Mac Baren Black Ambrosia

[Disclaimer] I'm a beginner at pipe smoking, and the selection of blends I've tried as of yet is very limited. [/Disclaimer]

Of all the blends I've tried, I feel this one is the poorest. Even after drying I have a hard time lighting it. Once its lit I feel only a vague sugary taste, a sweetness that lingers on the tip of the tongue and no tobacco at all. While its not unpleasant, its rather insubstantial - I found myself wondering: "why am I smoking this?", which is not what I desire when I sit down to enjoy a bowl of tobacco. A pity that the taste is so flat, considering the lovely tin aroma of dried fruit. I'll not be buying this again.

This cloud has a silver lining...

POSITIVE: read the silver lining below.

NEGATIVE: Boring flavor. room note is OK. Flavors don't develop. over all pretty bland and boring.

SILVER LINING: I had purchased some Mac Baren Vanilla cream after I got the black ambrosia. I decided I didn't want to waste it so I mixed the two on a whim. to be honest the vanilla cream is a bit TOO vanilla for me. I was pleasantly surprised by this. both tobaccos came together and made up for the boring bland black ambrosia. the flavor was outstanding. it was a rich creamy smoke that had a tangy after taste that lingered for some time that made my mouth water. I am not sure what caused this but I may even consider buying another tin and making this blend again.

Overall, not worth buying. (unless you want to try my blend.)

the room note of this tobacco is fantastic. like a smokey grape almost. however, the taste dose not reflect that. it honestly tastes like ashes. you might as well lick an ashtray for the same taste. and the tongue bite is terrible. if you smoke this you will get bite from it. overall, not worth the 20 bucks.

Objective: Sticky, highly cased, good price for the amount of tobacco offered.

Subjective: This stuff bites the tongue and has a nice aroma, but tastes like garbage.

I do not find anything special here but I recommend it to cigarettes smokers for the following reasons: 1 - it is easy to smoke, low nicotine, no heat, no gurgles, no bite on the tongue, it burns easily without multiple re-ignition, can be smoked many times a day.

2 - the aroma and room note are certainly more pleasant of cigarettes for people who surrounds you, there is a note slightly ashy that recalls cigarettes so it helps to not deviate too much from the usual taste.

So if you are in the transition from cigarettes to pipe that may be a good help.

In springtime it happens I'm moved to experience some aromatics, possibly avoiding the most heavily cased. My "tobacco bar" is currently offering me the following aromatics to taste (in order of appearance):

1. Ashton's #6

2. Amphora's Black Cavendish

3. Peterson's Gold Blend

4. Mac Baren's Gold of Denmark (coming from Haejenius/Amsterdam)

5. Troost Sliced (also coming from H/A)

6. Mac Baren's Golden Ambrosia

I start from the last one, having bought it just Monday, when I found myself accidentally without any tobacco in my pocket and finding myself very much pleased with consecutive bowls of BA, and I mean very much indeed ! I'm working it with the same pipe till the opening of the pouch, a black Savinelli Spigot, straight bulldog, filtered 9mm.

To cut it short BA is described in the pouch to be blended MAINLY with Virginias "carefully toasted to bring out a tasty and sweet Cavendish" with some very special yellow Virginia. I don't see but a word about Burley, but the term MAINLY seems to hide a (very) minor part of different tobaccos: a cased Burley seems to be the possible best candidate.

The smell of the pouch aroma suggests vanilla, nuts, dried fruits: a sort of "muessli" (know what I mean?). The visual thing is a beautiful contrast of almost black, dark brown (coffee) with few light brown and blonde flecks. One could think: what the heck am I gonna smoking ? And that's is not happening: You are not going to smoke that combination of pouch aroma and colours only. The smoke is extremely well balanced, and yes! It's TOBACCO, of the best quality IMHO, with hints of everything above (not the colours, of course). So good that I must impose myself to slow down, but not for avoiding the famous McBite. At every rate BA does not bite, nor turns bitter, only a salty note that's not that bad. To be noted that the tobacco is not wet, and not dry, it's perfect to be smoked. No goop. No tainted pipe.

