Mac Baren Navy Flake

I am relatively new to pipe smoking, and this was the tobacco that got me into this pipe-smoking business, in combination with some Laphroaig ? it goes very well with whisky. Also with coffee in the morning. This tobacco smells marvelous in the tin, and its room note has won many favorable comments. The first light is rich and flavorful. There is a mild topping that contributes favorably to the tin smell, first light, and room note, but that flavor seems to saturate the senses and becomes imperceptible to the smoker after about the first third of the bowl. The tobacco doesn?t build flavor in quite the same way as a Virginia flake, but it is consistently good all the way through the bowl. I like the nutty contribution of burley in this flake. It goes well in a variety of bowl shapes and smokes well rubbed out, cut with scissors, or simply folded and stuffed into a tall narrow bowl.

Man oh man, have I been through some tins of this stuff. It is readily available where I live. I think I have smoked all the old (horizontal print as apposed to vertical) tins there are within a one hundred kilometer radius. You get the Idea. It's good stuff. The MacBaren burn seems not to be an issue for this tobacco.. Taste: Burley,sweet,cav,spice,honey. Not heavily aromatic. Crack the tin, and in two days it's bone dry, no goop, no glop. Easily rehydrated. Much like Dark Twist, but a little less caramel cavendish. yeah, the best MacB I've had. Plus the emptied out tins are perfect what I usually smoke, Bulk McClellands and Gawith flake.

The first and - so far - only MacBaren tobacco I have smoked. This was pleasantly mild in flavour with a satisfying strength which is instantly detectable. The thick flakes fold well into a firm plug which burns well. The smoke itself is smooth & the room note is mild indeed. I would recommenend this pleasant smoke to any pipe-smoker, from novice to expert. The honey notes are absolutley heavenly & the leathery nuttiness underpinns it nicely. I smoked it in a large Churchwarden & found it no have no real negative qualities apart from the occasional bowl which finished & left me with a kind of 'is that it?' feeling, but this can easily be remedied by another pipefull! This feeling was possibly enhanced by the lack of any room note with real body. I will definitely keep some of this around & am looking forward to smoking some of this with a cold beer in the height of summer. I think at that time, this may well come into a class of it's own. Watch this space to find out if my prediction is corect...

Wow what a popular blend! That said I am going to begin with my impressions of the last part of the tin and what I recall from a few years back. I'm in general agreement with everyone, but find GL Pease's burley blends in a whole different class. Oh and this is definitely a cut above University Flake. ---review--- Finishing up the tin of this had turned from a finely crafted mahogany pressed and sliced burley blend reminded me of a very crumbled Cavendish. This creates multitudes of smoke burning furiously to the end of the bowl. However, I chose the incorrect setting to finish this, driving my car.

The tin aroma is pleasant with a flowery tinge of sweetness (not as flowery as Orlik's Golden Sliced...but much sweeter) and as stated by other reviewers this is beautiful to look at and is very compact for 50 grams of tobacco. With care of cutting this and rubbing the smoking is tolerable. With that said, not being a huge fan of burley (except in strait cube cut) this smokes alright with the Virginia element rising to bite, however, I think it is more of the slight top casing that bites. I can see this being excellent in a corn cob on a cold morning/evening.

Not being a big fan of burley, I may try this blend again just for its curious tin aroma and presentation. However, I am in no hurry to buy any tobacco so it may be a while.

I made the huge mistake of rubbing out the last half of the tin. it smokes WAY too hot and bites like crazy. while in the flake form it smokes slowly and, needs constant relighting and tamping for me. the flake is pretty mild in taste but there are some peppery moments in it. pleasant room note that shouldn't offend anybody. a pretty decent smoke

Although I don't believe any other reviewers have mentioned it, I distinctly taste deer tongue in this blend. For me, that ruins what I'm sure would be an otherwise excellent blend. The menthol/vanilla flavour is just too much and not to my liking.

There are times when nothing but MB Navy Flake will satisfy my tastes and craving for a pleasant smoke. I admire Mac Baren's presentation and marketing, and I always keep a tin of Navy Flake around.

The components are burley and Virginia, and supposedly a cavendish. The topping is restrained and smells honey-like in the tin. During the smoke everything comes together and nothing seems too much or too little. In fact, it's difficult to taste any one component, just a synergy of excellent tobaccos. This is a credit to the blender and the process used to create Navy Flake. I'm generally not a huge fan of the Danish style of tobacco processing, so this is high praise indeed.

This is my first flake tobacco, I found the taste really close to the scotish blend mixture that I like too. DON'T LET THIS TOBACCO DRY!

Hello from Music City USA everyone, and welcome to my first review here.

About 8 months into being a pipe smoker, I found myself getting weary of the usual shop-labeled Lane aromatics that well intentioned people guided me to as a newbie. Tobaccos that seemed rich and satisfying to me when I started out now seemed rather tasteless and bland. I knew what I liked (burley, Virginia, cavendish) and what I didn't (latakia, perique, Orientals). So, with the help of the Internet and a great many friends, I undertook to find some tobaccos of higher complexity and quality that would build upon the preferences and aversions I had developed. I discovered MacBaren tobaccos offered a plethora of tinned burley/VA/cavendish combinations and started sampling and comparing. While none of them sucked, Navy Flake definitely rose to the occasion in my search for a new daily standard.

For starters, and of major importance, Navy Flake is widely popular and readily available in most any worthy B&M or online retailer. The tobacco's presentation is very elegant and pleasing; nice, colorful flakes tinned face-up in a little gold foil envelope in an understated tin. The tin aroma is moderately sweet, but still 100% tobacco-ey, and my schnozz was unable to detect a casing of any kind. The flakes rub out into long, stringy threads that often result in the need to stuff the tobacco into your bowl, and THIS is where a handy trick comes in: to avoid the MacBaren curse of hot-burning tongue-biters, I first of all rip the flakes in half, width-wise, and give them a spin in a one-speed food processor, which results in easier loading, packing and better distribution of the different tobaccos. Then, I pack the bowl looser than normal to avoid too many relights and/or too much puffing to keep lit. It lights up nicely on the first or second try, but be warned: THIS TOBACCO WILL BLISTER YOU if you do not take your time with it.

If I had to guess, I'd say Navy Flake is about 50% burley, 25% each VA and cavendish. This means that the very fine but typically unsophisticated, straight-ahead burley flavor is augmented by the 'oomph' of the added VA and complimented by the sweetness of the cavendish. This is perfect for me, as I simply love straight burleys, but not so much straight VAs or straight cavendish. This is 'burley with benefits' so to speak.....enough VA and cavendish for both to make a statement, but the burley definitely takes the lead here. Flavorful but not overpowering, it remains consistent from the top of the bowl to the bottom and leaves a dry, white-gray ash and little if any dottle. No goop left in the bowl, and no danger of leaving anything unpleasant in a pipe you may want to smoke something else in.

I smoke at least two 100g tins of this a month --- it is definitely my all day, everyday go-to tobacco, one that I've learned well enough that I use it to try out any new pipe acquisitions, and it's the tobacco that I reach for most often, when I'm in the mood for a relaxing, comfortable smoke with no surprises, just pure pleasure and contentment. Highly recommended!!!!