Mac Baren Dark Twist Roll Cake

Dark Twist is a quality natural aromatic so to speak. The coin cut gives a slow burn as the tobacco enhances the brown sugar/ maple and vice versa. This is a nice sugar topped blend with no other confections or artificial flavorings. It can burn too hot if smoked too quickly and can get ashy tasting as well. But if you go at it slow your rewarded with a nice sugary smoke with body. Has a decent nic- hit and wont bit if you go slow. Smokes cooler rubbed out but you tend to lose some richness of sweetness when you do so. A good smoke if you are patient.

I do enjoy a few MacB's for many reasons. Widely available, good quality and fairly priced. I go to my MacB's when I want a sweet cased smoke. DT is added to my MacB list, Vanilla Cream, Navy Flake, Plumcake and Mixture. I find it a little milder in strength than Navy Flake, also a little less artificial tasting in it's casing. I would put this along side Mixture in the sense that it is a solid MacB blend that is well known and proven and should not offend anyone. Spicey, sweet, mild with enough punch, not too much bite, a good value navy blend.

Edit: up to four stars, it does bite, but dried and sipped this really is a winner, a great sweet navy, not as musty and earthy as some but for the price it earns full rank.

Yes, yes. Roll cakes are wonderful. Yes, I know red Virginia and black Cavendish is an intriguing combination. And isn't Mac Baren, after all, that wonderful company of friendly Danes who you just can't help but love. Fine.

Tell me this, though. How am I expected to enjoy a tobacco that produces a veritable deluge of acrid, sour liquid in the stem of my pipe? No matter what pipe I smoked it in, at least once during the bowl I would experience a sudden loud gurgling that would often send a sickening glop all over the inside of my mouth. The flavor of the tobacco up until that point was always mild and sweet, rather like raisins or ruby port. I simply could not abide the overwhelming wetness of this blend, however. I never attempted to smoke it in a corn cob. Perhaps I should have, but I'm not making any apologies.

Regards,

A. Morley Jaques

I got a sample of 5 coins of this tobacco. They look interesting, the colour goes from bright yellow to almost black. However, I've never had such a wet tobacco like this before. It was soaked in moisture, and sticky, as if it came straight out of a syrup bath. I tried to dry it up five minutes, but the smoking experience was nonetheless compromised by this incredible level of moisture. Endless relights, gurgling, and high temperature due to intense puffing. Once it is lit, the taste is actually good. I could taste some good Virgina, Burley and Kentucky, with a fruity topping which seemed apricot to me. Yet overall, I cannot really recommend a tobacco with such difficult smoking features. Drying out and charcoal filter are mandatory, in any case. Thanks to cigarworld for the sample.

MAC BAREN – DARK TWIST ROLL CAKE About this mixture there are two different versions: the original version (Virginia and Original Mac Baren Cavendish) and the current version (Virginia, Kentucky and maple sugar). Now I review the original formula composed of Virginia and Black Cavendish. Dark Twist first version is a natural aromatic mixture, with a little bit of casing due to the Black Cavendish. In fact in this blend there is Original MB Cavendish and not Modern MB Cavendish. That means that Black Cavendish is produced mainly with Burley to which sugar and flavors are added. Anyway not a lot of casing is employed. (On the contrary Modern MB Cavendish is a natural Black Cavendish produced with only Virginia and without any casing (natural sweetness). But this is not concerning us because in Dark Twist there is Original MB Cavendish). Coming to the flavor, the taste of the blend is sweet, but natural: it looks like a naturally sweet tobacco. That means that Virginia is of a good quality and Black Cavendish is well-prepared and balanced. The nicotine content is ok and the strength is medium. A real pity the bitter and unpleasant aftertaste (probably a chemical casing in the Black Cavendish). This mixture is ok for Virginia’ lovers and for natural aromatic’ lovers. In my personal rating system (from 1 to 10) my score is 7 and two and a half stars.

I’m always prone to try tobaccos with dark fired Kentucky in it, because it’s a leaf that will hardly disappoint you if you like it.

Is there any Kentucky in here? I’m starting to doubt…

Sniffing from the tin I didn’t get any of the typical earthy, piquant, peaty notes I look for in such a leaf. Instead, a sort of pungent, brusque sweetness and an abundant dose of casing.

Sure, the nice thing is that you can decide which coins you can put in the bowl and so calibrate the overall taste and strength but, frankly, whether you stuff in even the darkest ones, you won’t get the smoke as strong as you’d expect… Pack in all the brightest ones, it will be a little bit sweeter and tangy. You chose…

The taste is nothing special, pretty sweet and sugary, with some sort of maple-like casing. I struggled to get any significant and appreciable flavours out of this tobacco, and if you dare to puff a little bit faster, Cerberus himself come out of the smoke and torture your tongue with sharp bites of agony.

Too bad I bought it in a 100g tin – it was the only available at the time. I’ve smoked 4 or 5 bowls, didn’t like it and decided to put the rest in my cellar and get back to it a few years later to see if it gets any better.

Time will tell…

Cheers Everyone, Brandr ODS

A tin of this was gifted to me by DesertPipe of smokersforums.co.uk Many thanks.

I am not a big fan of Mac Baren tobacco, but really wanted to try this as it was recommended to me. I found the VA's to be of high quality, offering a sweetness of grass and fig. The DFK adds a bit of an overwhelming element to the twist, and does flavor well with the VA. The dark fired, while not as prevalent in content, clearly dominated or at least drove the flavor of the smoke a bit more than it should have. I've spoken to many who enjoy this tobacco, and would join them except for the tendency toward tongue burn.

Still I would consider this an enjoyable smoke, flavorful but not multi dimensional. The VA component is the real achievement IMHO. The flavor is tangy against a sweet backdrop,

I'm giving this 2 stars but only because it shreds my tongue. The tobacco has probably earned 3 stars due to the superiority of the VA's and the simple process used to make the twist. If you like a VA/B and you really like DFK, this may be your tobacco.

Too get an idea of this tobacco, fill a pipe and give it three charring lights. Tamp each light with the tip of your tongue! How does that feel? Well that's what you get with DARK Twist. Believe it or not, my tin is over 15 years old and I have opened and resealed it every 5 years, hoping for a different result.

Very akin to Navy Flake lacking in body, with a tendency to nip at the tounge. To get this to burn cool I could not get enough smoke volume to truly enjoy it's nuances of flavor and aroma.