Mac Baren Harmony

The burley is a little chocolately with some nutty sweetness, earth and wood, and a touch of molasses. It is the lead component. The grassy, tart and tangy citrusy sweet, bready Virginia is a supporting player, and sports a light honey hit. The sugary sweet black cavendish underscores the experience. There's a obvious spice note that reminds me of the Danish style of processing. The chocolate topping mildly sublimates the tobaccos. The strength is a couple of steps short of the center of mild to medium. The taste level is in that center. Burns clean at a moderate pace for a broken flake, requires few relights, and has a very consistent chocolately, spicy flavor. Leaves hardly any moisture in the bowl, and the pleasant after taste and room notes linger a little. Needs to be smoked at no more than a moderate pace or it may tingle your tongue a mite. Can be an all day smoke.

-JimInks

No big surprises here, if you have already smoked other Burley-based Mac Baren blends.

After having smoked Mixture, Navy Mixture, Golden Blend and Norwood, I can say that this offering is more on the style of the last two of them. The honey/chocolate flavoring is very subtle, and sweetness is moderate. It tastes natural, with good honest tobacco flavours. Quite mild, soft and well-mannered, extremely well balanced. Of course, to my taste it lacks some punch or extra sparkle: Mixture is sweeter, more fragrant and complex; Navy Mixture has much more body and some more sweetness; Golden Blend is nuttier, more intense and Burley-oriented. Probably the one it comes closer to is Norwood, the only difference here is the Cavendish and I don't much feel its contribution as the taste alternates between nutty, grassy, slightly sweet and smoky.

As usual with Mac Baren tobaccos, it packs easily and burns great. If smoked sensibly, it doesn't bite at all (contrarily to what some say).

Overall good, but I prefer Mixture and Navy Mixture.

I found this to be rather unimpressive given I've tried the other Mac Baren Burleys (namely Golden Blend and HH Burley Flake), which - to my palate - have much more to offer. "Beer" describes this tobacco very well (the 2nd highest rated 'helpful' review).. it has some sugary and mildly chocolaty topping to it, whilst also a slight nutty note, akin to that of Golden Blend's nuttiness is present.

They say there is only little Cavendish in the mix, yet it tastes quite sweet and the burleys are missing some body/richness for me, they just feel a bit "thin". Yet keep in mind I prefer stronger Burley blends, so this one could be suitable to those, interested in a mild Burley blend. There is too little spiciness and too much "Danish-ness" for my taste.

All in all this is an average blend, worth puffing, but won't make it as a regular for me. Golden Blend outshines this one easily, so does the HH Burley Flake. In my humble opinion it should be categorized as 'Aromatic', although I grant it it's bordering the aromatic category and can very well be called 'semi-aromatic', for what that elusive term is worth. 2 stars!

If memory serves me correctly (and the older I get the less I depend on memory) this tobacco blend has some very similar taste sensations to Mac Baren's Virginia #1. It has a honey like odor in the tin and on the tongue, yet not so much as to demand butter and bread along with it. I actually noted I was smoking tobacco, and that of course, is a good thing!

A sweet, light Burley/Virginia with little power but satisfying in small doses.

And yet another good, solid Mac Baren blend.

Burley in the main role, Virginia supporting well, Cavendish for minor spicing only - what could go wrong? Not much, especially when the quality of tobacco used is good and the blenders of Mac Baren are on the job. Brings together all the basic essentials of no-frills, somewhat old-school pipe smoking in an enjoyable, balanced and wholesome manner - especially for a burley lover like me. Nomen est omen for in my opinion, a certain Harmony has indeed been achieved here.

Very good and will definitely be buying again.

A friend donated me a 100gr tin wich was aged for 10 years.when i opened the tin a strong sweet and sour smell came out.a total black blend with some moisture,really aged was tempting me to try it!lights easy and some relights are needed.while smoking the burleys are dominant and offer mostly spices and some cocoa notes.in the backround sweet honey notes,citruses and grass notes come out in a balanced way.burns slow and hot with some moisture being created to total ash.the nicotine level is almost medium and the room note is a bit tense.sometimes tongue bite appears if you puff hard.it is an all day blend.in conclusion this is a pleasant blend but not something unique that can make your day

Been reading these reviews and many are telling same thing that MB has a bite...I haven't had problem with that aparment.Like Golden Blend,London Burley Blend and Navy Flake this is one of my regulars.The aroma has some honey and little bit of nut.Actually I'm smoking Harmony while writing this. It smokes cool and even.As a ready rubbed it's easy to pack even to the smaler bowls.Perhaps my pallet is numb after long smoking career but I find this blend nice ane smooth with delicate aroma and taste.

From Mac Baren, not too bad on the tongue bite. This blend stayed quite mellow throughout.

The taste wasn't too horrible. That average Mac Baren taste. The room note was pleasant from both wife point of view and pipe smoker point of view.

I give this a solid two, more than I usually expect from a Mac blend.

Overall not too bad. It has some nice light nuttiness from the burley and a little tang from the virginia. The cavendish just seems to add a dull, bland, background to the blend. Didn't get any tongue bite from it which surprises me. Overall, its a very light, very mild, plain smoke.

Even though I have an unopened 30 year old tin of this tobacco on my shelf beckoning me all the time to open it, I bought a new tin yesterday. Now, I have smoked my share of Harmony in the seventies and eighties but what is offered today is not quite as "palatable" as then. But maybe I should stop comparing Mac Baren of 25-30 years ago to that which they offer nowadays. This morning, after an airing of the tin overnight, I noticed the smokey smell of their Original Cavendish, a dark fired tobacco that they use in most of their blends. Together with their usual high quality burley and the minor part of virginia, this is still a harmonious, slightly sweet ready rubbed. I do wonder, however, how long I will be able to resist opening that 30 year old tin...!