Mac Baren Black Ambrosia

Straight Virginia, pure Black Cavendish or flavored mixture? How can you classify this blend? The composition is Black Cavendish (flavored) with a hint of light Virginia. In my opinion this is not a mixture and this is not a straight Virginia. Practically this is a pure flavored Black Cavendish. There is a little bit of Virginia, but it is uninfluential. The taste is good and sweet but in my opinion this is more a blending tobacco than a real proper mixture. In my personal system rating (from 1 to 10), my score is 7 and two and a half stars.

It is almost not fair to call this an aromatic, because there is just not much here other than the tin note to enjoy. While this cavendish makes a fine addition to other blends, on its own, even with the "fruit" essence, it is just not very tasty or rewarding to smoke.

It is a very chunky ribbon cut cavendish. The tin aroma is very nice, although to me it smells more like vanilla than fruit, and I really get no fruit flavor in the smoking either. It dries readily, but can be tough to pack in small pipes due to the large, chunky nature of the pieces. Lighting is more of a chore than average, but once lit burns steadily, with periodic relights and tamping.

The flavor upon lighting is mild, and goes downhill from there. There is a sweet cavendish flavor, like a high quality Captain Black, and that's about it. The taste actually thins shortly thereafter to a whispy sweet VA taste, which while not unpleasant, is too light to warrant the effort. This is very one-dimensional, with no complexity or depth, and really does not change or improve throughout the bowl. Perhaps this makes sense as this is essentially a constituent tobacco that has been used for the vast majority of this mixture, but it just does not stand up on its own. It burns cleanly and without goop, no small feat for a black cavendish, and will not ruin a pipe in short order (although I think if you smoked this consistently in one pipe you probably would not want to switch to something else, like a VAPER, in the same bowl).

If you are a huge fan of black cavendish and are looking to up your game from the cheap drugstore iterations, this is probably made for you. IF you are looking for an enjoyable, complex aromatic this is a waste of time, and MB offers many other, tastier, more complex smokes that are equally light on the tongue (like any of the 7 Seas blends).

I think if you doctored this up it could be very good indeed. While i generally am loathe to do so, because that's cheating, in this case some latakia and burley would make a world of difference. Or you could just buy Sillim's Black and be done with it.

Update: within about a month the taste degrades majorly into common cigarette smoke unfortunately.

To be brief, this is cavendish pushed to it's best possible taste (from which you understand I am not a fan of cavendishes). What do we get?

Even smoking experience through the process. Flavour is tobacco, lemon, a bit of fruit and a bit of cream. Interestingly, I got lemon in one briar and cream in the other with almost no lemon. Sugary notes reminiscent of orientals are there too, but flavouring is not intimidating. You are smoking tobacco, not a fruitcake with this one. Taste is consistent all through the smoking process. Of course in the tin it smells great, which aromatic doesn't?

Nicotine is there above what is average for an aromatic, but not much for a straight baccy.

It bites very mildly if you push it. A bit more if you cycle smoke through your nose, but nothing too bad and goes right away. Aftertaste in the mouth is pleasant, fresh.

Burns to even whitish ash, actually so fine that if you're puffing hard, you might end up sucking some in towards the end, it's just that fine. Burns fast. Took some rekindling though. A cool smoker. Smoke itself is not thick, so your room clears up in no time and it's not the best choice to blow them rings...

You do not get the taste of burnt paper, which is common (to my palette) with cheap aromatics. A major plus. It isn't bitter.

Why am I giving it only 2 stars? Cavendish disadvantages of quick burn, ashy, are still there. If that is a non issue for you - this is a refreshing, refined, interesting tobacco above store stuff. A definite compliment to Mac Baren for putting a major effort into this, which paid off.

Room note: cigarette smoke quite a bit, though what you catch with your nose out of the pipe is rather pleasant.

This is a very mild blend that is tasty with a balanced flavor spectrum. It is so mild that I occasionally start to relight only to find that it is burning fine. But then it states on the tin that it is a light tobacco, so I am not faulting it for that. The tobacco that I am smoking was relatively dry out of the factory sealed package. For an aromatic it burns surprisingly dry and cool. It smokes so cool that I am surprised that I haven't burned my tongue puffing on this so much trying to get more body out of it. If you like light and mild tobaccos, this would be a good candidate. The flavoring is just right, not too much or too little. The taste for me is vanilla primarily. The quality of the tobacco seems to be very good, as I didn't see or feel any tough leaf midribs or veins in the mix.

This reminds me of W.O. Larsen Old fashioned and the Planta pear 2006 in that it's a really full tobacco flavor with the addition of some subtle toppings (fruit and vanilla predominantly). I was initially pretty excited, but it burns pretty hot to me and can be rather bitey with some bitterness at the last 1/4 of the bowl and leaves a nasty aftertaste.

Black Ambrosia...reminds my lot of Peterson Luxury Blend.Almost same fruity taste but Petersons has more character.Nice room note,thick rich smoke,nicotin level should be higher.The fruity taste last almost to end of the bowl.Decent blend but it lacks something...Petersons Luxury blend has it and it is called Burley.No bite as some might think from MB blend. Even smoke.

I was not a fan of Black Ambrosia. I have been smoking MacBaren's for over a decade so I know to smoke dead slow or in the case of Plumcake, use a filter to avoid the flamethrower but BA is flavorless and has no Nic hit I can detect and that's the two reasons I smoke a pipe. BA has the usual MB fruity honey aroma with the usual Virginia and Black Cavendish ribbon mix and is certainly not offending but bland. Since its not terrible I will give it 2 stars but with so many tobacco's on the market being great why bother with mediocre...

I think, perhaps, that the name is inappropriate. It's a beautiful tobacco blend but the name leads you to think your about to experience something 'out of this world'.

Not so.

I laboured through half my tin trying to find it's 'sweet spot' but failed. Dumped the rest in my 'god only knows' canister and consumed it that way. I can see where it might grab some puffers by the stem so I can only suggest buying a tin and make a decision as to whether or not to buy a second one.

As a regular smoker of both Mac Baren Golden Ambrosia and Mixture I had to give this one a try. However, as others have said it's pretty nondescript - the flavour never really develops unfortunately.

The appearance in the pouch is identical to McLintocks Black Cherry sans the cherry.

It's a bit moist so takes a bit of time to get lit. Little bite, but then I smoke this in a 9mm filter pipe. Attractive room note so probably good for smoking in company.

It's one of those "why bother" blends. The exciting taste that Mac Baren states you will be thrilled by never really comes.