Mac Baren Three Nuns

Keep in mind that I was the proud owner of a 20 year old tin of Three Nuns, until I smoked it all during the last week after reviving it in a humidor for a month. I have read about the change in ownership and possible change in blend, and I hope the talk isn't true. I don't want to wait another 20 years for another Great Tin.

This is Christmas pudding in a pipe. It is very raisiny and very mellow. This is a "Hall of Fame" tobacco. It is slow burning like a yule log, as contrasted against Carter Hall, which is like burning dried bamboo in a chiminea.

Wow, this seems to be a love/hate blend and I think it's due to the different generations of this blend and pouch verses tin. This review is based on two tins, both from Denmark and both with the small coins. One tin, round, a new one just purchased weeks ago, and the other tin, square, with some age on it. The tobacco looked the same although the raisin like scent stronger as expected in the older tin. With all that said, I can see why the absence of perique makes this a different blend . Unlike comparing the same recipe of a blend from one blender to the next. (think Murray's Dunhill verses Orlik Dunhill) Tobaccos change over time, but the complete removal of the perique from the blend makes it a different blend so IMHO if should be called by a different name.

However, the name issue aside, this is really a good tasting tobacco and I love it, even with what seems to be a little manually added sweetness. "Three Nuns" quickly dries and I prefer it fully rubbed out and sipped in a small bowl. It's very good out of the tin, but the Virginia's age wonderfully and on that basis, it's Highly Recommended!

My first experience with Three Nuns was, believe it or not, in Disney World about 15 years ago. It was the only tobacco blend I recall being sold in the tobacco shop on Main Street. I purchased it along with a generic bent meerschaum and smoked it back at the Wilderness Lodge on my balcony. I can't say I was that impressed, and needless to say, this is not the newer version I am reviewing. As I was into aromatics and most of the popular Mac Barens blends at the time, I would have to say it reminded me most of Mac's Royal Twist (now called Roll Cake). I didn't care much for Royal Twist (still don't) and didn't care much for Three Nuns either. Based on my experience from quite a while ago, if TR was in existence then, Three Nuns would have only garnered 2 stars from me. I don't smoke aromatics much anymore and in spite of currently favoring good Burleys and Virginia flakes these days, I have no inclination to revisit Three Nuns. 2 stars.

UPDATE 1-2-18: I'm reviewing the Mac Baren version of Three Nuns and if memory serves me, I find it quite different from what I experienced so many years ago. My 50 gm tin arrived in today's mail with an outdoor temperature of 25 degrees. Cracking open the tin I find very neatly stacked coins ala Mac Baren and with the Dark Fired Kentucky more dispersed throughout the coins as opposed to centered as with most of the Mac coin offerings. Perhaps due to the cold, I found no tin note with sniffing the contents. Loading and lighting was easy, however, and the first thing I noticed was the lack of the typical Mac coin taste; especially the prominent, typical Mac Baren Virginia taste so prevalent in all of their other coin offerings. The next thing I noticed was the immediate spiciness in the taste which I quite enjoyed, and differnt from the spiciness found in the other Mac coins. I never was a huge fan of Perique so its absence in this current version was not upsetting to me. Overall a pleasant smoking experience and one that I would be inclined to revisit on occasion (although too pricey for 50gms), but not one that I would include in my regular rotation - enough however to raise my rating to 3 stars.

UPDATE 12-17-23: I have been smoking this as of late from the tin used in my previous 2018 review. Very, very pleasant. Drying seems to have brought out flavor nuances I don't remember experiencing previously (I find all Mac's blends seem to taste better to me when they are really dry, but not crumbly). Presently, enough to raise this to 4 stars and has become a new favorite.

