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.

This tobacco was my first experience in pipe smoking. To tell you the truth, I did not like it. Maybe it was because I had a new pipe. Maybe because of the taste and smell. It was a while back, so all I remember was it hitting me hard (new to smoking) as well as a certain smell I did not really like. Even later, when pipe was fully broken-into, I still did not like this tobacco. Anyway, all I can say based on my limited knowledge of tobacco is that this tobacco is not for people who are new to this.

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...

This is my first 1 Star Rating review and I must say that I have really tried to see if there is redemption for this blend ... I can not find any.

I purchased this tin from my favorite Brick & Mortar Shop about a 2 years ago the name caught my attention. I recently saw it in my cellar and thought, "Why haven't I smoked this one very much" I remembered that I had purchased it for blending and this week I was in the blending mood so I needed a bowl to revisit the flavor profile .... Now I remember why I only had one bowl previously and there will not be a third.

The only redeeming quality to this tobacco is the charring light. It is sweet and inviting; that is where it ends!! Within 10 puffs you are wishing the initial flavors would be there but they never come back. (I guess if, you only have time for 3 or 4 puffs, this is an "okay good" blend.)

However, IF you hang with this one through the entire bowl you are left with the "soapy" taste hanging on your palate as you are thinking about how long it will take to recover from the bite ... and you are asking yourself, "why didn't I stop after the charring light??"

As for blending, I can't see adding good tobacco with this one. There is just too much wrong and I would not want to wreck other good tobacco ... Mac Baren, I am truly sorry to only be able to give you 1 star. I do enjoy some of your other offerings as stand alone blends or as anchors in some of my home blends.

Now I am left with a "100 gram tin - two bowls" ... is there a market for that?? FREE to anyone that asks ... And one more thing ... If you are by chance new to the pipe smoking world ... Please don't let this blend sour you to our wonderful pass time!! Happy Smoke Trails