Mac Baren Plumcake

Fruit/plum, smoky, and rum flavors melded nicely together. I unconsciously puffed at it a little hard on my first bowl trying to coax more of that good flavor out and I got a harsh warning. This one is a sipper for me. Really good taste but I wish there was more of it on the tongue. Is it a drawback that it's so good you wish the taste was stronger? Maybe, maybe that's a positive. I'll continue to enjoy what it does have to offer, which to me is a bit of a unique flavor and good taste. More experience might make this one really stand out in the future.

Well made, I found the Latakia to be quite present in this one. Nice change of pace when usually Va/Pers or burley forward mixtures. I will have it once in a while i guess. Like most MB it does coat the mouth with whatever casing the use. Most likely honey. Well worth a try.

Something changed in this blend, unfortunately not for the better.

I'm returning to pipes after several years break, unfortunately to discover brands that have gone missing and blends changing.

Plumcake was my all time favorite as it had a unique level of sweetness and a spiced topping that just dragged me to the bottom of every bowl. My wife could immediate pick Plumcake out from the room note out of many other blends I constantly rotate. She used to buy me tins on her own.

I recently got two tins of the current version and though it isn't horrible, it has lost whatever the spiced sweet topping it once had that made it so unique.

It's not horrible now, but the Latakia is now prevalent when I could barely detect it in the earlier version, to a point where I didn't really think it was there. Now it is kind of a blah, very light English that really has nothing compelling about it for me.

I've been surprised to not see more mentions of the change here, so this is not so much a review of the current state, but someone missing what once was in this blend.

It still burns cleanly to a dry ash, but it used to burn to an extremely fine white ash where now it's a bit more broken and coarse. I can't really go on in depth as it's just a bland, not very exciting, light English that I find no longer interesting to me.

I sat with this for quite a while in order to wrap my pallet around its rich, yet subtle taste.

As has been mentioned, my best results were with a loosely packed bowl slowly sipped. If packed tight it will go sour and peppery (tar has been associated with this by the manufacturer after all). Sipped you unfold a soft brown sugar and fig taste and aroma, with the slight spice of Latakia adding a soft complexity. It has a antique quality to the aroma like old books and polished wood. The manufacturer doesn’t claim Perique, but it has that vibe, and so the pepper will build if puffed. It took me a while to find the right pipe to properly amplify the underlying sweet qualities and mellow the hotter spicy ones. I am glad I held on to it and persisted.

4 starts for me, 3 as a recommendation to others

It has a nice flavor and a nice amount of latakia added to it. It is not boring at all and gives me a good feeling. It burns very well and evenly and does not sting.

Plumcake is a very pleasant pipe tobacco. Upon tin cracking you will be greeted with ribbon cut of matured dark brown Virginias and a tad of Cyprian latakia. The moisture level is already good to pack and go right off the bat. Aromatically wise - for me, the dominance is of raisins smell... As I am not a rum connoisseur I can't really attest the bouquet of it on the mixture. It is rather hard to detect the typical campfire smell of latakias in the tin note. It packs well, lights well and goes well all the way down to the bottom of the bowl. best experienced with slow pace and breath smoking with a bit of retrohaling and french smoking techniques. The taste is middle of the road between a good Virginia blend and an English blend. It will get a tad spicier by the last 1/3 of the bowl, where the little amount of latakias added will play its part... The campfire notes however wil never show up, they are hidden and the latakias only add a bit os spiciness to the overall flavour. Overall, this is a very solid and proper pipe tobacco, no wonder why it is in the market for so long. I recommend it for those who are already into pipes for a bit of time. Novices will probably wont enjoy it as much.

