Mac Baren Cube

(2.14)
For nearly a quarter of a decade, Henrik Halberg, master blender and 4th generation owner of Mac Baren Tobacco, has been selecting the five tobaccos used to craft this outstanding blend. The Blend consists of both pressed tobacco and loose cut varieties that make filling your pipe easy and ensure a cool, slow burn. Enjoy the elements experienced from the finest craftsmanship available in fine pipe tobacco. Puzzle your senses with its deep, sweet and fruity taste. Each time will be better than the last. Mac Baren Cube is THE smoking experience for the true connoisseur.
Notes: Introduced in 2004.

Details

Brand Mac Baren
Blended By Henrik Halberg
Manufactured By Mac Baren
Blend Type Aromatic
Contents Black Cavendish, Burley, Cavendish, Kentucky, Virginia
Flavoring Fruit / Citrus
Cut Ribbon
Packaging pouch weight
Country Denmark
Production No longer in production

Profile

Strength
Mild
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild -> Overwhelming
Flavoring
Strong
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
None Detected -> Extra Strong
Room Note
Pleasant
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unnoticeable -> Overwhelming
Taste
Medium
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild (Flat) -> Overwhelming

Average Rating

2.14 / 4
11

27

24

35

Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 10 of 97 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Apr 14, 2006 Mild to Medium Very Mild Mild to Medium Very Pleasant
Surprisingly.... Absoultely delicious!

I believe a fair review of a blend means to compare it to others of its genre rather than compare it to something of an entirely different make up. A Clydesdale and a Thoroughbred are both horses, but there are a few differences in the breeds. LOL!

Mac Baren's Cube is a delightful change of pace for Virginia lovers. I am not sure Latakia hounds will appreciate this one but it is very similar to a medium strength straight Virginia with some very special and heavy aromatic touches.

Cube is a Burley/Virginia combination that contains black Cavendish that bears a sweetner. I loved the way this blend packed, stayed lit and smoked mostly dry to the very bottom of the bowl with little effort.

This is an aromatic that tastes like tobacco and will offer about the most enticing room note I've ever encountered.... Sweet, yet tobaccoey!

I would highly recommend Cube to anyone who enjoys tobacco taste with some added sweetness and a room note that will bring the ladies running. Ain't nothin' not to like about this offering.
11 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
May 11, 2015 Strong Strong Very Full Pleasant
This is a ribbon cut Danish aromatic with just a little broken flake, and hydrated to the perfect level for smoking. The tobacco smells stronger in the pouch than in the room or your mouth, though it's rather pungent. I get several tropical fruity flavors here (apricots, mango, etc.), including some vanilla and sugar from the black cavendish. The burley adds a very slight nutty, earthy sweetness. The gold Virginia has some citrus and grass. I observe a few light date spots. The cocoa is silky creamy and I detect some maple. Virginia cavendish also sweetens the pot with toast, grass and honey. The toppings are fragrant and sharply sweet, with a few sour notes, which is typical of many Danish aromatics. Best to sip this one or risk a little head rush. The nic-hit is mild. Won't bite, but can get just a little warm on the tongue. Burns at a moderate pace, cool and clean with a very consistent flavor. Needs few relights, and leaves little moisture in the bowl. The after taste and room note do linger. I'd rather rate this at two and half stars, but since that option isn't available, and this is not a two star blend in the genre, I rate it three stars.

Currently, it's sold as Cube Silver, which is why my review is the same for both.

-JimInks
9 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Aug 23, 2007 Mild to Medium Strong Full Very Pleasant
You know what they say about one man's meat being another man's poison?

Well, I reckon they probably invented the saying to fit MB Cube. I know what the previous reviews have said, but I am willing to be the odd man out in writing a positive review. I like this stuff!

