Mac Baren Three Nuns

This is a SUPERB smoke. I love the way this stuff smells. I had the privvy to smoke a 3-year aged tin of this stuff. It is truly remarkable. Nutty, sweet, and slightly spicy on the finish. Very full-bodied. This is a VERY hearty smoke, and if I were to give it a personality, I'd say it was noble, assertive, and stout.

The primary flavors (and I'll emphasize) are a nuttiness, and a sweet, almost burnt-sugar taste.

This is an excellent blend. It's too bad it's not available here in the states.

If you want something SLIGHTLY similar, try Escudo Navy Deluxe, but it's not nearly as good.

This tobacco is a "Class Act" I have loved this tobacco since I was 9 Year's old & took my Dad's pipe under the house to smoke it!!!(I DIDN'T GET CAUGHT EITHER) It smoke's & lights well & behave's like a true Lady. And leave's a nice light greyish ash.Plus the taste is delicious!! And never tire of it. I love every particle as it smoke's down to the bottom of the bowl. I have smoked the original tin mix with the little curly disc's & the rubbed out pouch pack's as well.I have many,many tin's that have been ageing for well over 22 Year's.And jar's filled with the pouch blend as well.And that has saved me a fortune! In Australia we now pay through the nose!! I'm giving these these Nun's 4 Halo's out of 4.

The benchmark for perique tobacco in my book . My search for similar tobaccos is only so that I don't smoke all the Nuns out of my cellar too quickly .

Three Nuns is probably my all time favourite tobacco. Its reputation proceeds it and is well-deserved. Three Nuns is cut into sprials or coins much like Escudo, except a little smaller. Three Nuns smells almost alcoholic in the tin, with a tinge of a spice. I always stack the Three Nuns coins like quarters with some loose tobacco on top to ease lighting. Really is easier than it sounds. Puffing on the unlit pipe is a treat that can be savored for 20 minutes in itself. Once lit the Nuns come alive with smoothness and spiciness all at once. The taste is out of this world, and unmatched by nothing else I have tried. The only draw back to Three Nuns is that it can whallop you with its strength, so that limits me to a small pipe. Too bad this tobacco is not widely available anymore - this is a great tobacco.

This is a pretty stout smoke so it might not cut it for a new smoker or someone looking for something with flavoring added. Three Nuns is all about rich tobacco flavor with no gimmicks and that's usually what I'm looking for. Though it has a good nic-hit and big Virginia, Burly, Kentucky taste, this could easily be an all day smoke as It's well balanced, cool burning, dry and doesn't have any rough spots. I love Virginia-Perique blends and this tin doesn't list it like the old mixture had, but I get that smokiness and the spiciness that we Va-Per smokers like. I also like the curly cut or any other pressed tobacco like flake as it seems to last longer in the bowl. I'm putting this on my regular rotation at a close second to Peterson De Luxe Navy Rolls.

My all time favorite tobacco. In addition to its excellent qualities, I am also connected to it by several personal relationships from the time when I started smoking. It was my first "serious" tobacco in a tin. I bought it completely by accident. Interesting "name" drew my attention in a small hidden shop in Sulaymaniyah bazzar. It was a very lucky choice that made me understand the difference between regular tobaccos and better tobaccos. In addition to the fact that it tasted great, it was my first experience with unflavored tobacco in coin cut and for the first time I had the opportunity to smell the natural, tomato smell after opening the tin. Little did I know at the time that this was a favorite brand of tobacco for titans like Tolkien. Despite the fact that, according to older friends, the MacBren variant is only a shadow of the original Bells, I can still enjoy every sip of this exceptional tobacco, which is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain in some parts of Europe.
After opening, there is a natural, tomato-like aroma, indicating the presence of virginia. When smoking, the admixture of perique soon becomes apparent, but not as intensively as, for example, in the case of Red Orlik, a similarly good VaPer.
Tobacco burns long and steadily. Personally, I can't confirm stronger presence of burley, and the tobacco doesn't seem too strong nicotinewise. Floral essences appear from time to time in the taste of tobacco, but not significantly. Overall, it's an excellent tobacco that fits perfectly into summer days, when heavy and smoky tobaccos don't come to taste. The red three nuns surpass its yellow and green variants in quality.

I never had a chance to try the original blend with Perique, but I'm so happy I tried the current version!

Originally, I ordered this tin out of curiosity because this tobacco seems to have quite a reputation. I didn't expect much, but right after the first bowl, I knew this would be one of my favorite tobaccos.

The presentation is okay. Unfortunately, here in the EU, half of the tin label is covered by health warnings that cannot be peeled off. The tobacco should be in coins, but it's more like ready-rubbed or very broken pieces of coins. What shocked me the first time I had this tobacco was how dry it felt, so don't be surprised by that; it smokes just fine. The tin note - I was expecting a more intense Dark Fired Kentucky smell, but I only got subtle sweet, earthy notes.

