Mac Baren Amsterdamer

The good news first (as it's rather short). I loved the shag cut and the packaging (a dark blue box with, I believe, a smiling Cossack on the front). It was easy to pack, though, for me, it didn't take a match too well (which was a surprise as the tobacco was not wet)—after several attempts to get it going, I was finally off to the races. Unfortunately, this was pretty much a one horse race.

As other reviewers state, this is a light aromatic. The bag note reminded me, vaguely, of maple (no licorice here, for me). So, surely, there is a topping here. On the snork though, I got a hint of cedar, the maple largely disappeared. The cigar leaf is faint both in taste and effect. Mostly I got just a plain tobacco taste, Virginias (I think. I didn't catch where the burley's were in this blend, or the Kentucky either, for that matter) and maybe some perique, as there was a pronounced pepperiness to my bowl (either that or some really sharp Virginia. There is no perique listed, but it really gave off that perique like "pepper" effect. Really, probably a result of some low grade Virginia). It smoked harsh and left quite a bit of residue in my pipe.

The overall effect of this blend reminded me a little bit of Stokkebye's Nougat. Amsterdamer shares that same "tinny" taste that Nougat gave me. I'm skeptical about the quality of the tobacco used in this blend, I doubt it's top grade. Unlike the other reviewers I got quite a Nic charge with this (it came at me in a sneaky fashion, low at first, higher as the bowl proceeded).

Altogether, Amsterdamer's not a displeasing smoke, but it's certainly not one I'll be coming back to (I also paid about the same as the other reviewer, around six euro).

Happy Piping!

I smoked one and a half kilos of this Dutch tobacco (this tobacco is produced in France, but the recipe is dutch). Really it is a tipical dutch taste. Lightly flavored, it is an all day long tobacco and it doesn’t cloy. The taste is almost neutral. You can smoke it straight but it is also good as a blending tobacco specifically to dilute the other mixtures (too strong or too expensive). In my personal rating (from 0 to 10) my score is 6 and two stars.

After numerous years of pipe smoking, I finally decided to taste this classic among the classics, at least for French pipe smokers. It used to be the tobacco that my father smoked all day long, all year long. This pouch reminds me of his numerous pipes lingering in the Citroen 2CV we had back in the days, and smelling the delicious aroma with my nose in the pouch is among those souvenirs that will last a lifetime. This was in the 80's.

Now back to 2019, opening the pouch has been rather a deceiving experience. The topping is much lighter than I recall, it seems the tonka/vanilla/coumarin aroma is faint. The tobacco itself doesn't smell much of anything, annd I can not detect the topping that has heavily ghosted a pipe that papa offered me.

However, filling the pipe is a very simple operation, it can be smoked with no relight required, the tobacco burns very well and rather cool, the flavour is balanced, with no tongue burn. I can easily categorize this one as an all day long tobacco. While certainly not top grade, this smoke is pleasant and sweet.

In fact, too sweet for me... This is much lighter than semois tobaccos from Belgium, and this could be good for non-experienced smokers, but I find that something lacks, both in strengh and flavour. Which gives me the idea of blending this one : my guess is that a 50/50 mix between Amsterdamer and a Florina Vieux Semois could spice things up, while restoring the tonka flavor that the current production lacks. To be tried ! Or, thanks to its very good burning qualities and rather neutral smoke, mix this with which ever tobacco you find difficult to maintain lit, or with mixtures that are too strong.

Overall, a nice, cheap, decent and honest tobacco. It didn't send me back to my childhood, but I can recommend it to today smokers.

I too bought this when in France where it's very cheap, certainly compared to pipe tobacco prices in the UK. On that basis I decided to chance my arm.

The tobacco is very dry and cut in thin, long strands. The taste is quite cigarette-like and not totally unpleasant. Despite being dry and it burning quite quickly there wasn't any tongue bite. But for the price I would give it one star, however some pipers might find it an acceptable low-cost, day-to-day smoke or to blend with tobaccos that they find too strong so it gets two.

I keep a large jar that I call my "compost heap" into which go tobaccos that I've tried and don't like so don't want to smoke the whole pack. Miraculously the result of this random blending and a bit of maturing often turns out pretty well. I think that fate awaits the Amsterdamer!

When I saw a pouch of this on the shelf of a tobacconist it was half buried in the midst of other pouches, I haven't seen it before (or, to say better, probably I always ignored it) and in effect this pouch was a sort of archaeological find cause it was produced by the French Seita no longer existent, so before opening the pouch I did a brief research cause honestly I was totally ignorant about it, what I found is that Amsterdamer is an historical tobacco on the classic Dutch genre (obviously due its name!) : shag cut, many tobaccos employed no one leading the theme but fused with other and completed with the traditional Dutch flavoring: tonka – coumarin-vanilla-mint. Well opening the pouch I found a dark brown tobacco with just a ghost of flavoring (yes, was vanished), the feeble tobacco smell was mostly reminding of “tropical” varieties such Java, Sumatra etc… so often present in Dutch tobaccos, sadly (how predictable) it was so dry to being powdery under my fingers, I smoked a couple of bowls just as it was then I tried to moistening the rest with almost decent results but the taste was in any case dull, a pity cause the trace of flavour still detectable tells me that it has been a pleasant tobacco, I don't know if it is still produced and I'm sad having not tried it years ago. I am very curious to know the thoughts of others about Amsterdamer.

Sorry, I'm not able to give a sincere rating based on a such poor test, just a Solomonic two stars.

I admit I am not an expert pipe-smoker. Rather the opposite. I tried this Virginia based tobacco as it brings me back to my earliest smoking attempts (full of mistakes) in my twenties. Overall it is not an easy smoke (it burns quick and the risk of tongue bite is high for a newby like me). The taste is mild, liquorice notes are clearly present. It needs to be smoked very slowly. Overall not exactly my favorite, but in any case the Amsterdamer is a classic to try once in a while. Could be interesting with a pinch of added Burley (in fact I think there is a variety ike that available).

Lo fumavo da ragazzino...ora non credo si trovi più, almeno in Italia. È legato ad un sacco di ricordi. Un tabacco abbastanza povero, franco però in fumata. Ricordo lingue ustionate, ma molto probabilmente ero io che tiravo come Ava Devine. Per quanto mi riguarda mitico!