Call me a big girl if you wish (awaits accusation), but MB have hit a fruity, sherbety, candy-floss coated winner here. Having (in vain) attempted with numerous telephone calls to source an alternative to Skandinavik Mixture here in the UK, I saw this new and untried blend on the shelf whilst chatting to the shop assistant in my local and fairly decent tobacconist. It caught my eye because I had seen it advertised on the 'Net in a German store, and I fancied something different to relieve my frustration at being unable to get any of the aformentioned Danish blend. Having stomped in frustrated, I walked out intrigued.

You know what? Glad I went for it. It is everything that the other reviews have suggested - very sweet, bizarrely Juicy Fruity, but really interesting. Not a traditional pipe tobacco. Nope, not even a bit. Yes it is cased extremely heavily. No, it has no latakia. Smells a lot like a sweet shop, or for our American reviewers, a candy store - sherbet, apricots, Pear Drops... and tastes like it too.

Clearly, most of us couldn't treat it as an all day smoke - or even as a 'every other day smoke' maybe - but it has merits. I have a house full of people asking me what the great smell is, and I reckon I could smoke this whilst wearing one of those T shirts with the yellow smiley face on the front. Burned hot, no tongue bite, and the bowl was quickly gone with a dry and mottled ash remaining.

It is what it smells like - fun, zesty and youthful... it is to pipe tobacco what alcopops are to a Friday night out when the Real Ale taps are dry.

Give it a try, but accept it for what it is!

Shame it is a loose tobacco here and not in a fancy box, but you can't have everything.
6 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jun 15, 2015 Mild Medium to Strong Medium Very Pleasant
Cube vs Cube Silver – After I recently finish off the last of my tobacco I emailed Mac Baren prior to re-stocking regarding…

For clarification concerning Cube the silver was introduced first, and therefore it was only named Cube. A few years later the Cube Bronze and Gold was introduced and Mac Baren had to rename the Cube to Cube Silver per Georg Jensen: Mac Baren Tobacco Company.

The Cube Silver is a mild, aromatic blend that is ideal as an everyday smoke. Its smooth, creamy flavor is cool and slow-burning. Utilizes Burley, Cavendish, Oriental, Turkish, and Virginia tobaccos. This is not the gooey sugary topped tobacco that some would have expected. Rather an essence of tropical flavors. Coconut, Vanilla, Black pepper, Berry in just the right amount, as it did not hide the flavor of the quality tobacco which serves as the foundation of this very interesting blend. The flavoring stays ´til the very end, not overwhelming the tobacco taste and leaves a very pleasant room note. This is where 'the cube' seems to break from the pack and has a great flavor to match the delicious room note. For an aromatic lover this could be an ideal all-day smoke.
Pipe Used: Various briars
5 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
May 11, 2015 Very Mild Very Strong Overwhelming Very Pleasant
ahhhhh cube , my smoke of choice. The first time i lit this up i felt it was rank because of the overwhelming sweet taste , it can be overpowering. My trick is to let it dry a little , humor the concept and you wont be disappointed. I find slow paced gentle puffing makes it even more pleasant and i think this pairs with bourbon to form a candy floss like taste that is extremely addictive. I feel it has no strength , which i enjoy if im honest , its a baccy for late at night watching a film after a huge dinner. The smell off this wont send anybody running for a fire extinguisher and my other half loves it. Its surprising actually how nice it is , but then again some folk dont like overly sweet things. I will remember this chirstmas very fondly , snow outside , warmth and peace inside. The smell brings it back and i miss it so much that i know i will smoke this for as long as i can.
Pipe Used: an old pear wood - which works well with this
4 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jul 09, 2014 Medium Very Strong Extra Full Pleasant
Mac Baren Cube.

This seems to get a lot of poor responses so it intrigued me to find out for myself if all of the negativeness was justified! I have to admit that upon opening it I found the initial aroma to be amazing, there is a wonderful full bodied tobacco smell boosted with a lovely fruity/citrus touch as well. The appearance of the tobacco is a little "messy", there are many different sizes, shapes, cuts and colours, some even like small pieces of roll cake. Mine is on the moist side also so I think some extra airing time would benefit this one. Once lit I find it a little perplexing, not particularly "foul", but the taste is messy. It seems to me to be a very busy tobacco that they have tried far to hard to make appeal to the connoisseurs! There are so many flavours of tobaccos, fruit and citrus with the latter being the loudest in the mix: imagine smoking a fruit salad! Another negative point for me is that it bites like a rabid dog! A plus point is that the vitamin N is quite a good level, not making me light headed but not being too faint.

