Mac Baren HH Old Dark Fired

A mid to dark brown flake with prominent flecks of gold. The flake is dry. It rubs out to a sort of Scotch ribbon and burns well in this state.

The predominant tin aroma is dried fruits.

The dark fired leaf here is quite muted. Only occasionally are cigar notes encountered and the flavour to my nose is muddy. I don't get much from the Virginias at all except some sweetness. Despite the dryness of the flake this burns with some steam produced. There is ammonia here that can be intrusive. Putting some age on this tobacco seems like a good idea.

Comes at a good price point but is not in the same league as its rivals. A weak 3.

Smoking now:

So I’m new to dark fired kentucky and this is my first. I got this tin on a recommendation from ol mutton chops and it’s been on my shelf for almost a year. I decided now is the time to give some DFK a try and what better than HH Old Dark Fire.

The fresh tin note is of beef jerky. Like if I was blind folded and smelled this I would say beef jerky. After a week of sitting in the tin and having been exposed to air the tin note takes on more of a mellow aroma that reminds me of an old barn. Wood, hay, a little smoke from a wood burning stove, and some tangy sweet bbq sauce. It’s quite nice. I rubbed this out and let some dry for 20 minutes and some dry out much longer. I feel it benefits from more dry time.

Lights ok, and with some drying it stays lit pretty well. The taste is.... umami. It’s a meaty, campfire, woody, tangy sun dried tomato, spicy kind of taste with molasses. However it should be noted that this is not as strong of a flavor as I thought. I get mostly a sweet molasses hard wood smoky flavor that’s smooth and easy to smoke. Is this a sweet blend? Maybe? There is a dark molasses quality to it that makes it sweeter than I thought but not in a cased or topped aromatic way. That’s what ODF is like. The taste is fuller than most and the room note I imagine is pretty offensive. I feel like a lumber jack smoking this. It smokes slow and I have not smoked down to the bottom of a bowl yet thanks to the nic hit. The dottle seemed slightly wet but I bet you can smoke this down with out an issue. You’ll feel the vitamin N it’s past medium for me. Enough for you to feel it if you’re not accustomed to it. Has a pretty good after taste that isn’t over whelming.

Definitely not an all day smoke but a good one.

* 4 stars. HOWEVER I can’t smoke this without it biting me. So I never finished my tin and have the other one I had away. *

Well, with all of the many fans of this tobacco, I had to try it. My impression when opening the tin is "WOW BBQ". To me, it really smells of east coast bbq sauce - like something someone would put on pulled pork. It's the dominant flavor in the tin, the smoke, and the room.

Compared to some flakes that I've tried, mostly Virginias, I found this one to be too brittle, making it hard to pack. It was so brittle that you could almost pick your teeth like a toothpick. I never got it to burn through well and threw away many second halves of bowls.

Personally, I found the flavor stronger than I wanted to smoke alone, and I preferred mixing with other, uniform flavor tobaccos. At first I tried it 1:3 with a mild Burley like Prince Albert - making ODF a condiment rather than the main attraction. That was quite enjoyable.

Then, I remembered a pouch of Smoker Friendly Classic Black that was going to waste, and I mixed them. Home run! That was awesome. It had the smokey bbq flavor without being overbearing, and it had the sweetness of a mild aromatic. I loved this combination.

Update October 2021: I bought another tin and put that in a jar with two bags of black cavendish. Can't wait to open it. One difference was that this tin was properly humid, definitely not brittle. I think the first tin was overly dry for some bad reason.

Nice tin. Shame it's square. I hate square tins.

Once opened with the usual crowbar and thus allowing the contents to dry in this late summer heat, you will discover very dark coloured,soldier-straight little bars of dark brown tobacco flakes that gives off a subtle, but slightly sweet, tangy, aroma of quality tobacco.

The flake breaks up easily into slimmer strips (the way I like to do it) which you can then break down for loading. The first draw offers a grassy, malty, a little nutty, yet with intriguing, enticing little nuances yet to be discovered. I found I was getting hazelnuts and something alcoholic after the first few bowls. Whisky perhaps ? There is a fleeting latakia-like or maybe perique in here, but this dies away to become virtually undetectable several bowls in.

Good though this is, I found it a bit of a plod halfway through the tin, and think it would be better as part of a rotation, rather than an all day tobacco otherwise it can get a little bit bland. Certainly, several years ago when I was in that aromatic phase, I would have discarded this as yet another tastless, characterless, virginia-based blend. But then I didn't know any better.

Nice unique Barbecue sauce aroma and taste with smoky flavours from start to finish. So much barbecue-esque that you can even taste the tomato paste and the vinegar, awesome really. I can feel some cigar like feeling here and there too. I ended up amused by the way this Vi-Bur's robust flavours put more in line with more dense mixtures like a english or a cigar leaf added blend. I do think too that this must be a nice adding to make some deep harmonization including a specific meal and beverage based in it's almost "food" like flavours.

I've smoked this on and off for a few years, nicely presented cleanly cut flakes which mostly remain intact when jarred. Lovely deep and bold, sweet bbq-sauce tin aroma. When lit, the notes others have described can be found if you pay attention to the blend though I don't find it very complex.

This was one of the first tins I smoked, and absolutely loved it. What's strange, the last few years it doesn't have the same impact it once had on me. It is certainly a blend that you need to smoke slow and cool, fresh out of the tin to fully enjoy. A bit of drying I believe helps. I have noticed after jarring, the bold flavour tends to dissapate, so I would recommend to smoke the bowl within a few months at most post-jarring. It becomes a more mellow smoke over time though I think it loses the character that makes this blend great.

