Mac Baren Vanilla Cream Loose Cut

This is an interesting blend, but only so far, to me. I bought a tin of this for the rare occasions when I feel like an aromatic, yet long for something of higher quality than Middleton's Cherry. I do like black cav in some lighter blends, and Mac Baren usually does a nice job on their Virginia's. I was hoping that this would be one offering from them that would be relatively free from tongue bite, but it bites me pretty well every time I revisit it. The casing on this is reasonably light, too. The vanilla room note is light at best, and as aromatics go, it just misses the mark on too many fronts for me to give it 3 stars. Still, there's obvious quality to the leaf used, and if you want a primarily VA/Black Cav blend that only offers whispers of flavoring, this might be great to you.

This tobacco looks very similar to MacBaren original mixture, only it has a fantastic vanilla aroma! You can really smell the vanilla while you are are smoking it also. However, it doesn't really taste like vanilla to me; it does have a sweet taste that is very pleasing....I just can't pinpoint the exact flavor. The tobacco does have some moisture in it, so you have to pack it lightly and keep the smoking cadence down or it will scorch your tongue. It burns pretty well and evenly/completely if packed lightly. This is a tasty tobacco with an excellent room note, but I will have to dock it one star for the potential to cause a 3-alarm tongue bite. Therefore, I would clasify it as 3-star tobacco.

12/2/2006.....update Just smoked a few more bowls and cannot get this tobacco to stop burning and gurgling. I will have to downgrade to 2-star.

I tried this blend mainly because of the favorable review given by William Serad in "Trial by Fire". Mr. Serad often agrees with my tastes, but we parted ways on this one. As another reviewer mentioned, I didn't really think this tasted like vanilla. To me it was overly sweet and heavily cased. I prefer the flavor of something like Pipes and Pleasure's Black Treasure if I'm going to smoke a vanilla blend. It does have a pleasant room note and doesn't require excessive relights in spite of the casing. On the basis of those two attributes I'm giving it two stars.

CREAM VANILLA LOOSE CUT.21-01-05. To a new comer to pipe smoking,or someone looking for a tobacco that offer's a pleasant room note,this will be fine. Or if,you enjoy vanilla blend's (go for it) "You'll love it" It was fairly easy to light,and the vanilla could be tasted consistantly to the half way mark of the bowl.Very smooth! Beyond the half way mark it was still rather consistant in it's smoothness,though the tobacco could now be really tasted without the vanilla running the show. It left a fairly whitish grey ash at bowl's end.Most likely the best vanilla blend I have tried so far! Personally I enjoyed the 6 bowl's I have now smoked as a change of pace,it wasn't to bad at all.But after 6 bowl's I was very pleased to get back to my balkan,english and virginia blend's. For a aromatic I give this 7 out of 10.

This would be a great starter tobacco, it's not too strong and the people around you will love it's smell.

As a lover of English blends I found the casing to be overwhelming. Much more like eatng a candy than smoking, my wife and family loved it though and it's probably the only blend I was able to smoke were ever I wanted to.

Personally I found it weak in the nicotine category and it did bite me, not seriously, but enough bite that it was annoying.

This would be a huge step up though for someone starting on "drug store" brands and your family will like it too.

A pleasing blend to have stuffed in the bowl when just using the pipe as a "chew toy".

First light, and first half to two thirds has wonderful vanilla nut flavoring and aroma that dissipates as it burns down the bowl. Bottom half to third has mostly a virginia taste and aroma (with lingering tobacco aftertaste).

Overall, a nice Saturday morning smoke.

It packed easily and didn't need a relight. Didn't need to "air" the tin before using.

I prefer heavy cavendish and latakia blends, so keep that in mind when looking at how I rated this blend. In fact, I'll probably add some latakia to what I have left.

The smell right out the tin is wonderful, reminded me of vanilla milkshake. Sadly, when it comes to smoking this blend, I could not get any remarkable taste, only a mild note of burley and the vanilla flavoring, which was not as present as I expected. Keeping in mind that this was the second blend I tried when I started smoking months ago, maybe I heated the tobacco more than I should or lacked the experience necessary to notice the more subtle notes.

I think that if you are careful, smoke calmly and make an effort to taste subtly, you can enjoy this one. For me, it was not a pleasant experience.

My 3.5oz tin came pretty much bone dry, almost crunchy. It was fully sealed, not sure if this is normal. Nice tin note of natural vanilla and Virginia sweetness though. Seems promising.

Sweet hay, citrus, and complex, creamy, vanilla. I get some notes of honey & nutmeg as well. Not overwhelmingy sweet. Surprisingly complex flavorings, that aren't overdone or cloying, and you can actually taste the Virginias a bit, but the tobacco itself is a little on the flat side. Bites very easily if not monitored. Little to no nicotine.

I find I have to keep a closely monitored caedence to be able to smoke this stuff or the dreaded Mc-Bite rears its ugly head. I'm no stranger to fickle MacBaren blends, Scottish mixture (one of my favorites) is apparently one of the worst offenders, but I find Vanilla cream way tougher to tame.

Maybe I got a weird tin. Either way I'm not sure I'll be purchasing this again. I commend them for the quality of the flavorings but nothing else about this blend is exciting enough for me.

This is one of the tobaccos that I wanted to like more but I didn't. It's OK but I wasn't thrilled with the experience. I love that vanilla and cream flavour that it gives but it isn't overly strong and it doesn't last for long.

It smokes very well and has a very light aroma plus it's one of the cheapest and easy to find tobaccos if you want to give it a try.