I feel that if they had added a little less to this it would actually be a pleasant blend, alas they have gone totally mental with the amounts and that does indeed justify all the negative responses!
Pipe Used: Altinok Lee Van Cleef
PurchasedFrom: Smoke King
Age When Smoked: New
4 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jul 31, 2009 Very Mild Mild Medium Pleasant
Even if it begins smoking with a somewhat tobacco taste, it is very sweet. And for my taste it is not a real tobacco. It is a high quality product but too much aromatic for me. However for aromatic lovers can be a great choise.
4 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
May 29, 2009 Mild Medium to Strong Mild Pleasant
The only reason this gets two stars instead of one is that I am not an aro smoker so I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt. Tobacco taste is why I smoke a pipe, and this stuff just doesn't have it. It's all casing and not very good at that. I'm giving it two stars because I think aromatic smokers will like it.
4 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jan 06, 2009 Mild Mild to Medium Medium Very Pleasant
Cube is a wonderful aromatic tobacco for pipe smokers who knows how to enjoy Heavy Aromatics, Cube tobacco quality is excellent, tastes delicious, room note is simply magic.

Cube is naturally flavored, means there are no chemical agents or sweeteners usually found in most cheap drugstore brands, it ages very well if left opened for a year or more, it taste natural tobacco (Va/Br) with exotic fruits.

As a smoker of any good quality tobacco(aromatic or not), I love this tobacco and I have a churchwarden dedicated for it, I buy it in bulk, I enjoy it especially when I am with the girlfriend.
4 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Nov 16, 2007 Extremely Mild Very Strong Extremely Mild (Flat) Pleasant
Unfortunately not my cup of tea at all.

I had begun a reassessment of Mac Baren tobaccos partly because many of them are now readily available in my country, and partly because I believe that if smoked slowly and leisurely, many Macs are actually pretty good (Vintage Syrian, Mixture, Navy Flake and Virginia Nº 1, for example).

After trying and, more frequently than not, enjoying Original Choice, I thought I'd give Cube a try. Oh my! Big mistake. In my view, this tobacco is exceedingly moist (more so than most other Macs), exceedingly perfumed, and, flavor wise, exceedingly sweet, to a nauseating point.

Unlike Original Choice or Mixture Modern, which are also rather sweet and very aromatic, I couldn't grasp any tobacco flavor beneath the heavy casing of Cube. No Virginias, no Burleys, no Cavendish. Just a very strong vanilla-on fruit-on caramel-on honey concoction. It is so mild that even when I did smoke it very slowly, that infamous tongue-biting Mac Baren trend (which I thought was, at least for my palate, a thing of the past) immediately became present, and in a very aggressive mood.

Flavor wise, Cube kind of reminds me of Larsen's Selected Blend Nº 50. But whereas Larsen's has a refined yet manly denouement, Cube is--again, in my view--utterly infantile. Plain sweet, no tobacco, no structure. Not again.

Addendum, 22 june 09:

Subjectivity is inevitable, be it in physics or in tobacco reviewing. I was given as a gift a 50 gm. silver pouch of Cube. I had vowed not to try this smoking entity again. My previous experience with this blend came from the big plastic canister in which Mac Baren is now marketing some of its products. My original impression was highly negative.

This time it was not so much a matter of objectivity over subjectivity, but one of relative curiosity. Would it be different? Would my impressions modify? Well, keeping in line with relativity, yes and no.

These are my observations, which I hope will be helpful to someone out there.

