Mac Baren Amphora Full Aroma

The toppings have some flowery floralness as well as a deep fruitiness that includes orange and raspberry, the latter being more prominent. There's a little grass, earth, wood, tart and tangy citrus and tangy dark fruit from the Virginias, which are the main component, though the burley sometimes over take them. The burley is earthy, woody and nutty with a little cocoa and molasses, though the toppings sublimate the last two characteristics of the burley. The Kentucky is woody, little smoky, nutty, and earthy in a minor role. The Orientals are also background players, offering a hint of spice, floral, herbs, vegetation, earth, and wood. The strength and taste falls just shy of the medium mark. The strength is in the center of mild to medium, while the taste is a step shy of medium. The nic-hit is a couple of steps past the mild mark. The tobacco is ribbon cut with a little broken flake in the mix. It won’t bite or get harsh even when pushed. Fresh or dried, it burns at a reasonable rate to the finish. Requires an average number of relights, and leaves little moisture in the bowl. The lightly lingering after taste and room notes are very pleasant. An all day smoke with a very cool, clean, smooth, and slight creamy, floral, mostly consistent, deep flavors. Can be an all day smoke. The flower topping diminishes a little, while the fruit toppings and tobaccos become a little more obvious when dried. Your personal preference will dictate your preparation.

They call it "full aroma" and indeed it is. Some mistake "full" for being strong. This isn't. It's full of flavor, but not strong in the sense that experienced pipe smokers would classify it as a "strong" smoke. However, the room note is full, and maybe that's what they mean by the description. Goes well with anything you drink and anything you do.

-JimInks

Amphora Full Aroma is one of the most mistaken blends. It is no aromatic! Maybe a hint of something is added . when I lighi a bowl of it, I taste at first a cigarrish note which dissapear while smokin the first third. From this point I taste almost pure tobacco with a strengh I not expected. I like it. It is a smooth and honest mixture and even a little complex

This was my primary smoke for years when Amphora Red was on sale in every drugstore and grocery. They had coupons back in the day you could send in and get Amphora pipes as well. I have two in inventory I got that way back in the late 70's.

I am posting this from memory since I have not seen Amphora Red for years. This was a tobacco flavored smoke that had a slightly sweet smell in the room. It was not what most people would describe as an aromatic.

My wife liked it. If this were readily available, I would probably be smoking it still and might not have found pipesandcigars.com

I see there is a bulk copy out there.

Edit 11/18/13 I got some Amphora Red from a friend, and it is the 3-star rating I remembered. It was a familiar smoke and I enjoyed it a lot. Don't waste your time with the bulk copy. I bought some and gave it away. It was really bad (to my palate) and seemed to have a butterscotch topping.

Edit 2017 I suspect what I got was the wrong thing when I initially tried the match, and I have since tried samples of the match again. They got the topping in the ballpark, but the cut and smoking experience are different enough to change it from a 3 to a 2.5.

Amphora Full (Aroma) - an exceptional OTC blend.

Upon opening the pouch a gentle sweetness fills your nose, along with notes of chocolate, fruits like oranges, peaches and lemon. Accompanied by a sour-sweetish, almost woody (Orientals), as well as a citrusy note (Virginias). The Burley & Kentucky promote the chocolaty flavouring very well, so that the chocolaty note is the most noticeable to my nose.

The mixture of fine ribbons & broken flake pieces doesn't only look stimulating, but is also easy to pack and light.

On first light I get a multi-layered flavour profile. At first I perceive, deep and sweet nutty notes, before the mild citrusy Virginias and the sweet-sour Orientals come into play. The nutty flavour is consistent and supported by a chocolate/cocoa note. The flavour profile expands as I get along with the bowl. A gentle fruitiness kicks in and delivers flavours reminding of oranges, tangerines and maybe peaches. Along with a unobtrusive flowery note lurking in the back, that rounds off the taste even more.

Even tho the tobacco delivers a range of different flavours it's never too much, or obtrusive and certainly not artificial. All flavours come along pretty natural and melt into a melange that flatters the palate in a uncomparable way. A gentle spice is always present, which I find neccesary to keep this tobacco from being too sweet. There's perfect harmony and balance between sweetish, chocolaty and floral notes and the natural tobacco which delivers nutty, woody a tad smoky and just the right amount of spice.

