Mac Baren Club Blend

Club Blend has a fine taste. Not too much flavoring and does taste like tobacco. The roll cake style makes it a bit of a hassle to rub out and pack, but you will be rewarded by a cool, dry smoke. I say cool, but that is because you must puff slowly for it to remain that way.

I tried this blend in a variety of pipes, and I think it smokes best completely rubbed out in a group 4 size pipe. Keep the burn slow or you may find this blend to nip the tongue. Nothing serious, but you will feel the flame.

Typically top shelf quality by Mac Baren.

Pipestud

Mac Baren Club Blend Roll Cake – Just a brief confirmation of what’s been said already: Out of the freshly opened tin you might get bite through sugary, honey-like vapor on your tongue.

If you spread it out over night and let it dry a bit and then sip carefully, the experience changes entirely. Roasty, toasty and sometimes earthy tones of the tobaccos accompanied by the typical MB sweetness. The casing is now more discrete and well balanced, together with mild-medium strength and medium-full taste. A filter doesn’t change much, just take 10% off every aspect. A reliable pleasure.

Pick this one, if you really like the MB aroma, the Dark Twist, if you like it a tad more spicy with the sweetness and Stockton, if you prefer it spicy, with less MB aroma.

The dark fired Kentucky center provides a lot of earth, wood, spice, vegetation, some sweet and sourness, herbs, nuts, floralness, and light smoke as the lead component. The gold Virginia offers some tart and tangy citrus, grassy vegetation, sugar, bread, mild floralness, light sour lemon, and spice along with touches of honey and acidity as a supporting player. The maple sugar very mildly tones down the tobaccos. The strength and taste levels just make the medium mark. The nic-hit is a couple of steps behind. I don’t experience any but or harshness, though I do notice a few rough edges. The coins are mildly moist and ready to smoke. Burns cool, clean and a little slow with a very consistent sweet and spicy, mildly floral flavor that extends the short lived, pleasant after taste. The room note a notch more potent. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, and requires a couple more than an average number of relights. Not quite an all day smoke Three and a half stars.

-JimInks

I have thoroughly enjoyed both Stockton and Dark Twist Roll Cake and it was only a matter of time before getting to Club Blend. All three of these spun tobaccos are very similar in smoking characteristics and flavor profile. What I like about all of them is the nice "brown sugar-like" taste that each imparts while smoking. No detectible topping like vanilla and the likes, just a nice, sugary sweetness. Couple that simplicity with high quality leaf and you have a very tasty tobacco presence while smoking. If I had to rate these three, I would say that Stockton is the spiciest, Dark Twist the sweetest, and Club Blend in terms of spiciness and sweetness just shadowing the other two in their respective departments. I do not mean to say that Club Blend is a middle of the road blend, but a blend that has the best of both worlds (sweetness and spice) in just the right proportions to make this stand out. I can smoke any of the 3 and be fully satisfied, but if I had to choose only one, it would be Stockton as it's a bit stronger in dark fired taste. By the way, CB did not smoke hot, however it can be a bit nippy. There was no palate irritation and it smoked clean and dry to the bowl's end each and every time. Recommended as a good, dependable smoke.

Tin presentation is little disks of sliced spun tobacco. Aroma is mild, and generally brown sugar sweet with some Virginia notes.

A little moist when fresh, I find all of these MacBaren spun blends to be best when well dried. Even when dry, there is a little bit of nip present that requires caution to not get carried away with puff cadence. And it's easy to get too eager, the flavor is subtle and encourages a faster draw trying to get more flavor to burst forward. What bursts forward instead is tongue tingle. Go easy, and you're rewarded with a very pleasant, mildly sweet smoke.

I once had a blend that called itself Natural Dutch Cavendish, it was more brown than black cavendish, and had a very distinct flavor that I find to be present here. I detect essentially no black cavendish character. The Virginias are very nice, with more of a hay / grass note than yeasty or bready. The topping / casing is noticeably sweet but not really artificial or annoying like a sticky aromatic, and as others have mentioned gives off a toasted marshmallow note. Mixed against the nice Virginia baseline, it's pleasant.

