Mac Baren HH Latakia Flake

My first Latakia flake. Tin aroma is quite a saucy ketchupy/smokey chutney. The ketchup factor doesn't translate to the smoke.. Superb manners,really cool long lasting steady mellow non bite esoteric smoke.. A subtle balanced English. Its latakia forward but its not a complete lat bomb. Its quite a dry taste smoke actually,no real sweetness, and the Virginia,burley,oriental play a well melded light balanced support behind the latakia which supplies good body. I thought at one point I got a slight sweet and sour mango note,could of been passion fruit even for a fleeting moment,like fermented fruit: this reminded me of another favourite English called punchbowle..: The latakia in this certainly tastes like its of the same gene,but in this latakia flake is not a whole buttery Virginia support, but a dryer mix of the nutty chestnut factor of the burley with a subtle sweetness from the Virginia and that slight herbaceous sweet and sour of the oriental.. Since punchbowle has been discontinued I have wanted something that would fill that vacuum. This is has the properties I liked in punchbowle but its got its own thing as well .There isn't any big transitions in the smoke,its mainly a consistent beefy,leathery,earthy,corn flour, lightly salted latakia until the last of the bowl where it suddenly becomes burley forward in a toasted salted nutty finish. Moisture level was perfect,i didn't bother pre drying. Folded,twisted,stuffed. The burn time on this alone makes it a total bargain.

Nice, uniform flakes, wonderful smokey scent of Latakia out of the tin. The flakes are dark brown to black in color, solid enough that they hold their shape and work well in a fold and stuff without falling to shreds. I tried to buy this quite a while ago and due to my careless nature, I had ordered McConnel's Latakia Flake by mistake. This is a much better smoke, in my opinion, but not as flavorful as Brebbia's Latakia Flake, which is a favorite. It beats Balkan Flake by a wide margin, which I found bland without the inclusion of Orientals.

I'm currently smoking this in a brand new Parker apple, my go to line of budget pipes. Maybe I've just consumed too much Latakia that I can't really appreciate the flavor of this blend, as the leaf feels restrained for what is advertised. To me, this smokes like a typical English blend.

Though the Latakia is evident, it tastes like this particular flake is driven by other components. The Oriental offers a slight spice, if you care to search, and the Virginias do not appear to afford any degree of uncharacteristic sweetness, they simply seem to carry the blend. There's Burley, which I fail to note, that no doubt adds a particular roundness to the smoke. Medium in strength, this is a tasty smoke, far more so than your typical MacBaren, which I normally associate with blends that espouse a flatter profile (not including Old Dark Fired). MacBaren gets points for a typically flawless presentation.

If I didn't enjoy Brebbia's offering so much, I'd probably care more for this blend, but it's a solid smoke if you're interested.

Yes I'm pleasantly surprised, anticipating Mac-bite and none to be found even puffing along at a good clip.

A rather deceptive blend given the tin-appearance and aroma one thinks Lat-bomb, not at all. In fact the Latakia is very mute far too much of an Anise casing/topping. I cannot call this an English.

The flakes need some drying, afterwards I cube-cut them fairly chunky with my scissors and gently rubbed them out a bit more still chunky though. It packs great and combusts very well albeit slowly one of the many reasons why I enjoy flakes and cakes.

Plenty of sour casing notes and not enough Latakia presence for my liking. Also the casing/topping does coat your palate so last bowl of the day at least for me. I cannot recommend this blend . . . very boring and mute.

Call me crazy, but I don't know what all the fuss is about.

Smells great in the tin, packs well, and then you have a long long time on puffing on a very lat forward blend that is, to my simple tastes, one dimensional and flat. It doesn't seem to change at all as the bowl goes on, I kept hoping and hoping for some of the other flavors to raise their hand and come forward, but all I got for two full bowls was a big lat bomb, and nothing else.

I really thought this would be HH Dark Fired for Lat lover, but it has nothing of the complexity of flavor that DF has.

Now, I happen to like lat bombs, so its not a one star, but even by lat bomb standards, there is nothing to get worked up about.

