Mac Baren Stockton

This is the first time I ever tried Stockton. My tin was dated July 2009. If you like the taste of tobacco without any of the aromatic toppings typical in Danish/German offerings, Stockton should fill the bill. There was no tin aroma upon opening the tin. Only with deep inhalation of the contents will you find the slightest hint of sweetness and a mild Virginia presence. The discs are expertly prepared with what I consider a perfect moisture content. It reminds me very much of Mac's Dark Twist Roll Cake, but much spicier in taste. The Cavendish is made from spicy Kentucky and very, very tasty. The spiciness becomes more pronounced as you smoke and the overall fullness increases in a very satisfying way. There was no bite or moisture during the smoke. At the end, a nice gray ash remained without dottle. It was very sweet (brown sugar sweet) tasting, a combination of the natural sweetness of the Virginia Cavendish and a little bit of sugar added. It can smoke a tad hot with vigorous puffing. I'm not talking bite, but bowl heat. Not a problem what so ever. Although I experienced no bite with Stockton, sipping on this one greatly enhances the wonderful flavor of the blend as the sugars slowly caramelize.

A very satisfying, natural tobacco smoking experience. One of the best room notes I have ever experienced in a tobacco. After several bowls, already a favorite. I have found Mac Baren tobaccos to be some of the best I have ever smoked in 34 years of pipe smoking. During the day of the brick and mortar tobacconists that I used to frequent, I never saw Stockton and that is the only reason I never tried it until now. I see I have to make up for lost time. A highly superior offering from Mac Baren, having entered my weekly rotation. Compared to Dark Twist Roll Cake (which many have found similar), Stockton is a slightly spicier, fuller smoke. I like the two equally. When I want that fullness with a little spice I reach for Stockton, and when I want a slightly sweeter experience I go with Dark Twist. There is NO bitterness whatsoever with Stockton. If you are looking for an unadulterated tobacco experience with a bit of sweetness, you can't go wrong with Stockton. Aging really brings out the natural sweetness with this leaf. Stockton is a wonderful, full-tasting experience and garners a solid highly recommended from me!

The unsweetened dark fired cavendish center offers a fair amount of smokiness and spice, light nuttiness, wood, barbecue, floralness, and a few sour notes to go with some sweetness. It’s the lead component. The Virginias provide some tart and tangy citrus, grass/hay, earth, wood, vegetation, bread, light lemon and tangy darker fruit, a little sugar, floralness, and a small touch of acidity. I taste a little maple sugar either as a topping or more likely, as a casing binder. It enhances the experience rather than sublimating the tobaccos. The strength, nic-hit, and taste levels are medium. Won’t bite or get harsh, but it does sport a few small rough edges, and a light tongue tingle if puffed fast. The coins are easy to break apart, and need no dry time. Burns clean and mostly cool at a slightly slow rate with a rich, mildly sweet and more savory, spicy, campfire, barbecue flavor that has a little inconsistency as you go along. Leaves little moisture in the bowl, and requires some relights. Has a pleasantly lingering after taste, and stronger room note. Not an all day smoke, but it is repeatable. Three and a half stars out of four.

-JimInks

One late afternoon I found myself picking through the final 3rd of a jar of Dark Twist Roll Cake wondering where all the tasty Cavendish-center coins had gone. I found myself wishing that I had an entire tin full of only them. It seems that I have a proclivity towards filling pipe after pipe with them, shunning the solid Virginia coins in the process; the tobacco equivalent of picking all the raisins out of a box of Raisin Bran. The joke was on me that day.

After a little research, I discovered that Mac Baren already somewhat anticipated my wish in the form of a blend called Stockton, and it’s excellent. Stockton’s flavor is a rich combination of earthy, sweet Virginia laced with a firm spicy and smoky quality that is nothing short of delightful. However, Stockton is not a dead-ringer for Dark Twist’s Cavendish coins. It’s less cased and as a result is more full-tasting and somewhat less inhibited. Stockton still has just a touch of Mac Baren’s signature Danish sweetening treatment but only the bare necessity needed for balance.

An absolute pleasure to smoke.

