Mac Baren - Plumcake pipe tobacco reviews

Review

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Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
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SakamotoFan	02/09/2011	Medium to Strong	Medium to Strong	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
If you tried Peterson's University Flake, this tastes exactly like it. A strong musty smoke with some very light berry taste. The tin smell does not smell good, this is not my opinion but my whole family. As we all know, the tin smell isn't the taste.
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Kyrob	01/28/2011	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium	Pleasant

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Burzum	12/28/2010	Mild	Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
Plumcake...what can I say? I first tried this blend on the strength of the reviews found here. It took me a while to get a good handle on this tobacco. But after smoking it for almost a year I feel I can give it a go. Upon opening the pouch(thats all I can get here! my kingdom for a tin!!!!) the aroma is of a fruitty rum note and that instantly pleasing. Smokable right from the start and didnt requier tons of relights. I have fallen in love with the aroma this leaves in my car and the room note is well liked by most. I cant seem to get much of the latakia but this has a natural sweetness that seems to come out when I smoke it in my Watson so that is all it gets now. Must be the matured virginias and burley working their magic. Smoke it slow and in a big bowl or as I have discovered or in a clay and you wont get burned. I also dont detect a casing in the aro sence of the word but more of flavouring that lets the tobacco speak for itself.This is an every day smoke for me.
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Robert	12/27/2010	Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium to Full	Tolerable
I've heard nothing but good things about Mac Baren's Plumcake and so I got 1 oz. from my tobacconist. It came out of the bulk stock from the 1 lb. container and it was as dry as a dog turd on a hot July day. I don't know if that had anything to do with what I experienced, but I'd not be surprised if it did. I didn't think that tobacco was supposed to "crunch", but "crunch" it did. Needless to say, my first bowl of this was horrible. It tasted like turpentine and almost made me give up on trying it further. I found out a method to rehydrate it and then had another go at it (if for no other reason than it was a venerable blend and I wanted to give it a fair hearing). The second, rehydrated bowl of Plumcake was like a totally different animal. I'm not sure what my rehydration did to the Rum casing on this blend. I could still smell some rum, but it wasn't overpowering, yet it had more aroma than before I restored it. The strength of the blend also stood out to me. It was not super strong, but much stronger than I was used to. The bite I experienced before (not tongue bite) was still there, yet this time it was not as noxious. It made my upper palate tingle so I am assuming this is the Latakia in this. The room note was not as pleasant as a true aromatic, yet it was not overpowering. As I smoked this, it still seemed to have that harshness to it. It wasn't the same as my first bowl (which seemed I've compared to turpentine) but it was still there. I can't say that I enjoyed it. The blend seemed to be out of balance. Perhaps this is a good blend if you enjoy very harsh tasting tobaccos, but I think for most folks, they'd do better to try better balanced blends. It's okay, but just not my cup 'o tea.
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pipe row19	12/24/2010	Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
Not bad stuff. I dont like the tin aroma at all but thats the only thing i dont like about it. It packs wells, burns well, and smokes cool with no tounge bite (ive never had a problem with mac baren biting me). As for taste well i dont taste much rum in it and the latakia is kinda in the background but not much. The big players are the virginia , burley, and cavendish. The Flavor like i said dose not have much rum, but i do taste plums, figs, and rasins. All in all if you like mac baren aromatics like myself give it a try, its worth it..
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Arkie	12/16/2010	Medium	Medium	Medium to Full	Tolerable
There is a hint of rum aroma as the tin is opened and there is an extremely subtle trace of rum while smoking it. It is a blend of several types of tobacco and the taste is very intricate during the course of a pipeful. No bite or goopy residue has been experienced. It is well behaved and the ash is a white powder. I would recommend smoking this blend when you are wanting a treat. It deserves your full attention while you are smoking it. I give it a solid 4 stars. EDIT Well... it does bite the tongue a bit regardless of how slowly and carefully it is smoked so I need to take a star away from its rating. It has neen moved down on my list of favorites but it still tastes so good I will keep a tin in my cellar.
