Mac Baren Mixture Flake

My tin dates to July 2013. Certainly not well-aged, but a bit of age on it. When it arrived a month or so ago I heat-sealed half the tin in a small mason jar to age for another six months to a year. The remainder went into another small mason jar for daily use.

My first impressions of this tobacco were not positive. I was making the new pipe smoker mistake of comparing this to other tobaccos not in its genre. It arrived with an order other tobaccos, including a tin of Orlik Golden Sliced, and as I'm a Virginia lover, it just didn't stack up to OGS. I figured a flake is a flake. Newbie error.

A month of aging in the non-sealed mason jar has done wonders for this tobacco. Or perhaps I'm just beginning to appreciate each tobacco for what it brings to the palate. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this tobacco - the tin describes it as a blend of Virginia, Burley, Cavendish, and lightly aromatic. A very apt description.

Mixture Flake was my morning smoke today. Once lit, it stayed lit to the bottom of the chamber. And I really enjoyed it. Really really enjoyed it.

The tin note is slightly sweet, though to my nose not indicative of what it might taste like when lit. And once lit, today's smoke was very nice: an extremely well-balanced blend of tobaccos with just a hint of a sweet casing - and to my taste buds it seemed more on the cherry side rather than vanilla, but I wouldn't go to the mat on that. The room note was very pleasant - a tobacco that I believe non-pipe smokers would not find offensive. By the time I smoked half-way down the bowl the sweet flavor started to wane, but the sweetness of the fragrance remained. Smoked down to ash, there was no harshness, just a balance of flavors.

It is my Flying Wallendas of tobacco - balance, balance, balance. There is nothing extreme about this tobacco in any way: it is a mild smoke, moderate nicotine, mild casing, and a balance and synergy of three tobaccos. I can see how some might find this tobacco non-distinctive, and perhaps that's what I like best about it. The tin describes it as a tobacco that can be smoked all day long (don't all tins say that?), and in this case it's true.

5/17/2014 Update:

I have found the perfect flake pipe for this Mixture: Missouri Meerschaum Diplomat made of Maple. Very thick walls, short and wide bowl. Fits two flakes folded and stuffed, Laid on top of one another, folded vertical and then horizontal and slide into the bowl, top with crumbs left over for kindling. This stuff just gets better and better as the tin is open. $8 for 100g tin at SmokingPipes!!! There is no better deal in tobacco!

I purchased this blend at my local tobacconist here in Las Vegas - "The Tobacco Leaf". He always has tins from 3 to 10 years old, this was from 2009 and aged sufficiently. I thought before I purchased this 100 gram tin that this was the flake version of Mixture Modern not Scottish Mixture. If your wanting Mixture Modern in a flake, this is NOT it, this does not have black Cavendish in it like Modern does..... Mixture Modern, Plumcake, Navy Flake and this are the only Macbaren blends that I have found to be acceptable in the heat / bite / general furnace flamethrower genre that these Danish blends fall into. I discovered years ago when I went to Germany for a business trip and spoke to a local tobacconist that 90% of Europeans smoke their pipes with filters and that's why these blends smoke so damn hot and bite, their produced that way since the 9mm filters Europeans use cut the flavor and bite in half if not more. If you cant handle Macbarens blends do what I do, smoke them in a Cob with a Grabow filter, makes a world of difference. This flake is beautiful, perfect gold wrapped flakes of perfect thickness, tin aroma is honey and fallen leaves, really delightful and the room note has been described as the same. Burley and Virginia with some Cavendish to tame the beast and add sweetness, burns very well even left whole and stuffed. Good Flake!!

This was my first exposure to a flake cut, and for that alone it gets notched up a bit... quite nice to smoke just because of the cut for one thing.

Like most Mac Baren's (as I hear) it burns hotter than pig on fire in a really hot place. But other than that is quite pleasant. Very mild, so if you're hoping for a flavor that will knock you off your feet or kick you in the rear, this aint it.

That said, if you like a mild blend, this tastes fantastic, leaves a nice taste in the mouth etc... I'm a fan.

This is NOT broken flake. These is whole, un-rubbed, flake tobacco.

These flakes are exquisitely neat, compact and easy to lift from the rectangular tin, fold and stuff whole into your pipe. They smell delicious as sniffed in the container, without any aggressive topping stench.

The unrubbed slice lit easily and burned slowly and cooly most of the time. It only got a trifle hot towards the bottom third, when the amount of tobacco, broken down from poking, responded to re-lighting with a bit of anger.

The taste is not unlike several of the Fribourg & Treyer Virginia flakes I tried a while ago: mild, light indeed, yet still tasty enough. This one has the subtlest semi-sweet (not very sweet at all) character, with a muted smokiness that surprises but stays very much in the background. There is none of the Burley dullness or treacly topping of Mac Baren's Navy Flake.

Too inoquous for me, this superbly produced offering ought to please indeed those who want the lightest Virginia flake, expertly un-fanged by MB's elegant use of Burley and Cavendish-processed leaf.

