Mac Baren HH Old Dark Fired

This is the kind of tabacco I love - slow burning and smooth with an aftertaste of dark chocolate. I don't rub out the flakes but rather fold them into the pipe, which I think gives a fuller flavour than rubbing the tobacco out. There are several blends that I always keep on hand and this will become one of them. The nicotine hit is considerable which is something I love - not for me those weak tobaccos, but give me a full bodied smoke and I'm in my element. And Old Dark Fired is one such tobacco. This is likely my all time favourite and as been for sometime. Of course I'm always trying new blends, looking for that perfect pipe tobacco but Old Dark Fired comes pretty close to what I consider perfect. I've just ordered two more 100g tins so that should tell you something.

Sitting outside on a nice evening with a glass of Merlot and a pipe full of old dark fired is a pleasure comparable to sharing a bed with Colin Firth. Full bodied and satisfying with a smouldering darkness that seduces the tongue. There is a distinct chocolately aftertaste but that's only half the story because I've never found chocolate that tastes this good.

HH Old Dark Fired is the finest burley flake I know, and that is saying a lot for there are some outstanding competitors, Solani Aged Burley Flake and Peterson University Flake in particular.

This is fired burley that has been steam pressed to a dark brown with just a few light brown flecks. There is enough Virginia to round out and sweeten the taste.

MacBaren manufactures an exquisite flake. I find this to smoke best with the flakes jammed in the pipe with a little rubbed out as tinder to start the light. (This is also available in a rubbed out form, and I find that version wimpier.)

MacBaren buys and stockpiles tobaccos of very high quality, and even their cheaper blends are highly processed, some might argue over processed. I certainly would not maintain that this offering is overly processed. For my money, MacBaren has done this just right.

The taste is full, but not overwhelming. There is complexity here. Every puff does not seem the same as you work through the pipe-full. Bite is not likely if a proper puffing cadence is utilized. (With some MacBaren mixtures you have to be exceedingly careful; not so with this one.) The taste is nutty with chocolate overtones. It all burns down to a dry light grey ash.

The room note has a pleasant natural tobacco aroma, but is much more neutral than the taste the smoker enjoys. The nicotine level is fairly high.

I have smoked this in all kinds of pipes, from meerschaums, cobs, and briar cheapies to my Dunhills. All of the pipes that I have tried with this smoked wonderfully well.

There are some smokers who eschew burley, and they will not care for this. Those sensitive to high nicotine levels will also find this a tough go. For everyone else I give an unreserved thumbs up.

Come on, who are they trying to fool, this tobacco is too high class, too tasty, too wonderful to be Mac Baren's ! When you open the tin you see perfectly sliced flakes of dark brown tobacco and a scent of apricots and raisins, good enough to eat. I took one flake out , gave it a quick rub and decided it was too damp to smoke , all I could stand waiting was 5 minutes before I had to pop it in the micro wave for 7 seconds, it was then at perfect humidity. The light and burn was perfect.

Ah, how to describe the taste? Did I mention that I'm NOT a Burley fan, but coincidently about 3 weeks ago ,on a lark, I ordered an oz. of Sutliff's Edgeworth Ready Rub Match, just to bring back some memories from 40 years ago. It was OK, but this blend takes ERR to a whole new level. The distinct ERR molasses taste is there, but only lightly in the background, a well cured dark Virginia took the center stage. Layered on top of this is a distinct touch of Perique ( I realize that Perique is not listed) . This gives a raisin taste, a bit of spice, and a wonderful incense scent when allowed to drift up the nose. . I don't get the cigar notes that some of our reviewers have described as I get with Solani's 656 Aged Burley Flake, but rather more chocolate raisin flavors. Powerful "N", you bet, it should come with a warning "don't operate power tools while smoking this". Oh , no bite !

If I was to try to blend this, I would start with 80% SG"s St. James Flake and add 20% Edgeworths Ready Rub. Best Kentucky/Burley experience in a long time, but this is more of a " creamy Vaper" to me.

SIX WEEKS LATER- I've had this in the cellar only covered ( sometimes I seal tins with a hot glue gun). The tobacco is now perfect for smoking, the flakes are still pliable but on the dry side. Using a Missouri Maple, I lightly folded and stuffed a few flakes and this tobacco was magnificent. It still retained a sweet dark molasses flavor but the Perique spice and raisin FLAVOR has faded, but not the incense SCENT. Allow the smoke drift up the nose ( reminds me of a new Book). Also, allow time to savor this one, at a slow sip, and don't miss out on the scent (becomes lost using the DGT). Still a 4 star and I have to revaluate my dislike for Burley.

My comments on Old Dark Fired are based on far less than I would usually smoke before forming an opinion. But I was gifted it a nice size sample and it is one of those rare tobaccos that was full of enjoyment right from the very first puff. I almost always receive an ample amount of tongue bite from Mac Baren blends, but not with ODF. I allowed the flakes to fully dry to the point that they crumbled, but were still just moist enough to prevent them from turning to dust. The nicotine hit for most of the bowl is a bit less heavy on the throttle than similar offerings in this genre from Gawtih Hoggarth and Sam Gawith. But it isn't weak either and the flavor is full and delicious. As others have pointed out, it is earthy and to my taste, slightly sweet. While I do taste the similarity to GH and SG blends, I don't quite find the similar flavor in Old Dark Fired to Peterson's Irish Flake, but it could just be my taste buds. I have only smoked about a half dozen bowls of this, but find it to my liking in a medium size bowl, such as a group four. The burn is clean and dry. ODF will find a spot in my cellar. Highly Recommended!