Comparisons with 2. and 4., which are waiting me opened in the cabinet, seem obvious.

As far as and aromatic of future choice in rotation, I fully subscribe three full stars.

For those who enjoy extremely sweet aromatic, this is the best you can find, sweet black Cavendish CASED WITH HONEY, VANILLA, toffee and Caramel, it is delicious! very sweet and very mild, dry and easy burning, with no bite, wonderful aroma, and very social smoke.

only for those who enjoy sweet tobacco.

I am a fan of many of Mac Baren's offerings; Burley London Blend, Navy Flake, Plumcake, Scottish Mixture, Virginia No. 1. All in my first string line up. As far as their aromatics go, I occasionally smoke their Honey Chocolate and Vanilla Cream, but not on any regular basis.

I seem to have more of a time keeping Black Ambrosia lit - even after what I consider sufficient drying. Perhaps it is the casing, which to me smells like black licorice in the tin. Not a bad thing, but perhaps a bit over done. There is also very little tobacco flavor with this one. I can't taste much of the casing as I smoke it, nor can I really smell it like I do their other blends in this category. Initially, the room note is pleasing to all, but after the pipe has been out a while, the room smells a bit like a cigarette ash tray. Not a good thing for me.

The tin aroma is one of the best I have ever smelled. It packs well, there is no bite and little moisture, but I abhor the smell of an old ashtray, and therefore don't anticipate this being a regular.

I like Black Ambrosia but I'll tell you what--after a couple of bowls you start to say "I wish it tasted more like tobacco" I experience a red wine after taste that turns me off. I prefer to drink my wine and smoke my tobacco, not the other way around. Gets worse with multiple bowls. I do however love to smoke this in a crowd or in the company of a woman. The smell from the tin is a real female pleaser and with a glass of red wine the taste makes sense. So Black Ambrosia has its place in my opinion, just not a good everyday tobacco. (Hint - Heavy Italian red wine but no cheap chianti. Rufino or better. Give it a try!)

Keep em' smoldering!

nice pace of change with a nutty and sweet jet black cavendish taste to it. straight burly cavendish is what you are going to get in this blend. burns dry and clean to the last bit, packs very well and the room note is acceptable but not as good as other mac baren offerings aromatics.

I had to re-hydrate my packet, it'd been on the shelf for a while and even longer in my cellar. I'm on a bit of a rediscovery of aromatics at the moment...I find they have a crucial space in my daily selection.

Why do so many people say..it's Yuk!...its bites because it's a MacB? Well MacB have a long solid reputation. They know about their reputation for a wee bite. But they still choose to blend the blends the way they do....and...they still sell very well over many decades. It's a little self-inflating and somewhat carping of us smokers to say it's 'crap'.

B.Amb is a lovely soft, good, tasty aromatic, very similar to Vanilla Cream but with only a touch of vanilla, it's fruity and and salty, it dose not bite much for an aro, and... is a great in between smoke throughout the day. It is NOT soapy, NOR is it overly sweet. It is mild yet with a good natural baccy taste...all the way to the bottom. It is a stroll in the park aromatic, a hot sunny day or a nippy winter's afternoon aromatic.

And lastly it reminds me that I should never pay any attention to pipe smokers on TRev's that say stuff like; "this is total crap and a complete waste of money"! If you are a pipe smoker worth anything...it is never a 'waste' to purchase a new packet of baccy...particularly from a top Danish company like MacB. 3.5 stars for a solid aromatic. Yet again another MacB to add to my cellar.

I guess this blend would be ok if you did not have anything else but I would not spend money on it again.

Just plain blah when smoking and then a stale aftertaste.