Not impressed.

Package

Well packed in a tiny, painted, neat can - my favorite format. In the middle, typical for Macbaren, very refined, giving the tobacco the hallmarks of a luxury product, golden foil. No cheesy plastics!

Tobacco - presentation

Three rows of narrow, moderately moist, definitely dark (90%) petals, with a small dose of chestnut threads. Two flakes are usually required for a medium pipe.

Nose

My can, after eight years, smelled insanely! The obvious smell of lataka mixes into an intriguing melange of virginia vinegar aromas, with a bit of Maggi, cooked vegetables (especially - I know it sounds idiotic, but it's true; the smell of sweet stewed onion), sweet dried tomatoes, ketchup.

Palate

Aromas from the nose mirored on the palate. Woodsy, spaicy orientals playing with chocloate, smoky Latakia. Some vegetal, hay notes, with deep sweet from Virginia. Last 1/3 is more floral. Dry type of tobacco (drying palate). Easy stay lit.

Great smoke :)!

Some quick notes after my first smoke of a slightly aged (about 1 year) and fairly dried out -- but still very smokable -- flake.

Upon lighting, I could definitely smell the latakia, and could even taste it a little, but only at first. Almost immediately, though, it moved to a taste almost identical to HH Burley Flake, of which I've smoked through nearly a whole tin. But that latakia definitely added something, which made itself ever more present throughout the bowl.

HH Latakia Flake definitely comes through as an approachable, though certainly not one-dimensional, burley-forward English flake that I definitely look forward to smoking more of (I still have about two bowls of flake remaining). I'm not sure I'd jump to purchase a large tin, but maybe a small tin, if there was a Mac Baren sale on.

I would also compare this blend favorably to Russ' Tastykake.

I normally avoid Mac Baren tobaccos as they tend to be of a mild persuasion. However the HH varieties promise strength.

In the pack is a foil-sealed tray containing 18 little soldiers. Careful rubbing is needed so as not to end up with lots of small bits. The moisture level is not too high.

This is a damn smoky number! Similar to Peterson Irish Flake but not as strong - more orderly.

Nothing is too far forward. It’s easy to pick out each component, and they all work really well together. The burley is a nice change of pace. It needs some drying time. Maybe 10, 15min. Pretty slow burning. Thumbs up.

I was disappointed in this smoke. Now in all fairness, I have only had one bowl but typically my first impression tells me what my experience will be like with the tobacco. I may edit this later but for now, I need to go with my first impressions for anyone on the fence about buying HH Latakia Flake.

Given the wonderful reviews and the delightful presentation and tin note of this flake, I was shocked to find this smoke very monochromatic and uninspiring. No, its not a lat bomb. But for some reason, all I could tease out of this blend was Latakia flavors. I didn't get any other nuisance flavor. I had a smidge of Virginia, a bit of floral oriental, and a lot of Latakia. And this remained steady through the whole bowl. Nothing changed, nothing deepened, nothing made me stop while I read my book and go "hmm, now that's good." I kept waiting for the reason this flake gets so many good reviews and it never happened for me.

In my humble opinion, there are so many better English blends than this. The pros: flake is beautiful, the smell of the tin is of deep, rich latakia. There is some tang there too, sour...like a very good, smoky vinegar. The flake is thin, easy to prepare and stays well lit with no drying time on my end. It smokes cool and no bite. The room note is pleasant for a Latakia blend. It smelled like there may be a casing in there somewhere but I detected no sweetness. If there is a casing, I didn't get that when I smoked it.

I would say if you are new to Latakia, this is a good starting point. But when I compare this blend to my favorite Latakia blend, Plum Pudding Reserve, it just doesn't stack up. I look for complexity in a Latakia blend because there are so many good Latakia blends. I am hoping with some age on this flake, it'll develop. The tobacco just feels "young" to me. It needs age maybe? Just wasn't a fan and found myself plopping it into a jar and re-visiting it next year in hopes the flavor develops.