Mac Baren HH Rustica Review
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Kyle Weiss - May 14, 2020
- 9 min read
Let’s take a break from the world’s nonsense for a moment, because something more important is happening. Allow me to elaborate:
When I first heard about Mac Baren’s HH Bold Kentucky being released, I was working as a tobacconist at the local Tinder Box. I picked up the phone and dialed my rep and I had five tins dashed my shop’s direction. This was because when I first heard about another HH release, Old Dark Fired a year prior, I was not yet working as a tobacconist and it was a hard product to acquire at first. My personal history with Mac Baren is much more love story than it is with most people: the first time I dove into Plumcake, and then Virginia No. 1, it was heaven to me. It wasn’t until I began enjoying it and peddling it to customers to try I would get the old timers calling it “Mac Bite” and wincing disapprovingly. Clearly, it wasn’t for everyone. For me, they had a handful of favorites, and that seems to be growing, by my reckon. Perhaps the company had a different way of doing things way-back-when, but whatever incarnation of tobacco they had going on when I discovered them made me truly appreciate their style and approach even more today. With the famous (and serious) HH lines for which they are now widely known, I’m always one to seek out the latest releases.
Henrik Halberg is the current head of the Mac Baren tobacco dynasty. With every other tobacco producer seemingly been acquired or acquiring other companies, different flags are flying over our favorite brands all the time, but Mac Baren is one of the juggernauts in the tobacco world—number two, to be precise. They are in more danger of ever-expanding tobacco regulations than they are of falling under a different banner. As it stands, they are owned completely by the Halberg family. Harold Halberg, the original founder of Mac Baren, gets an honorable shout-out with the “HH” that graces every tin of this series of pipe tobaccos—just in case you were wondering.
Mac Baren has a newcomer to the HH line: “Rustica.” The moment I read about what they were doing with Rustica I had to get my grubby hands on some. I’m not a tobacco historian by any means, but I rather like tobacco history. Tobacco as we smoke it in modern times is not really the “original.” Like everything grown and consumed by humans over the years, tobacco has been selectively-bred, cross-pollinated, manipulated and adapted for our needs, tastes and trade, as well as for necessary growing qualities. Tobacco, more specifically nicotiana tobacum, is what we usually smoke. There are other varieties that helped us get this cultivated joy (or reviled scourge to an uncultured swine) to what we know today. N. rustica is one of the tobacco varietals that was discovered along with its cousins in the Americas during European exploration some centuries back. It was also possibly genetically involved in upping not only the nicotine content but toughness qualities in cultivation in what we smoke today. Also known in Nahuatl as piciyetl and Mayan as ucuch “Aztec tobacco” is still smoked by the rest of the world as you read this, though it likely grew native more southerly of historical Aztec territories. “Makhorka” (махорка) in Russia, campeche (Mexico), thuoc lao(Vietnam), and mapacho (S. America), n. rustica gained quite the international following. It is reported to have as much as 10 times the nicotine content of what we are used to in modern tobacco – quite the warrior’s smoke. “Rustica” by name, the Mac Baren product anyway, is probably not made with genetically-original n. rustica leaf. Instead, HH Rustica is a mixture of our familiar n. tobacum (Virginia) what we now have available as n. rustica. While I like the outlandish idea of Aztec gatherers still plucking the leaf from native, wild patches for me to smoke, I’ll have to make do with the promised punch to the senses when it comes to nicotine and flavor. Here we go!
Upon opening the black labeled and brass tin, Mac Baren shows off its HH line with a pristine gold paper cradle, and three neat rows of perfectly stacked, cut flakes, each being about the size of a stick of chewing gum. The smell is absolutely wonderful: meaty, bacon-like, and buttery. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited. This is the kind of tobacco that gets me excited. I left the lid off the tin overnight, because those hot-pressed flakes are heavy and laden with moisture. This did nothing. Eventually I resorted to roughing-up a few flakes to let them air-dry for a half hour or so before loading into my pipe. Mac Baren flakes can be tough to get lit, and these are no exception. The hot-pressing breaks down a little of the leaf structure so attempting to rough them up to ribbons can actually lead to small balls of sticky, broken tobacco, which don’t fare well to the experience. Leaving them in slightly thicker-than-ribbon strands is the best way to go, I would suggest.