As in most aspects of life, it's all about what you're looking for as to whether of not you're satisfied. Reviewers that call good tobaccos bad because it's not to their taste are missing that point. This is excellent tobacco, well conceived and well executed. The flavor, as may have been mentioned, is akin to that of Kendal Kentucky...depending on the pipe, the orbit of the moon, etc. But since it's spun into little coins (sort of like 'demi-flake' or something) it smokes longer and for me, cooler...all good. I won't rehash all the technical stuff...that's been done...I'll just say that I seek out 'blends' that are, from light to dark, purer re: what I define as natural tobacco taste. In that regard this stuff easily has to be among the top 4 or 5 out there. Excellent product. Glad it's there. Will buy more.

Update: With more and more experience with this, my enjoyment grows. Is Mac B experiencing a comeback? Did they ever wain, except in my patronage? No answers, other than I'm kind of re-discovering Mac B blends and liking them to a degree I never did in the past...well, flakes anyway. The mantra: "Fold and stuff, light and puff. Burns to fluff." Good moisture level, fine burn, solid flavor. And via many vendors, a totally solid bargain!!! A tin for the price of a decent cigar? What's not to like?

Stockton is **(Update: was! Now sharing thelead with Roll Cake)** the best of the Roll-Cake series by Mac Baren to me! The comparison as "unflavored Dark Twist" is quite on spot. This is pure tobacco aroma. A less spicy version of the Roll Cake (white tin).

The coins all have a black core and are (of course) the same size as the other Roll-Cakes by Mac B. Opening the tin blasted me with a very bready, tobacco-y and slightly grassy-sweet aroma. I was instantly interested how this would perform in the pipe.

Needs at least 30mins, better 1-2 hours of drying for my taste. Not only for it to burn cool and dry, but also to enhance the flavors a tad!

Once in the pipe I was in love...It has a bold aroma of fresh, dark bread, some hay notes, and little citrusy-grass in the back. Minor hints of nuttiness is also present by times. Not much sweetness in it, but decent spice to it and some earthy, woodsy-smokiness is always present. This is a full-bodied smoke, with rich flavors, but not too complex. A tad too strong for All-Day smokeability for my taste, but not overwhelming in strenght too. Flavors intensify a bit throughout the bowl, especially towards the 2nd half of the bowl and are fairly consistent.

No flavoring to detect, they say they only use "maple sugar" to enhance natural qualities, and I do belive in that. This is hearty, spicy, round! The fact that they have "cavendished" the dark fired Kentucky makes it mellow, digestibe, yet full of flavors. I don't consider the maple-sugar as a flavouring, it's more of a casing-style added flavour, so none detected for me.

A great Coin-Cut blend! My favorite of Mac Barens Roll-Cake series, along withthe Roll Cake Spun Cut, and a blend I'll keep at hand and in rotation at any time. Really worth trying for lovers of Kentucky and dark fired leafs, as well as to Virginia fans, who like some spice in their blend as a change of pace.

I was smoking some Stockton on the way into work this morning and was thinking about the less than favourable reviews i have read about this Mac Baren mixture and feel compelled to put my two pence in. Stockton is just beginning to reach the colonies as it was judged by the importer to not be Mac Baren enough (read cased) until recently. If you like the more cased Mac Baren mixtures, this will not be your cup of tea. If you like heavy cased German mixtures like Blue Note, this will not be your cup of tea. And if you favour intellectually engaging (try glp's Westminster), complex mixtures with lots of complexity, this will not be your cup of tea. I have been told by a very reliable source who visited the Mac Baren factory, that Stockton is the least cased mixture they manufacture. It is mostly high grade Virginias that have been pressed into little "coins" without a lot of casing (all pipe mixtures have something that is not tobacco in them). (I believe the Cavendish component is VA based also). The pressing creates a very rich, but mild pure tobacco experience. It packs easily, lights easily, and smokes coolly down to a fine ash without any goop in the heal. It is pretty mono chromatic, but vanilla bean gelato is pretty monochromatic, but i like both a lot. It does not have a big hit of nicotine, but i am very sensitive to nicotine so this make me very happy. The room note is very spousal pleasing without being cloying. This is a very honest VA flake-type mixture that will make a certain segment of the pipe-smoking fraternity happy, but not others. I like this VA mixture a lot and have a bunch cellaring away as Gregory Pease has said, high-grade VAs cellar very well and develop great things for those who wait.

