John Aylesbury Sir John's Curly Cut

The Virginias provide a lot of tart and tangy citrus, earth, wood, bread, some grass/hay, sugar, a light tangy dark fruitiness, honey and acidity, mild floralness, and a couple pinches of spice as the lead components. The dark fired cavendish offers some sugar, bread, smokiness, wood, and a moderate amount of tingly spice. I detect a very mild essences of rum and honey, though they don’t sublimate the tobaccos much. The strength and nic-hit are a couple of steps past the center of mild to medium, mainly because of the dark fired center. The taste is medium. Won’t bite, but the spice may light up the tongue of a desperately fast puffer. Won’t get harsh, but it does sport a few small rough edges. Burns clean and a tad warm at a reasonable rate with a mostly consistent sweet, spicy, and lightly floral flavor that translates to the pleasantly lingering after taste. The room note is a notch stronger. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, and requires a couple more than an average number of relights. Can be an all day smoke for the veteran, and repeatable for the less experienced. Obviously a Mac Baren product. Three stars.

-JimInks

Extremely remindful of Mac Baren blends of this sort (particularly Roll Cake), with the unflavored and heavily fermented Black Cavendish spun in the center of the Virgina heavy discs. Not a strong flavor and certainly an added agent of some sort (very light), to complete the presentation. Easy to lock and load and a nice, gentle smoke. A little too wispy to keep me interested enough for more though.

This Curly Cut is indeed another extension of MB’s curly line. In difference to the originals, this contains Dark Fired Cavendish resulting in a subtle but very nice, more spicy than sweet campfire experience, warm and comforting. Yet, no Latakia was used (as claimed to be in Stockton e.g.). I regularly taste pleasant earthy tones in the second half of each bowl. The Topping is as subtle as in Dark Twist or Stockton and I recommend you to try the Sir John version if you like either one of the Mac Barens and you are looking for another subtle tweak. I prefer this one over DT at present.

As with all MB Roll Cakes I personally prefer this with a charcoal filter, trading 10% taste for an un-fried tongue. In addition, sipping is key as so often described.

I put this one next to a tin of Dark Twist and Club Blend. They look the same and are siblings, not twins though, in both scent and taste. The CC has just a different kind of spiciness to it. I wonder how many variations are yet to come and when the first VaPer Roll Cake with 5% Perique will appear?!

It is claimed that this tobacco was originally produced by Mac Baren. I don't know what the situation is now, but I have no confidence that Kohlhase & Kopp purchased a machine to twist the tobacco into ropes. Also, its taste and flavor... Wait a moment - let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Appearance: The 50 gram vacuum-sealed tin, produced in a beginning of last year, was densely packed with small and thin golden Virginia "coins" with a dark cavendish center which, judging by the volume, was about 25-30%. Despite the vacuum, the coins were a bit dry, but the quality of the tobacco wasn't affected. I tried smoking them whole in a narrow pipe, stacked up, but I had to break them into mixture for the review.

Flavor: The overall bouquet is subdued and difficult to separate into components. Hay, bread, wood and citrus tones, light plum and wine notes, a bit of olives, a bit of maple syrup. Not a single note is out of it, except for the slightly prevailing of the wood tone.

Taste: quite calm, not bright. Initially, the woody note leads, but the components of light Virginia flavors - herbs, some bread, a very light citrus acidity - quickly pull up to it, forming a light and simple, but pleasant bouquet. The dried Cavendish fruit gives light support in the sweetness, but does not stand out, preferring to form some volume for the overall flavor. A bit of maple syrup is clearly present. As you smoke, the notes of the Cavendish slightly intensify, the sweetness of the tobacco increases slightly, but the Virginia remains in the lead. The tobacco tastes somewhat like Club Blend, but without the denser woody notes and smoke of Kentucky. Initially the blend has some roughness to it, which gradually smoothes out in the smoking process. The strength of the tobacco is clearly below average, even in very large pipes the nicotine hit is not a threat for the pipe smoker. The tobacco is quite demanding to the rate of smoking, it can quickly overheat the pipe, and light Virginia immediately begins to be bitter, and tries to bite your tongue. This tobacco should be smoked on the verge of fading. It burns into an almost white ash, leaving some moisture in the bents and burning dry in straight pipes. The aftertaste is woody, not persistent.

The smoke from tobacco has a slight woody smell with a slightly sweet flavor. It is easily dispersed indoors.

What's the bottom line? I'm willing to agree that this tobacco was made at Mac Baren, and Kohlhase & Kopp only packaged it. The maple syrup, the slight roughness of the Virginia in the beginning, and the demanding pace of smoking all speak in favor of this. Who cares, though? The tobacco is very high quality, the flavor is mild, and the strength is low. I suspect that this tobacco will be very good when aged, but I have only one open can to review. However, I'll probably buy a few more, and test my hunch in five years. Also, these small coins are great to stack in pipes with a diameter of 17-18 millimeters, and in this form smokes more slowly and sweetly. I have a dedicated Peterson Junior for Virginias, and they pack perfectly into it.