The first puffs, once lit, are like a macuahuitl to the senses. Well, in a good way. There’s a definite and delicate delivery of the Virginia, but there’s a lovely, unyielding spice and punky-wood flavor supported by a grapefruit bittersweet aftertaste. Even out of the gate, the other leaf will not be ignored. The meatiness smell from the tin is not lost, it simply gets transferred to the smoke. I can immediately feel the nicotine rush to my heart, which is either beating in joy or simply being affected by the strength of this mixture. This is the adventure I signed up for, after all.
About mid-bowl, I kept taking note in how many relights were necessary to keep Rustica going. Tamping is almost laughable because of how naturally dense the flakes are by themselves, and a few times I realized I probably could have packed my bowls a little looser. This tobacco really does it for me, and it’s difficult not to overindulge on the flavor components, yet it does take a bit of a skilled hand to manage it at times. At this stage, Rustica is like smoking a beef roast and having a dark Irish beer at the same time. The meatiness will not quit. The tip of my tongue tingled in the best way possible, and the aftertaste is much like angostura bitters (which I adore). The realization is the smoke is not symphonic in complexity, but it is not simple. Retro-haling is an adventure in its own right, and a note of freshly-ground black pepper will delight your nose, or make your eyes water. In either case, it’s a bonus I cannot help but replicate. This is not the most nicotine-rich tobacco I’ve ever smoked, but it’s up there. Quite a few times I found myself getting so heavy in the chair I didn’t want to refresh my cocktail or do much more than stare at the hillside as relaxing tunes bumbled round my ear canals. Ferocious, no; ever present, yes.
In the bowl’s final stages, the tobacco achieves its best burning qualities. I could smolder away and get lost in wherever the heck I was and not think about my puffing. For as much that is going on with this tobacco, it doesn’t lose the Virginia quality that lends both familiarity and a bit of sweetness to the event. The smoke’s balance of bold and gentle is fantastic, and it is remarkably clean in flavor I might add. The meatiness is the dominant aspect for sure, and while it has great body and volume of smoke, it doesn’t coat the mouth in an unpleasant way. The end of a bowl is actually the sweetest part, and though it could be a little ghosting from other blends, the consistency suggests it might not be. Briar that is well-kept and has a good cure will only add to the experience, as Rustica seems to become one with the pipe. There is no heavy “grand finale” with this tobacco, and that’s okay—the show starts strong and ends strong. Delicious.
My final verdict on Mac Baren’s newest HH release are probably not going to be a surprise, but fair is as fair does. My criticisms are how damned dense it is, and this quality isn’t unlike its flake siblings in the lineup. I don’t like the sensitivity one must have while loading a bowl each time, making sure it is just dry enough and the air flow is just right. It can be a bitch to light and keep lit. For me in the end however this is a winner. This is what I needed to fix an ailing and crazy world at the moment. It might take the top spot over the other HH favorites of mine. If I were to use a metaphor as example, I’d say Rustica is like barbecue, real barbecue. It takes effort, time and patience. If you do it right, it will delight. Even if it’s not quite right, it’s still going to be really good. Unless you do something absolutely downright wrong, or simply don’t like barbecue, you’re going to be in for a treat. The room note is pungent but not entirely disagreeable. Pairings for this tobacco in which I had good luck are whiskey, IPA beers, and black coffee. Gin, a favorite of mine, had a weird interaction of the botanical essences, which was a shame. Unless it’s a particularly dark-leafed tea I’d stay away from those as well. As mentioned, these flakes pack a nicotine punch. Do not operate machinery, smoke on an empty stomach or in direct sun. If anything I’ve mentioned thus far has had you saying, “…yes, yes and YES!” you’d be advised to pick up a tin or several—they are in numbered quantities, 7100 tins to be exact.
