Puff Daddy
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This is actually a set of mini reviews of several Mac Baren blends, but there are categorical generalizations of the brand as well so I'll lump everything here into one thread.
I was quite guilty of participating in the mainstream notion of Mac Baren, I tried some, it bit, I quit. This is prevalent in the hundreds of reviews on the makers blends, so it can't be discounted, but I've found that it's not so much that Mac Baren bites, it's that it's the smoker whose perfected the slow smoke who can truly enjoy these blends. The flavors start off as quite subtle and then build, and the novice or impatient or gluttonous smoker who wants to whoof it up, blow voluminous clouds of smoke, and immediately experience deep rich flavor, is disappointed. That isn't Danish tobacco, and if you treat it like that it will produce horrible results. People speak of rubbing out the coins of the various rolled offerings Mac Baren makes, but this too is a mistake. To take a few coins, gently fold and slide them into the smoke chamber, and not pack it down tight, this is how it must be treated. A few charring lights, patiently and slowly done, gently tamping the sprigs of tobacco that rise up, and letting everything remain nice and cool - never rushing it - this is how one must begin. The first quarter of the bowl will be light, crisp, and require a sipping cadence. Let it go out when it wants to, this isn't a sin. It is a tobacco to be slowly savored. When treated thusly the tobacco will soon begin to produce plenty of smoke and the dark creamy flavors will come to the forefront, and then it is bliss until the end. I've been smoking at least three bowls a day for the past two weeks of Dark Twist Roll Cake, roll Cake Spun Cut, Stockton, Burley London Blend and Golden Extra. Only the Golden Extra I'm undecided about as it's awfully mild and I'm probably just not giving it the attention it deserves - time on it's own not surrounded by richer blends on the palate. So, I'll come back to that one at a later date.
Dark Twist Roll Cake, this one started it all. Several years ago I bought a couple of tins and one was squirreled away deep in the cellar. I finally cracked that tin, and it tasted so nice that it set me on a bit of a journey back to Mac Baren blends. I'd been smoking Burley London blend for some time, first thinking that it was simply OK, and then noticing that as I'd begun smoking it slower and slower it began tasting better and better. So, the desire to crack the Dark Twist. DTRC is a whole leaf spun rope with a cavendish center, and once a nice cruising speed has been achieved this tobacco is a serious champion. The balance in taste is superb. Velvet, rich, luxurious. There are far too many silly words used in vain to try to explain what a tobacco tastes like, but to use a few to tell what it does not taste like, it is neither cloying or sickly sweet or overly topped or cased or.... Well, phony. It tastes like tobacco, it's fantastic.
DTRC, Stockton and Roll Cake Spun Cut all appear to be roughly the same Virginia rope with different centers. Dark Twist has a dark cavendish center that gives a sort of malty dark mellowness, Stockton has a center akin to the dark ropes that Gawith, Hoggarth & co produce, and Roll Cake Spun Cut appears to be some form of burley cavendish that splits the difference between the other two. Stockton is the darkest in flavor, a taste that produces both the dark Kentucky and lighter Virginia flavors at once, and does it well. Spun Cut tastes lightest to me, as the cavendish center of Dark Twist seems to produce a deeper, roastier flavor. I've not smoked nearly as much Spun Cut as the other two so further research is required, but these three are all definitely worthy.
Burley London Blend provides that classic Mac Baren flavor and room note with a baritone Burley note running strongly throughout. It's really as good as the reviews say, and the best thing I can say is to read them, try some, and remember to smoke it very slowly
I was quite guilty of participating in the mainstream notion of Mac Baren, I tried some, it bit, I quit. This is prevalent in the hundreds of reviews on the makers blends, so it can't be discounted, but I've found that it's not so much that Mac Baren bites, it's that it's the smoker whose perfected the slow smoke who can truly enjoy these blends. The flavors start off as quite subtle and then build, and the novice or impatient or gluttonous smoker who wants to whoof it up, blow voluminous clouds of smoke, and immediately experience deep rich flavor, is disappointed. That isn't Danish tobacco, and if you treat it like that it will produce horrible results. People speak of rubbing out the coins of the various rolled offerings Mac Baren makes, but this too is a mistake. To take a few coins, gently fold and slide them into the smoke chamber, and not pack it down tight, this is how it must be treated. A few charring lights, patiently and slowly done, gently tamping the sprigs of tobacco that rise up, and letting everything remain nice and cool - never rushing it - this is how one must begin. The first quarter of the bowl will be light, crisp, and require a sipping cadence. Let it go out when it wants to, this isn't a sin. It is a tobacco to be slowly savored. When treated thusly the tobacco will soon begin to produce plenty of smoke and the dark creamy flavors will come to the forefront, and then it is bliss until the end. I've been smoking at least three bowls a day for the past two weeks of Dark Twist Roll Cake, roll Cake Spun Cut, Stockton, Burley London Blend and Golden Extra. Only the Golden Extra I'm undecided about as it's awfully mild and I'm probably just not giving it the attention it deserves - time on it's own not surrounded by richer blends on the palate. So, I'll come back to that one at a later date.
Dark Twist Roll Cake, this one started it all. Several years ago I bought a couple of tins and one was squirreled away deep in the cellar. I finally cracked that tin, and it tasted so nice that it set me on a bit of a journey back to Mac Baren blends. I'd been smoking Burley London blend for some time, first thinking that it was simply OK, and then noticing that as I'd begun smoking it slower and slower it began tasting better and better. So, the desire to crack the Dark Twist. DTRC is a whole leaf spun rope with a cavendish center, and once a nice cruising speed has been achieved this tobacco is a serious champion. The balance in taste is superb. Velvet, rich, luxurious. There are far too many silly words used in vain to try to explain what a tobacco tastes like, but to use a few to tell what it does not taste like, it is neither cloying or sickly sweet or overly topped or cased or.... Well, phony. It tastes like tobacco, it's fantastic.
DTRC, Stockton and Roll Cake Spun Cut all appear to be roughly the same Virginia rope with different centers. Dark Twist has a dark cavendish center that gives a sort of malty dark mellowness, Stockton has a center akin to the dark ropes that Gawith, Hoggarth & co produce, and Roll Cake Spun Cut appears to be some form of burley cavendish that splits the difference between the other two. Stockton is the darkest in flavor, a taste that produces both the dark Kentucky and lighter Virginia flavors at once, and does it well. Spun Cut tastes lightest to me, as the cavendish center of Dark Twist seems to produce a deeper, roastier flavor. I've not smoked nearly as much Spun Cut as the other two so further research is required, but these three are all definitely worthy.
Burley London Blend provides that classic Mac Baren flavor and room note with a baritone Burley note running strongly throughout. It's really as good as the reviews say, and the best thing I can say is to read them, try some, and remember to smoke it very slowly