But all my concerns disappeared after the first time I lit the pipe - this tobacco just tastes amazing! Kentucky seems to have the dominant role and gives the smoke a wonderful earthy, woody, smoked BBQ-like quality, while being supported by the amazing sweetness of the Virginias. The taste remains great from the very first puff to the very last one. The nicotine level is right on the spot for me, mellowing me out in the evening after a busy day, but it isn't too strong to make me dizzy.

If you like sweet Virginias and smoky, BBQ-like Dark Fired Kentucky, you should try this blend. Highly recommended!

NOTE: The four star rating is for the original Bells Three Nuns... read on. This newer mix is pretty good but the vintage tins are otherworldly. However, I did note a similarity in taste to the original Bells Three Nuns on occasion. The quarter size coins rub out easily & burn cool & evenly. They require a little drying time which was not the case with the "old" version & the coins seemed to be smaller "back in the day". The initial tin aroma was a nice, smoke fired tobacco smell with a bit of sour note. One might notice a slight acrid taste initially but after a little is burned off, you will get a little burst of sweet, natural tobacco flavors that meld together fairly well.

Three Nuns has not earned legendary status for no reason & this newer blend works OK for me. As good or better than most blends of this genre. Mac Baren's Three Nuns is strong enough to satisfy and delivers a semi-sweet smoke well above mid strength. It starts tasting pretty good a short while after the charring light to the end... not much waiting for the flavor to develop. It can be smoked right out of the tin if one desires to do so. I'm sure it would be much better with a little age & will cellar some for later consumption. It smokes/burns well all the way to the finish.

There's a lot of tobacco packed in a 50g tin and it is a fairly good value as the leaf is not weighted down with excessive moisture & I haven't noticed any stems thus far. It cost a little more than similar blends. I don't have money to burn but don't mind burning a little of it on this newer version. As the tin states... carefully selected Virginias dominate and are the wrapper leaf of the dark fired Kentucky & Burley. Even though the Perique has been replaced by dark fired KY.

I feel that if the original flavor additives of Ouzo Rum & Brown Sugar were mixed into this new blend it would make a considerable difference in the flavor & might be just as good or very similar to the "Imperial" stuff. I tried adding some blending Perique to a small batch & didn't notice any similarity to the original... it's the magical & precise mixture of ingredients in the casing & the blending technique with two different types of Perique... the regular fermented & some type of burley soaked in the fermented liquid that made J. F. Bell Three Nuns so unique & enticing... a blending process that would be very difficult to reproduce to attain the original flavor.

Anyway, a bowl of this Mac Baren 3 Ns satisfied my Vitamin N "necessity" quite well & I think Mac Baren's Three Nuns merits three & one half stars... still enjoyable to me & that's all that matters. Four stars for the older, original J. F. Bells version & three & one half stars for the Orlik & later Mac Baren versions.

NOTE: The four star rating is for the original Bells Three Nuns... read on. This newer mix is pretty good but the vintage tins are otherworldly. However, I did note a similarity in taste to the original Bells Three Nuns on occasion. The quarter size coins rub out easily & burn cool & evenly. They require a little drying time which was not the case with the "old" version & the coins seemed to be smaller "back in the day". The initial tin aroma was a nice, smoke fired tobacco smell with a bit of sour note. One might notice a slight acrid taste initially but after a little is burned off, you will get a little burst of sweet, natural tobacco flavors that meld together fairly well. Three Nuns has not earned legendary status for no reason & this newer blend works OK for me. As good or better than most blends of this genre.

Mac Baren's Three Nuns is strong enough to satisfy and delivers a semi-sweet smoke well above mid strength. It starts tasting pretty good a short while after the charring light to the end... not much waiting for the flavor to develop. It can be smoked right out of the tin if one desires to do so. I'm sure it would be much better with a little age & will cellar some for later consumption. It smokes/burns well all the way to the finish. There's a lot of tobacco packed in a 50g tin and it is a fairly good value as the leaf is not weighted down with excessive moisture & I haven't noticed any stems thus far. It cost a little more than similar blends. I don't have money to burn but don't mind burning a little of it on this newer version. As the tin states... carefully selected Virginias dominate and are the wrapper leaf of the dark fired Kentucky & Burley.

Even though the Perique has been replaced by dark fired KY, I feel that if the original flavor additives of Rum or Anise flavor from Ouzo & Brown Sugar were mixed into this new blend it would make a considerable difference in the flavor & might be just as good or very similar to the "Imperial" stuff. I tried adding some blending Perique to a small batch & didn't notice any similarity to the original... it's the magical & precise mixture of ingredients in the casing & the blending technique with two different types of Perique... the regular fermented & some type of burley soaked in the fermented liquid that made J. F. Bell Three Nuns so unique & enticing... a blending process that would be very difficult to reproduce to attain the original flavor. Anyway, a bowl of this Mac Baren 3 Ns satisfied my Vitamin N "necessity" quite well & I think Mac Baren's Three Nuns merits three & one half stars... still enjoyable to me & that's all that matters. Four stars for the older, original J. F. Bells version & three & one half stars for the Orlik & later Mac Baren versions.