Today is sad day for me, as it is time for me to do something that I have not done for many, many a year. Unfortunately it is time for me to deliver a 1-star rating on a tobacco, and it is with a sad heart that it is this tobacco to which I must deliver it. Upon opening a tin which had been received already opened, but resealed a year or two earlier, I got a tin note of - - - nothing. Not even a tobacco smell. Unaccustomed to such an experience, I lifted the flakes out. I have recently been smoking large bulk flakes, and these seemed quite pathetic really, by comparison. Small, weedy, thin little things, seemed too small to really satisfy, but undeterred, I soldiered on. Loading up various pipes, with flake prepared in a range of ways, from folded & stuffed to fully rubbed, I got - - - nothing. No taste whatsoever, it was like smoking hot air. After about 15 flakes of this nonsense, I ended up blending it with some XX Black Rope I had lying about, and that at last gave it some oomph, but, honestly, I wouldn't even bother touching again, even as filler. It brought nothing to the table, bar a reasonably good burn rate (even that veered into 'hot' territory too often for my liking), and a room note that was, like the tobacco, almost absent. Like the smoke, the room note was thin, weedy & weak, pleasurable to non-smokers only by its' apparent absence. In all my years of tobacco reviews I have only ever pulled out the one-star card once before, and that was for the aberration that is 'Clan', but in this case, I cannot hold off any longer, for me, MacBarens ODF is a distinctly One-Star tobacco (although it's still not as bad as Clan).

The only caveat that I would add is that my sample may have been somewhat dry, although sadly, my manual inspection of the flakes in no way indicated that this was the situation. It may just be that I cannot establish the nuances within this tobacco that make it such a pleasurable experience for others on this site.

*****UPDATE 2015-12-14*****

Since writing my original review of this, I have received more ODF which was much fresher & I will promote this tobacco to 3 stars. It is a pleasant smoking sweetish Virginia with a nice dose of sour spiciness in the background (I assume from the Kentucky, or perhaps just the combination of the two types of tobacco). I also get a pleasant nuttiness from this one, like hazelnuts. I smoke it folded & stuffed with a bit rubbed out on top to get it going. Burns well once lit. Light enough to be enjoyed an time of the day, but not so mild as to be insipid. Recommended for all those who like flakes of this style. The room-note is somewhat stronger, but not overpowering. but that is not the most important thing to me. The flakes are well-presented out of the tin & a uniform cut. My fist review was obviously based on flakes that were too dried out, as what I have now is like a different tobacco. Very nice, decent tobacco. Not a star tobacco, but still good.

Tin Note: If you ever been to a good Italian restaurant then your no stranger to the fresh bread and sweet oil vinegar you get before your meal. Well this blend to me smelt just like that. I love that as an appetizer I am not entirely sure its what I like my tobacco to smell like.

Initial Light: I had no problems getting the pipe lit and to my surprise I was hit immediately with a wonderful flavor resembling the sweet grass taste of a sugar cane. I was shocked that a tobacco that smelt like vinegar would end up tasting like sugar cane amazing.

Mid-Smoke: Although the smoke isn't thick and creamy, at this point the flavor is just taking over and shows no signs of stopping. The sweetness from the Virginia pops up over the earthy tone of the burley, Leaving a full satisfying smoke packed with just the right amount of sweetness and boldness. However I had a hard time keeping the pipe lit and had to relight twice.

Bottom of the Bowl: The smoke is much creamier now and the Virginia is out to play full throttle. It popped out a lot more and now leaves a sweet after taste in your mouth after every puff out. The smoke is much more filling and flavorful.

Room Note: My wife popped out to show me something and this point I think I had a little to much of the Whiskey cause I don't remember what she said. But I did ask her about the room note nodding with a boyish smile, she said 1 out of 4 but forget that I like this blend to much so i made it a 2 out of 4 Marriage is about compromise after all.

Dottle: Nice Ashy finish plain and simple.

Smoking Duration: Crap, I totally forgot to record this (how much did i drink?) It was a small bowl so I'd say it was a good 30min.

Overall: This blend was an odd one for me because it made my "test sheet" fail in some ways. It appears that my senses are in conflict with this blend. My nose does not like it but my taste-buds are in love and crave it. However, I will age and cellar this blend even if the record shows an arguable in flavor though agreeable in smell score.

Rich, full and satisfying. I could stop right there and say no more but I won't. MacBaren has not been a blender that I am fond of and I've tried more of their blends than I care to remember. HHODF is about as far from a normal MacBaren blend as you can get, in a blind taste test I would never have put them down as a possible blender of this beautiful chocolate brown flake. It is indeed rich with all natural tobacco flavors of bold strength. Yes the nicotine level is full and ordinarily I avoid those type of blends because simply put I neither crave nor desire nicotine, spinning head and an evening at the vomitorium are not my preferred evening pleasures. That said I could not resist buying this to see if MacBaren had truly put a "different" style of tobacco out. The answer is yes they did. I smoke it slowly because of the nicotine and will only occassionally have a bowl because of Lady N but it is certainly a tobacco of high caliber and if you are in search of a full all natural tobacco give this a try, you'll probably fall in love.

This gets 3 stars from me but the overall quality scores 4.