Mac Baren Burley London Blend

This was a good Burley that could burn hot if pushed. Smooth and nutty and consistent. I'd place it in between the OTCs and the likes of C&D/Watch City/John Patton. Miss it enough that I wish I would have bought a pound when they announced it discontinued.

update 20Jan2020: popped a tin of the re-issue. This is so delicious when you light up, but a quarter of the way into the bowl it reminds me why I liked but never loved Mac Baren before they re-imagined themselves. You have to smoke this with a relaxed cadence. It wants to turn hot and bland. I'm glad they did the re-issue, because this is a good smoke, but more because now I KNOW that HH Burley Flake is the best Burley Mac Baren ever produced.

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.

Original Review 4/24/2014

This is a good burley blend. Not nearly the best I've ever had, but not the worst. It is a nice broken flake packed tightly into a 100g tin.

I would say it is a great burley for the money and availability, but it just does not rise to the level of say, ABF, Uhle's (take your pick), C & D burleys (take your pic again) or even Mac Baren's own ODF. At least to my tastes.

I will say the tin I purchased was at the perfect moisture content. Personally for me I would put this at two stars, but am adding a star for price and availability and I really don't think someone will feel they wasted their money on this one.

Update 8/30/2018

I felt this one was due an update in light of the fact that it was shortly after my review that Mac Baren announced that they were discontinuing this blend and since I just finished smoking through one of the remaining two tins in my cellar. It did not bother me that they discontinued this when they did as my first impressions were not that impressive. I have since had the opportunity to try Golden Extra and this gave me the likely motive behind why this was discontinued.

I find GE to be a better tasting blend, yet pretty similar. In fact, I would say that in terms of comparing the blend to blends available at the time it was yanked from the MB Lineup I would say it was most similar to GE, but GE has a bit more nutty sweetness to it that appeals more to my tastebuds, and apparently to many others' as well, since it survived the cut. I believe this sweetness is from a light topping, but am not positive.

To the present day and the tin I just finished, I would say BLB was more of a natural Burley blend boosted by some Virginia. I have also recently had the pleasure of trying the new HH Burley Flake by Mac Baren, which like all others in the HH line, has no topping. I would say these two are very similar in taste, with the new HH blend edging it out.

All of this boils down to me removing a star and dropping this to a two star blend as I certainly can't recommend someone buying this as better alternatives from Mac Baren do exist. Burley is a type of tobacco that always taste better fresh IMO and any tins of this you find will have some age on them. Stick to Golden Extra or jump into the HH Burley Flake instead of paying a premium for an older tin of this.

Okay, I got this blend, and it was a haystack. I still smoked it, bit like crazy and didn't taste all good.

So I gave some time to moisten and give it a legit smoke. The taste was half decent. I decent burley nutty taste. It still bit like hell. Hard to enjoy when it burns so hot, even slow puffing.

I see how this blend could be good. Even after the nutty taste, there was a chemical after taste I couldn't seem to get rid of.

If your a beginner, looking for aromatics, try a sampler on any pipe tobacco website, and you should see some better cuts, and flavors. If you were at a local shop, and this is what you see I wouldn't discourage you, it's a good start, just not something I would keep.

Mac Baren is notorious for tongue bite. This blend is not an exception to this curse. However it dose have a rather pleasant light burley flavor to it. I'd put this blend one step above OTC burley blends. But just barley.

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.

For a good Burley look no further than a tin of this. Soft,satisfying, lightly sweet and chocolate-ish. From first light to the heel it's good.

the room note is fantastic. it has that great burly scent to it. however thats all it has. it dose tend to bite (probably because the flake size its rather large causing it to burn hot.) its taste is missing something. it needs more to it. it seems like its just the base of a mix. this with a finer flake size mixed with some virginia would make a fantastic blend. but as is it is just too plain for my liking.