Mac Baren 7 Seas Regular Blend

first tobacco i tried after returning to the pipe after 20 odd years........lovely smell when i opened the pouch....easy to light and keep lit. For me though there was just something missing, maybe I was looking for more taste, but this just did not do it for me, it just did not live up to the pouch smell, also burnt very hot towards the bottom of the bowl.....lovely aroma though.

You have to be minded that this is a strong aromatic tobacco, really wet and for sure full of chemicals. Apart from that, delivers what we expect from this sort of blend. For the ones who like aromatic, this is definitely a option to have a try. Easy to find, good room note, nice and dense smoke.

Preparation & Burn: 6/10 A bit damp. Cheap course cut. Burns cool, no bite. A few re-lights required.

Taste: 6/20 Kind of vanilla-sweetness but otherwise not much of a clear flavor identity. No tobacco taste, so there's really no body here. It's basically tasty air rather than smoke, so that subtracts points for me.

Mildness: 10/10 My idea of a good smoke is a relaxing, low nicotine session. Therefore, the milder the better. I barely detect any nicotine here. Perfect!

Total: 22/40

Once again, a blend that I probably would’ve never bought myself. Lucky is the man who has a caring friend and so it happened that I found myself opening a pouch that I received as a gift.

Look is of mostly dark color with some golden sprinkles and a rather raw mixture cut. Cold Smell is of hard, straight to the face chocolate aroma with no tobacco detectable. Not too moist so I just get it out of the pouch and let it rest for some minutes then pack it in a medium to large sized bowl to leave it some space. Takes flames nicely and burns slow and steady.

Awaiting a hard hit of chocolate flavor, the first puffs after lighting surprise me a lot as I get a mild taste of sweet tobaccos (cavendish and burley) that combine to a taste that reminds me of cigarillos. When continuing the smoke you can clearly taste that sugar coated cocoa topping as smelled in the pouch but not as penetrating as in the smell. Tastes of tobacco come through from time to time mostly cavendish and hints of hay but the added flavor is clearly predominant. Sweet, liquorish and dark chocolate notes leading the way as they do in the room note which is also recognized as pleasant cigar-like. The topping loses a bit in strength after half of the bowl but the smoke doesn’t get bitter like some aros when the topping drifts away.

Surely not an all day smoke for me but not unpleasant when I get a sweet tooth, what happens...sometimes

This is my first de facto aromatic blend since smoking many other blends.

The smell from the pouch is divine, milk chocolate, and loads of it, along with vanilla and perhaps some sort of alcohol. The blend is essentially 85% black ribbons, interspersed with brown and lighter brown - there's a ton of cavendish here.

The taste is quite good, it is as I expected, chocolatey, vanilla, not very sweet (which is a plus in this case as it'd be too much for my tastes). There's really almost no tobacco taste in the first 2/3 of the bowl, it burns cool and stress-free.

There's also no nicotine that I can detect, but my tolerance is quite high (for reference, Gawith 1792 flake, brown rope and MacBaren HH Old Dark Fired are "just right" for me), and I believe the blend is not designed to be a nic powerhouse, just an all-day, everyday smoke.

The room note is probably the best I've smelled so far.

I'll end up mixing it with something with a bit more tobacco taste, not because there's something wrong with this blend, but because I know I'll enjoy it more if I do that!

Somewhat recommended.

P.S. benefits from drying before smoking.

The first MacBaren that didn't produce a "mmm, good" effect on me, but just "mmm, alright"

I had made a mental note of this tobacco that it was the first Macbaren blend that I didn't particularly like and I wondered why that was until I found the remains of my review pouch. While the burley base should endeavour this to me, the centre stage is completely stolen by the incredibly creamy vanilla of the cavendish here; this blend simply leans too much to the aromatic side to be truly enjoyable to me. The pouch note is wonderful though as is the room note, consistency a bit on the grainy side, easy to pack a bowl with.

This will by no means, however, put me off from trying the other 7 Seas blends and I would still choose this tobacco over many supermarket brands. In a row of MacBarens though it would be one of the last to be chosen.

Straight off the bat, I experienced tongue bite!, it did take a wee bit of lighting tho so, to be fair it would've been quite hot. I never tried this after drying some but it's a good reason to but more. This did die off however & turned into a nice "roundness", soft, a "warm wholeness" hitting my tongue instead of the sharpness that went with the heat.

Very enjoyable american aromatic, mainly marked by burley nutiness and chocolate/butterscotch (more than vanilla) topping to my buds. Darker, fuller than Royal Blend of the 7 seas series. 3 stars for me.

Over the past two days I've given 7 Seas Regular blend a couple of bowls, and I thoroughly enjoy it. A great cool smooth smoke with a casing of chocolate and vanilla which intermingle and sometimes intertwine. They're cased on a black cavendish and golden burley leaf combination. Sometimes the vanilla took over and sometimes the chocolate took over, other times the two flavors mixed wonderfully, and still sometimes the taste of the great leaf combination took over for a moment. It's been a wonderful smoke every time. The flavors mingle just enough to make the smoke tremendously enjoyable without leaving me wondering where the flavor casing has gone. By the time I realize I'm mostly tasting the burley and black cavendish all the sudden the vanilla or chocolate flavor pops back up. It is a bit moist in the tin, as most MacB blends are, but hasn't given me any problems with relights or tongue bite. Definitely recommend giving this blend a try, especially if you're an aromatic fan.