- Editor Rating
- Rated 5 stars
- Spectacular
- Mac Baren HH Rustica Review
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Full flavored and full strength tobacco - Mac Baren HH Rustica.
Written by Kyle Weiss
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Soon now, supposedly, our neighborhoods will shift from grinning pumpkins, skeletons in various assortments, and zombies dashing about to pretty reindeer, angels, and flashing lights illuminating homes with sparkling stars and laughing, scurrying Santas. But, lest we forget, there is the turkey season, fancy pie aromas wafting from kitchens, and a national pardon of a big Tom Turkey. Remember, now, that only one of these holiday personalities is a pipe smoker. And that is the hefty, bearded fellow in a bright red suit sitting in a sleigh with a herd of deer hitched up and ready to streak across the globe, bringing tidings of joy and many presents. Ok, the scene is set for the next couple of months, right? So, before we get too far off the beaten path, let’s just take a deep breath of fresh autumn air, shall we? Ahh. That’s better, isn’t it? What’s got the Pundit in a snit is not all the Halloween spooks who came a-jostling for candy. Or the wild turkeys gobbling in the backwoods or all the fuss and feathers over the big one—Christmas. No, it is that we might need to take note of all the little things that mean so much to us. Like a good sunrise (seriously, Pundit has not gone all Pollyanna.) Mayhaps we need to appreciate more of what we have than what we have not. Or something like that. Like, a good pipe in the morning with coffee as the dawn brings us coolish weather now that we have flipped the calendar to autumn. But it also brings beautiful leaves that have become a spectacle of technicolor in the wind. It is the little things. The rereading of an enjoyable book and finding something you did not see or learn in the first go-round. Or a stunning phrase you commit to memory with the re-read, while smoking that favorite pipe. And you notice a superior puff that just seems to be different. It’s in the air and the seasons of meaningful little things. It’s aromatic! Or perhaps it is that sense of satisfaction knowing and appreciating you made it to another day. With the world in a kind of rinse-and-repeat history, reminiscent of a Shakespearean play, it is perhaps a good moment to remember some of Pipedom’s philosophers whose cogent thoughts brought light to clear a path in the mists of confusion and confounding opinions. Ok. No gloom and doom. Just some down-home thoughts. Think of times in the past when history was running off the rails. It took our pipe-smoking thinkers (the mind workers of the world) to speak of better pathways to more light. Think for a moment, with a pipe in hand, these wizards of the world and word: Albert Einstein, J. R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edwin Hubble, Bertrand Russell, C. S. Lewis, and Jean-Paul Sartre. All learned and enlightened. They offered wisdom instead of storms of meaningless roads to nowhere. All while smoking their pipes! Maybe especially with the help of their pipes in the art of thinking and philosophy. Recall the words of Mr. E=MC2 when he said, “I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgment in all human affairs.” Amen and amen! Dealing with world-rattling events takes a calm and objective view of things, to the Pundit’s way of summing it up. You just don’t go messing around with quantum physics without a calm and objective approach, methinks. Or as the extraordinary physicist Robert Oppenheimer said after he and a team in the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos Labs developed a way to split atoms into bombs during World War II. “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” said Oppenheimer referring to the development of the first nuclear bombs dropped on Japan. It must be pointed out that Oppenheimer was more of a cigarette smoker than a pipe smoker. Nonetheless, pipes were part of his personality. Now, if you have read some of the great authors of the past and present, their pipes were always nearby. Reading Sir Arthur Conan Doyle can be a three-pipe problem at times. S. Lewis and Jean-Paul Sartre require time with your pipes to reflect on the existential problems and solutions these authors provide in learned novels and other narratives. Or take Edwin Hubble and Bertrand Russell, philosophers of another world. Pipes are required for reading. The quantum lode of ideas Pundit is attempting to sort out is that our pipes are relaxing and stimulate our thoughts and creativity. Especially in these last months of the year. Many times Pundit has had that light bulb flick on while smoking my beloved pipes. And friends in Pipedom, it ain’t easy to turn on the lights in Pundit’s rock pit head. Now it’s time for a quote from a Pipe Smoker of the Past. Shelby Foote was born Nov. 17, 1916, in Greenville, Miss., and died June 27, 2005, in Memphis, Tenn. A fact is not a truth until you love it—Shelby Foote. A parting thought: It is said that famed Southern author William Faulkner carried a packed pipe in a coat pocket wherever he went. That’s one effective way to deal with workday conflicts and confusion. A calm and objective judgment in our everyday human affairs, as the quantum man said.