1. Is Cube blended from quality leaf? Like all Mac Barens, Im sure it is. Their site states this is a blend of Virginias, Burleys and cavendished Virginias, in varying proportions, personally selected by the companys owner and master blender, from different regions worldwide. I may not like all of MBs offering, but so far I have yet to find a blend that is note developed from top grade leaf.

2. Is it cased with artificial flavors, sauces, and essences? Again, and this is no exaggeration: it is heavily cased (this is the type of casing I usually refer to as overwhelming). It says so in MBs site as well. A cornucopia of fruit flavors and essences, Caribbean sugar, chocolate sauces and other sweet flavoring agents have been generously applied (in my view, an understatement) in order to create a unique taste and aroma.

To be fair, I compared Cube not only to tobaccos of a similar kind, but also to similar tobaccos from the SAME brand. Cubes artificial aromas are far stronger, pungent, and sweeter than: (a) Original Choice; (b) Black Ambrosia (compared to Cube, its almost a non-scented blend); (c) Golden Ambrosia (slightly similar, but to my palate far more refined and elegant), and (d) Original Choice Aromatic. In terms of flavor, Cube and OCA are very similar, but to my 30-year old-smoking palate Cube seems to be in steroids.

The only other MB I find as heavily cased is Vanilla Cream Loose Cut. However, VCLCs strong casing DOES dissipate if left to air overnight (whilst keeping the most delectable vanilla flavor), and it never occludes the natural taste of tobacco.

3. A side note is in order: so far theres really nothing unique about the leaf components: virtually all MBs are a blend of Virginias, Burley and Cavendished leaf. As to the flavor/casing, Ive tasted a very similar (if not identical) composition in at least three other Danish brands: Petersen & Sorensens Danish Mixture; Ashtons Type 5, and Larsens Selected Blend Nº 50. In my view, Cube and P & S are identical. Both, by the way, will leave a strong, enduring flavor in your pipe and palate for days.

4. Does it have artificial humectants? Very much so. I removed the contents from the pouch and left it to air and dry well over eight hours. It was still very moist and pungent (if you press it in the palm of your hand, it will immediately sponge back). When Ive done the same with other MBs, such as Original Choice, Virginia Nº1 or Mixture, they all become crisp and their aromas somewhat muted and restrained. Its not then a question of the leafs natural oils or resins. Again, the same happens with P & Ss Danish Mixture.

5. Does it bite? In my 30 years or so of pipe smoking, Ive come to realize that in many cases biting is the result of an erroneous packing technique, and a fast and humid puffing cadence. But due to mildness and high sugar content, many tobaccos can generate that hot-burning-biting sensation no matter how carefully you pack and smoke them. Mixture 79 is an example, and so is MBs Virginia Nº1. That is something the company itself acknowledges, and as part of their marketing strategy for Original Choice or Black Ambrosia, they highlight the fact that theyve managed to develop a mild blend that does not smart on the tongue.

Now, back to Cube: unlike my first experience, this time it didnt bite immediately. But if youre not careful enough, by mid bowl that hot-biting sensation will make itself pretty evident. So be warned. If you want to alleviate bite with this one smoke it very slowly and carefully, and let it air as much as you can.

6. Does it taste of tobacco? Not to me. Im sorry, but I dont get any tobacco flavor at all from this one. There are many aromatic blends in which the natural tobacco taste is not absorbed or abducted by the artificial flavorings (Royal Yacht, Blue Note, Captain Black or, so they tell me, Silems Black). The casing and humectants in Cube are so strong and pervasive that, as far as my palate is concerned, all tobacco reference is lost. So I stand by my utterly infantile contention: more than a pipe tobacco, to me its the equivalent of an adults candy bar.

7. Would I recommend this blend? Theres no better judgment than your own personal experience with a blend. If you are a predominantly aromatic smoker, and dont mind heavily cased and very sweet blends, this could very well be manà. However, I would never recommend this blend to anyone who is not an aromatic smoker, or to anyone who doesnt mind an aromatic every now and then (which is my case). To each his own. As for me, and this time its for real, never again.
4 people found this review helpful.
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