Mac Baren St. Bruno Ready Rubbed

having now smoked st. bruno flake as well as ready rubbed back to back, i must say that though the difference is not huge, it's enough to make them two rather different tobaccos.

pouch aroma: "soap", and some smokyness from the fire cured. not much raisin or other typical fermented virginia smell. perhaps a hint of vanilla.

it packs and lights easily, as is to be expected from a rr tobacco. the taste is rather flat compared to the flake version. i really miss the berry-like sweetness of aged/stoved virginias which is quite evident in the flake version, and all i seem to be left with is the kentucky - plus, it seems, vanilla and some burley harshness. i cannot for the life of me find much trace of the red virginia reported by others, though i guess it must be there, somehow. this one actually comes a lot closer to an old sweedish classic, "greve hamiltons blandning".

not a bad tobacco, but nowhere near the complex beauty of the flake, really

can the two versions really be made from the same raw tobaccos? is the difference simply a result of the different cuts? personally, i'd doubt it.

Bought some on the line of thinking 'if all else fails, at least I can grab some of this stuff from practically any newsagents'. Was a bit scared, worried that it would taste and smell like dung. Or roadkill. Packed a bowl of my wee Dr Plumb Lightweight. Got her fired up easily enough. Sat and chugged away for 15 minutes. While I wouldn't smoke this all the time however it certainly gets a 'Somewhat Recommended' because 'if all else fails....'.

It is what it is...

A long standing British supermarket blend. If sipped, it's a steady smoke that edges towards a full flavour.

Not much more to say, other than the old TV ads with the St Bruno dog were entertaining.

I guess there's a reason it's been around for so long. Be careful though, a lot of the time if you are going to buy it OTC, ask the person how long it's been there, as often it's been there a while and can be dry..

Readily available in almost every newsagents up and down Britain. I guess this is the UK's 'Prince Albert'

I'm broken boned and spewing blood, marooned on an arctic ice shelf in my turtleneck sweater after tumbling from the precipice of a glacier. With an icicle stuck up my arse, and my right arm idly swinging from an ice-pick, some 150 metres above me, I'm buggered. I'd also die for one last smoke to ease the pain, but my left hand is severely frostbitten. Cue the music - and a dopey, great St. Bernard Dog upon the horizon, lolloping to my aid and wheezing under the sheer weight of the biggest slab of St. Bruno RR you've never commercially seen. Evidently, it's been via the airport and had the sense to afford me some timely duty-free.

"Cancel the chopper. Paws or no paws, get that pipe filled and spark up!"

At least that's how the UK St. Bruno ads of the 80s would have us believe it, when I was a youngster... More or less. Nowadays, you have to walk to the newsagents and pay for the privilege. Meh.

Those were my overriding memories of St. Bruno, until the day I mistakenly bought flake to make rolling ciggies as a student. Now, as a pipe smoker, I procured a small pouch of RR to readdress the balance. Evidently, I wanted to hate it, not simply because of the my aforementioned naivety, but rather more because it's a commercial smoke in the UK, available in any two-bit local shop (sadly, we don't do drugstore blends in drugstores in England). And commercialized things, as I have attested to in the past (see my 'Clan' review), are objects of derision; to be avoided, in my experience.

However, unlike 'Clan', it's commercial shelf neighbour, aside of Condor, this is actually a rather pleasant smoke, if not the most exciting. It's pouch note seems to be a lot stronger than the smoke, with a 'meaty' (almost seasoned steak), robust body, moderate sourness, and the faintest hint of dried fruit sweetness. I certainly don't sense any of the soapiness that some have mentioned. It's thinly rubbed, compared to many, yet yields a decent moisture content. I didn't get the large helping of tobacco stem that some did in my 25g pouch.

First impressions are indicative of a strong tobacco, but St. Bruno is far from it; smooth and bite-less, with a mere hint of added flavouring, that I can't quite place. In smoking quality and coolness, it's akin to McQuaid Plug, albeit without the generous depth of flavour.

For me, it went some way to prove that I can walk down the road and buy generally good tobacco, without having to mail order from the internet, or travel to a bigger city. It's a middle-of-the-road, inoffensive smoke, with reasonable characteristics. It tastes ok, burns well after the first charring, and will see you through the whole day.

The "Patron Saint of Pipe Smokers" slogan from the 80s, seems to have been replaced with "A Pipe's Best Friend". I can't help wondering if that's largely to do with the evident inoffensiveness of this blend. Would I smoke it again? As a back- up option, when I'm clean out of everything better, yes. Would I recommend it to you? Yes. Is it the best commercially available pipe tobacco? I would think so.

For the record, the St. Bernard on the pack still looks under the weather. Perhaps that's due to the death of the high street tobacconist that we should all lament.

Tangy fruit in the pouch. Needs some drying time. Slow burning. Pleasant Lakeland aroma. Lacks heft in the Nic dept. Won't be a regular for me

Probably the most scented tobacco I have smoked , I think it's va , difficult to tell with all that casing , no strength to it or in other words not much nicotine , why do people keep comparing it with condor which I quite like , vinegar and soap , not quite bad enough to bin , will smoke occasionally in a dedicated cob , just about gets 2 stars , disappointing . More like a sweet desert , not much actual tobacco taste.

I love St Bruno Flake, it's something I come back to every autumn. Rich, earthy, woody tobaccos with a leathery scent applied, it burns cool and smooth and really is hard to beat.

The ready rubbed is OK, but not as good. It's sweeter, and comes very moist indeed. The tobacco is not stoved for as long, and is rubbed by machines. The result is an uneven mix with big chunks and lots of small stuff, and the last few bowls from the pouch will be all crumbs. Still, it's decent stuff and will do in a pinch.

The underlying tobaccos in this blend are of good quality and have a very pleasant taste. The Virginia's are sweet and with a comforting bready note. The Kentucky – I assume it is the Kentucky in the blend that does this – provides a toasty body with notes of burnt wood (if you think campfire then that's not what I mean; think rather in the direction of roasted coffee beans or burnt toast). Nice creamy smoke that is thick enough to provide a complete visual disguise.

However, I can't get around to the particular flavour added to this blend, and that's why I halfway through my second bowl officially gave up St. Bruno and chucked the contents of my pipe into the cup of cold cappuccino in front of me. The flavour is soapy, like a Lakeland. For the record, I do like several Lakelands and Ennerdale Flake is one that I like a lot. Ironically, St.B reminds me a lot of EF, only that I instantly enjoyed the topping of EF, while can't get around to the topping of St.B. To me, the topping of St.B reminds me of chemical cleaning detergents, while the EF topping... somehow does the trick for me!

Due to the pleasantness of the leaf itself, I can't really blame my dislike of this blend on anything else than lack of personal preference for the topping. That's why I allow it two stars, although my personal smoking experience hardly deserves half a star. The fact that I can appreciate the different dimensions of the tobacco flavours despite the (to my palate) nasty topping, really means that this is quality tobacco. By all means, give it a go – some people love the stuff – and especially if you enjoy EF.

Thanks to the wonders of the internet, even smokers who are not lucky enough to live near a good high street tobacconist, can choose from a huge range of tobacco.

This is available from most cigarette retailers in supermarkets etc and is actually a lot nicer than I was expecting. I'd class this as a "no frills everyday smoke" with a nice solid flavour and pleasing smoke.

My one complaint. As pipe tobacco is not as widely smoked as it once was, I have no idea how long this pouch had been sitting on the shop shelf before I came alone and bought it. It was absolutely bone dry when I opened the packet. It wasn't too difficult to re-hydrate over a couple of days and I was able to smoke it.