Mac Baren HH Rustica

Received a generous sample of this one that lasted for five bowls and a half cob so that I could try different bowl sizes and moisture levels. Best for smoking it in my opinion is rubbed, dried out at least a few hours and in a larger sized bowl.

At opening it smelled really decent and sour like dark bread loaf. Very moist as said but nicely pressed as one is used from Mac Baren flakes. Stuffs well when rubbed out and takes few more relighting than others.

One will notice from the first puffs that the Rustica has quite a unique taste; very spicy and almost pungent but it is rounded by some sweet counterparts as the Virginia and Burley do play a certain role in the back. I tend to blow out through my nose and find this a bit irritating to my mucus, smoke is getting up my nose feeling like wasabi. Sometimes I can taste floral essences alongside a spicy VA like St. Bruno but stronger; in spices as well as nicotine then it punches back like black pepper with wooden notes hard to differentiate from a camp fire. Had to relight from time to time and the leftover ashes had some black spots in it. Filter was pretty wet with every smoke.

Not exactly my cup of tea but an interesting experience as there’s no other blend like this out there. For me? I’ll stay with some good old Latakia, Orients and Perique when I need additional spices. HH Rustica is very strong over all

Mhm.. this somehow eludes me. I like tobaccos such as Bold Kentucky and Old Dark Fired by Mac Baren, but this one came along a little flat and and lacking in soul to me.

The unburnt scent I perceive as leathery, earthy and somewhat floral (reminiscent of violet candies we have here), and reminds me of Bold Kentucky and ODF.

In the pipe this is rather strong and stout smoke, with the same qualities I found in the unburnt tobacco's scent. It's solid, I'd smoke it again when offered, but this isn't my cup of tea.

It's an interesting idea but imho it doesn't quite catch fire - metaphorically and literally, as I found this one to burn rather poorly, albeit I dried it out to almost crunchy consistence. Maybe it's the rustica that burns poorly? I don't know, but fellow pipe smokers also had that problem, regardless of short or long drying times. Only 2 stars for me here.

Extremely overpowering. I will go down a notch to dark fired or bold Kentucky. Sorry, but I think that my old age has made a wimp out of me. This stuff is stronger than any Gawith strong tobacco that I have tried in more than 40 years of pipe smoking.

Here it goes, I'm halfway through a 100g tin so I believe I have a fair idea of what this tobacco is like, given I never had a blend with N. rustica before.

First of all, huge kudos to Per Jensen and MacBaren for doing this, along with everyone involved in it's development, I understand it was not an easy task to bring a "wild" tobacco to the mass market, but it's been successful! It takes a robust operation like MacBaren to pull it off right.

Presentation is impeccable, like all of the HH line, three neat stacks of chewing gum-wide dark, nearly black flakes, all perfectly even. Smell is slight BBQ, vinegar, and herbs. I'll come back to the herbs...

I've tried cube cutting, folding and stuffing, and rubbing out, leaning to rubbing out with this one as I find folding and stuffing especially (my preferred treatment of flakes) to be tricky to keep lit, even after drying. Initial flavour is soft, vinegary and woody, the first nasal exhale is eyewatering, yes there is a lot of nicotine here! A lot more than Old Dark Fired, a little more than Gawith brown ropes, a lot more than Gawith black ropes, a little more than 1792 Flake, and a bit LESS than Motzek Dark Twist.

It's hard to tell if it's spicy or it's just the nicotine burning the nose, I lean towards it being the nic as the taste overall is not particularly spicy.

The taste is consistent, I don't find it particularly "full", it feels a bit soft to me, more towards a bright tobacco than a dark one, despite the flakes themselves being nearly black. There is floral and herbal tastes, and bitterness like, an Earl Grey tea steeped for too long. Bitter herbs in fact, or grapefruit. That's where the blend started going sour for me, I don't like bitter tastes, even when talking beers unless it's Guinness, I prefer a porter or a Bavarian Weissbier. HH Rustica gives me a lot of bitter herbs, like an Asian shop without the spice. Pity is once the bitterness showed up I couldn't get it out of my head, it was here to stay, and make me want to finish the tin, but not get another.

Overall, a bold and successful experiment, showing there's still life and desire for innovation in pipe smoking, but for me there are both stronger and tastier strong blends I'll go to before reaching to Rustica again.

The aroma of the flakes is unique and inimitable, with a marked smell of paprika. You have to tame it a bit in the first few pipes. It is recommended not to smoke it in pipes that are too big, since its high nicotinic levels, together with the fact that it burns slowly, can make you feel its punch. For the same reason, I would also advise against taking puffs too close together. But these are just some recommendations that should not scare anyone, since even if you fail to comply with one of these two precepts, nothing may happen, depending on the day and the circumstances. However, even smoking it in small pipes, I get tired of its taste before I finish the pipe. And this despite the fact that it has a slight resemblance to some tobaccos that I really like, such as Jacknife Plug or Sansepolcro, but it seems that what makes Rústica different from them is not good for me. Delving a little deeper, I think it is due to the predominance of notes that are too acidic and bitter.

I have made an effort with this tobacco because the majority of users here, with whom I have an affinity of tastes, rate it very highly. But well, the strange thing would be to coincide always and in everything...

I'm finally giving it two stars because I'm going to have to put in a bit of effort to finish the tin. However, I will smoke it again after a while to see how it evolves.