Mac Baren Solent Mixture

This is what Plumcake always wanted to be. It is so much more balanced, smoother, and tastier. I have found my all day English style blend. I agree this is similar to Escotericas And So To Bed, but only halfway there. ASTB has more body, and more topping such as Anise. Excellent blend, but can leave the typical Latakia ashtray taste in the mouth after a while. Not so Solent Mixture. The MB original cavendish goes incredibly well with the Latakia in this blend adding to the smokiness lending the perfect supporting role. The Virginias are quality and are just the right sweetness and the whole leaves a nice lightly sweet aftertaste once a bowl is finished. The rum gives a nice light perfumey note to the taste. It helps meld the tobaccos together. Nice moisture in the tin. More on the dry side than wet. Really perfect. Nice ribbon cut easy to fill a bowl. Lights once and burns even all the way down to a powder. First rate. No tongue bite here. I don't know why it took me so long to try this. Maybe I didn't trust Mac B to produce a good light English. I was wrong. Their full blown HH Vintage Syrian is excellent.

The Solent Mixture , sounds intriguing doesn't it? The name alone harkens images of solitude. A man sitting in his high back leather chair facing the fireplace, watching each and every lick of flame as it dances over the log. It invites a pensive state of mind, relaxed yet awakened.

The word Solent sounds an awful lot like solitude doesn't it? Though it means nothing of the sort. "The Solent is a stretch of sea separating the Isle of Wight from the mainland of England." A stretch of sea that seperates one from England. I can imagine (correctly or not I do not know) that Mac Baren chose the name The Solent Mixture because this blend is almost English, yet there is something separating it from being so. It's a wonderful blend of Virginia, Cavendish and Latakia. The tin aroma is delightfully smokey, yet not overwhelmingly so. There is a hint of that wonderful smell, yet it's hidden or perhaps interwoven with the sweet telling smell of Virginia's which play off of the cavendish oh so well. Everything comes together into one mouthwatering scent which begs to be packed in a pipe and enjoyed in a state of relaxation.

It's not a complex blend. Not one that leaves you guessing which leaf takes the lead and who takes a seat in the back. It's a blend in which everything comes together as one, yet each making it's own merit known. To me this is the perfect after work smoke. After a stressful day when it seems nothing came together for one common good, this blend shines through. The smoke brings memories of the old wood burning stove in my grandfathers shop, the smell of a sweet liqour and oddly enough every so often the faint taste of lavender. Not in a Lakeland blend sort of way, but in a nice calming sense.

While this is a Mac Baren blend, I have yet to get the slightest hint of tongue bite. If you're looking for a light Virginia with a touch of latakia that won't offend your better half, yet you can smoke for your own manly enjoyment this is it. I've smoked three tins of this so far and each pipeful sends me to the same relaxed mindset and somehow hits each spot that need's a hitting.

As I said, no tongue bite and burns to a nice dry gray ash. As a plus it's available in 16oz. bulk for a good price. Check it out, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

This is from my review on SF and CPS.

I bought this one when I queried Syrian tobacco and thought I would try it. I have been stocking up on other Syrian tobaccos because the end of Syrian tobacco I believe is coming sooner rather than later. I really enjoy HH Vintage Syrian which is one of my favorites. With that being said, the following commentary is of my own opinion. This blend definitely has the MacBaren signature, i.e. it bites but not as much as some of their other blends. It is spicy and produces a lot of smoke. Very little latakia is detected but then again this is an English mixture not a latakia mixture. I have had about 5 bowls of this and I do like it. I do not have a refined palate but it is flavored somewhat but not in a bad way. I bought a pound of it untried so I had better start liking it even more. Ha.

The Solent Mixture is very similar to Plumcake from the same manufacturer. But it's very different from it, at the same time. The similarities are in the presence of the rum topping, of some latakia and a rather burley forward blend. The differences are what makes TSM more different than similar to Plumcake. The Latakia and the Burley are much more forward in TSM, the rum topping is very present in the tin aroma but it's not as pronounced as in Plumcake, where the rum leads the various flavours; and TSM is a few notches higher in therms of richness and Vitamin N. TSM is somewhat an English crossover with an aromatic, at first, but it becomes closer to an English than a crossover as I progress: the rum topping is more present during the first half and then it starts to vanish. The Latakia doesn't seem very present while puffing, but it's very present on my tastebuds after a delay - I believe it's true when MB says it's Syrian Latakia; and it gives the tobacco a remarkable taste. The Burleys are dominating, and bold, unveiling a good nuttiness and tobacco taste. The Virginias are more remote but still bring a regular slight sweetness to the "ensemble". Past the half point, TSM tastes much more like a traditional English but with a higher proportion of Burleys than Latakia and Virginia, making it closer to an American inspired English. This blend has an after taste that is still a bit baffling for my tastebuds. It lingers on and is quite different from any other after taste I have experienced. To summarize, TSM might not seem like an English because of the rum topping that is fairly strong; but it doesn't dominate like as in Plumcake. The overall smoking experience is smoky, nutty and slightly sweet; the Vitamin N is satisfactory. I definitively like it but I'm not crazy enough about it to give it 4 stars. Recommended. I have 9 other tins in my cellar and I will order more in the future.

