Mac Baren Capstan Original Navy Cut

I'd had this in the cellar for a while. I was debating on what tin to open when this blue tin started calling me.

I do like a good Virginia, and that's exactly what this is. It isn't going to knock your socks off, but if you fancy a Virginia this is going to tick every box.

Looks great in the tin, darker side of blond, close to red. Nice uniform flakes with a few sugar crystal hiding. Almost perfect moisture content, on first opening smokes fine, but after a week or so in the tin, just a little drier, is perfect for me. Rubs out quickly without any hassle, and packs very well.

It can take a little lighting, but burns well once lit. I've smoked the exclusively for the last five days, and only today did I divulge in some Plum pudding special reserve which had been calling me. I've smoked it in around half a dozen or so pipes and it performs well in all of them, with surprising differences, but always very enjoyable.

This is indeed a very fine tobacco worthy of high recommendation, but I can only give it 3 out of 4 as for me there are some slightly better blends, and I don't believe this tobacco warrants the rather high price. I'd like to buy ten or so tins of this for the cellar, as I can imagine it will age beautifully, but at the price there are others, such as Germains that I would rather spend my cash on.

It doesn't bother me that old, reputable labels are resurrected for a modern market. It doesn't bother me because it doesn't fool me.

Capstan is absolute rubbish. Hardly tobacco at all. It leaves me dissatisfied in every way.

Don't by Capstan. Buy cheap Greek cigarettes instead.

When I first lit up a bowl of Capstan, I knew that I was spellbound by this flake. The Virginias are grassy with a little sweetness and some hints of figs when smoked with a leisurely cadence. The smoke has some crisp edges that I find thoroughly enticing. There is no bite—just pure bliss.

I feel like Capstan Original Navy Cut is a benchmark flake for exploring other Straight Virginias. Capstan falls in the medium range in terms of complexity and smokes great right out of the tin without any moisture problems. If you desire a slightly stronger smoke with more nuances, check out Samual Gawaith Full Virginia Flake. If you want more citrus notes, look at Mac Baren's HH Pure Virginia. If you find yourself wanting more earthy and dark fruit flavors, check out Wessex Campaign Dark Flake or Astely's Dark Virginia Flake. If you want a milder Virginia flake, find some Hamborger Veermaster.

This stuff really grew on me. Have to admit I wasn't crazy about it at first. Perhaps I needed to get used to Virginia based blends. I had been exploring mostly burley blends prior to trying Capstan Blue. Now for me it is one of those few tobaccos that both tastes and smells wonderful. It is funny how many blends give you taste or aroma, but not both. Nice natural tobacco taste and aroma. If there is a topping, it is quite subdued. Personally I find that many Virginia based blends bite me, but Capstan (both blue and gold) are well behaved. The taste is a citrus, hay, little spice, sometimes sweet (honey?) tobacco goodness that I've grown to really like. It has a pleasant aftertaste, and a room note I think is very nice in a non-aromatic kind of way. Very pleasant to the bottom of the bowl. Sipping seems to bring out more of the sweetness. Nothing overly complexed here, just a really well done Virginia. Recommended for the Virginia novice or veteran. Can be an all day if you like Virginia blends. Not quite an all day for me, but I do enjoy it whenever I indulge.

I hate to sound campy but this is a nice clean, honest tobacco. This is pure VA goodness and nothing more (that is a good thing) and definitely nothing less.

The tin note is bright, lemony Virginia with some light grass notes. Sweet and full of pure tobacco goodness. The flavor is typical VA for me: toasted bread and sweet fruity undertones (Plum or fig comes to mind). A very consistent smoke. As the bowl builds the toasted flavors become more prominent and there is a molasses like sweetness that comes on midway through the end of the bowl. I think I give this plug in most of my VA reviews but I hope to share the experience with others that have not tried it. Virginia tobacco's are best enjoyed in a meerschaum pipe in my humble opinion. A meer cools and dries the smoke and delivers a super pure tobacco flavor. This is another that I enjoy most in my meerschaum pipes.

As I'm sitting here on my couch, sipping red French wine and enjoying my pipe, I understand why this classic Virginia flake is still so popular. It provides a good balance between earthiness and sweetness. A straightforward, natural-tasting tobacco with a nice to tolerable room note. Capstan Original can't reach up to champions like Dunhill Flake, but it could play in the same league, so to speak. Less sweet than Orlik GS, but as good.

