Mac Baren Burley London Blend

Of MacBaren's Burley blends, this one has the least VA mixed in and is the purest Burley experience compared to Norwood and Golden Blend (aka Golden Extra). The leaf is something between a ready-rubbed and a broken flake in the tin, almost uniformly brown; the tin note is of cocoa and some chocolate, with sweetness.

Stuffing and lighting this typical MacBaren cut is easy, I have no need to dry out first. Stuff lightly, though. The room note is an airy, cocoa-ish fragrance that may not be a chick magnet but is quite good; the taste builds up from a rather dry chocolate note to gain more and more sweetness.

Needs to be smoked somewhat slowly to appreciate, but that is not much of a problem; just sip slowly. It seems MacBaren have added a little sugar to sweeten the blend, accordingly the burn can turn too hot. After smoking, I have no dottle in the bowl, just an even light grey ash.

A nice premium blend, for me this is one of those indispensable things to have around when I need that Burley fix that I keep a goodly stock of tins.

only 2+ years experience

This blend is pretty sweet, but not sickeningly sweet. No heavey kick that you would expect from a burley either. Since it was discontinued I bought a few pounds for the cellar.

This is a trustworthy burley. But it is different than American codger burleys (consequently the "London" designation, while puzzling to me, still seems appropriate.) First of all the ribbon cut burns slower and requires some extra rubbing out. The virginia is always present (similar to Carter Hall) but the overall flavor is more natural and not as sweet as CH.

My only criticism is that the tin note promises something rich and deep, chocolatey and semi-sweet, but the actual smoking flavor is drier and straightforward. In any case if you know how to smoke Macbarens and you want a straightforward and affordable burley, this one will satisfy.

EDIT 2014-03

Just bought a pound of this due to fond memories. But, I was horrified by the tongue bite I was getting. I thought I had become immune to Macbite after learning to smoke them properly. I don't know why, but what got rid of the bite was, instead of rubbing out the mixture, I kept the strands of tobacco as intact as possible, shoving them rudely into the pipe and putting some kindling at the top of the bowl. There's my old BLB! Sad to hear it's discontinued. I've got enough to last me awhile but I hope it comes back.

I'm smiling and puffing. I'm an ardent smoker of English blends as I'm fond of the latakia. I do enjoy a Burley though. A fella has got to keep his rotation exciting and after some talk with my tobacconist I went out on a limb and bought a 100 g tin of BLB. I opened the tin with a bit of trepidation, there's been a few “new” tobacco fails in the last several months. The BLB tin had a wonderful tobacco aroma with hints of raisins and fresh leather. It had a perfect moisture level. The tobacco needed to be rolled out a little to load the pipe. I loaded up my full bent Caminetto, easily lit the bowl on the char and puffed hardily. Wonderful taste, nice and nutty, mild, but with complexity! I was very pleased. Apparently I got lucky as I had only lightly packed half a bowl (after smoking it I came to the website, read the other reviews, and found this was recommended). On the plus side this was a very tasty and pleasant smoke. A great tobacco flavor. On the negative, I did detect a bit of an alcohol top note, I get a metallic taste in my mouth (usually in the back) with those (not pleasant). I had just a faint bit of that when I puffed away a bit too dramatically. The trick with alcohol toppings is either to smoke the tobacco with a churchwarden or to sip gently at the shorter pipe. This keeps the temperature and volume of the smoke down. I slowed things up and the nutty goodness took control of the flavor. Great smoke!

This is a good starter burley with nice rich flavor but that eschews burley's normal spiciness and nuttiness for a bit more sweetness and "grassiness". Lightly cased, the flavoring does not intrude but rather accents. This is the finest Mac Baren blend I have smoked to date and one that I had passed over due to my "virginia snobbery" that I've finally overcome. There are better burleys out there (to my taste) but this is one I recommend to anyone looking for a change of pace or a nice "steady eddie". Ridiculously low priced in bulk for the high quality (less than 2 bucks an ounce). It may be a bit monodimensional but you can't go wrong for the price. This is a winner. I'm buying a pound and will dip into it regularly.

A good straight Burley! I enjoy Golden Blend once in a while, but this is better: the Burley taste is more pronounced, more refined. It has more body, it is richer, and at the same time even smoother.

Of course you have to like the taste of Burley: woody, oaky, grassy, earthy slightly astringent, with notes of fresh yeast and black coffee. But this great blend does not turn exceedingly bitter like other Burleys do.