To me - this is a masterpiece of tobacco craftsmanship! They have found the right balance. Exciting flavourings that not only match well to the tobacco, but also expand the flavour profile of the natural tobacco taste in a exceptional way.

No doubts left: 3-stars from me for a perfectly blended pipe tobacco, that's not only easy and steadily available, but also full of taste & quality an therefore an enrichment for any tobacco bar. For sure what's considered a "All-Day-Smoke" and I'd consider this a "semic aromatic", as the flavourings are unobtrusive and marry well with the tobacco. The "Original" aka Brown is better, so only 3-stars!

This tobacco is simpley nice... There is so much good smoke of it, room note is nice, smokes beautifuly. When it is in my new pipe it is very nice smoking, cool and perfect. I guess I will stay to this one, for a couple of months...

Gives me more good thinking: I feel like I have a pleasant time for writing some novel, or maybe just a short story. It give's me impressions!

Larsen's "Master's Blend" is very similiar with Amphora, but Larsen is too much bite taking, this ones take it easy; nice and cool

One of the first blends i ever tried and one of the very few imported into Australia. Smokes well and tastes great . Burns down to a fine white ash in any pipe i have smoked it in. I very seldom smoke it now as i can purchase tobaccos online from OS. In saying that its nice to try some every so often. A 50g tin retails here for $45 hence the online shopping.

it's mentioned several times but I'd like to repeat anyway, this blend consists of burley, virginia, oriental and kentucky (burley and kentucky being dominant) so you get almost cigarette-like flavor from this blend. no surprise there since it's produced by imperial tobacco. it's definetely not an A class blend for the experienced smoker but it's not as bad as other drugstore offerings, infact it's quite above drugstore line (or "lane" I should say?) it's absolutely an "in between" blend. I used to smoke this a lot and still keeping a pouch or two for emergency (though turkiye is one of the biggest tobacco producers --ranking number two-- we don't have as many alternatives as one would imagine) Less than half the price of superior blends but much better in quality and taste compared to those drugstore blends.

Being ultra sensitive with my gums/tongue never got tongue bite (you should -literally- be smoking like a chimney to get one) easy to keep lit and tastes best smoked with a meerschaum pipe. Probably you won't get those oranges, raspberries or floral notes the pouch promises at first or second smoke but through the end of your first pouch you'll decide not to buy any other drugstore blend ever again.

If there was a pipe smoking course A to Z, then amphora full aroma would be my choice to start with. I was lucky to start with this.

PS. compared to superior blends it deserves 2 out of 4 but as I said I see it somewhere in between and price/performance ratio led me towards 3 out of 4. Simply; recommended to beginners.

A milder smoke with plenty of flavor and even a bit of complexity. The ribbons are evenly cut and if anything Amphora Full is more of a ready-rubbed blend than it is a ribbon cut. The pouch note is lightly sweet, a bit spicy but not at all cloying.

The bulk of the flavor is provided by the Virginias, which are on the brighter side of the spectrum, and the added fragrances which lend hints of honey, clove and a faint berry high note to the finish. The Kentucky is what I enjoy most about Amphora Full. It sits deftly in the background but gives the flavor some much needed pep as well as a subtle smoky essence.

Like other quality Danish aromatics, I taste the tobacco first with this one. The flavorings are present but only come through in the most delicate of ways. This tobacco arrives ready to smoke and requires little to no dry time. It burns evenly but can get hot and bite if smoked fast. Still, one of Mac Baren's better aromatics.

The aroma from the pouch is nice, it smells like a mélange of tobacco and fruit-liqueur filled chocolate.

For an ‘aromatic’ - actually Amphora Full Aroma is more of a crossover blend than a full blown aromatic - it is on the dry side, and it takes to fire and burns well - if a little hot - without any drying time but it still produces some moisture in the pipe. If dried for a few minutes, it smokes drier without losing any flavour. Either way it is easy to smoke the whole bowl without leaving any dottle, just a fine grey ash. And I also did not experience any tongue bite. Taste-wise it is very tasteful with a good complexity and decent sweetness. The aromatization is very congruent with the tobacco taste, a little bit of chocolate with a note of alcohol and berry fruit. I cannot discern the different tobaccos but the overall taste is nutty and I think I can taste Orientals the Orientals as well. Towards the end it gets a little bit ashy, but only a little bit.

Amphora Full Aroma is an excellent OTC blend, one of the best I’ve tried. It merits a full three-stars.