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pipe_organist	11/08/2010	Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium	Pleasant
Being a Mac B fan, I thought I'd give this unusual blend a try. In the tin, it has a beautiful mottled appearance, and a fruity note. I've used the same pipe each time I've tried it, and with the tin having been cracked for about 2 weeks, the pipe and the baccy have become fast friends. It's a rich smoke, with nice complexity of flavors. So far, this bowl is burning to a nice powdery ash. It does have the "Mac-bite" that some folk complain about, but as with any Mac B blend, if you pack carefully, light carefully and sip slowly, this blend becomes a friend. It's got a bit of a "vitamin N" kick to it, so I don't recommend it on an empty stomach. The first few bowls fresh out of the tin didn't burn well, fought to stay lit and left a wad of un-smoked dottle that wreaked. I'm happy, after some patience, to add this to my rotation, and would recommend it for folk who like unusual blends.
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BriarChild	11/02/2010	Medium	Mild	Mild to Medium	Tolerable to Strong
This is a nice enough tobacco, a solid two stars, but not much more. There is supposed to be Latakia in this tobacco, but I couldn't taste it for anything. The navy flake portion is nice and the topping is slightly detectable, however, if you had a bowl of anything else before this you will probably miss it. Nice tobacco, decent experience. I would have liked it more if I hadn't paid so much for it.
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shudd3r2th1nk	10/03/2010	Mild	Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant to Tolerable
been curing a bjarne elsinore with this tobacco for the past month or so, and let me inform you, this tobacco is truly delicious. 5 out of 4 stars for MacBaren Plumcake.
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VentiLator	08/26/2010	Mild to Medium	Medium	Medium	Pleasant
what a complexity! this surely is a good mixture. out of the pouch, it is a little too moist, give it some airing time. smokes quite well, needs a few relights + attention because it can burn hot. but using the right puffing technique, this one will burn both cool and dry, with a little to no tonguebite. the VA is dominant, giving it a nice, creamy sweet note. the burley is very noticeable. maybe i'm not experienced enough, but i cant taste the latakia. the spicyness doesn't seem to come from it. in my oppinion, they shouldn't add a casing to this one! without the rum casing, this one would provide an even cooler, tongue friendlier smoke! therefor i only give 3 stars, it is an interesting blend worth trying but then again, its not an everyday smoke + the casing doesnt make so much sense to me.
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rising2angel	07/31/2010	Mild to Medium	Medium	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
Latakia is hard to detect in this sweet light tobacco. I bought it in Madrid Airport and tried it the same night I came back home. When I opened the tin, I did not like the aroma of this tobacco, but when I smoked it I was more satisfied about it. The taste is nicely flavoured, and sincerely I found it very sweet and fresh. The mixture of variuos kinds of tobacco requires that you smoke this item more than a time to enjoy fully all the tastes. Surely I've clearly spot the gentle rum taste, and the sweet flavouring of this tobacco. I think I will end my tin of Plumcake enjoing all the tastes that it can donate to the smokers.
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yinyang	07/30/2010	Mild to Medium	Medium	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
This one here, Plumcake, has to be the most interesting tobacco I've tried yet. Beautiful to look at, with various colours and cuts, it had the most off-putting smell upon breaking the seal. I swore it was Copenhagen snuff stewed with Naptha and prunes. Yich! Luckily, a little air time diminished the smell, and obvious moisture. The taste was better, thankfully. Probably the most in-your-face complexity I've experienced to date. Whereas VA's you get subtle nuances to consider 'complexity', Plumcake's is right there: the Perique-y like Cavendish (quite enjoyable, btw), sweet VA (along with the rum?), and the heavier Burley body all make their contributions known, and felt. While I couldn't isolate the Latakia, the smoky, down to earth feel I walked away with might come from it. Speaking of walking away, each bowl I smoked was bite free, whether moist or dried out, so don't let the dreaded 'MacBite' scare you. As it stands, Plumcake would not make an ideal all dayer, IMO; however, as an occasional smoke, it is enjoyable. I have extra cellared, but I doubt I break down and open more too soon. Then again...
