Mac Baren Mixture: Scottish Blend

McB. Mixture, Scottish Blend … After my positive experience with McB's Golden Extra, it just seemed the logical next step to give this blend a shoot, after all SB is billed as one of the best selling tobacco blends in the world. How could I resist.

My tobacco came in a 100g tin, dated 10/10, about 9 months old. The tobacco color is brown and yellow and a sprinkle of black, looks and smells good enough to eat. Its moisture level was on the dry side, and for the most part (IMO) fully rubbed out and ready for the bowl. So with no further adjusting, I fired up a pipe full. The first few puffs seemed a little rough, but it quickly settled down to a mild to medium strength smoke. At this point I experienced no bite, and minimum harshness, just a nice smooth, hard to describe, but pleasant tobacco taste. Smoked with some basic technique (slower) SB offers the smoker as many flavors nuances as you're willing “sip” for, plenty smoke and IMO it's an overall satisfying blend. Probably not for the hardcore, but for the rest of us, I feel its well worth the reasonable asking price. My personal rating 4+/5

I recently acquired a 100 g tin of this fine blend. As others have noted, this has a honey smell out of the tin. A great presentation in the tin. This has a perfect moisture level right at the opening of the tin and stays that way for some time after opening. Packing and lighting are easy and this blend needed little effort to keep lit. All the tobaccos are married quite well for a great tasting blend. It produces a nice amount of smoke and burns down to a nice ash at the end of the bowl. I would recommend this to all smokers.

Everything about this blend is fantastic. Nice traditional tin and once the seals broken it just gets better. The aroma is one of the nicest you'll find, rich and sweet how bakky in this style should smell. worth letting the mix air some prior to smoking as it can be somewhat moist, which I'm in favor of (bit hard to put moisture back in if too dried). Beautiful bellows of white smoke not only taste great but give the onlookers the room note desired. burns well without fault, the standard false light and relight and your on your way to the bottom and wanting more. not overly strong nic count here so probably a good all day toker. No mac baren bite found as other often state with McB, having said that I think most tobacco should be smoked in a relaxed style, hey thats the point! dont rush, enjoy. definitely in my regular rotation.

I've bought this tobacco a couple of times. This time I bought it because I had bought a new pipe in France while travelling and was looking for something reasonable to begin the break-in process. I've smoked a few bowls of this tobacco outdoors in the new briar, and one bowl indoors in my meerschaum.

This is a good tobacco. Good balance between the Virginias and the Burleys. A small amount (but noticeable) of cavendish. This is a pretty sweet tasting tobacco (maybe a little bit of that MacBaren honey casing). Also nutty from the burleys, with a mild chocolatey taste in the background. Leaves me with a nutty aftertaste.

Nothing too strong here, but enough flavors to keep me interested while I'm doing some other things. I doubt you'll be amazed but I'm sure that you won't be disappointed.

Well, I shouldn't say that I'm sure. A lot of folks seem to really not like MacBaren blends. I do like them, but they make you take your time.

Well, a rocky start, and a few go-rounds with the MacB tongue-bite issue. Let the tin sit a month or so, and bingo, this stuff is magic.

While it is an aromatic tobacco (I suppose), it isn't in the Vanilla or Cherry cavendish way at all, so I think a lot of people don't know what to make of it. Taken for what it is, this is a delightful tobacco, with the "honey on toast" taste coming through a spicy Va and Burley base, this tobacco is one that burns very easily, and is easy to oversmoke. This results in tongue bite. I can, for instance, take a pipeful of Mixture into a store, make a purchase, and leave, and then get the pipe to rekindle with no match. The tobacco is happy to burn (once it is dried just a tad).

Sipped at, this is a lovely first smoke of the day, with rich honey sweetness balancing a bit of spice. Puffed without regard, it will torch, yes.

I rate this stuff at 3 stars rather than 4 due to two things. One, I do have the occassional pipeful that is rather harsh, and two, any tobacco that gives so many people so much trouble is not a 4 star tobac in my books. It could be more user friendly, I guess. Anyhow, for what it is, a light, sweet, good smelling blend, I really enjoy it once in awhile.

Is the "gold standar" for all th Mac Baren blends. Good Virginias and Burleys, a litle touch of cavendish. A litle poor in nicotine, but rich in flavor, easy to burn and very "social" tobacco... always welcome for the friends an wifes.

A classic mixture with a great reputation over the years.

Same as Mixture. I don't know why there are two catagories of the same tobacco.

Mac Baren - Mixture: Scottish Blend is a pipe smoking classic, and a good friend if you travel quite often. At the moment it is the most available pipe tobacco I've met traveling within European airports, and you may meet it in a duty free in the special tin of 100gr.

If you smoked more than one Mac Baren blend, you may realize that they often use a common base of burley and virginia, and then they put other ingredients to perpare their specific MB blends. This is my creed and more than one time I noticed this: same base, different blends on it. However, the Scottish Blend is the powerhouse of this "base blend" they use (impossible to not notice it smoking the Classic loose cut for example), but it has an ace of spade... a sort of honey topping+ a stable/manure fragrance which I do love, as it reminds me my childhood with horse riding and the italian cigars (Toscano, Italico, etc). Try and let me know. Last but not least, manure was a fermentation agent easy to find, affordable and very very effective, so it's not that crazy as assumption.

It has a raw virginia that counters perfectly the burley and the cavendish, it's an excellent tobacco all day long. I found in it and in the ParkLane 7 the best all purposes pipe tobacco (I've a soft spot for the Clan aromatic but these first 2 are more balanced). I still a novice and I've to smoke many others blends before stopping me at this stop, but until now I know where to go.

Easy to burn, does not bite, cheap, well served in many tobacco shops, it does not hurt/skid your favourite pipe... what else?!

ENJOY!

This is from a jar I was gifted dated 2016.

The tobacco has an interesting mix of tobaccos and a sweetish tin note still even after 6 years in the jar. The moisture content was fine and its easy to load in a bowl and get going without too much effort.

I tend to have a quick smoking rhythm but this one forces me to slow way down or experience bad tongue bite. The benefit is that I get to enjoy the sweet smoke which is nicely balanced by the supporting tobaccos. The top note comes across as fruit more than honey too me with also some liquor tasting hints from time-to-time. This is a blend that smokes differently in various shaped/sized bowls and I've gotten the best results from author/320s. Each bowl also seems to have different emphasis on the flavors as some bowls have more pepper/smoke background than others.

My wife compliments the room note which makes this a nice one to light up from time-to-time when she is with me.