Yet despite all my waffle about the beauty of its straight forwardness, I don’t think this one will make my regular rotation. I do like a little mystery in my blends. But it defiantly one I’ll indulge in from time to time. So all in all this is a fine Va blend which lends its self beautifully to long summer evenings puffing away in blissful contemplation. One of Mac Baren’s finer blends.

A word of warning; quick puffing will destroy the flavour and leave tour mouth tasting of hot ash. Take it a little slower and you’ll be rewarded.

Very hard and frustrating to light. Some instances of tongue bite, but not so bad considering it is Virginia. Had only a mere couple of decent puffs, and one really good puff that I consider the pinnacle of the experience. This stuff is better off in a hookah, not a good pipe. It keeps going out, and then when it does stay lit I only get a couple of decent puffs, but in these puffs there is tremendous good taste and flavour. I can sense the immense potential of the grand and perfectly harvested Virginias, but Mac Baren ridiculously injected way too much of this sickly nauseating cheap malted barley glucose syrup into the Virginias, thus destroying everything into useless ruin. The couple of decent puffs I did have were very delicious, clean, mild, and smooth, with this mellow sweet delicious vanilla like fresh sweetbread/fine candy flavor, but most importantly the taste and magnificent flavours of the prized Virginias which were clean, well focused, and centralized with that classic premium Virginia tobacco taste that can best be described as golden, honey sweet, whole grainy, and mellow grassy.

The smoke needed to be thicker bodied though, but that seemed to be compensated for by this ever increasing complexity and strength that was emanating from the great potential of the premium Virginias. Then again, the embers suddenly whimper into mere smoke, I have to blow through the beautiful white ash just to heat the freakin blend, and I get hot ash all over and into my face. Shame on you Mac Baren !!! I need to be enjoying myself smoking, not angrily maintaining and baby sitting in insult. Whatever is left I have to sip on because this distinctive tingly super soursweet experince takes over.

No more tobacco taste, nothing, Garbage. All that is left is tongue bite, heat, annoying tongue tingle, cheap vinegar and cheap malted glucose syrup being slowly dumped into my mouth, and me salivating like a freakin dog. Shame on you Mac Baren. I have never had this happen to me in all my years pipe smoking. $20 for a tin, and all I get is one mere "soso" puff, and a day full of rage and anger and nausea. Really, I was sick in my stomach and head for hours. I almost broke my pipe, and threw the tin through a window. Actually I hammered out the remaining Mac Baren garbage in the weakly lit half bowl with my own pipe on a table.

Long, thick partially rubbed-out flakes, golden coloured.

It was abeauty to contemplate and fill my nostrils with cereal like pouch aroma.

Unfortunately, any type of taste would quickly disappear and any hint of nicotine was inexistant.

Most MacBaren tobaccos are really suited for beginners more than anything else.

Sighs...

This tobacco is one of my go-to smokes when I want something good, mild, and inoffensive. Its a great everyday smoke, but might grow a little too mild for some over the long haul. On the other hand, if you want to see what a good Virginia is really like, this is an excellent one to start with.

I usually smoke 3 different bowls in a row: I start out with something mild, then step up to medium (a virginia or a Vanilla-flavored?), then end with something stronger (usually MB Mixture), once my palate is more involved. MB Virginia No. 1 is sometimes the first thing I smoke.

I find Virginia No.1 to be mellow, soft, but to burn hot and have a bit of a bite to it. It smoke pretty well, but I don't seem to get too much of a nicotine "high" from it the way I might from stronger blends, like Mac Baren HH Vintage Latakia.

This is a very good daily smoke, and a great place for people learning about Virginias, or even tobacco in general, to start.

