Mac Baren HH Mature Virginia

With the name, I was interested to learn that there were more than just VA's hiding in this mixture.

I picked up a canister with a 1lb bag in it at the Raleigh pipe show in 2018 and decided to open it.

I decided to smoke a bowl before reading up on it. Compared to my normal VAs it seemed to have spice to go along with the expected sweetness. It was easy to pack and light and smoked like a charm in a small Canadian.

Sad to read it is out of production as I could see this having a place of my long-term rotation. Knowing it's the last I'll probably get, I'll enjoy it as a treat.

This is a natural aromatic mixture (only a minimal casing as declared from the house). We have to admit that there are a lot of flavored mixtures, but very few natural aromatic mixtures. A natural aromatic blend is without any flavoring (no flavoring and no top dressing) and the taste is a real tobacco taste because it comes only from the leaf. Natural aromatics are mainly Cavendish and Black Cavendish mixtures, often with steamed or stoved or toasted Virginia, but unflavored (I mean that also the cavendish tobacco is unflavored; it is allowed only a little bit of sugar). Well, this is one of the rare natural aromatic mixtures. You can appreciate the taste or not, but this is another thing. Anyway, if you want to taste a real aromatic but unflavored mixture here is it. I hope Mac Baren will produce it again because this kind of mixtures are very difficult to find in the market. Three stars and a half for the idea and two stars and a half regarding the taste. For these reasons, in my personal rating system (from 1 to 10) my score is 8 and three stars.

Another from the bombing I got handed from the BoB. It fits in well with my va exploration.

The tin note is sweet and grassy. It is golden and some brown bits. The paper in the tin is stained brown from the moisture of the leaf. The va is the star in this play, very citrus yet rounded out by a sweet smokiness that I'm really enjoying. Odd, how this one disappeared as it is good.

The taste is citrusy and bready, with a smokey kind of savory element. It's one the few that I notice a bread taste in. I like that savory element to it, normally I just get citrus from a va heavy blend. I'm sorry to hear it's gone, and appreciate that I got gifted the 100g tin. I still have a good few ounces to savor some other time.

Before i start this review please note that i liked this tobacco better than the rating suggests.

After opening the tin a very strong and distinctive olive smell greets you. This, in its uniqueness, is somewhat of an unexpected treat. Also the paper covering the tobacco is soaked full with oils from the tobacco. This also is a treat for the eye as well as the nice appearance of the blend itself.

When smoked the tobacco offers a nice and spicy sweetness with nice virginia aromas. There is no whatsoever tongue bite either. The olive smell is not detectable in taste anymore. The blend tastes nice and harmonious down to the very end of the bowl but stays rather one dimensional. Which is the reason for the low rating of this tobacco - it entirely lacks a unique selling point.

This is a pity because the tobaccos used in this blend are of impeccable quality. And in times like these where virtually everything regarding pipes turned for the worse we should be thankful for the HH series of blends. This blend was modeled after a recipe from 1890 and although this does give an interesting peak in the tobaccos of yonder times it maybe is also the reason for, in the end, being a bland blend compared to modern virginia blends.

In the aftertaste it leaves a very nice sweetness on the tongue that lasts for quiet some time.

The room note is of a nice spicy tobacco aroma, which to me is very pleasent.

What i disliked on this blend is that it leaves the bowls used with a rather sour smell that doesn't dissipate, as many virginia blends will. It does not affect the taste at all but i really enjoy smelling the cleaned, smoked bowls alot.

So, should you try it should you be able to get ahold of the last remaining tins? Yes, that's a definitive yes. I was very glad to have stumbled over it, although i wouldn't buy it again.

Another reviewer says this is the grill with ketchup, sausage and all. I agree. That is the tin note. Very unusual.

Taste of the tobacco was not disagreeable but not great.

This was a harsh tobacco for me. I didn't care for it, but you might.

Opening the tin reveals a very wet tobacco with so many different smells and notes. Sweet and fruity, tangy and cheesy (literally).

Once ready, I took my meerschaum pipe filled it and lit it. The tobacco is certainly complex and has a pleasant taste to it (honey maybe, natural virginias, bitter notes, some pain d'épices spices), but burns on the hot side and has somewhat of a bite to it. I am not impressed. I will give this tobacco another try in a briar pipe dedicated to VA tobaccos to see if I get any difference.

I am really sad to give this tobacco one star as I had some high expectations of it. I will update in case in a briar pipe I get something different from it.

This is the blend that stopped me from smoking a pipe till now, and that was 2 years ago. The tin aroma smells like rotten fruit, and the taste of it made me taste nothing but that rotten taste for hours afterwards. I will never touch anything from Mac Baren again. Just too much bad experience from them.

I'm a latecomer and noob to pipe smoking, so take that into account. I purchased a new Peterson 309 ebony pipe to work more with Virginia tobaccos. I decided to break in this pipe with HH Mature Viginia performing the 1/4-1/2-3/4-Full method. I won't bother commenting about the first smokes out of a new pipe as it is obviously not fair till the pipe gets some seasoning. When I first opened the can it was an amazing aroma for a tobacco. Someone here said Tobasco or vinegar - sure it has that nose. I actually like it, plus I've learned what it smells like is not what it tastes like.

My first go at this product left my tongue a bit sore. Being a noob I tend to smoke a bit too hot and fast so there are no surprises there that it bit me. I've since learned to slow it down and be more attentive. It is true that more attentiveness brings out the best in this product, as is probably true with most others as well. The aroma out of the pipe is sweet and enjoyable to me. The first half of the bowl generates nice bluish smoke and has a very sweet flavor. The last half of the bowl gave me more an impression of what some oriental blends give me like Westminster. All in all I enjoy the product, and will always keep some around. It does perform better when you let it dry a bit.

Update: The more I smoke this blend the more I like it 😉 The complexity of it is tantalizing. After my Peterson 309 got broken in this blend just rocks in it.

This is terrific tobacco as are a number of the HH blends used by MacB to raise its own bar by a considerable few notches. Very unlike even the most esoteric Virginias out there, which is great and fine by me. Good quality leaf, well presented, lights and burns nicely, tastes fabulous with a spectrum of rich and slightly off center flavors through the bowl (all good to the (un)bitter end) and, shockingly, a smoke profile that happily hasn't a hint of its tin note that my olfactory nerves can rank as only, well, rank. Nasty smell no matter how hard I try to find a softer euphemism. But, hey, that's just my nose. My taste buds say otherwise and, I don't know about you, I buy tobacco to smoke it and not to bury my nostrils in the tin. Old Dark Fired, Vintage Syrian and this fine Virginia are welcome additions to our smoking slice of the world.

OLIVE BRINE! Someone said it below and I just saw this observation. That's the tin note!! And green and very vinegary olives at that. But again, no worries. The stuff tastes nothing like that, but probably goes nicely with a dry martini.