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 633. Our featured guest tonight is Jon David Cole. JD is the Owner/Tobacconist at The Country Squire in Jackson, MS, and the accompanying online store. We’ll have JD and Brian talking about what’s new at the store and in the business in general. At the top of the show, Brian will discuss tobacco growing, what happens to the leaf, and provide updated information on where tobacco is being gown today. Tobacco production originated in the United States and we were once the #1 producer. It’s quite different now.
Well there’s nothing like a touch of the plague to usher in the changing season. Leaving the airport just when the first advertisements for all things pumpkin spice began to appear—lattes, muffins, shampoos, trash bags, and myriad other concoctions—so, too, my ability to breathe freely disappeared. The unfortunate side effect of losing one’s sense of taste and smell for weeks is the utter inability to enjoy tobacco. Not that I consider myself an expert on anything but my own tastes, but be forewarned that this review was made with mildly impugned sensory equipment. Just when a comforting pipe was most needed, its comfort was denied. Be that as it may, the road to recovery found me limping along on one lung this past month, trying to wrest the particulars of two blends on offer from Sutliff: the latest 175th Anniversary blend, Silver Quarter, as well as their spooky seasonal Maple Shadows II. Silver Quarter is a new style on offer from Sutliff, their first coin-cut blend. Naturally a Virginia-Perique, it is enhanced with a traditional core of black Cavendish. In the tin it holds much promise, with a lightly bready and very woody, if ever-so-slightly sour, aroma. After some time acclimating to air, the bouquet softens further and offers hints of the burley with some chocolaty notes wafting through the more dominant dry grassy aspect. The tin art is of a coin-style bas-relief bust, presumably of a founding Sutliff brother, à la The Old Boss On the reverse of the tin we find the blend’s description: Reflecting on Sutliffs 175 years of tobacco excellence, we came across a brand that embodies true value, SILVER QUARTER. This name pays homage to Sutliffs roots, the legacy of two brothers who popularized pipe smoking in the burgeoning mining society of San Francisco. We celebrate this heritage with a coin cut composed of the finest African Virginias, complemented by a core of Perique and Black Cavendish. The tin notes are, forgive the pun, on the nose for a good VaPer blend: mild tart sweetness peeking out from behind dried hay and slight chocolate undertones, with a lightly tannic finish of weathered oak. It is always a joy to prepare a coin cut, my preference being to put a few in my palm and vigorously warm my hands together to fully break them apart. These well-formed discs pack and light easily, and smoke with little prodding to the end of the bowl. For technical points it scores well—it smokes light, and it’s easy to tend the ember. While it gets sharp after a few quick bowls, pacing should be heeded to easily smoke down to the heel without inviting bite. Of the flavor, though, I am left a bit wanting. There are tart and high notes aplenty, but very little of the lemony citrus I would anticipate, as well as scant midtones; they tend more toward the red wine-vinegary and sour. The flavors are muted, also, lacking the sweetness and piquancy of other marques—the small measure of Perique tickles the nose now and again with peppery hints, and there is a smidge of a deeper sweetness to be found in the Cavendish from puff to puff, but overall it lacks some dynamism. The Virginias, to my palate, come off a bit on the dry side, and here they dominate the blend. The aftertaste and mouthfeel are neutral, again evincing more of the dry, woody, tartly tannic end of the spectrum. The blend has plenty of polish, but not enough depth or richness (*yet) to make it a standout. Here, comparisons are inevitable: Luxury Bullseye Flake has more sweetness, both from its Virginia as well as its Cavendish, and a better finish; Davidoff is similar but with a pronounced umami that is absent here; as for Escudo, I haven’t had any fresh tins lately so it would be unfair to compare. 