Mac Baren Burley London Blend

The best thing I can say about this blend is that it reminded me of Mild Kentucky Club, but without MKC's nice floral casing. I didn't notice any "slight natural chocolate note", but the notorious Macbaren bite and hot-burning qualities were there. I also noticed a "sour" taste/smell frequently found with burley blends, but this sourness was a bit much for me.

Overall, not a terrible blend, but at $5.71 an ounce, I was expecting much more. I'll stick with $1.78/ounce Mild Kentucky Club.

This pure White Burley challenged my capacity to adapt.

For the newcomer to all Burley blends, the lack of any taste can be annoying at first. And trigger the "Why are there so many people enjoying all Burley mixtures?"

With some patience and a lot of attention to it, subtle tastes will start shining trough. And reveal a decent level of nicotine.

All Burley blends are not bold in taste. You need to dedicate yourself entirely to your smoke in order to get rewarded.

The tin aroma is delicious and is reflected in the smoking.

Beautiful, long, broken up flakes of medium and dark brown colour.

Beautiful chocolate and nutty tin aroma.

Beautiful chocolate, nutty and tobacco taste.

Beautiful smoke!

This Burley blend is the one that makes me understand why a pipe smoker can be so fond of an all Burley blend. If VAs were added in LBB, it must be at a less than 10% proportion.

The tin aroma was divine - bitter sweet chocolate, nuts, perhaps a bit of honey and pure tobacco- and the long, partially rubbed out flakes similar to Golden Extra are among my favorite cuts for smoking.

The moisture in the tin reduced significantly over the first three days, making LBB an ideal leaf for a satisfying and enjoyable smoking session.

My first pipeful was rather disappointing: barely any detectable taste or flavor, very bland and no apparent nicotine presence. The second one revealed a very subtle chocolate and nuts flavor with some nicotine input once I was past mid-bowl.

With the third and fourth pipefuls, I started to really enjoy this blend. The secret was simple. The more I pay attention and take my time, the better the experience. And I can understand now why so many smokers are big fans of all burley blends. They deliver a subtle and consistent semi sweet flavor combined with an interesting nicotine intake while providing a satisfying, genuine tobacco flavor.

The more I smoke LBB, the more I like it. My patience did pay off and I don't regret persisting in giving this tobacco a chance.

I will definitively rebuy on a regular basis.

Just before walking the dog (and smoking a half bowl of Burley London Blend), I made some pretty mean burgers (on grilled rolls, of course). I chopped up some ancho chiles (the kind that come packed with adobo sauce) and mixed those in with the meat, along with worchestire sauce and garlic powder. I tell you this only as a means to describe the smoking experience...the pipe turned out to be a perfect accompaniment to those burgers: Both were toasty, beefy, and full of flavor. Like the burger, this blend also bites a bit, especially when pulling with anything above a gentle draw.

There's not much to add, except that it's a solid burley, and if it weren't for that single detriment to an otherwise terrific blend, this would rate 4 stars from me.

As it stands now though, LJ Heart Burley is just as tasty, and it's a much smoother smoke.

Simply a great every day burley. Lights easy, burns dry to a white/grey ash. If its wet dry it out some. It does seem to mellow with a little time on it. I find it a great change to my more smoked English/Virginia/Vapers. For the money a value. One lb. bulk is a steal. Its seems more sweet to me than Solani's ABF. But not Too Sweet. Does not get bitter at the finish. Impact!

As a new pipe smoker, this was a blend I was a little nervous about trying. (I had bad luck with mac b's honey and chocolate and HH mature VA) What I found was a toasty, satisfying and slightly sweet smoke. Admittedly, it's the only burley I've tried, but it saved me from aromatics and probably kept me interested in the pasttime. I recomend it.

Burley London Blend captures the flavour of a good cigar with a pleasant note for the nose and a delightful aftertaste on the palate. My own taste preference runs to more aromatic blends but I also really enjoy this one for a good tobacco flavour.

I'm not a burley smoker so I have little to compare this to, and I've only had one bowl so far.

Opening the tin I was greeted by a strong ketchup scent that was quickly replaced by more earthly odors.

At the match the blend was smooth and mild tasting, but I was unprepared for the strong nicotine kick.

I'm not a real fan of blends that make my head spin, and this is one of those. I like the taste just not the kick.

Like other MacBaren offerings, this smokes hot so slow puffing is the way to go.

I'm looking forward to trying this more in different pipes to see if I like it. Perhaps slow puffing will reduce the nicotine levels. If not I just got some blending latakia to cut it. Updates to follow

**Update** I've found that this blend is good outdoors in bigger pipes as long as I smoke it SLOW. Indoors it's proven to be too heady, too hot with an odd bitter aftertaste.

I still think I need to try it out a little more. But so far it's not a blend that I'll rush out and buy again.