Mac Baren Navy Flake

a burley based flake with a very nutty, from times to times almost deliciously bitter taste. during the bowl i also get some sour notes besides the nutty ones, but not in a negative way. definitively not an all day smoke for me, but on some days i really crave this one.

regarding the advertised flavors i only get some rum and plum taste upon lighting the pipe and during the first quarter of the bowl, after that its all burley

definately recommendable if you got the taste for it

Update: i dont know why exactly, but when rubbing out the flakes i get a way better taste than when using the folding technique

Update: Tastes and smokes best when cut into cubes

Update: Wow the older it gets the better it tastes! Score upped to 4 from 3 stars

Update: despite being well ages this tobacco still bites like a rabid dog from time to time, i dont really know the circumstances that cause it, it seems to be a mac baren problem for me personally. its a pity because i really like the taste of this tobacco - down 1 star

Update: I'm glad i found a substitute for this tobacco that doesnt give me the tongue bite - Petersons University Flake

Update: From the german food and agricultural ministry - a little comparison Mac Baren Navy Flake: - invert sugar - ethanol - 1,2-propylene glycol - sorbit - cane sugar - flavours - propyl-4-hydroxybenzoate - benzyl benzoate

Peterson University flake: - sugar syrup - flavor

===> Mac Chemical!

good taste.....but is the classic MacBaren taste. When you have smoked one MacBaren blend....you have smoked every MacBaren blend !

Mac Baren utilized burley as the base tobacco in this version of a Navy Flake. This isn't my cup of tea. It's not a reflection of the quality of the blend, but burley doesn't agree with my pallette. If you like Burley blends with a light rum topping, you should give this one a try. Easy to fold, rub out, or prepare flakes as you want them. Easy to light with minimal relights.

I expected a stronger tobacco given the name. It does not particularly stick out in any regard for me. The flake is pretty fragile, so consider that when trying to split one. The burly dominates, some spice it clearly recognisable, and the taste is consistent.

Smoking now:

Just smoking the last of this tin. The flake is easy to rub out or pack and the moisture seemed ok from the tin.

This to me seems to have a dominant burley taste. An earthy, woody, nutty, dry flavor. The Virginia is in the back ground and adds some dark hay sweet notes. The rum is very mild and hardly noticeable. A typical natural tasting and mildly sweet Mac Barens blend. I typically don’t use a filter pipe but for some reason this is a blend I almost always use a filter for as it does not agree with my palette. Tends to bite and or dry my mouth out. The retrohale will add some sweetness and it has an okay after taste that lingers . This is probably a 3 star blend but for me I would give it a 2 just because it does not work for me.

*update*

The more burley blends I smoke the more I find out that the ph of burley doesn’t agree with my mouth.

A really nice smoke , to me it didn't really seem so sweet compared to some tobaccos , has t be smoked reservably as along with some other macbarens can nip . For some reason after smoking this all my food seemed to taste sweet.

there is an alcoholic flavoring that is clearly present as you open the tin. It is not really rum. It could be a kind low level kirsch spirit, with some honey aroma. It is quite indefinable. For the first third of the smoke you will preceive it, but then in the center part of the bowl it is almost disappearing and then the smoke becomes quite pleasant.

It is quite mild in strenght and the nicotine content is light.

Overall is quite a good tobacco worth a 3/4 score, but at the start that strange smell is not so amusing. So ultimately I would say 2/4 score

Fine, sweet flake. Flavour reminds me of the pine needles smell and flowers. It is slow burning blend as many flakes are. Going down the bowl, the flavouring is losing its strenght and taste becomes flat for me. That´s a bit pity.

Sweetish honey graham cracker. Marginal fruit notes which are dominated by a clove/cinnamon spice note. Easy burning, cool smoking, one light affair. There’s a bit of the MacB edge to this one, probably their honey topping/binder that hasn’t had time to fade out yet.

The rum is distantly present, but may be the source of the clove/cinnamon. They say it has a citrus topping, but I’m not getting much of a direct note that’s translating. Again, probably being sublimated into the sweetish spice topping notes that have an edge.

As I hit mid bowl it opens up a bit and the citrus sticks it’s head out, along with an amping up of the sweet spices.

I'd prefer Stokkebye's 1931 with a bit of age on it over this, hands down. That blend executes the profile here with much more grace and ease. To be fair, that also needs a 4 or 5 year nap to get there, but it is well worth the wait.

This, being a 2017 vintage, seems like it should be better than it actually is. I've never been much of one for cloves though, so maybe that's part of it. I also have a generalized issue with MacB regular production and that edge it has... it's mildly frustrating. Especially since I know they can make a flake (Cap, HH, etc) that *doesn't* have that edge.

Somewhat recommended, though I'd place a number of other burleys above this one, as well as Navy Flakes.

4.9/10