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Bewitched by a dissonant charm, we’ve created Maple Shadows. In a season that is defined by the unlikely harmony of treats and frights, we’ve joined the enchanting sweetness of maple with the earthy spice of Dark Fired Kentucky for a smoking experience that captures the senses with an otherworldly fusion of flavor. This may be the best aromatic blend Sutliff’s ever made—and they make a ton of them. First off, it’s not overbearing in the least—quite the opposite, it is also one of the more restrained aromatics they’ve ever made, with a clear but very light topping that melds oh-so-well with their choice Kentucky added to the mix. Opening the tin, the sweet maple is up front and center, but so too is the must of fallen leaves, bready pie crusts, and a crackling fire in the hearth—a perfect invocation of Herbstdüfte in a can. Packing best in an open and capacious bowl, the flavoring is subtle, and recedes to the background while puffing. With a sweet coffee or tea to accompany, the aftertaste of the maple is reinvigorated on the palate […]
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 632. Our featured guest on tonight’s show is the host of the Pipe & Tamper Podcast, Mike Murphy. Brian and Mike will have an extended chat revolving around the days before, during and after the Las Vegas International Pipe Show. We will hear about their travels to the show and the anxiety of Hurricane Milton bearing down on Florida at the same time while running a show and not knowing if your house is going to be there when you get home. In the end, the show went great and our homes survived, although many others in Florida were not so lucky. We’ll have clips from the show, and shoutouts to other podcasts and vlogs that were broadcasting from the pipe show.
Vegas Baby The show started out strong on the 14th floor hospitality suites hosted by the Vegas Pipe Show and Smoking Pipes as well as room hopping to carvers, estate sellers, and vendors to pre-game for the festivities. If you’re interested in what that looks like I’ll refer you to last years pipe show round up. I circled with Brian Levine to get the totals in comparison to last year: This year’s show numbers: 108 Exhibitor tables, 445 attendees, 3,250 Raffle Tickets, 100ish dinners, 172 Rooms in the Hotel. Last year, by comparison, 107 exhibitor tables, 425 attendees, 2,200 raffle tickets, 104 dinners, and 175 rooms on Friday and Saturday nights. We were at capacity, basically, when it came to vendor tables and the dinner, so there is no physical room for growth at this point except for attendees. That said, we filled that smoking lounge to the brim. New Carvers Spotlight Garret Woo (Pipes by Woo) How long have you been carving? Garret: I’ve been carving since 2021, and I’m guessing your next question is probably how’d you get started carving? James: Yes. Garret: In 2021 I took a break from my full time job – that included machining and assembly work and I thought maybe it was time I made something that I would like and I started looking at youtube and Instagram and putting together my shop. I did struggle on the stems to start and there was a lot of failure at the beginning. James: How many pipes have you made so far? Garret: I number my pipes, so I just finished up 186. James: What is your favorite shape you’ve been making? Garret: I really dig Canadians and pipes with longer shanks and lovat Canadian blends. I like to play with different shapes of stems on the longer shanked pipes. The billiard would be my go-to shape but I want to learn more techniques on freehanded shapes. I like to put brass and copper adornments on my pipes with my machining background it helps. James: What is the craziest thing you’ve seen at this show? Garret: The first thing that comes to mind is the table over there with C-Pipes with the shapes and the size and petiteness and the intricate details they did. You can check out what Garret is working on by going to his Instagram. Stefan Cashwell James: how long have you been carving? Stefan: about 3 years. James: What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen at the show? Stefan: The Adam Davidson pipe with the clear shape and the bamboo—I don’t know if it’s 3D printed or what, but it’s amazing. James: What’s your favorite shape to do? Stefan: That’s a tough question. I think they’re all the same shape, but what’s fascinating is that Dublin, volcano, and blowfish are all the same depending on how you turn them. Playing with that, with all its variations, is a lot of fun. My favorite accent to use is also horn; it’s finicky, but it’s a great accent on pipes. You can check out Stefan’s work on his Instagram. Science: Meet Pipes I chatted with Chris from the San Diego Pipe Club; he started off doing stem