Mac Baren HH Bold Kentucky

Where to begin as this is my first online review although I’ve been smoking for decades. It’s a warm Sunday evening as I await dinner. I trek into my tobacco room where I stare in glee looking over my selection awaiting something to jump out at me and say, pick me, pick me. And there it is, Mac Baren’s HH Bold Kentucky. And so, I pick up the jar, remove 4 slices and lay them out to dry for 45 minutes while I eat a hearty Italian dinner; after all it is Sunday.

The time has arrived as I fold and load 2 slices into my Sevket Meerschaum pipe. Followed by rubbing out the other 2 slices. I walk outside with my Yeti filled with ice and a small amount of apple juice. The ritual now begins. I tamp down the top and then char it for a few moments. I then tamp it down again and wait where I once again char it and tamp it down. Now, I wait about a minute and being the lighting process for a successful burn. Ahhhhhh, the smoke is voluminous and flavorful which reminds me of a wonderful barbeque.

I slow down my smoking and it was a wonderful 15 minutes. I let the pipe rest a minute or two and then relight it for serious business. The second session lasts 45 minutes where I get wonderful smokey flavor with some notes of hay, citrus and a hint of sweetness.

The second session has now concluded. I let the pipe rest for about 10-15 minutes where I scrape out the burned ashes and tamp it down. Time for a relight. The last session lasted about 30 minutes and was very strong and flavorful. This is not for beginners. If you’re a cigar smoker as I once was this will certainly remind you of the pleasure derived from a fine cigar; namely Opus X including the nic hit. All my sessions, the burn was even, smooth and full flavored.

Overall, this is a strong but yet flavorful tobacco which will surely delight the veteran connoisseur. My Sevket has a 2.75” bowl depth and about a .85 diameter so unless you’re used to this amount of tobacco, I suggest a much smaller bowl especially if you’re a neophyte. Good luck and enjoy life.

This blend reminds me of the rich, full tobacco flavor you can usually only get from a cigar. It doesn’t taste like a cigar, rather I get the same tobacco experience that I get from cigars. I didn’t find the strength as overwhelming as the tin would suggest, it’s strong to be sure, but not tremendously so, very smokable in a group 3 or 4 pipe, though I would hesitate to go any larger. Very highly recommended to experienced smokers who enjoy deep, earthy Dark Fired Kentucky tobacco.

Oily, wet soil flavour and about as close as you would get to a cigar taste. Lovely spice and white pepper notes. Cool smoking, but for me, difficult to keep lit. Incredibly strong, so best for a rare treat!

The Dark Fired is, as one would expect, the dominant player in this blend. It is earth, savory, and somewhat spicy. The Virginia is mostly here to chaperone the Dark Fired, but I pick up from it some grassiness/hay and a very subdued sweetness.

The strength in terms of nicotine content is closer to medium than strong, but very near a midpoint between the two. The taste is full but not as strong as Samuel Gawith's Lakeland Dark or Gawith Hoggarth's potent dark leaf offerings. Notably, Bold Kentucky is as moist or moister than Lakeland Dark or the Gawith Hoggarth dark leaf tobaccos I have smoked. Consequently, it requires dry time or many relights.

I enjoy Bold Kentucky when I want a full bodied, earthy smoke that is not as potent, taste or nicotine-wise, as the aforementioned Gawith blends. That said, for me Bold Kentucky is not as good as the Gawith blends. I certainly find myself hankering after Lakeland Dark far more often than I will want Bold Kentucky. Lakeland Dark is more potent in all respects, with a deeper and more complex flavor experience.

I bought this from my local b&m as it is one of the HH tobaccos that I have yet to try. As a it of a fan of Kentucky I was quite looking forward to this and other HH offerings I have tried have yet to disappoint. So let's take a peek into the tin.

The tin design is one of those rare gems that catches my attention, this doesn't normally draw my attention with most tobaccos but, on this occasion, I found the red letting on the brown background quite striking. It's just a shame there's that massive health warning sticker that Her Majesty's Government insists upon staring out at me from underneath. The aroma from the tin is absolutely incredible, it has something of smokey bacon and barbecue sauce to it, it is a meatier reminder of GLP's JackKnife Plug. The dark brown colour of the flakes is a reminder of JackKnife too. It's there the similarity ends. Where JK is mild and has wafts of figs with a hint of lemon, this is full flavoured, it is one of quality well cooked meat with perhaps some hint of fried onions. It has earth tones too, providing a rich, full bodied flavour that cannot help but satisfy. The small thin flakes (very well cut in my estimation) make it very easy to pack, especially into a small pipe. It takes a while to smoke too, even on the one flake, making sure you're getting your money's worth from the tin. This is probably just as well as it is rather a strong smoke, not that that seems to bother me much these days but some newbies might want to take note. The only thing that takes the shine off an otherwise very well polished tobacco is that it does take a few lights to get going, but once lit it stays that way to the bottom of the bowl.

