Mac Baren 7 Seas Gold Blend

I am not going to waste too much time on this one:

Tastes of stale shortbread cookies. Did not enjoy it whatsoever. Gave it away to an undiscerning smoker who seems to appreciate it more than I do.

another very good aromatic from Macbaren , high quality, stays lit and a great room note, so far 7th seas black and gold are winners, certainly any aromatic smoker will enjoy

A light Virginia aromatic. Soft vanilla flavor and aroma. Smokes a bit quick as most gold Cavendish does so slow down a bit if you're patient. To my palette it leaves me hanging a bit, not enough going on for me. This is a good starter tobacco.

Bob Ross once said " We don't make mistakes. We just have happy accidents". Read on to see why my "Happy Accident" can greatly help you enjoy this blend.

I am not the best source of reviews on this type of tobacco. Not my style, rarely enjoy them. That being said, when I see blends I have never tried.... I just have to try them.

My first run ins with this blend was exactly as I expected. Meh. Tin smells like heaven, pipe heel looks like hell. Wet, goopy, burns hot, you know, the status quo for this type of stuff. Don't get me wrong, this is a way higher quality than most of the blends in this category, but at the end of the day, when it comes to heavily cased aromatic blends? It is what it is. A sweet background, a slight chocolatey note, but, meh.

Just finished my last bowl before I decided to write this review and had quite a different experience due to my "happy accident". There are many blends out there (not just aromatics) that need a little drying time to shine. In fact, for me, it is pretty rare I find a blend that couldn't use a little airing out. Do I always have the forethought to do this? No. But that is my fault, not the blends. Most blends need maybe 30 minutes to an hour. On the real super goopers, I will lay them out the night before. Thats what I tried to do with this blend. I put some out at bedtime the night before to smoke in the morning........and then forgot about it for 3 days. Yup, 3 days later I walked in the man cave and there it was. Surprisingly, this did the blend wonders. Most non aromatics would have hit the crunchy stage. This stuff was actually still moist. That being said, it burned better than it should have, it didn't bite as much as it should have, and the real stunner for me? No pipe cleaners needed at all during the smoke. For me that is a wonder. Sometimes I feel I spend more money on the pipe cleaners used to smoke these blends than the tin itself.

Do yourself a favor, give this lots of time to dry out, and it will be at its best.

After trying the 7 Seas regular blend which I'm quite an enthusiast, I decided to order this one from USA to try it out being the fact that the rating and feedback about this blend was quite interesting.

The first time I tried it out I really didn't like it (don't want to say that I hated it, but I really really disliked it), Unlike Regular Blend, Gold blend was harsh, no flavour was scented or tasted and left a burnt sensation on the aftermouth.

So I put it away on a very well sealed glass container for cellaring, since I had decided at that moment tha I definetly wasn't going to try it out ever again.

After 18 months of cellaring, and as I was moving all of my office stuff and furniture to a different location, when setting my new pipes and tobbacco space, I decided "I'm going to give it another shot, what else do I have to loose?". This tobbacco had built quite a vacum inside the jar and it took me a while to get it opened.

And I'm glad I did it! It was quite a surprise. The flavours that had built while cellaring rose, leaving a room note very interesting of mostly vanilla and enhancing the virginias on this tobbacco. The aroma and room notes were quite pleasent even to the non pipe smokers around me and the tobbacco was very easy to smoke and very pleasent and soft leaving the harsh sensation from the begining in the past.

Will buy it again, hence the 4 stars!

Tin note on this blend is pleasant but after smoking it I found it to be a bit lackluster. It smokes cool and burns well. There's not a lot of flavor and even less in the bottom half of the bowl. What flavor is there is a type of vanilla or confectionary type flavor. This would be a good blend for a beginner pipe smoker, but it doesn't do much for me.

First, this is a Cavendish tobacco in the European style. That is, the Cavendish is Virginia based rather than Burley based like those made in the US. The Cavendish is more earthy and way less nutty. When you open the tin there is an earthy, honey, vanilla type aroma. Some would say that it comes too moist, but it is just fine by me. It packs well and takes a light very well. The smoke is somewhat less than you would find in many Burley based aromatics. The taste is mellow and there is a bit of a honey sweetness. When smoked slowly, there is not tongue bite. It does provide a nice hit at the back of the throat, however. This stuff really does taste like it smells. The room note is pleasant, but not as sweet as you might think. The taste stays the same to the bottom of the bowl and the ash is fine and jumps out of the bowl when you finish. The word here is mellow. There is enough taste to enjoy, but it is subdued. Overall, it is like a Summer day; warm and slightly sweet with just a hint of earth. Some say that this is Mac Barren's version of Captain Black Gold. CB Gold is stronger than this stuff and 7 Seas Gold is a lot closer to CB Round Taste (Ultra).

For all intents and purposes, a somewhat lighter version of the Regular; almost everything I wrote on that applies here too, except that it's a bit lighter (both in consistency and as a smoke) and the burley is pretty much non-detectable, the centre stage being taken by the combination of the haylike virginia and the sweetish vanilla from the cavendish.

Still willing to try out the others, though; I've yet to encounter a MacBaren that would have been a total bummer, so I'm curious.

My first ever tobacco. This tobacco made me in love with this thing. I believe this is a great starter tobacco. If you never smoked pipe before this is what you get. Compared to the next I smoked it was still decent. Highly recommended if you are a beginner pipe smoker.