Mac Baren Honey & Chocolate

I started to smoke this tobacco with the wrong technique and was very disappointed. I forgot that MOST AROMATICS MUST BE SMOKED SLOW. So I tried it again, with a different attitude: I sipped, I puffed a bit, I took it easy and... a miracle happened. The tobacco climbed from unpleasant to delightful. I could taste the chocolate a lot more and the tobacco stopped irritating my mouth and became smooth. I will never forget the secret technique again...

Basically, all you will taste is honey and chocolate, though I did detect a light golden cavendish toast and honey here and there. Has a little nicotine. Won't bite, but could get a little warm on your tongue if you puffed fast. Burns slightly slow with a very consistent flavor, and leaves some moisture in the bowl. Needs an average number of relights. Has a decent after taste. The strength of the blend is potent, and I recommend a small bowl. It may require a little dry time, and the room note is very noticeably sweet. Not an all day smoke.

-JimInks

Not too bad of a blend. Sweet and nutty. Burns hot and sticky in the pipe. very prone to biting. Flavor and aroma wise its not that bad. However, it burns hot, fast, and wet. A decent attempt but overall not well executed.

The age of miracles is not over! It's taken me over thirty years but I've finally found a MacBaren blend I really like. Honey and Chocolate is IMO a superb smoke. It taste like honey and chocolate. This is one of the few aro's I have run across that taste like it's name. Upon lighting you get the unmistakeable flavor of a semi-sweet chocolate along with a fair amount of tobacco taste as well. I really like Bob's Chocolate flake but I must say I think I like this more. If you enjoy the more complex mixtures you might not care for this as it has only three distinct flavors. It is what it is but I truly love it. I'm gonna stock up on this!

UPDATE 02/04/2012: The more I smoke this the more I like it. I'm putting H&C in my all time top five aromatic list. It's that good!

This has become one of my favorites lately. I bought three ounces of this from my local tobacconist and upon smoking two bowls returned for 8 more ounces. Burns well, no bite and a wonderful room note. Has an unsweetened dark chocolate aroma.

For once, MacBaren has come up with an aromatic that displays some strength of character. Of note, it does not bite at all either. I hesitated before putting it to the test because I do not usually fancy aromatics but the overall good reviews convinced me to try it.

H&C is an all black cavendish tobacco (half and half of dark brown leaf with medium brown) that hits you with a strong aroma of bitter-sweet dark chocolate, then a subtle touch of honey when you breathe in very deeply in the tin. The fair presence of the aroma got me worried at first. I was expecting a sticky leaf, thus a disappointing experience. However, after noticing it was obvious the cavendish went through a long aging process because the leaf was not sticky at all and that the moisture content was low, which is good for a dark mixture, I wasn't worried anymore. I knew this would become a good smoking experience.

This all black CA mixture is top quality. The taste of pure tobacco is "in duo" with the honey and chocolate flavoring that is present and not overwhelming. The loose cut makes the pipe easy to fill and light up. Nevertheless, this mixture is strong for an all black cavendish. The nicotine level is satisfying, which is also uncommon for an aromatic.

H&C is a good aromatic. Snotters should alter course rather than give this tobacco a try. Maybe too strong for a newbie. I will definitively rebuy because H&C is the only aromatic I know that, besides truly smoking dry, also satisfies me on the taste and nicotine departments.

Recommended

Apparently this blend is no longer in production. I don't care. I love aromatics, but this was too sweet even for my tastes. Imagine stuffing a fudge brownie, drizzled in fudge, stuffing it in your pipe, and lighting it. Boy, does it ever ghost a pipe too!

I used to love chocolate-flavored blends, but now they all seem too sweet for me. Looking back, my love for chocolate blends starting disappearing around the time I tried this.

Like several other reviewers I really wanted to like this one. But, it's a weird blend. The taste is like smoking cocoa honey inscence with a bitter ashy taste taste that keeps reoccurring. Not a lot a chocolate and a strange "honey' flavoring. I tried smoking this in several pipes - and no matter how big or small the size of the pipe it burned like wildfire. No tongue bite though -however left kind of a Funk in my mouth. I think the word "Bizarre" sums up my thoughts on this blend exactly - which might be a Good Thing for some of you.

Update 6/2/2015 I am liking this better after not smoking it for a while - but it may have been discontinued - so this may be a moot point.

What a nice treat from Mac Baren! A dark Cavendish that has a pleasant chocolate taste and a little ump in the strength and nicotine department. I'm not sure what some of the others were smoking but I found the tobacco to burn cool with little no bite. I really did not detect the honey but the chocolate or I should say cocoa mingled with the Cavendish to create a very relaxing 35 minutes.

As a fan and regular smoker of MB blends, I am trying to get around to all of them.

I found this blend to make a much better blending tobacco than smoking it straight. It does not burn the tongue, actually it smokes very smooth and rich with the cocoa coming through in the background and not in your face. It has a nice tin aroma, you can smell the cocoa in it as well as a little sweetness of the honey in it. It comes in a nice coarse cut that lights and smokes very well. I tried it fresh, found it a little too wet nd let it dry a few days and it became a nice smoke. It requires very few relights and burns down to a nice grey ash with little if any dottle. I just did not find this blend all that satisfying to smoke regularly, but when I started blending it with other tobaccos it performed quite nicely. It adds a fullness and richness to other blends. The room note is very pleasant, I never got any complaints and several people told me that its smelled great. While aromatic smokers will most likely enjoy this blend, I doubt smokers of non aromatic blends would. I only gave it two stars as it does not excel particularly but I really can find no fault with it other than it is not one that I will buy again.