replacements for estate pipes but also improved the airflow. James: How are you doing 3d printing? What is the thought process? Chris: It’s a 3D-printed pipe with a briar insert. The design is a calabash meets a Peterson system meets a metal Falcon/Kirsten radiator style. It is a bottom draft smoking bowl like a radiator like those metal pipes. The inside chamber is a calabash. The stummel and accent rings in the stems are all 3d printed. The insert is briar, olive wood, or I have the potential to use meerschaum as well. This idea came about through the San Diego Pipe Club, wanting to see if we could 3D print a pipe and being curious about the technology; I have a printer and design ability, so here we are. James: What’s the type of plastic you’re using? Chris: It’s all PLA plastic, a renewable potato starch plastic that is food-safe. The stummels are printed with a plastic that has wood in it 40% wood fiber, bamboo, rosewood, ebony, redwood, and walnut are the woods I’m printing. For the accent rings I just got a new material that I’m printing that has 40% copper, so its real metal that you can sand, and polish the same as wood filament. The stems are 3d printed as well. The concept is renewable and cheap from a production standpoint, with the ability to make a very high quality smoking pipe based on the experience. By combining the calabash system pipe and bottom draft hole and using 3d simulations to see airflow, I can see where I’m having eddies and ripples in my current, and see where my moisture and all the particles are dropping back out from a vapor to a liquid. Most people who have tried these say the stems are clean, and they don’t even have to run a pipe cleaner afterward because everything collects at the bottom. Chris has also been experimenting with color-changing plastics so you can see the hotspots. Chris said he was able to use this to slow down his cadence, which, of course, could mean you could get a slow-smoke training pipe to teach yourself to perform better. If you’re interested in learning more or want to check one out, you can contact him on Instagram: Copper Beard Pipe Works The Negative Space The show was buzzing about one specific pipe, which had everyone guessing how it was made. I chatted with Adam Davidson briefly about it. James: How did this idea come to fruition? Adam Davidson: Smokingpipes.com had an expo back in August open to all of the makers they carry. The theme was to make a pipe utilizing bamboo. Given that the last time we had the expo I made a smooth Almond with three bamboo shanks, […]
Welcome to The Pipes Magazine Radio Show Episode 631. Our featured interview on tonight’s show is with pipe maker Dan Keller from Good Made Better. Dan is from South Dakota. Growing up working in the family hardware store where he was always finding solutions to fixing things, he ended up always wanting to make things. He now makes elegant handmade pens, pen holders, portable desks, blotters, blotting paper, book carry cases, and of course artisan pipes. At the top of the show we are continuing the virtual tour of Brian’s pipes with his “f#@k you pipes”.
nice read
Why all good things are limited 🙂 Interesting article, thanks.
Like Kyle, after reading the description of this new blend, I purchased five tins. Unlike Kyle, I have shown patience. I was determined to wait a year before trying it. I’ve found that most of the HH series Mac Baren blends fare better once they’ve settled a bit with father time.
HOWEVER, after reading Kyle’s review I have decided that RIGHT NOW is a good time to pop a tin, let it sit for an hour, give it a whirl in my one speed food processor and then smoke a bowl – seated and with a seat belt on, of course.
How was it Steve?
Thanks, fellas.
HH blends never inspired patience with me—when I got in the saddle, bucking bronco and all, I just held on. It’s a fun ride. I can only imagine what a year or five might do to these flakes. I’ll have to ask my better half to hide a tin from me to forget about and find down the road. That’s always a fun re-discovery ?
Enjoy your smoke, gents ❤️
Wish I still smoked.
I found this to be good tobacco but a bear to get lit. Once it did get lit it smoked well. For my taste it was only a medium in strength, but your mileage may vary.
HH Rustica has become one of my favorite tobaccos. I enjoy it after a good breakfast with a nice dark iced coffee. I feel it every time I smoke it, and have to sit for a little while to let my head to regain its senses. All in all a pleasant way to start my day.