In general, I visit this blend roughly once a week, and enjoy it pretty greatly when I do. Given it's tendency to get tingly and the care it requires to not bite, I personally can't call it an every day smoke. But it's a treat nonetheless, and of the MacBaren roll cake tobaccos, my favorite.

Truly a "middle of the road" blend... sweet, but with some spice. Quite natural, but aromatic in taste. For me it also takes the middle of the 3 Roll Cakes I got to smoke from Mac Baren. Stockton being by far my favorite, Club Blend 2nd place for its smooth and all-day-suitable aroma and strenght, Dark Twist takes the 3rd place, because I find it a tad too sweet.

Mac Baren says this is only treated with water and maple-syrup, and has "minimalistic casing" and I'd agree that a hint of a fruity-casing is present. Tin note is wonderful... lots of natural, bready, yeasty tobacco aroma, some citrusy fruit notes, with maple-ish sweetness to it.

In the taste it's quite natural tobacco aroma. Rich, but mellow flavours of dark bread and walnuts that are supported by a midly fruity, moreso citrusy freshness. A decent sweetness is always present, that has a maple-ish touch to it. An delicate interplay of tart-spice and refreshing, citrusy-sweetness.

On the lower half of medium in strenght, I find this could be appealing to beginners who want to discover more natural pipe tobaccos, as well as for Virginia lovers, who like some spice and every other smoker, who likes a "middle of the road" blend, that is very All-Day suitable with an aroma that's never too much, but also satisfying. Smehow "Club Blends" always lend me to believe it should be a blend of which you can crack a tin open, put it on the pipe clubs table and say: *"Fill a bowl boys..."* and everyone would like the tobacco fine or at least like it OK. Club Blend is one of these blends! I can't imagine anyone finding this totally offensive!

Yup... another well done Roll Cake by Mac Baren, great series they produce and worth every penny imho!

Solid three stars. I don't get the description above saying this has a citrus/fruit flavoring. Mac Barens site only says their typical preparation of their Original Cavendish has a maple sugar casing. That is all. And indeed this is exactly what this blend presents. A typical Va, Burley, Cavendish blend. Smooth with a nice mild depth of flavors. Doesn't evolve too much but is consistent throughout the bowl. I like the small disks of roll cake. Fun to rub out. Sometimes I don't rub them out but just crumble them between the fingertips. Easy. Takes the flame very well and burns slowly. As with all Mac Baren offerings so far, for me gentle sipping is the way to experience them. An all day blend for sure. No frills. Consistent. Toasty and lightly sweet.

First things first. The description above identifies this as having a fruit/citrus flavoring. I do not believe that this is accurate. Mac Baren states that all of their spun tobaccos of this style receive only a sugar topping, and that to a small degree. In addition, their website also gives this their lowest rating possible for aromatic flavor. While one may taste citrus, my own experience is that this blend indeed contains only a light sugar casing.

Now to the tobacco. It certainly looks as described, which is as a blend of virginias and cavendish. It is their typical Mac Baren sliced roll cake - long ribbon cut tobacco spin which appear to be pressed into a tube shape, and then sliced into thin discs.

The tin moisture is significant, and the blend itself benefits greatly from significant drying prior to smoking. Most Mac blends can bite if not smoked with respect. This is no exception. When dried to the touch (but not wholly crisp) the bite all but disappears unless smoked fast and furious, and it burns slowly and evenly. The flavor is rich and sweet, and consistent from start to finish. It is not complex, but offers a satisfying mouthful of smoke which is sweet but offers natural virginia flavor. Yummy.

I like it. It is like DarkTwist, but with more dark fired cavendish, so with much more spice. Sadly it lacks nicotine strenght, frankly expected in this kind of old traditional tobaccos.