This has turned out to be all I expect from a Kentucky and a whole lot more and will be my go-to tobacco whenever I am hungry for this kind of blend. The only way I can see this tobacco improving is with aging and, perhaps, coming in the form of a plug. Now that is a tin of the good stuff that I would pay good money to get my hands on.

Great blend if one likes stronger mixes. It isn't the least bit harsh nor does it have a tendency to bite. It has a true Kentucky/Burley flavor and the tin I opened was fairly old based on the rust that had accumulated around the lip and seal of the tin. The tin note was an earthy sweet & sour aroma. The flakes were quite dark & very moist with a minimal amount of yellow Virginia. I rubbed out a flake and let sit for about twenty minutes.

Thought I'd try this out for a change of pace because I prefer stronger blends & Burley usually delivers a quick, strong vitamin N blast & this stuff works. It is a strong tobacco that smokes mildly. It expands quite a bit after the charring light & provided an excellent burn rate and keeping it lit was not a problem. I didn't notice the Virginia that much but it's probably what tamed the slight bitterness of the Burley which soon subsided.

It's been a while since I've smoked Irish Flake & this reminded me of that a little. The mild topping is barely noticeable and the flavor was mostly Burley with a slight sweetness coming from the Virginia infusion. After smoking a tin of this mix, I decided these types of blends along with a few, select VA/Pers will be my dominant mainstays... liked the true tobacco flavors and the Vitamin N blast... Super!

I preferred this over Irish Flake but like them both. I didn't notice a cigar aroma from HH Bold Kentucky like I did with Irish Flake back in 2010 but I don't notice any cigar essence in Irish Flake that is blended these days... tis now October, Anno Domini 2018. Could be my olfactory glands require a little maintenance or maybe new parts installed. I feel confident that Burley enthusiasts will like this really well. Gets stronger toward the end but Burns cool & dry down to a light gray ash. Great blend.

Really high quality. To start, the Mac Baren tins are hard to beat aesthetically, fully painted, subtle and stately. The gold foil peels back to reveal three impeccably cut flake stacks, the definition of uniformity. Dark and moist, with a texture like a fruit leather. While somewhat moist it will take the match pretty easily. My tin has been open for some time and while it has dried slightly it has not lost that slight tack.

The taste is the classic smoky Kentucky, leathery, maybe some subtle pepper. It has several of the qualities that I've found in good burleys but have not seen described elsewhere. There is a root vegetable quality to the taste and aroma on the light, and even that spicy feel on the membranes that to me is very reminiscent of parsnips of all things or even a mild radish, perhaps slightly sulfurous. This fades quickly and settles to a strong biscuit taste, baked but not toasted, and maybe some subtle but deep leather. Along with this there is the definite burley nuttiness that most tastes like Brazil nuts or cashews and macadamias. This is accompanied by an oily viscous smoke. I seek this out and hit it on some other blends but cannot sustain it like I can with this. There is a sort of background sweetness, but a savory sweetness that is deeper than a simple sugar and this may be the Virginias. Once in a while there will be a tang verging on sourness, but this is fleeting. There are some quick passing bitter notes that increase in frequency towards the bottom. It's strong, but I don't rate it an ass kicker. Overall, it's not overly complex where you're left wondering what a taste is and where it went and very full tasting yet there are harmonious and low key notes throughout. A masterpiece.

Very good tobacco. Smoky and sweet But not to sweet. It's very strong and high with vitamin N. This will definitely be in my rotation. I'm going to order some more tins and look let them age.

There has been a LOT of reviews in recently on this fine website. A lot of reviews that come in minutes apart, filled with sementic and syntactical errors and little insight. A field of laziness representative of this wave of internet warped minds that suppose their opinion is as important to others as it is to themselves. Allow me to jump on the band wagon. Bold Kentucky, the finest state in the continental USA! Home of the ONE and ONLY, the incomparable Muhammad Ali. The most beautiful state this canuck has had the priveledge to venture to, Vermont and Mississippi are a close second. This tobacco is similiar to Old Dark Fired, but... bolder (pause for gasps). There's lots of dark fruit notes, plums and figs. Theres the woody, smokey barbeque flavours found in ODF, and a little bit of the vinegar. Definite dark chocolate notes. It must be dried out, no ifs ands or butswannas. It can lose flavour if puffed too fast. To the surprise of nobody, it has alot of nicotine, so eat a hearty meal while it's drying. It burns slow. A dear friend tells me the room note is quite chocolatey. I don't like it as much as ODF, but it is good. If you like some oompf and strong flavour in your toby, look no further. Great with a peaty scotch. 3 stars. Cheers to the fine state of Kentucky.