Update: 20 June 2013. I just got hold of MacBaren's version of the Tree Nuns. It may not be just as good as the original (it seems there is no Périque in here), but man it's a superlative improvement on the ready-rubbed pouch version. Nice, smooth, luxurious smoke, basically based on Virginia leaf with some Burley and Kentucky in it. It comes in small coins, very easy to load as such or to rub out a little. A nice surprise indeed, recommended to all those who enjoy predominantly Virginian blends.

A few months before a trip that turned out to be a five-year stay in England, a late anthropology professor of mine, and visiting fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge, couched me as to the peculiarities of life in the UK.

When in the midst of our conversation, and after obtaining his permission, I loaded up my pipe with some Prince Albert (one of the few available tobaccos in Mexico at the time), he grimaced, stopped me in my tracks, and produced from his desk drawer a square tin, with a bright orange rim and a dark brown cover that read: Bell?s Three Nuns Tobacco, with the legend ?none nicer?.

Not that he had any objections to the Prince, but, he explained, as I was going off to the Holly Land of pipe tobaccos, I should get acquainted with what he dubbed ?the real stuff?, lest a Cambridge don be aggravated by my Americana-Tobacciana insolence (?and don?t you dare smoke anything the likes of Captain Black at a formal dinner!? he added, with genuine concern).

I had never seen tobacco spun into small coins, nor had I any knowledge of Perique, and was only slightly acquainted with the smell, texture and flavour of straight Virginias. It took me some time to fill in the pipe, and still a longer time to get it going. My professor was patient enough to guide me through the whole process, very much like letting me in on an ancient druid ritual. But once I felt the first nuances from the blend, I was at once elated and transfixed! What an extraordinary encounter! Who needs hermeneutics with this kind of experience!

The same professor would later introduce me to quite an ample range of English tobaccos, from the also bygone Bengal Slices to Dunhills?, Sobranies? Rattrays?, and Presbyterian Mixture.

Three Nuns had, in my view, a pastry-kind of flavour: rich, slightly sugary, toasty and peppery-sweet. Because it was my first attempt at smoking this type of cut, I over puffed and burnt my tongue. Again, the professor came to my rescue and explained the need to smoke slowly, keeping the mouthpiece away from my lips, and drawing in gently.

Perhaps I?m wrong, but I remember the Three Nuns as a gentle, almost mild smoke. It produced a very amicable room aroma, and a soothing sensation to the smoker. Though the Perique was very much in evidence, I now realise that the main feature of the blend were the Virginian varieties: matured, flue cured, probably Old Belt (I don?t think there was any Burley).

Because it was so difficult to ?prepare? I never really smoked it that much. But whenever I did, I always felt the same excitement and contentment. It was a smooth and elegant, yet feisty and gentle pure smoke that, accompanied with a pint of Murphy?s, very much alleviated the harshness of English winters.

This all happened a long time ago. I?m speaking of an almost mythological era, when the Berlin Wall divided Germany and the threat of the Soviet Union was still, for many, very real. But it was also a time when you could smoke almost anywhere?indoors included, especially in pubs?and when Dunhills?, Sobranies? and Benson and Hedges? blends not only existed but also tasted the way they should. A time when you could find proper tobacconists, willing to provide advice and guidance to a humble?and foreign?newbie to the world of pipe smoking (like the late Colin Lunn, just across King?s College).

Alas, all that is gone, and with it the suave gallantry of those Three Nuns, from Scotland.

NB: What today stands for Three Nuns does not deserve a single rating-star

Open the tin and the aroma is beautiful, spicy, nutty, and tells you this is going to be great. The current version of the nuns is cut of small coin shaped discs and long ribbons. The moisture level is too high and drying out is needed. So packing requires a bit of caution and pipe cleaners to open up clogs. Once lit this is one of the great treats of pipe smoking. The blend of Virginias and Perique is unlike the competition, and I think I have tried them all. Flavor is tasty with a zing. Often it is described as peppery, but I don't think so. It is spicy in the way that Perique usually is. So on the posative side this is my favorite Va Perique blend, but the negative side is that it is expensive and can only be obtained from Synjaco in Switzerland making shipping expensive. Everyone deserves the oppertunity to try Three Nuns to know what this blend is like.