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Boston Bill	07/28/2010	Mild to Medium	Medium	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
I had read so much about this tobacco, and it seemed to me that it had a rabid following, so I had to try it. I was pleasantly surprised: this tobacco smokes well, and once I learned to pack it right- tighter than I usually do- and how to puff it -long, slow puffs instead of deep/short/strong ones- I found it burned well with no bite. I did have some relights, but its was fairly moist when I packed it. Flavors are very mild and pleasant- and they change. Sure, there's a rum note, but the best thing for me was that the flavor profile changed subtly through the bowl. When smoked slowly, this became a cool, extremely subtle, mild, enjoyable smoke. I ended up smoking three (3!) (iii!) bowls in a row, which is unheard of, for me. If you're looking for unadulterated tobacco flavor, this won't be your cup of tea. But if you're looking for a sweet, pleasantly flavored, pleasant smelling (room note) tobacco that will be satisfying, I can recommend this.
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Claudius Stradivarius	07/25/2010	Mild to Medium	Medium	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
Plumcake is something else... Stronger than most of the other blends, it combines some sort of casing with the taste of pure tobacco. I recently bought it a tin. I can't wait to try it and share my impressions. I am convinced it will prove delicious.
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Skando	07/25/2010	Mild to Medium	Mild	Mild to Medium	Tolerable
This is the second 100gr tin I bought since Plumcake was reintroduced in Italy some years ago. I wasn't able to end the first one a gave away to a friend. I clearly remember I found Plumcake far distant from the one I smoked in the end of the seventies. Not the same cut, not the same aroma, and nor the same body. The new one so mild and watery... and terribly bitey. Now, some years after I decided to give it a new chance. Discovering Plumcake is not bad at all, it simply was a matter of aging. The association of the Original Cavendish and the small percentage of Syrian Latakia donates a special peaty quality to it, just a feather touch, over a VaB base. Rhum is also applied with light hand offering the tipical Navy flavour. Unfortunately the meat is not there, and this meant to me to start playing with some additions. Plumcake requires good smoking technique to catch all the subtle aromas, and is definately not an all day smoke per se (I mean unless it's blended with some bodier tobacco). I will buy the remaining old tins.
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paulw	07/08/2010	Medium	Medium	Medium	Tolerable
This is a tobacco that I wanted to love, the touch of latakia was there It was a smokey sweet smoke I'll try again!
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the old man	06/22/2010	Medium to Strong	Medium	Medium to Full	Pleasant
I find this tobacco a bit on the strong side. It has a fruty tin aroma, and has a fine room note, and taist. I recomend that you give it a try.
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gladi8tor96	05/24/2010	Medium	Very Mild	Medium to Full	Tolerable
Ready to pack out of the tin for me... lit well and stayed that way. Very sweet, earthly flavors, with little visits time and again from the Latakia...giving the smoke a sometimes spicy note, but very briefly. It was quite a pleasant experience to smoke something that smelled so aromatic but also have the touch of flavors from an English drop in. The tobacco from the tin does smell like plum cake for sure, but the flavors aren't as strong on the tongue. Does need sipping, but I didn't notice much of any tongue bite. Not much of a N-kick... Great overall tobacco. It will be one in my cellar for sure... UPDATE This has become one of my favorites. Perfect for a sunny walk with the dogs... Love the after-smell!!
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JohnJelly	05/16/2010	Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium	Pleasant
I was wary of this tobacco. I am susceptible to tongue bite and avoid things that have a reputation to burn. I gave it a try though and have had great success and enjoyment with it. First, I am one of those people looking for a bit of nicotine from my tobacco so I tend to be a little impatient with my first bowl of the day so I don't smoke this first. I smoke this in the afternoon or evening but never directly from the tin. I have taken to pulling some out of the tin the day before and wrapping it in some paper towel and leaving it in my tobacco cabinet. It dries nicely but never crispy even with the long time period. Now that I've had success with this tasty tobacco, that some say burns, I am encouraged to try others with similar warnings and decide for myself.
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yankee	05/10/2010	Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium	Tolerable
a quality tobacco with fine taste. it has a small amount of latakia but still, you can feel it along with nice sweet taste of virgina and burley. slow smoking requierd becouse of the tongue bite, but it is not souch an issue. you will need just a little bit of experience with plumcake... recommended...
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