminds me in taste of another tobacco that I smoke once in a while, Timm London Blend 750. The Mac Baren is better, though: more taste, and slightly darker/spicier.
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The German	04/01/2009	Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant
Having read the reviews of this tobacco so far, I find I agree with those saying this 'baccy needs to be smoked slowly. It is certainly not a tobacco for the beginner; it will bite badly if smoked too hot. That said, I still find it to be a satisfactory smoke. It is mellow (though the manufacturer classifies it as medium-to-strong), I can easily make out the VA, and as the smoke progresses, light notes of chocolate and caramel develop, with a hint of spiciness. The room note is what I would call old-fashioned, but in a nice way. Not one to draw in the Ladies, but good enough that you probably won't be thrown out of the building. The taste develops throughout the smoke, starting with a slightly tangy VA taste with a little added sweetness from the Cavendish to notes of caramel and chocolate. If smoked gently, it will leave a nice, sweet aftertaste on the tongue that lasts for an hour or so. Smoke this one too hot and you're on your own, though. Where I am, this tobacco does not come with the excess moisture so many of my fellow reviewers have noted; it's perfect to rub and stuff out of the (brand new) tin. The scent from the freshly-opened tin is nice and sweet, typically Danish, but without too much artificial flavouring; I make it a slightly sweetened VA with Black Cavendish, with the VA dominating. As a roll cut, it'll keep its moisture almost as well as a flake. People complaining about the burning properties of this weed might benefit from a few hints: you want to use your widest bowl. For a rule-of-thumb, your actual thumb should fit into the bowl, or it's too narrow. This tobacco needs lots of space! Then, when filling the pipe, just fold (or gently rub) the tobacco eyes until the pipe is almost full; don't really stuff it, just let the tobacco find its own place in the bowl. For the top 5th or 6th of the pipe, take one or two eyes into your hands and rub 'em hard, then softly stuff them in. That way, this tobacco will light nicely and evenly and give you an even burn throughout. One of the nice things about this tobacco is that it is very forgiving; if you have to interrupt your smoke for some reason (business, mother complaining about all the smoke, pipe burning too hot...), you can just let the pipe rest for a bit and then relight it without losing too much pleasure in the smoke. That should probably also be a hint to those who complain that the Dark Twist burns too hot: when you find that it does, just put the pipe down for ten minutes, then relight and try to keep things slow. And always keep it tamped properly, or it'll go ballistic? - that's why it's not a beginners' tobacco; you need to do a lot of maintenance if you want to enjoy it. A charcoal filter (if your pipe can accomodate it) could help, too; being German, I am used to smoking with filters but I do realize that this is a rather localized affliction. I have smoked this blend without filters, and it was every bit as good. I'll give it three out of four because it's a nice, satisfying smoke for the experienced but not truly exceptional. If I were a beginner, I'd give it maybe one for being hard to enjoy properly.
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Bojupe	02/02/2009	Mild to Medium	Mild	Mild to Medium	Very Pleasant
A great blend by MacBaren. I`ve been smoking it for almost 25 years and its still my favorite "all day" blend.
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bigjonburley	01/30/2009	Mild	Medium	Medium	Pleasant
This is my first go at the MB tobaccos available. I could tell by the looks and feel of it right out of the tin that this tobacco could bite like a pitbull if proper preparation and smoking technique were not excercised. I find that a thorough rub and and an hour or so of drying help. Also, I highly recomend the lightest of sipping, characteristic of VA smoking be used. This is definately one of the sweetest tobaccos I have smoked. Due to the sugar content alot of reward can be gained by the lightest of puffing combined with slow nasal exhaling. The sugars caramelize through a slow smoke and give many different degrees of sweetness and spice. I can totally see how many smokers that have aggressive puffing technique could find this tobacco harsh, wet, and searing. I too like blends that don't require so much attention but, the world of virginias adds so much one smoking experience that I just have to execute patience and discipline, so that I don't miss out. In smoke this blend so slow and light that I try to keep it almost on the verge of going out. Usually it dose but, its because of me...not the tobacco. The relight always blasts a cornucopia of sweet textures across my palate, so I'm never annoyed by a relight. Also, because of the high sugar content I find that smoking this blend in new pipes creates an excellent char. A tin last me a long time because of the much needed slow smoke. Highly recommended with medium strength coffee in the mid morning.
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orka	01/18/2009	Very Mild	Medium	Mild	Pleasant to Tolerable
Not my favourite Mac Baren, but I do smoke it on rare occasions (tonight was one). Someone mentioned molasses and citrus (va) below me, and I think that is a pretty good description of it. It does have a little "cotton candy" feel to it. Not at all unpleasant, but then again, not really remarkable either. There is a spicy element as well which adds a little more zest to the blend. Airing and resting in the pipe before smoking is an absolute must with this one, and even then it has a tendency to burn hot. It can however be mastered with careful attention and technique, at which point it becomes quite delicious, but I find it a bit too tedious for it to be really worthwhile in the long run. Club Blend is a much better variation on the Mac Baren theme, if you ask me.
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