It's hard to write this review without any bias because this is one of my favorite tobaccos...from one of my least favorite blenders.

I think most agree that MB's flake presentation is second to none; this being no exception. Perfectly cut thin strips of dark leaf with very few flecks of light colored tobacco. The tin smells of something sweet, spicy, smokey all rolled into one. The moisture level out of the tin may be a bit high for some, but not too much drying time is needed. I actually prefer this tobacco a little on the moist side for optimal flavor. No DGT for this one.

Tastes good rubbed out but I prefer to fold and stuff. Another reason I like this more than the ready rubbed. When smoking a flake of this, the flavors tend to seem to come out more and have a broader range. I always find the Kentucky kicks the first 1/4 of the bowl but slowly loses its potency making way for the other profiles. The VAs are sweet and work very well with the smoke and spice. Steaming these leaves has truly made it easy on the tongue (unlike other blends from this company). There is a subtle sweetness that I detect and I know they use minimal casings; just enough to bind the leaves. But in no way does it inhibit the flavors in the smoke.

In my experience, Kentucky can sometimes have a tendency to dry out the smoke. I find the Kentucky in Three Nuns to be over bearing and drown out the sweetness of the VAS. ODF on the other hand has a juicy quenching flavor. Think of a BBQ pork shoulder in a slow cooker. Being that it's sweet enough on its own, I tend to not enjoy this in a cob. I enjoy this in my briars the most.

Vitamin N for this doesn't seem to bother me but I have heard many say it was too much for them. Room note is nothing to rave about but that hasn't stopped me in the past. If you liked Savineli Doblone d'Oro, you should try this. And vice versa. I've enjoyed this so much I've already bought a couple of the pound boxes and have several tins in the cellar. I hope this never goes out of production.

5 Stars! Damn this stuff is good! I love burley and ODF is an excellent flake to put alongside Irish Flake and Gawith Louisiana Flake. I am amazed that a simple steam process can produce such a unique and flavorful smoke. I received a rusty one year old tin from pipesandcigars THANK YOU! I've been taking these wonderfully aged flakes right out of the tin, folding up and stuffing without drying. After a slightly persnickety relight you get a wonderful sweet nutty flavor and it's a good long smoke for a burley blend. $13 bucks is a bargain for this 3.5 ounce tin. You'll get about two dozen small bowls of high quality smoking. ODF is easy on the palate, so you could smoke it hard, but it heats up, so you have to go easy, especially on the last half of the bowl. Flavor is good to the bottom of the bowl. Leaves the pipe clean and dry. Goes great with amber beer.

Old Dark Fired is a full and tasty blend. Nutty, earthy, molasses sweet burley, aided by deep Kentucky with notes of smoked wood and earth, and a bit of spice that builds just prior mid-bowl which is more noticeable on the retrohale. The virginia lends a welcome grassy/hay sweetness to the blend and melds seemlessly with the other components. This blend benefits beautifully from age, becoming slightly sweeter. It comes a bit moist, so drying time is recommended. Nicotine is a notch or two above medium. 4 stars. Highly recommended.

Had you asked me about Mac Baren before I tried this, I would have said I don't like Mac Baren tobaccos. I still don't like them, but this one was love at first light, it's just good quality tobacco taste all the way through, from first light all the way to the end, just a smidgen over medium in strength, could even be an all day smoke as it gets closer to winter. This is another one I make sure I have a small stockpile of.

1 August 2019

Just wanted to update room note :-

One of the few tobacco's I smoke that meets with both wife and dog approval !!!

This is a full flake in the finest tradition which puts FVF in its place. The tin-note is heavenly with that almost offensive fermented power that one instinctively knows signals a bold smoke. The first-light suggests wonderful things and then there is the taste some of us have been searching for for a long, long time. This is a quality rendition of "real tobacco", with ever-increasing taste, not a hint of bite and clouds of full, unctious smoke. I personally find that it rises in strength to an almost overwhelming degree then, afer a rest, returns to normal as the moisture evaporates to make the final third far more enjoyable than I had anticipated. I feel it is a testament to the blender's art that the the nicotine content is about as reasonable as one could expect for such an up-front offering- I was a bit shaky but not overhwelmed. It is a little stronger than I am comfortable with as a broken flake but rubbed out it is more or less perfect. No gurgling, no casing (that I can detect), no ashy dissapointment at the end. There is much more going on than in Peterson's Irish Flake, which tastes black and un-nuanced in comparison- think Condor Long Cut with an added nutty-citrus note and absolutely no perfume. I plan to dial it down a touch with 10% Union Square to add yet more expansiveness to the taste, but this is a work in progress. McBaren have for some time now, had a reputation as a "beginner's brand"- this is certainly not the case for HHODF. It is the real deal. All you pipist who have to have IF or CLC to find a satisfying pipe take note; there is a new sherrif in town.

Addendum: I have subsequently mixed HHODF with GLP's Union Square, approx 50/50 ratio and rubbed out to approx a broken flake consistency then allowed to marinate for a couple of days in a large jar with enough air in it to allow both tobaccos to breath. This mixture is quite possibly the best tobacco I have ever tasted in my life. Due to the differing strengths and palates of the two blends, the HHODF is dialled down to about 70% but the piquant, citric Va from US does not overwhelm, serving instead to make the ODF serve as a basenote to a complex smoke- think rasperry coulis on top of a bitter dark chocolate sauce, with the perfect lemon sponge in the middle. These tobaccos were made for each other. Truly exceptional.