Mac Baren Cube Gold

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 kind of pungent. It's milder and creamier than the Cube Silver, and the sweet topping is slightly less fruity, more citrusy and berry-like, and just a little less perfumy. There are fewer sour notes here, too. The grassy, citrusy golden Virginia and toasted cavendish are a little more obvious here than in the Silver, as is the vanilla from the black cavendish. The strength and taste are closer to medium than they are to strong. Less complex than the Cube Silver, it burns cool and clean at a reasonable pace with a very consistent flavor. Does best when sipped. May tingle the tongue just a mite if puffed fast. The nic-hit is mild. Requires few relights and leaves just a little moisture in the bowl. The after taste and room note do linger a short while. Not an all day smoke.

-JimInks

I hope you like very heavily cased tobacco because Cube Gold is extremely cased! As a matter of fact, I don't think I have ever seen a tobacco as cased as this one is. Of the 3 Cube tobaccos, this one is, as others have said, the most heavely cased. As for the tobacco composition, there is a mixture of broken flakes and Ribbon Cut ranging from golden to black. The tobacco is not ready to smoke right away; it requires 3-4 days once open. A. Strength: Strength refers to the intensity of the nicotine. It's mild to medium, slightly past the middle point. B. Flavoring: As I stated, Cube Gold is extremely cased: it's just crazy, but in a good way. I believe it's cased with mango and chocolate coated cherries. Its intensity diminishes after 2 to 3 weeks after opening; then, it becomes average. C. Taste: The first two weeks, the casing completly 'overruled' any tobacco taste. Only once at the last third would I get any. The thing is, I enjoy the casing so much that it didn't bother me. Afterwards, as the casing had significantly settled down, the tobacco taste started being evident past the first third; and "overruled" the casing by half point. The nutty character of the burleys is dominant, with some hayness from the virginias and a sweet note from the black cavendish. The casing really stays in the background, if you will. D. Room Note: It is strong the first 10 minutes, but without being obstrusive. Of course, Cube Gold is an absolute winner with the crowd. E. Rating: If you don't smoke it when it's really moist and do wait until it is at minimal moisture level; if you pack it on the tighter side of things (but NOT TOO tight!); and if you mind your cadence, you may just realize) that it's a brilliant tobacco, to paraphrase Stevie B. (well done, mate!). Otherwise, you will absolutely hate it: it will smoke hot and it will bite! In other words: Cube Gold is not for beginners! As for me, I am simply thrilled by this very high quality, luxurious aromatic offering, as it gives me the pleasure of a refined aromatic combined with that of true tobacco! 3.5 stars.

I rate this one 7 out of 10.

It's very sweet and fruity. The flavoring is very powerful but yet still somehow manages to not completely drown out the tobacco itself. I can tell it's a high quality aromatic because even despite its heavy flavoring it doesn't leave a goopy chemical film in my mouth like the cheap aromatics that I can still taste 30 minutes after my pipe goes out.

One thing I have learned from reading reviews on this site is that tobacco tastes are very subjective and just because a lot of other people like a blend does not necessarily mean it will be one that I personally enjoy...so for that reason I encourage you to please take my reviews and ratings with a grain of salt. That being said this blend is definitely worth a try!

I have not tried the Cube Silver or Bronze blends yet, but I certainly intend to. I am becoming a fan of Mac Baren tobaccos!

Of the 3 Cube tobaccos, Gold is my less favorite, but that's just because I like the casing less than Bronze and Silver. Silver remains my favorite. I find the casing of Gold to be, strangely, even if it is mostly fruity, slightly on the soapy side, almost like the Lakeland tobaccos. But of the three, this one seems the strongest, nicotine - wise (between mild and medium). For the rest, the cut and blending seem similar to its 2 brothers and the smoking qualities, as great. The Cube series affers outstandingly high quality tobaccos and are not for the inexperienced smoker. Like Beer mentioned you need to have mastered a puffing cadence for any of the Cube to unveil its magic (that last oart is from me). I would recommend a good 6 months of wait before unscelling the bag and smoking its contents; otherwise, the tobacco might be way too moist.

well to be honest it seems almost impossible to diffrenciate it from the cube silver, (which my favorite fruity aromatic)..i like my tobacco sweet and smell nice when smoked and these two blends deliver. however for some reason i still love the silver more!

Having already reviewed the original Cube, and since this blend uses the same identical tobacco base and flavoring style, I'll just copy what I wrote about that one... and I wll add a few further considerations at the end...

I usually don't like aromatics, but this is one of the best I have ever smoked, for several reasons:

1) the quality of the leaf is excellent

2) it smokes very regularly, not too fast nor too slow

3) it doesn't produce too much moisture

4) it tastes fresh, sweet and slightly fruity/sour

5) it never gets bitter, unlike other aromatics

6) the flavoring actually complements nicely the tobacco taste (yes, it DOES taste of tobacco, not of flavored cardboard), although it certainly is mild

7) the taste is delicate even if the tobacco feels rather sticky and over-cased at the touch

8) it does not bite at all, on the contrary it's very soft and never aggressive

Sure, it will leave a permanent mark on your pipe because it is VERY flavored. And the room aroma is very intense and sweet, which means that it's a matter of taste (my wife for example doesn't like the smell of very sweet aromatics).

Personally I feel that it's a tobacco that will be appreciated more by experienced smokers who can puff at a relaxed pace and enjoy both the nice fruity/chocolatey flavoring AND the underlying delicate tobacco background. But I would suggest it also to novices because, even if it costs more than the cheaper aromatics, it is actually in a league of its own.

Oh, and a recommendation: pack it loosely, because if pressed too much it tends to clog the bowl!

That was what I had written about the original Cube... and it still does apply to the Gold version. In what does it differ from the original one? Well, quite simply, the Gold is even MORE flavored: in addition to the other aromas (you still can feel the vanilla, the licorice and the chocolate) Mac Baren added a whole truckload of tropical fruits and citrus (in particular, I can taste passion fruit). The result is shamelessly fruity: I have never smoked a tobacco which had such an intense and marked sweet taste, at times it truly tastes like you are not smoking a pipe but sipping some tropical fruit juice. Of course this will be shocking to lovers of natural tobaccos, the so-called "Latakia talibans": if you hate added flavorings, stay very clear from this one. If you love plain Virginias or English mixtures and happen to stumble on Cube Gold, arm yourself with crucifixes and holy water because you will find this blend to be devil incarnate. Or, as it happened to me, you might be hooked by this perverted concoction and start smoking it all day long like a drug. Really, I should hate a tobacco like this because it's the antithesis of what I have always loved in pipe smoking. And yet, I like it a lot: it's tasty, it smokes great, it's fun. And I admire its shameless attitude of being 100% pure candy, 100% pure guilty pleasure. Definitely recommended, but with caution! Only a slight notch below the original Cube Silver which is more balanced, IMHO.

Updated review on 27-August-2022: Having smoked a few bowls over the last 1 and half month from this tobacco, I would not change so much my review. Majorly, in latest bowls, I found the strength milder compared with the “medium” I initially experienced. I would give 3 starts comparing this tobacco with others of the same broader category (say “aromatics”), yet, recommended for those who love aromatics (it is one definitely worth try or keep in rotation), but it is also a good choice for cellaring or loading a bowl occasionally for those who are closer to English/non-aromatics/Virginia-based tobaccos. Good quality tobacco, quite unique, but as a small disadvantage (personally) is that it is quite mild in terms of strength (that of course could be an advantage for some folks).