Solent is a solid, decent, but generally unremarkable English-style blend. (I'm not sure why the description of this tobacco on this site includes references to various strong topping, such as vanilla and cocoa as none of these are detectible in the smoke and they are not mentioned on Mac Baren's site, either; although Mac Baren's site _does_ mention the presence of dark rum.) As such, it begs comparison with other classic English blends such as Squadron Leader and Early Morning Pipe. Compared to those, it comes up somewhat short: It lacks a bit of the rich complexity, the depth, and the nicotine punch of those others. But it is eminently smokable, with a nice balance between the smokey Latakia, the sweet cavendish, and the tangy Virginia.

Solent arrives somewhat moist (as do pretty much all tinned blends), but attractively packed in Mac Baren's large disk-shaped tins. Only a small amount of drying is needed to render it smokable and the tin keeps the tobacco from drying too much even after it has been unsealed (but closed) for many weeks. Since Mac Baren sells 100 gram tins, rather than the more-common 50 gram tins, one tin lasts a while. The 100 gram tin also results in something of a bargain: Solent is notably less expensive, gram for gram, than other tobaccos of similar quality.

Solent packs and lights easily, even when moist, and the smoke is satisfying, pushing all the right "English" buttons. Despite the Latakia it _can_ bite, although it is far less vicious than many other blends that I could name. The nicotine content is very light--whether this is desirable or not depends on your particular goal. Personally, I prefer English blends as my breakfast smoke and, in that context, want a solid dose of nic. to complement my morning coffee or tea. While the flavor of Solent works very well with coffee, the punch is missing, which is disappointing.

Overall, you could do a lot worse than a tin of Solent, and the price is right.

If there has to be Latakia, let it be in huge quantities. I love strong Balkans and English Mixtures, and at the same time I love the biscuity refined taste of many Mac Baren tobaccos.

But, this Solent Mixture doesn't know what it wants to be. It tastes like a classic Mac Baren with a hint of English... and it disappoints slightly as both.

Latakia content is very noticeable and enough to tease your appetite, but not enough to sarisfy it. And where are the Orientals?

It is sweet, nutty, slightly smoky. But also slightly ashy, and undistiguished. Granted, the leaf quality is great as usual, and it burns wonderfully, cool and slow.

So, it is a pleasant tobacco, without specific faults or unpleasant traits. If I were given tins of it for free, I'd be glad to smoke them. Not having the advantage of smoking for free, and having to pay for my tobacco, I prefer to keep two separate kinds of tobaccos: some great Mac Barens without Latakia (Navy Mixture, Mixture Flake, Stockton... and even some of their great aromatics like Cube) AND some other more distinctive English-style tobaccos (like many of GLPease's wonderful offerings, or Butera's Pelican). Personally I enjoy the variations much more, rather than smoking only a single tobacco like Solent which tries to encompass all styles.

But, I'll repeat it again, it's far from a bad blend: actually, if you like only a touch of Latakia, it's hard to find something better than this.

I’m no tobacco expert, though I’ve been smoking pipes and cigars for many years, I do consider myself a well versed aficionado that uses the information on Tobacco Reviews to find what I like. With that being said, if Jimlnks says it’s a 3 or 4 then I buy it and I’ve been satisfied so far. I tend to like about half of the Mac Baren products I smoke, which is a wide range of styles and this company offers a good variety of tobaccos that don’t break the bank. I usually smoke Navy Flake or anything from the H $ H line and this is something quite different. If you’re looking to take a step up from mild to medium, Solent or English might be a good bet. This has a good mixture of Virginia sweetness with Burley boldness with just enough Latakia to add spiciness. The Latakia is not as pronounced as in Peterson’s Nightcap, which is a great tobacco as well…..this seems as it could be a Seven Seas Series outlier and I would mix this blend with some Oriental blend like Cornell and Diehl’s Oriental Silk or their Izmar to make it a true English.

Come on....Dear Mac Baren....as a Dane I have often greatly enjoyed your wonderful tobaccos...but this....

- It lights up like damp cartoon. -Impossible to keep lit. -Burns hot as lava, when you puff to keep it alive (and puff you must!)

10+years experience as a pipe-smoker, and I STILL cant get to terms, with this soggy mess..

Mac Baren...you proud provider of tobacco to the Danes. Why do you deliver an end product, that's wet as Cardi B's *****???? When I buy a tobacco, my initial idea is to...duhh... smoke IT!! ...not go "Ohhh, I'll just leave this to dry for 2 weeks, before I light it up"

The Solent Mixture. I have smoked this in a multitude of pipes in various shapes and all I get is grape. It is a constant flavor from top to bottom that never seems to vanish. I have seen another reviewer refer to a wine taste which also could be true. The latakia is in the background and the Virginia's are sweetened by the cav. I smoked half the tin and cellared the rest. My tin was dated July 2018 and I bought it three months ago. After the exposure to air and jarring I'll revist at a later date. This would be a four star blend if the grape flavor would vanish, but it never does for me, which pretty much covers the trues flavors of the tobacco. It's not a bad blend, just not my cup of tea. Just my opinion, yours may differ.

Lager