The usual Mac Baren casing is applied sparingly (some honey? some bitter cocoa?), and the result is a tobacco that comes on the dry side, burns great, velvety and with no bite, while maintaining an intense taste from start to finish.

Sure, Burley can be a bit monochromatic on the long run, and I prefer the variations offered by Mac Baren Navy Mixture (which is less Burley oriented and sweeter), but as Burley-dominated blends go, this is one of the best. I might almost be tempted to say that it behaves better than the legendary Edgeworth Sliced...

Any reader of this review should know up front that I am a BIG burley fan and my tastes tend to be tilted towards such blends. I think the prejudice some smokers have against burleys might be because of goopy aromatics with a burley base. Lately it seems burley tobaccos are making a bit of a comeback and I'm glad to see it.

Burley London Blend for me smokes like a purer burley than many of the others on the market. I've heard it has a slight honey casing, but it's barely noticable, much less than the casings of something like Burley Light Without a Bite or Bufflehead Oldsquaw (both sweeter mixtures that I like). There's a toasty nuttiness that sometimes borders on bitterness, but never quite gets there. It's more like the flavor of some of the old classic burleys of the past. Think of a more refined version of Prince Albert. One other very nice characteristic of this tobacco is that it's a great DGT blend. I've left partial bowls overnight and come back to a smoke that was every bit as tasty as the fresh pack.

BLB is a partially rubbed out tobacco that takes just a bit more effort on the initial char and relight. Once you get it going, it burns well and doesn't have a tendency to go out and require several relights. It burns down to a pretty fine ash, sometimes with just a bit of dottle left. BLB doesn't seem to be too picky about pipe sizes or types, I've smoked it in medium and large bowls as well as cobs with equal success.

If forced to pick a favorite burley, I'd still have to give a slight edge to Wilke's Nut Brown Burley, with C&D Morley's Best and Bufflehead's Oldsquaw VERY close behind. That said, BLD has become a staple for me and I recommend it highly. It's a high quality tobacco that gives the smoker another option in the wonderful world of burley.

Update Dec. 2007- I am dropping my rating one star as I have found I no longer enjoy this blend as much as I used to. It also shows a tendency to bite if allowed to dry out too much. Be sure to keep it adequately moist.

This is my first tin of Mac Baren’s limited issue London Blend, number 179 of 4,000, undated, received and smoked over the past month or so. The tobacco is a well cut-up/broken flake that ranges from light to medium brown that smells like cocoa over buttered oatmeal. It handles, loads, lights and smokes down with no effort, and the combusted scents are like an expanded version of the tin notes that starts at mild and tops out before medium as it’s smoked down, becoming somewhat metallic by 1/3. This blend works best for me in a #4 briar that has been purged of ghosts, or a VA pipe works fine, albeit it will then harbor the ghost of London Blend. The varietals are very well melded, and it’s pretty consistent, top to bottom. Tastes work up close to medium. Room note is pleasant. Aftertaste is a metallic version of the smoke.

Toasted tobaccos are always a crap shoot for me. I find these to be of good quality, and they actually provide a nice base for the cocoa here. For me, this is a 3 in terms of quality, barely a 3 in terms of personal preference, though I can see from the other reviews it’s a popular blend.

This is the tobacco that was in the third of the three pint canning jars I bought back in April on Ebay. The other two were Gawith, Hoggarth blends that I had never smoked. On the converse, I have a very long, but thin, history with this blend. My first contact was in about 1971 when I walked into a room where a young man was smoking an unstained 4-panel horn that was emitting the most wonderful room aroma I had ever encountered. Roasty, toasty and very friendly smelling; I asked him what are you smoking in that pipe? His reply was Mac Baren Burley. I resolved to get a tin as soon as possible. I made that happen and eagerly lit up. Smoking the tobacco, as is the case in most blends, is a different thing than sniffing someone else's room note. I found the blend to be somewhat strong, but not too strong; somewhat sour and pungent, but not too sour; somewhat enjoyable, but not too enjoyable. As to the room aroma I was hoping for - I never found it. Over the next forty-five years I may have smoked this blend two or three times and my impression of it has not changed significantly. I still think its okay but nothing to write home about. In those forty-five years I have experienced many more Burley blends and Mac Baren Burley London Blend is perched securely right at the crest of the Burley blend bell-shaped curve - three stars.