This was my first ever Straight Virginia blend and it made me really enjoy Virginias. Love the fig smell coming from the tin. I really enjoyed the sweetness of the smoke and the delicate character of the virginia. Simple, but tasty. Was great on a hot summer day. On one occasion, for some reason, the nicotine hit me pretty hard. But that only happend once. I learned quick to smoke slower 😉

Being Tolkiens go-to smoke, one has to assume he had it in mind when describing his beloved characters puffing away on their own pipes. I would describe this much as I wold describe a Hobbit- A little sweet, very simple, stout, dependable.

The tin note is nice. Slightly fermented with that molasses and grass aroma. Smells darker than it tastes.

A varied spectrum of hay and grass and that whisper of brown sugar. This has only gotten better over the past couple months after the tin had been opened. The more it dries to the perfect moisture content, the more grassy and earthy notes I get and the more the molasses morphs first to brown sugar and then nearly to refined white sugar.

Smokes well with little lighting (when dried a bit) and no gurgle. As far as bite, I felt a little spice on the tongue when I got too fast with it, but I never experienced tongue bite.

I really enjoy this blend and will certainly keep a tin on hand always. As for the rating, I am torn. Though it is a tin of perfect VA tobacco, it is also 40-50% more expensive than a tin of many competing blends. I feel docking it a star is only fair.

EDIT, OCTOBER 2018:

This lovely little bastard still bites me without any apparent reason. It's not even a proper bite of the kind I get if I puff too hard, but an increasing and unpleasant tingling that develops into outright stinging at the back of my tongue. The tingling starts making itself noticed around 5 min into the bowl and increases from there. Some time after the half-way mark the stinging subsides to a mere tingle again, and that's also when the really nice and juicy and bready notes of the blend rise to an amazing intensity. I absolutely love the blend when I've reached that point. It is so good, that it's worth to go through the initial bite. However, I can't give the CONC more than two stars as this flake really stands out as a notorious biter for me. I will buy a tin to cellar for a few years, just to see if that case that improves things, but I don't think I will ever buy this again. There are plenty of other VAs to love!

Taste: Five stars; The tongue bite situation: One star. Over all: Two stars.

EDIT, JANUARY 2018:

I don't know how I managed to smoke this tobacco as a pipe newbie without getting my tongue bitten off. Perhaps I did feel a lot of bite, but wrote it off as a result of my undeveloped smoking technique.

Anyway, I put CONC aside for a long while and have only recently returned to it. The flakes are now shiny with sugar crystals and the smell from the jar is divine.

However, having finished all that was left of it (which was most of the 50 g tin I originally bought), I have to say that this is an unusually bity tobacco! The taste is fantastic, but I very very rarely get to enjoy it, because the whole experience usually feels like eating nettles. And the retrohales feel like snorting freshly opened Coca Cola.

I know by now that I am probably a bit bite sensitive, and I know that I probably still can improve my smoking technique, especially with some Virginias. But I also know that I over the last year have learnt to master and enjoy tobaccos that used to fry my tongue like habaneros -- including other Virginias. But CONC remains impossible to tame, regardless of how I rub it, regardless of how I fold and stuff it, regardless of what pipe I use, and regardless of how slowly and carefully I sip it.

Perhaps is it a Mac Baren thing? I've heard people complain about their tobaccos being bity. The only other Mac Baren tobacco I have tried is their Navy Flake, and that is another tobacco that tends to bite me (although not as much as CONC).

Anyway, if you can smoke this without getting bitten, enjoy! I do really love the taste of it. For my own part, I'll probably steer clear of this one for a while. Reduced to two stars from the original three.

ORIGINAL REVIEW, MAY 2017:

After having smoked this as my very first straight Virginia, I strongly recommend others who want to try their first straight VA to start here. I must say I like this.

The tin note has very obvious dark fruit and fig aromas, as well as hay. There also seems to be some higher-note freshness, as if the hay smell in it is of a fresher and more spicy kind, rather than deep and moist.

The smoke tastes like... Tobacco, nothing more, nothing less. But it has quite a bit of natural round sweetness and the mentioned tin notes come and go also in the smoke. But very subtle and not very exciting, but a satisfying balance.

I had a few relights, but I attribute that to me being a novice pipe smoker. Ok moisture level out of the tin, but closer to moist than to dry.

The nic-hit is moderate, but will perhaps seem mild to a more seasoned smoker.