One of the good things about Mac Baren tins is that they come in 100 grams, which gives the smoker plenty of time to figure them out. Granted, most of them are easily deciphered but I found Stockton to be a notable exception.

Beautiful tin, beautiful tobacco. Mac B's always gets an "A" for presentation. Even the paper inside is of obvious high quality. The cut coins looked a lot like some of the other Mac B blends, such as Dark Twist. But this one had a lot more to offer. At tin moisture, it was somewhat or a typical Mac B blend with its citrusy sweet casing. I find this annoying over time but refreshing for a short while. The dark fired tobacco came out around mid-bowl or so and added an excellent spice. Still, it failed to elevate itself beyond the Mac Baren signature flavor - Danish sweetness.

It was only when I dried this blend to the consistency of Wheaties cereal that it shined. The sweet casing diminished but didn't disappear - it just stopped strangling the blend. The dark fired body and flavor melded with the sweet VA and provided a cool, rich, robust smoke that I really enjoyed. The burn was excellent as well. This is a good tobacco, and I will never again smoke it without drying it to a crispy state.

Only other comment - this burned my tongue before I even lit it. Just holding the filled pipe in my mouth for 10 seconds produced a semi-allergic reaction. This has happened with another Mac B blend that I cannot smoke. The good news for this one, even while it is an oddity, is that 2-3 puffs into the bowl, this "burn" goes away completely. Just another interesting example of the chemical balances of blend and smoker.

Mac Baren - Stockton.

When I saw this on Smokingpipes I quickly snapped up a couple tins. Only a few as I don't like to be hoggish; it seems only fair to leave plenty for other pipers! However, when a blend's this good I sort of wish I had no conscience and had purchased EVERY tin!!

The cut looks roughly the same as Dark Twist. The coins are very charismatic in appearance. Although a lot has been broken away the remaining whole coins are smattered with tiny birds eye's of tobacco. It smells of sweet, ripe, Virginias, but not particularly 'cased'. Moisture? Perfect.

Ignition is easy and the smoke is sublime. The first quarter tastes a lot sweeter; as though cased with a drop of honey, maple, or something of the like. As expected from the tin-note, the Virginias are rich, ripe, succulent and sweet. I don't identify many, or any, of the caustic Va notes, I only get the opulent, luxurious ones! The cavendish Kentucky brings a good backbone to the flavour. Although it offers a touch of pungency in the form of a smokiness the cavendish process seems to have dialled the intensity down a notch or two! A bowl behaves brilliantly, necessitating hardly any relights, manufacturing a mid-temp' smoke, and not biting; well, IMO!

Nicotine: medium. Room-note: nice.

Stockton? Do I like it? Definitely. Would I buy more if/when available? Definitely. Would I highly recommend it? Definitely! Four stars:

Highly recommended.

Dark Twist with a twist.... Although I cannot readily identify the difference other that the smaller swirls of leaf and perhaps a little more body and a little less casing. I liked it, but because it was a wee bit too moist in the tin, had some trouble rubbing the discs out the first few bowls. I did try a larger bowl pipe with the discs just stuffed down in it and that seemed to help the flavor.

PS.....I was recently gifted almost the entire Mac Baren's line for review purposes, but don't know if this one is sold in the USA.

As stated in a previous review, Stockton Roll Cake is only the cavendish-centered coins from the Dark Twist. Dark Twist also has coins of Virginia. I really do like the smoky, woodsy taste of Stockton over Dark Twist. I believe it's the cavendish centered coins that give the latter its main flavor. Sometimes to me, Stockton can get a little bit too smoky in flavor, so what I like to do is take one tin of Stockton and one tin of Dark Twist, and combine it in a jar. I feel that the 1/3 Virginia coins to the 2/3 Cavendish-eyed coins is the perfect mixture. Stockton alone can give a very pleasing smoke with a good round taste, but I feel my mixture is "rounder". Room note is not great but not unbearable.

edit: apparently Stockton is not available in the US anymore... however Dark Twist is still available. If I do want the "BROBS MIXTURE" I'll have to pull out some of the 100% Virginia coins from Dark Twist!