This one has made its way into my morning and evening commuting choices for driving. Yes - it's a mess in the tin. There are really no "coins" to speak of. It looks like Three Nuns sharted into the tin 😉 Alright. Alright. That's enough of that. We will just call it "curly cut".

Anyway, it's burley in the center of the rope when it's produced. It's referred to as "Dark Fired Kentucky". The rest of the blend is made up of VAs. All of it is said to be of African origin.

This is a straight down the middle, no surprises mild to medium blend. Burns nice to a fine ash. You can smoke it straight from the tin without worrying about excess moisture. This is one of those blends that you will find yourself reaching for when you don't know exactly what to grab and can work at any time of day. It's pretty much a workhorse and fills those moments when you just want to smoke and not think too much about it.

It is also a nice base to experiment with adding a tad of your own perique or a bit of latakia to if you want to play mad scientist. I give it 4 stars for perfectly filling a slot in my smoking routine. Once upon a time I used to smoke cigarettes and I view Three Nuns as my pipe tobacco equivalent of a cigarette. (Much nicer taste I might add). I highly recommend it for the overall characteristics and utilitarian nature of the smoke.

It contains burleys, virginias and dark fried kentucky. Apparently, the original formulation contained perique this does not and does not need it. There are tobaccos including Three Nuns Green that add perique to this type of mixture. I tried some VaPers like Golden Sliced and Escudo the first I found light and the second heavy but neither were as flavourful or as complex as this. I am probably not a fan of VaPers but I am now a fan of VaBurKents. Will be trying some others in this category,

As mentioned this is not only complex but very flavourful. I almost thought I was smoking an English as only those blends approach the complexity I found in this this blend. My first curly cut absolutely love that cut. Smells great in the tin. Probably among my top 5 tobaccos. 3.75/4

Recently cracked a 2 year old tin, and have smoked this quite a bit, especially before retiring for the night. From the time I heard that WHOOSH from opening the tin, until the tin was void of all product, I was always puzzled as to what this blend was about.

The initial aroma is a terrific sour Virginia, not too dissimilar to the tin note of Davidoff Flake Medallions. Same sour note. Thin, spun coins with no rhyme or reason to the dispersion of the tobacco leaves. Seems totally random. The one thing that did pique my curiosity was how dry the coins seemed to be, even though the tin had a proper seal. Not an issue with the burn, taste or preparation. The coins rubbed out with ease!

Initial lighting has an weird "cologne" type note. Not soapy like a Lakeland blend, but almost a Polo Green oak moss flavor. Also, for a blend that contains zero Perique, Three Nuns does have quite a bit of spice when exhaled through the nose. The Virginias offer some grassy-hay like notes, and the Kentucky melds nicely. No harshness, even if puffed at a faster cadence. Most Mac B blends give me horrendous tongue bite, but this is quite subdued. It does tingle a bit, but not near as bad as most. Burns very clean and even to the bottom of the bowl, leaving a dark gray ash. No moisture. I have yet to smoke this blend in the morning, and I probably won't. Just doesn't suit my preferences for a morning smoke. Offers decent nicotine, it will leave you satisfied and fulfilled.

I had three cups of French Press freshly grinned dark roasted coffee and by the Afternoon my sinuses were clear as a crystal. I filled up my Rossi rusticated non filtered Pipe with None Nicer... Three Nuns and the first charing light was a burst of Incencse smelling very pleasant. On second light I started puffing bit hard and that incency smell took over by the sweet Virginia's leafs and I'm having some sweet and leathery feeling as the tin note. This is my second tin and I had smoked in filtered pipes but smoking in non filtered I'm getting totally different taste and some what more enjoyable. Blends of Virginia's and Kentucky are perfect and a very pleasant smoke. I strongly recommend.