Mac Baren Capstan Original Navy Cut

This is a somewhat darker fuller flake than the Capstan Yellow that I tried last week. Still.... seems extremely mild and one dimensional, though not unpleasant.

I found this one very boring compared to capstan gold, smell from tin is good. The taste and smell when smoking is however more towards the cigarette departement, room note is no good, non smokers think it does smell like cigarettes. I get a kind of bitter, acrid sensation in the bowl, escpecially towards the end, what should be nice flavourful virginias is unfortunatly drowned by this bitterness.

Would not say its terrible, its just not any good for me.

My goodness, what a tin note. Something about this blend in the tin made my mouth drool. Fantastic. Very fruity....almost identical to apricots. Perfect moisture level. Easy to light and smoke, burning to the bottom right out of a newly-opened tin. And that is saying something because I am terrible at packing a pipe.

The flavor is good. Solid Virginia. Deep and dark, although not as dark and strong as Old Dark Fired. However, it was unmistakably in the same vein. Bold flavor, with no unpleasant aftertaste. I didnt notice a nicotine presence, although I am sure a bigger bowl or more than one bowl would have made it surface. No tongue bite even after puffing like a train.

I am beginning to like flakes more and more and this one is a keeper. I wouldnt consider this a top tier grab for me, but definitely worth many bowls. Recommended.

Oh, and my wife liked the room note. So that is REALLY saying something.

Yeah I mean, you can't expect me not to buy a tin after discovering that this was Tolkien's favorite blend. If a gentleman and a scholar with an extraordinary taste in things such as Mr. J.R.R. loved this, it means I must love this too.

Well, I like this.

I get it: the zesty, mildly acidic taste. The freshness. It's a nice tobacco that can be easily smoked all day, but I'm probably still in the equivalent of a rebellious teenager phase for pipe smokers: I need stuff that punches my tastebuds and nose. I love English blends and Aromatics alike, so a tobacco like this feels too mild for me to feel the call of the tin. But, as a wise man once wrote...

The Road goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the Road has gone, and I must follow, if I can, pursuing it with eager feet, until it joins some larger way where many paths and errands meet. And whither then? I cannot say.

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.

I have been a pipesmoker since the biginning of the sixties. Since then I have tried more then 30 difrent brands of tobacco and have came to the folloving resolt.

Capstan medium is not medium it is more mild then medium. In the good old days when it vas medium made by Inperial Tobacco Co in Liverpol in good ol England, it was a blessin. Today when made in Danmark it´s more tastless (soft) then before. I cant undersand why Inperial Tobacco accepts the change of this old and famos brand. My Regrets ThomK in Sweden.

I decided to give Capstan a last chance and packed it into a clay, which I am smoking right now. First off, let me say, that the presentation and quality of the tobacco itself is quite good. The flake crumbles down nicely to consistent strips, packing is easy and there is nothing to be wished concerning burning characteristics.

What turns me off is the topping. To me, the tin smell is not very appetizing. While burning, the smoke carries a very distinctive falvour which reminds me of orange peel. Slightly sweet, slightly bitter. The taste will stay in the bowl for some time. If you like it, go for it. I didn't get the hang of it.

A good, not spectacular, traditional British flake. No awkward flavorings like the ones found in St. Bruno, rather a nice Virginia taste from the start to the bottom. Good balance of sweet and sour, fruity taste: I might even be tempted to suggest the presence of a bit of perique and burley, but it might just be the particular kind of Virginia to give such impressions. Think of a McClelland tobacco like #22 but without the ketchup (and with some vague hints of Limerick), and you might have an idea. The flakes are very elastic and can be folded easily to pack the bowl: I feel, though, that the humidity level in a freshly opened tin is a bit too high. This results in a higher number of relights compared to other products like Full Virginia Flake, some wetness and some tonguebite. Nothing that can't be solved by some exposure to air of the flakes for drying before smoking. Anyway, the decent taste of the tobacco (though some off-notes can be detected once in a while, and it can be weak tasting compared to McClelland virginias) and the attractive price compared to similar products in Italy can be good reasons to cellar a few tins: beware that I tried the original light blue British tin, and that the new version made in Denmark is reported to be of inferior quality. One MORE reason to cellar some of the old while it still is in stock...

It was my first experience with a “flake” (it is not a real flake, or rather it’s the simplest flake around, so easy to rub and pack). I feel somehow attached to this tobacco, for the tin -so old style- for the perfect shapes in the tin, for the straightness and honesty of the smell and of the smoke to come. The smoke is easy, quite full but with little/no evolution. The taste will be a good bridge for the cigarette smokers who are passing over to the pipe. Nothing to store in my cellar, but something to buy once in a while.