Mac Baren Amphora Rich Aroma

Amphora is probably the most widely commercialized pipe tobacco in Italy. If a tobacconist has to choose one brand of pipe tobacco to sell, it is probably going to be amphora, either full or rich aroma. They owe their popularity to good marketing policy, and because, as it seems, it is good value for money tobacco.

Opening the pouch, one finds mostly medium-to-light brown tobacco, quite dry and coarse cut, it looks more like ready rubbed or broken flake than ribbon. The smell from the pouch is not particularly pleasant, they added an an artificial, lightly sour sweetener, it vaguely resembles fruit, definitely not hazelnut like they say. The smoke is medium bodied, nice tasting, round, nutty, not too hot. The tobacco burns relatively well, although I had to relight a few times (maybe it's me). In the second half of the bowl I had some gurgles. No bite (but I smoked with an active charcoal filter). The room note is nothing to write home about but I had no complaints.

All in all, this is a more than honest pouch tobacco, good value for money, to be smoked on its own or mixed with other blends. IMO the rating should be somewhere in between 2.5 and 3, so I'm giving it two stars to re-balance the rating a bit.

PS The pouch says it is made under licence from Van Nelle, a Dutch RYO tobacco manifacturer...

TIP: it mixes very well with some crumbled Toscano cigar!

Tobacco flavor still shines through, topping adds some dark, nutty sweetness as an extension that doesn't feel unnatural. A hint of spiciness on the retrohale. There's a bitterness that increases throughout the bowl. Unpleasant aftertaste in the mouth. In my opinion fuller, rounder and more balanced than its brother Amphora Full. One of the better OTC aromatics if you don't mind the bitter taste.

I tried several packing methods, variable the dryness, tried it on briar and cob pipes. I even smoked it very slowly but sadly something in this blend doesn't agree with my tongue. I got slight tongue bite from the charring light already. The nutty and choco taste is there but my tongue all sore. I guess this wasn't for me. Maybe i could try to use it as a mixing.

Package note of nuts, wood and chocolate. The mostly dark brown tobacco is ribbon cut, and a little on the dry side. no prep needed. Burns moderately with few relights. The strength is mild to medium and nic is mild. Flavoring is very mild, only coming through every now and again. Taste is mild to medium and consistent, with complex notes of rich earth, dry woody, nutty, mild herbal spice, mildly floral, mild sweet grass, very mild lemon, a mild cocoa background note, and has a mildly peppery retro. Burley is leading with Virginias and Orientals supporting, flavoring supports inconsistently. Room note is very pleasant, and aftertaste is great.

In brief: dry and slightly floral/fruity, not unpleasant but not my favourite. I have tried it once, perhaps it was slightly dried since the jar was stored since a while (few months). It is light and mildly earthy. The nicotine content does not seem to be particularly strong. Overall I admit I did not fall in love with it, perhaps one additional reason is that I found the smoke tastes more like a cigarette tobacco than a pipe tobacco.

This blend seemed to be a compromise between the red label full aroma and the brown label regular blends. As a result, it was sort of a "neither fish nor fowl" type of baccy. However, it was a satifisfying smoke and if it were still available in the U.S. I would stock up on it.

The picture of the pouch is not the right one.

The pouch is exactly the same as the red one, but dark green.

I did not enjoy this offering. There was a harshness to it and the casing was noy exactly an enjoyable smell...

Back in the D&E era, I smoked many pouches and bulk cans of this blend and it was my preference among their offered colors. However, that was before my exposure to true flakes as VAs and VApers that I presently prefer and also before Imperial took over and stopped sales in the USA. That really forced me to explore other options and broaden my experiments with other blends. Not a good enough tobacco to go thru the hassle and expense of obtaining from overseas.

Another blend licensed by Van Nelle of Holland.

A nice try but falls short of the red pouch Full Aroma. I can't put my finger on how to describe the aroma in the pouch but it does smell refreshing.

Predominantly partially rubbed-out burley with specs of what appears to be oriental, it is sufficiently moist in the pouch but barely so. Once removed from the pouch to a jar suffice it to say that a humi-disc would be in order.

Since this is long and coarse packing a bowl can be tricky. I first tried this as-is in a small bowl meer-lined Butz Choquin....big mistake! Though it lights easily and stays lit, burns a bit hot but to the bottom, the smoke quickly hits the tongue with a biting, acidic punch. This is better rubbed-out some more and packed in a larger bowl...preferably a pipe with filter which reduces that nasty bite somewhat.

I could not taste any hazelnut........until I took a sip of coffee, and aaaahhh....the hazelnut comes to the surface of the palate.

Rich Aroma fails to describe the room note which seems to me to be simply an aroma of tobacco smoke.....not annoying but certainly not what I would call a rich aroma.

After shredding a bowl-full of this by hand and loading my Brigham Algonquin Volcano, it was a better smoke, but certainly not an all-day one.

I have found that mixing this with Original blend 50/50 makes for an enjoyable relaxing, unhurried smoke.

I can only give this 2 stars. Beginners should avoid this. Go for the red pouch Full Aroma or the Original Blend. Skip this unless you plan to mix it with something to tame that burley. Personally, I'll keep the rest and do some experimentation with custom blending this stuff until I come up with something I could give more praise.......on its own, its not worth the $$$.