I don't consider this an aeromatic blend in the strictest sense. It is a mild Flake tobacco that tastes pretty much like Mixture Scottish Blend ready rubbed. They are the same blend. I find this easy to rub out and pack into the bowl. Lights well and stays lit throughout. A nice easy smoke and is truly an all day smoke. I enjoy the light smoky characteristics of Mac Barens original Cavendish. The Virginia's are very mild and easy with a slight sweetness in the entire blend and is easy blown out through the nose. Very pleasant. This blend doesn't evolve a lot throughout the smoke, but gives subtle evolutions of flavor. The very mild maple/honey characteristics in the Cavendish lend a nice sweetness to the the flavor. The room note is a mild pleasant pipe smoker scent. A really good blend to smoke while working on projects or out doing yard work. No bite experienced at all.

This is one of my favrite morning smokes. It has a good smooth bread like taste as well as the typical Mac Baren honey taste. It's easy to pack either fully rubbed out or folded and stuffed and burns nicely. I don't notice any bite with this one. Definitely recommend for daily smokers and especially as a morning smoke.

This is a new tobacco from Mac Baren and is a flake version of their world famous (Scottish) Mixture. It thus has the same flavour as that blend. But whereas Mixture can and will bite, this flake won't! It is a very well balanced flake of Virginia, Burley and some cavendish tobacco, what Mac Baren refers to as "The original Mac Baren Cavendish" which is a fire cured tobacco Kentucky, adding some smokiness. While not overtly as sweet as Mixture, it would nonetheless mostly appeal to aromatic smokers wanting a nice, sweet and mellow smoke from a flake.

The flakes are neat and uniform. My tin was a little old and the flakes were mostly dark brown. It smelled of honey, but not so much that it masked the tobaccos. I always praise Mac Baren's flakes.

The taste is easy going when sipped. Also letting it air out a bit before smoking will help prevent bite. It is a creamy sweet and earthy, slightly floral blend. It is floral in the way that honey is floral sometimes. The sweetness is fruit tang and bread, pastries. Further down the bowl you get the creaminess, earthiness, some nuttiness, and some spice.

The strength is smooth and mild. The nicotine is maybe mild to medium.

I would buy this again. It is an all day smoke that's flat out enjoyable to work with. I would recommend it to aromatic smokers, Virginia/Burley-lovers, and Mac Baren-lovers. I don't really consider this an aromatic. It's tobacco flavor enhanced by flavorings.

The aroma is, well, I guess I would call it non-descript, even if it really isn't - but just saying "sweet" is pretty non-descript. But it is. If pressed, I suppose I could go on, calling it slightly perfumy (which in my mind means it has floral notes), but dominated by vanilla/sugar. I really can't detect anything in the aroma resembling tobacco. But overall there is little here which distinguish it from other Mac Baren aromatics. Hard not to like, though.

The colour of the flakes are on the lighter side of brown and have no shortage of birds eye, further more they are quite broad and uniform in appearance - which is very common with Mac Baren, I'd be more surprised to pop a Mac Baren tin and not finding a perfect presentation. In short, it's as good as can be expected from people who are in the tobacco business for a reason.

The flake was folded and gently rubbed, which is how I usually pack flakes, into a bent Mastro da Paja, which serves as my primary aromatic pipe. It takes light easilly enough and is very well behaved in the pipe - another testament to the crafstmanship behind the flakes, I'd say. Tastewise we're dealing with a dominant burley force, which I had anticipated. The mouthfeel I get from this reminds me a bit of cognac backed up by the drier burley notes, with a bit of that Mac Baren honey signature wafting in and out. I had expected the honey character to play a larger role, but it did not, which I find is a good thing. Overall it stays pretty much the same for the duration of the smoke, only becoming a little harsh towards the end, which is a sign for me to let the pipe go out and move on with other things. All in all, not a bad smoke at all. Surprisingly flavoursome for a Mac Baren in my opinion. The room note is unobtrusive and dissipates rather quickly, and isn't likely to cause any trouble.

Drawbacks then - too mild, way too mild. This is not really a fault of the blend itself, as it doesn't tout itself as being strong (quite the opposite in fact). So this drawback becomes a case of preference on my part. But this review business is of course a subjective matter at the core. Some like it mild, some like it strong. I fall into the category of those who like it strong. But I'm sure there are many in the other camp, and there's no reason why we all can't get along.

In conclusion I would recommend this to people looking for a tobacco that is mild in taste and nicotine, but doesn't become bland or boring. Even though I have smoked quite a few pouches of the regular ready rubbed Mixture, and I definately wouldn't call myself an expert in the matter, but to me this is worlds apart from its supposed scottish sibling, I'm not sure why, if it is in fact the same apart from the pressing, but I know I prefer this over the ready rubbed any day. The only thing that comes to mind that is similar between the two is the tin aroma. But even there I'm actually not quite sure, memory may not serve since it was a few years since I had the RR around.

I found it to have manageable bite tendencies. Nowhere near as extreme as its counterpart, or many other Mac Baren's that I've tried (Hell hath no fury like a Mac Baren overpuffed, isn't that the way the saying goes?). Here I find no such fatigue on the palate, which chalks it up to one more reason to come back to this blend some time in the future, when pace requires changing.