As posted by many, you have to have good smoking technique to really benifit from MacBaren's blends. If you "sip" or smoke slowly, and try exhailing the smoke through your nose, the better MacBaren's blends can offer a rather delightful smoke!

i can understand why and how some people have a problem with getting bit by these blends, but i assure you, if you are out on a calm and cool summer night after dark on your porch or deck with a clear head - keep your watch and your cell phone inside - keep all your focus on smoking it patiently and evenly, let the flavors develop and come to you, and you will be rewarded and satisfied.

Update: the secret to this blend, to me, is age, age, and more age. When I first tried this it burned the hell out of me so I put it away with a " Uh, I'm not gonna do that." a year later I tried it again and was really impressed. Maybe I learned to smoke better, but I think the tobacco aged so well that the flavor came out. I'm putting a couple tins away.

Yes, I would have to say that if your first impression of this tobacco is that its too hot and too tasteless, give it a try later down the road. Maybe not the best Virginia for a first try but it is a nice sweetly mild tobacco.

I smoke this all day, everyday and can hardly believe I once thought this tobacco burned and bit.

A wise man (on Youtube no less) once said pipe smoking turns your tongue to leather and that patient smoking comes whether you want it to or not. Cheers!

Not to put too fine a point on it, but in retrospect, this blend almost ended my pipe smoking career before it truly began. I had a lot of trouble with tongue bite in the early months, and mostly chalked this up to par for the course, plus later decided that my smoking a new briar was part of the problem, and also that my smoking technique was bad.

Well, here it is two years later, I'm not a great pipe smoker but a lot further down the road than I was, and have smoked two bowls of this recently, one more or less full bowl in a pipe I don't know well, and a small amount of a bowl this morning in one of my best smokers.

The smoke is acrid, hot, and bitey, right off the bat, and doesn't settle down within the first quarter bowl or so.

There are some lovely Virginias out there, this isn't one of them. This combination of what appears to be immature bright Virginias plus a bit of sweet topping is lethal to my tongue.

I cringe to look at the bag, which once contained one and a half ounces, and realize that there is probably less than a half ounce left... I must have smoked ten or fifteen bowls in the first three to six months of my pipe smoking, and I recall the ongoing prolonged fight against tongue bite that I dealt with then.

If you have a friend starting with the pipe, get them a really neutral OTC burley (Prince Albert, Carter Hall) or a cool smoking English blend... keep them far far away from MacBaren products, especially this particular blend.

I suspect that someone with expert smoking technique and a willingness to deal with some bite, or different body chemistry, might feel differently about this blend, but with excellent matured VA from McClelland and lovely tobacco like Red Ribbon and Union Square, I see no point in fooling around with this one.

Inexpensive for a reason!

Sure, it's not the most groundbreaking Virginia out there, and it may be a bit harsh if pushed too hard. It's not completely natural, but the flavoring (while evident) does enhance the experience and complement the tobacco flavour quite well.

Actually it's not a sticky aromatic: it tends to dry rather fast in the tin, crumbling to fine dust. But it packs well, it's easy to smoke and has a rich taste.

Overall, similar to other Mac Baren blends... but among the best ones of them.

An elegant tin, good moisture level and it packs and lights good. Burns completely and effortless, leaving a clean, whitish grey ash. You need to smoke it slow because it gets hot and you think you loose the pleasure. In fact it offers some less pleasure even if you are smoking it slowly. It has a somehow honey sweet taste far away to be a natural sweet Virginia with full tobacco taste. I even checked several times if the pipe is lit! Hopefuly I have good eyes enough to see the smoke! A nice cloud of pipe smoke without the enough taste of true tobacco.

Instead of buying this tin put some more money and buy a true, full taste, pure Virginia blend!

I enjoyed the aroma, upon first opening the tin. This was my first trial of ready rubbed tobacco, also.

Heeding the advice of many of the reviewers, I found that gently "sipping" my pipe gave me wonderful taste. A few times I puffed too hard and found myself with a mouthfull of unpleasant and harsh smoke. But I've found that I enjoy this tobacco, when I'm not rushed and I can take my time with it.