MacBaren Scottish Mix

Hey there!
I am also a new-ish member. I'd definitely be interested in the Scottish Mixture. Also definitely interested in a trade. I'll shoot you a PM.

I had an 8 year old tin that I recently opened, and did not care for it either, until I smoked it in a wide bowled Canadian that I have. It was a “wow” moment, and I was sorry when the tin ran out. I would tell you that you should try it in a bowl .80” or larger. You might change your mind.

Hopefully I won't sound like a douche here, but 10 year old Mac Baren Mixture is normative, if you don't like it, the problem is you. And truly, what I mean by that is the stuff is fiddly, takes practice and dedication to really "get". But once you find the explosion of flavor that it is, you will see no other tobacco the same way again. But it takes serious attention and really good technique. On one hand, that makes it not for everyone. On the other hand, if you master it, the required technique will literally change the way you taste other blends - well worth it for some of us.
In any event, hopefully someone is in for a treat, because the raw product is capable of giving up the very best moments pipe smoking has to offer, but has to be worked for I think.

^^^ Just because he does not like it, does not mean he is smoking it wrong.

trade you for 30 year old Plum Pudding (Mac Baren)

@ Sasquatch:
Douche or not, couldn't have said it any better. :wink:
Greeneyes, do you mean Plumcake?

I gotta agree with Sasquatch; Mixture is fiddly, but once you learn to smoke it - oh,my. Especially with some age on it.

Of course it's a bit rich, I'll go further, it's utter BS. I can't think of a single tobacco (or pizza type or scotch) that everyone loves. However, Mixture is pretty unique in the tobacco world too, I can't think of a more difficult blend to really get singing, and I know lots of people who give up before they ever do, that's all. My point was simply that it's easy to write off - it's cheap, widely available, and the first few bowls are unspectacular for most people who try it. "Not for me." And it's too bad, because some of those people who pass on the stuff would be well served by refining their technique. This is not universal and I'm certainly not suggesting that you in particular mngslvs are "bad" at smoking a pipe or anything like that. You may simply not like the stuff. My own experience with Mixture was that in smoking a whole 100g tin many years ago and not really enjoying it, I got a completely mind-blowing experience with it in the last couple bowls in the tin, because I was no longer trying - I had sort of given up on the stuff. Once I figured out how that success occurred, I took the technique back to other tobaccos and lo and behold, they were much, much better too - in a sense, learning to smoke Mixture was the same as really learning how to maximize the flavor on just about every blend. It changed how I understood pipe smoking, and I hope that other people have that same revelatory experience.

Personally, I do like their Navy Flake and Golde Extra way more nonetheless should be said this Scottish Mix seems to be a very popular choice here in Scandinavia and in Germany as well.In my opinion, this Scottish mix requires more attention and

delicate´

approach to it, but yes, definitely come next summer I shall revisit this blend for sure.

Never cared much for it myself, I've always been more a fan of Symphony.

Always been curious to try it. One day.

Well, let me say there's lots of ways to enjoy a pipe. A cob full of carter hall out in a canoe is ... sort of a different experience than being offered a bowl of something that hasn't been produced in 40 years... you might choose a super clean pipe and presumably you'd sit back and really try to savor a once-in-a-lifetime smoke. It's not that one is right or wrong, it's that there's different avenues being explored, a different experience being sought.
I'll go all the way back - I smoked tobacco in a pipe for some ten years, on and off, before I really learned how to do it - how to pack it right, light it up, tamp, and smoke gently, tamp carefully, and have the whole thing work out - taste good, not be a soggy mess at the bottom of the bowl etc. Captain Black was the pinnacle of my experience, and honestly, a lot of tobaccos that tasted "tobacco-y" kind of put me off. Pipes to me were about other flavors. Peach and rum medley! I bought a tin of Mixture, and was told that the Mac Baren house flavor was kind of "honey on toast". That sounds nice. And I lit the stuff up and smoked away at it, puffing furiously, looking for that flavor, and basically totally failing to find it. Worked through damned near the whole tin and just... didn't "get it". And at one point, with a pipe just barely lit, because I wasn't paying attention to it at all (probably soldering something or whatever), BAM here's this honey-on-toast flavor, and it's not even sort of in the background, it's front and center. So I did what anyone would do - grabed the lighter and fired that sumbitch right back up! And of course, that flavor just disappeared again. Lots of smoke, no flavor. Sort of a paradox.
And yet if you think about how we get flavor out of tobacco, what is going on, it's a delicate process - "flavor" is oils and esters, big floppy molecules that we experience as "tastes". And if you burn those suckers up, they turn into steam and CO2. And that's what happens especially easily with sweeter blend - you burn it a bit hotter, and all those nice big flavor molecules disappear, literally burnt up, and you suck in smoke that is nothing but vapor and ash, really. But if you are gentle, if you can get the pipe to simmer, I'm talking about a burn where you can have the pipe going for an hour straight and it is maybe... maybe lukewarm, like you can tell it's lit, but it's not hot AT ALL. A little smoke. And the flavor... is almost overwhelming.
So that's how you have to smoke this stuff to enjoy it - you can't haul away at it while you fish. You must pay close attention and really dial in the burn, ultra-low temperature smoldering, and this product opens right up. Many tobaccos can be enjoyed without this kind of careful attention. But almost all tobaccos benefit from it. When I learned how to smoke Mixture and really enjoy it, I took this idea to other tobaccos and they opened up too.
Now this may all be obvious to some, and that's great. Wasn't obvious to me, and when I watch guys on youtube generating monster clouds of smoke, it seemingly isn't obvious to them either! It is, of course, possible to just... not like.. some certain product. But when I've offered Mixure, or more specifically Mixture Flake to unsuspecting pipe pals, and just said "Hey, put this in your pipe, light it up, tell me what you think." I've never had anyone say "Oh, this is bad, why would you smoke this?" Rather the opposite, I've had guys angry, unable to believe that this is Mac Baren's stupid old Mixture. How could I have missed out on this??
And so that's why I say it's normative - it's so beguiling, so perfectly balanced, such a frankly amazing feat of tobacco making, that to me, it's hard to understand someone not liking it, unless they are simply burning it off and not reaching that flavor zone which I (and seemingly some others even in this thread) have found. I call Mac Baren "expert grade" tobacco, and it's not to be a snob, I don't care, it's just that I think you have to really be a skilled, seasoned pipe smoker to be able to get the most out of these blends - I would never recommend Mixture to a new smoker, for example.
Your mileage may vary!

I started my pipe smoking with the Mixture a few years ago, got bitten many times, after a dozen pouches I learnt how to enjoy it. Not sure if it's worth the effort though, it surely can be tasty but for a high price - extremely, ridiculously slow burning. I can understand the op wants to get rid of it.

@sasquatch
I've never seen anyone that passionate about an aromatic. :clap:

AROMATIC?? WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN AROMATICS!

AROMATIC?? WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN AROMATICS!

Click to expand...

That it is. I think Symphony is classed as an aro as well.

I've seen it advertised as the best selling tobacco blend world-wide, so there are certainly others than Sasquatch who like it. I've always found it mediocre, but after reading this thread I'm sure going to try it again. It's easily available, even where I live.