Cold winter days require something strong with full taste i though so i chose this blend.the discription and the reviews prepare you for something heavy and full of flavour.once the tin opens a natural rum smell comes out.a deeper smell provides some smokey notes,grass and nuts.the blend is consisted of broken flakes mixed with different cut method of tobaccos.the tin moisture is perfect.packs and lights ok with some relights needed through the process.while smoking the rum notes are strong from the beginning till the end subtlimating a little the tobacco flavours.virginias are mainly grassy and sweet.some citruses rare pop up.burleys are spicy and a little nutty.not the usual taste from burleus here.latakias are mainly smokey with a discreet presence.last of all the cavendish are toasty providing some vanilla notes.generally i found the flavours enjoyable and complex.burns fast and hot even if some flake parts are packed to perfect ash with a lot moisture left at the filter to perfect ash.nicotine level is medium and the aftertaste is the typical aftertaste of a strong rum.room note is nweither pleasant nor bad.no tongue bite present but if pushed hard some bitter notes may appear.not an all day smoke to me because i don't like tasting alcohol when i wake up.generally this is a decent blend worthy trying.

New update (2014/03/18) of original review below: I've finished my second piouch of this blend using only my filtered pipes (Ascorti rusticated billiard, Bjarne Squashed bulldog, Peterson billiard, Medico Varsity billiard) and I am upgrading my rating from 2 to 3.5 stars. Once you let this dry out sufficiently and gently draw its smoke slowly from the bowl you get a consistently delightful experience. This has become one of my infrequent (only because its rare I can devote an entire evening to such hedonistic activity) but truly enjoyable evening activities going very well with a cup or three of Lapsang Souchong while listening to mellow blues or soft soul music its almost enough to make you feel like you are floating away on a blissful carpet of smoke. Original Review (2013-12-08): I could not get either Virginia # 1 nor Symphony at my local tobacconist so I thought I would give this a try. Although I am not a regular smoker of aromatic's I risked this on the basis of its tobacco blend versus its Rum casing. Looked great and smelled intriguing in the pouch and seemed relatively dry. Using the Frank method I filled a GBD billiard bowl lovat and commenced to char the top. Then, with anticipation I fired up proper. Quite some time back when I took up the pipe again (with V # 1) I learned about the Mac bite so I proceeded with caution. I really could'nt have gone any slower as proven by the fact the pipe went out twice in the first 15 min. Despite my best efforts I was unable to avoid the lava like stream that was drawn across my poor tongue. I gave up after 20 minutes and left the pipe to cool. An hour later I gave it another go (this time in a corncob) to be faced with another volcanic eruption. A good coating of milk seemed to asuage my pain and I left the pipes abandoned for the remainder of the evening. So now its another day and my pipe beckons. NO! NO! I said. I came to tobacco reviews and proceeded to see just what I had parted with my money to get besides a blistered tongue. I was baffled by many of the 4 star reviews until I encountered one which said Plumkake needs to dry out somewhat and another which claimed that he uses a 9mm filter pipe and has never experienced tongue bite with this or any other blend. To the pipe drawers I went as I was sure I had a couple of pipes that met that criterion. Indeed I found my Bjarne squashed bulldog. Another couple of drawers later I found the box of filters. I put a new one in and then dumped sufficient plumcake on the table to fill it and went away for an hour. Okay I thought its dryer and I have the filter pipe so here goes. Did someone sneak into the room while I was away and switch the tobacco? It was delightful, smooth creamy smoke full of body (burley?) with ever so faint a touch from the Syrian latakia. 10 minutes later (with no relights needed) I was still enjoying this to an extent I would not have believed possible after my initial experience. The virginia's and the cavendish punctuated the smoke with sweet interludes all the way through the first 2/3 of the bowl when the Syrian seemed to assert itself ever so reluctantly. I'm going to have to try this in my 9mm filtered Peterson billiard next just to confirm the filter makes the difference. In light of the latter experience I will likely be smoking the remainder of this pouch and at that point I'll determine whether to buy again. So, thanks to two reviewers advice - dry it and use a filter pipe, I got to enjoy this offering. My advice is for you to follow their advice and if you do not have a filter pipe do not buy this.

A strong tobacco with sour notes that come in and out, quite prone to tongue bite if not sipped carefully. No sweetness, a savory tobacco that will not be everyone's cup of tea. The topping gives a strong "rum" flavor which disappears halfway through the bowl. Leaves an unpleasant sour ghost in the pipe for your next smoke.