It smells, smokes and tastes like cream but nothing else. Amazing room note though. It made the place smelling like a French coffee shop which just ran out of coffee and someone in the kitchen baking a some sort of nutty cream cake. One thing, mix some of this with a mid grade unflavored virginia, you get a pretty good smoke. Actually MB's Original Choice is just that...

Very mild in taste, and reminds me of some kind of liquor. I am able to enjoy it however it's not the best experience, no complexity, rather boring. I'm going to smoke it on the walk-on during some work from time to time until the end of the tin(in Poland it's actually sold in foil envelope) - after that rather not buy it again

Honestly, I don't get to experience that heavenly feel and wonderful taste every second pipe smoker preaches this blend for. For me, it tastes like nothing. But, literally. Burns fine and all, doesn't bite, but I just got the feeling "tastes fine, has it's mood, but lets just finish it soon enough". Sorry if I feel disrespectful, I'll try to give some respect by writing down the usual stuff. Despite it's rather bland taste it was pleasant in some way, the two factors you need is: absence of sunshine, and solitude. Not only do you need full attention to get to feel it's taste, but once you do, it feels right this way. Not advised to drink any fancy-tasty drinkie if you want to actually taste some of it, what worked for me was milk (not joking), clear, cool water, or earl grey, unflavoured. Another thing is, since it is about 95% black cavendish, makes up for a nice home blend, no surprise included.

I greatly appreciated the absence of Burley in this blend. This tobacco has a nice tin note and a good room note. In the pipe, it's not the "traditional", fully aromatic black Cavendish you would expect, but it's an interesting, good tobacco. It didn't thrill me to the extent of the fantastic (I repeat, fantastic for Black Cavendish lovers) complexity, depth, variety and fullness of Amphora Black Cavendish Special Reserve n.1. Mild, balanced sweetness, mild, smooth aroma. No tongue bite. Not very complex, but a quite pleasant, relaxing smoke. Ideal for beginners, or for an outdoors smoke in the summer. Good morning starter. The "modern Cavendish" by Mac Baren is probably cased and designed to enhance the natural sweetness of fermented Virginias, without much added. They surely succeeded, but without creating a "WOW!" blend. The flavoring -if any- is barely detectable, but probably that's the actual goal of Mac Baren blenders. The result? A mild, smooth, sweet, easy to smoke blend. I shall smoke it again, alternating it with the superb Amphora Black, or with the distinctively aromatic Davidoff Malawi Dark Cavendish.

This smelled fantastic in the bag. I couldn't wait to give it a try. Cut is dry, coarse ribbons about 1/2 in long, up to a tad longer. Initial light was surprisingly good considering the coarseness. Flavor, is very mild to almost non existent. On the tongue and retro-hale. The closest thing I can think of is something in the vein of Carter Hall or Velvet. A hint of fruity-ness, and a whole lot of ok. Black Ambrosia will NOT knock your socks off I guarantee that. Now it isn't bad, actually, probably my favorite bulk Mac Baren purchase to date. It's just nothing that the name Ambrosia should ever be linked with.

Eh. It’s okay. I was left a little underwhelmed if I am being honest. It burns warm, but not hot. Not too much casing. Definitely one of the more natural tasting aromatics.

This was a surprising blend. Yes, it is an aromatic, but not a soapy type that smells good and comes out just tasteless steam. I do not find it to be very complex, or perhaps I didn't care to look too deep into it, especially since I only had about 3-4 bowls. A friend of mine gifted it, and since the aromatic casing does not cover the tobacco properties I may be buying some more. The aspect of the tobacco is black, with a nose resembling dried fruit, a bit citrus, but the most evident is fig. It lights easily, burns cool, and leaves little to no moisture in the bowl. Like I said, not very complex, a straight virginia and a lot of cavendish, with a fig tasting topping that stays with you throughout the entire bowl. Very forgiving on the tongue bite. It may be an all day blend, especially for the smokers that fancy a sweeter bacy.