Thanks again to Winslow for hooking us up with the samples.

I've had a couple bowls of this so far and my initial impression is very favorable. The weed arrived ready to smoke, if not a bit on the dry side. After setting fire to it I was a bit taken back by how smooth it was. When I dabble with perique blends, they usually tickle my nose a bit more than I like but here it was just right. In the first half of the bowl there was a nice muted sweetness with a slight buttery flavor rearing up every now and again. As the bowl progressed so did the dominance of the perique and more of a full tobacco flavor developed. No tongue bite to speak of. This is a great blend to smoke when you aren't sure how strong of a blend you want at the time. It starts off very mellow and you can take it to level of strength you desire by working your way down the bowl. This is one I may put on my next TAD order. Good stuff.

Tanks for the sample, Winslow. Received it yesterday and it's already gone (4 bowls).

I was expecting a VaPer, but this blend tastes like an Oriental without Latakia. Smooth, no tongue bite, and great to expel through the nose. I am pleasantly surprised and like it a lot. I will put it in my list of favorite Oriental blends and will add a significant amount to the cellar.

Added later: after writing the above lines I went back through the other posts. I must add that in my sample the VAs were in the background and did not define the blend. Orientals provided the dominant note and I couldn't detect the Latakia. I think I could smell the Perique in the bag, but I don't know how it impacts the flavor. Didn't find it one-dimensional, or flat, or whatever you want to call it, either. I wonder if, at some point in time, the component tobaccos suffered selective sorting and we are receiving samples with different compositions...

Thanks for the sample Winslow

I liked this quite a bit. Very rich, tasty, and flavourful. I enjoyed the good amt. of spice this offers, and the sweetness was great (I don't like extremely sweet blends, and was quite pleased the sweetness wasn't overpowering). Maybe I'm just crazy, but I almost felt like it had some cigar'ish flavour at times (I could be wrong quite easily though).

It burns quite nicely and leaves a nice gray ash.

Two thumbs up!

Thanks Winslow!

Just finishing up my first bowl of this and so far so good. When I first opened the baggy I did detect a faint smell of a fire/smoke cured tobacco in the mix. Not sure if it was latakia or not being it was barley detectable and it really didn't transfer into the taste profile at all. So if it's in there it's just a trace amount.

I mostly tasted the burley, virginia and perique and they come across as well balanced. I did have a little trouble with the burning qualities but I think that is my fault being I almost exclusively smoke flakes and need to play with this type of tobacco more to get the packing down. It's also drier than most of the stuff I usually smoke.

I'll need some more time with blend to know if I really enjoy it but I did like my first sample. I expect the flavors to deepen as I smoke more of it out of the same pipe.

Firstly, a big Thanks Brother! to Winslow for sending out the samples -- very cool.

I have only smoked one bowl of this so far... I thought it was kind of one dimensional, and to quote others, this baccy did not ever really develop for me. I could not detect the virginias, but there was a pronounced perique spiciness, which I did like. I kind of felt like I was smoking a spicy cigarette... I will have to revisit this, perhaps in several different pipes. Interesting to read all of the different opinions on this blend. Thanks again, Winslow!

Big ups to Steve who went through the trouble of doing this! Thanks buddy!

I've smoked through the sample but wasn't overly impressed. As most of you know I'm A HUGE FAN of MacBaren's blends as a whole. That said. I've never really cared for any of their non flake/cake blends. I found it to be harsh and incredibly fast buring. The flavor was VERY light and almost totally bland as I reached the middle of the bowl. Not a good "outside" blend on a breezy day. It will dissapear almost like magic! The other issue was that it really dried my mouth out. I was drinking iced tea like a mad man through all four bowls. Not a keeper for me.

Anyway, I'm thankful to have had the opportunity to give it a try even if the results weren't what I was hoping for.

Thank you Winslow for providing this opportunity.

With prior Mac Baren experience in mind I started by thoroughly drying the sample.
Slowly smoking half a small bowl in a filtered cob seemed possibly inoffensive, so SWMBO and I
filled a small unfiltered briar and despite our caution encountered a suggestion of adulterants and not much else. Looking for more flavor we loaded a larger meerschaum and found only more adulterant flavor and our tongues adversely effected so subsequent bowls our preferred tobaccos were unpleasant. Sweet SWMBO issued a cease and desist order re further testing. I suspect there may be connoisseurs of adulterants who actually prefer them to tobacco.

Thanks for all the input guys.I will forward reviews to MacBaren representative.
A fun thing to do with the BoB Forum,maybe again someday.

Winslow

I’m a little late in my comments here, but I liked this blend. I am not a fan of Vaper’s, but I am trying to expand my horizons. I am a fan of Orientals and was happy to find the Orientals playing the lead role here. It is a delicate blend that could easily get lost if it’s paired with a strong drink, or followed a stronger blend. With all that being said the perique adds an earthy sweetness to support the Oriental high notes ridding on the VA’s. I like the blend and I think with some age on it, it will really shine.

Just finished my third bowl. I appreciate Winslow's efforts in making this available for sampling and for including me in the mailing. Unfortunately this one just didn't connect with me. I smoked it in a meer and the first bowlful was nondescript. The second and third bowlsful were better but not remarkable. The taste was a bit bland. About halfway through the second and third bowls an interesting creamy, almost buttery, taste made a brief appearance but then faded like a wil'o the wisp. Not an unpleasant smoke but then again nothing I'd go back to.
Thanks again Winslow for the opportunity to try it.

Goddam... I just got mine!

Surprised at how it smells, that's for darn sure. Post back soon.

Okay.

Thanks Winslow, for the sample, and thanks Mac Baren for getting this out to us.

For "serious" reviews, I have started lighting 2 pipes at once. Sometimes a direct, immediate comparison allows me to understand a blend a bit more.

In the bag, I thought "Hmm, I've smelled this before" so I went and smelled other bags. Anniversary Kake and Smoker's Forum Inception rang a bell.

So I packed a pipe of Acadian, and a similar bowl of Anni Kake and smoked and compared. Anniversary Kake is sweeter and has an almost soapy taste in the background, and the Acadian does smoke as some have noted, almost like an oriental blend.

Neither strikes me as a "typical" Va/per, to be honest. Both strike me as being really heavily processed in curing, stoving etc with at least some of the leaf.

It's tasty, has the black tea-like sharpness that I associate with orientals, but isn't as sweet as I would like, in terms of the carrying virginias. An interesting tobacco.

OK, I just finished my 3rd and final bowl. Let me first add to the chorus of thanks to Winslow.

I rather enjoyed it overall. It smell great in the bag. The burning properties are very good. The flavor I found to be dominated by the perique, but it wasn't overwhelming or out of balance. I didn't detect as much of the orientals as some of the other reviewers here have. The general picture is well balanced, but not terribly complex. I'd call it good to very good, but I'm not rushing out to buy a tin (which isn't to say I won't buy it).

Thanks again! It's always fun to do a review en masse with a group of smokers.

-Andrew

Having finished mine, I'll say it was good, but not great.
My sample saved me the cost of a tin.
Thanks again, Steve!