Mac Baren Amphora Original Blend

80's Douwe Egberts Amphora Regular (Brown or Natural). Package description "There is surely no better balance on earth than Amphora Regular. Composed of finest Burley, Kentuckey, Virginia and Oriental tobaccos, it achieves the rare distinction of being a smooth, slow burning smoke with a full taste yet deceptively light character. This is the result of two centuries if blending experience and our unique cavendish process. Mild, mellow and immensely enjoyable."

Package note of sharp sour vegetation, mild barbeque and spices. Tobacco is a broken flake of medium brown, light brown and dark brown. Moisture content is great. Burns moderate with few relights. The strength is mild to medium and nic is mild. Flavoring is listed with cocoa, but I could not detect any extra outside of a natural flavor. Taste is medium to full and moderately consistent, with notes of sour vegetation, spices, bitter wood, dry rich earth, mildly spicy, leather, mild cocoa, tart and tangy citrus, toasted bread, acidic, mild molasses, lemon grass, mild floral, a sour nutty background note, and a moderately peppery retro. Burley is leading with Oriental/Turkish, Virginia and Kentucky supporting. Cavendish is the process they put all the tobacco through. Room note is pleasant to tolerable, and aftertaste is great.

This is an updated review of Amphora Original Blend on Feb. 2023: I have smoked many pouches of AOB and currently I am smoking an aged blend from around 8 months (left to age in sealed pouch). This is a mildly aromatic, fairly complex blend with grassy, earthy, woody and sweet tones. It is mild-to-medium in terms of strength, but it gives a pretty much smoky and satisfying experience. You get the topping mildly, and you also experience a good quality tobacco. It stays lit and does not need any drying time, it also does not bite and is generally consistent in flavor throughout the bowl. It is clearly a 3.5-star blend that will round to 3 stars though I believe for many pipe smokers including aromatic lovers this may get to full 4 stars; within the aromatic class, it outperforms compared to many other blends and triggers your palate to experience all the complexity and creaminess, woodiness and sweetness of the tobacco without the topping to overwhelmingly take over the experience. It is an all-day smoke, and it burns cool but relatively fast. To date, I smoke predominantly English blends plus Va/Vapers throughout the day (plus a cigar here and there and some Marlboro red cigarettes), and for aromatics I can hardly smoke a bowl or two during the whole week. This one (AOB) is a blend from the aromatic class, perhaps one of very-very few aromatics, that I can repeat during the day.

Smoking now:

Pouch is pretty nice. Smells molasses chocolate and natural tobacco.

Big strands of tobacco packs ok if you get it all in there. The taste had a slight chocolate tone, but it’s very naturally burley and not a sweet aromatic chocolate. A natural sweet molasses woody nut flavor with cocoa. Retrohale is nice and you’ll notice the Virginias there. Slight spice from the Kentucky that may tingle your cheeks. Won’t bite, smoked right from the pouch. No bad after taste or tongue bite. Does benefit from some drying time.

A classic blend. Often recommended for beginners, but I actually think you need to acquire some smoking skills before you can fully appreciate it.

It's one of my favorite tobaccos, a great all-day smoke made from a nice blend.

One of the first tobaccos I tried. Great mild smoke, with a slight chocolate flavouring. It's a great all day tobacco that won't disappoint but won't blow you away either. Good to have around when you're in the mood.

A good tobacco for someone looking for a lightly flavoured tobacco. It has a nice chocolate and walnut flavour that is rather discreet. For the rest, it tastes like pure tobacco. Original Blend is great for an all day smoke for anyone that wants a no nonsense tobacco.

TO JONNYNAILS: AN EQUIVALENT OF GITANES IN PIPE TOBACCOS ARE SEMOIS TOBACCOS (BELGIUM) AND THE "GRIS CUBES" AVAILABLE IN FRANCE.

Surprised this old standard hasn't had a review already ... maybe we just take it for granted. Back in my sweet-lovin' younger days, I used to buy Amphora Green, or Special Black for preference. Haven't tried the Original in decades, but I was in a drugstore with a selection of about 2 tobaccos ... well, you know how it goes....

A pleasant surprise. In the package the scent was mild & agreeable, not too much of the characteristic Amphora flavour, with a subtle topnote that reminded me of new-mown grass (mint??), giving it a fresh smell. I could smell the Virginia, but according to the manufacturer, Burley predominates (chocolatey???) - which suits my taste. I couldn't detect a chocolaty taste, but then straight air-cured Burley doesn't taste chocolaty to me either. A little dry, but then it had probably been on the shelf for 2 years.

Enjoyable smoke, stronger than I remember other Amphora blends being. That may have been partly because it was dry & fast-burning. Good even burn to the bottom, almost no gummy dottle left. Easy on the tongue, typical of a good Cavendish. Room note pleasant, primarily straight tobacco, not heavily scented.

Technically Cavendish can be completely unflavoured (although I've never found one that is); this comes fairly close. More for the experienced smoker than the beginner, I think. I would buy it again, although I'll probably use what's left for some home blending.

This, along with Full Aroma, is the best version of Amphora. It is cheap and easily found, so you don't have to search far and wide to find this (at least here, in Romania). The cut is almost like the Full Aroma, and the lenght of the tobacco makes it a little hard to fill a pipe, but not too hard. I couldn't detect any aroma in it, so I will put it more in the category of natural tobacco, with no chemicals in it. It isn't strong, so it is an excellent choice for beginners. But be warned, you need a lot of patience to smoke this one to the bottom, especially if you have a large bowl pipe. For me, it took one and a half hour to smoke it. It doesn't bite the tongue and it burns very dry, even though the tobacco is a little wet in the pouch. The room smell it is almost identical to Full Aroma. It is a good tobacco and recommended for every smoker. You can try this and I guarantee that it is not a waste of money.