Mac Baren Vanilla Cream Loose Cut

The pouch smell is not too bad, a little bit of vanilla and raisins, and chocolate. It packs well, burns a bit too hot. The taste is not enough vanilla as i would like, it's a bit plain actually, but not bad either. It bites a bit, but that's what I expect from a MacBaren blend. Room note is pleasant. Not a great blend, not a bad blend either. Maybe good to start with, as it teaches you to slow down and smells nice for those around you.

I've been searching for a great vanilla and unfortunately this one is not it. The pouch smells absolutely delicious, full of vanilla, but the smell does not translate to taste. The room note is pleasurable and it burns decently, but the taste is less smooth than some other vanillas I've tried such as 'Sweet Vanilla Honeydew.' I'm glad I tried this one due to its popularity, but won't be buying it again for my vanilla.

I was very excited to try this blend. The aroma I find is more of a cakey rum type than vanilla and so I think after trying several bowls that I'm going to age it and revisit. I don't think this is a superior 'vanilla' but it is sweet and cakey so others may enjoy it. I found it a bit heavy and as another reviewer put it it seemed artificial rather than a smooth natural flavor but am hoping with age it'll be way better. I would not buy again but rather try to find that perfect vanilla and move on to another brand or blending of vanilla...I know it's out there.

Probably the best 'vanilla' I've come across; it works well with the creaminess. There are some cut Virginia plugs in this mix; when I hit one I surely recognize it.

This is the first Mac Baren tobacco I ever encountered. I go back and forth with it, sometimes liking it and sometimes not. Like most of their tobaccos, Vanilla Crème has a strong tin aroma, especially when freshly opened, of fermenting compost, but in this case it's vanilla fermenting compost. I've said before, though, that you sometimes have to ignore the tin aroma. The tobacco is a broken flake of heavily cased Virginia.

This is a good smoke when others are in the house. My impartial room note judge said that the fragrance is quite nice, kind of like having a vanilla candle burning in the room. Easily lit, the burn is smooth and fairly cool, especially for an aromatic; I suspect that this is due to the quality of the tobacco used. Once burning, the vanilla flavor is accompanied by a nice creaminess. Think of cream soda in a tobacco. There's nothing subtle about Vanilla Crème. I did find, though, that the flavor began to get a bit sour by the bottom of the bowl, and it doesn't DGT very well.

If you want a really good, high quality vanilla blend, go for either this or Sweet Vanilla Honeydew. I personally prefer SVH, but that could be because I smoked it first, and maybe because it has a bit more subtlety about it. Vanilla Crème is a good tobacco to smoke when others are around, especially if those others have a tendency to complain about "stinky" tobaccos.

Based on some of the 4 star reviews, and based on the tin-note, I was dying for this to be a rocket ship experience.

It was not. My search for a legitimate and consistent aromatic continues.

I will stretch and give it a 2.5 out of 5 stars. Here is what I had to do to get Vanilla Cream to be a 2.5:

My best pipe. Loose pack. Minimal draw on lighting and relighting (no gulping during lights). Sipping and savoring during the smoke. Small bowl of it. Didn't smoke the last 10%.

I will now cellar it, and come back to it later. If I find an aromatic that is better, it will never be in my cellar again.

Was expecting a stronger vanilla aroma to be honest. Very mild smoke though can bite if puffed too quickly.

Dissapointing. Wanted more vanilla essence than I got..

MacBaren tobaccos seem to have a very charateristic sugar essence that appears in the blends that I have tried by them. It is very sweet. This blends sweetness is not what I would refer to as caramelized but, rather like that of refined cane sugar. The vanilla topping is high quality but not the least bit overpowering. It smokes very well and cool when "nipped" slowly. Aromatic essences dissapear at around the 60% mark to completion. Good smoke but a bit to sweet for everyday enjoyment. It is one of the better aromatics that I have tried though.

I've had a reasonable measure of success with other MacBaren blends and I wanted to turn to them for this aromatic offering.

I found the aroma in the tin to be very pleasant and what I hoped to be a harbinger of a good smoke. The tobacco was a little drier than I would have expected but not unusually so.

Although this blend is certainly not bad by any stretch of the imagination, I found it a bit disappointing especially considering the sentiment of the previous reviews. Even though I am a "slow" smoker, it still burned hotter than I would like and had a mild bite.

The plus side is that the room note is very nice and I found a little more body in the tobacco flavoring than I generally do with most aromatics. I don't know if I would rush to get another tin of this or not, but all in all a satisfactory smoke.

*edit* I'm not sure why, but this stuff routinely makes my head swim. I didn't think the nicotine content would be that strong, but for me, I have to really pace myself with this stuff or I'll fall out of my chair.