Mac Baren Stockton Spun Cut Tobacco Review
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Kyle Weiss - Oct 14, 2020
- 6 min read
Ramen is a bowl of happiness for me, perhaps just as much as a bowl of tobacco. This Japanese comfort soup becomes more and more popular in the United States, but it can be hard to find in remote places like my state of Northern Nevada. We are lucky enough to have one place I enjoy, and it’s the real deal. Great noodles, delicate dashi, and a host of other great ingredients like pork cashu and soft-centered eggs. With plenty of sansho for me please: the Japanese peppercorn.
No, you haven’t stumbled across a foodie review in error. This love for ramen starts to stir about the time the days get shorter and the air much cooler, and this coincides with what I reach for in tobacco. I’m a seasonal tobacco guy, and richer, spicier flavors are what I tend to grab. I’m more into October for fire pits, horror movies and skeletons than those pumpkin spice things, anyway. When I first heard about Mac Baren’s Stockton Spun Cut, I put the idea on the back burner because at the time, I had so many Kentucky dark-fired tobaccos to get to know. It took a handful of years, but my first dive into Stockton Spun Cut was apparently a matter of timing. It’s autumn, and it’s my favorite time of year—and the only ghosts I don’t like are in my briars.
The tin of Stockton Spun Cut is a vibrant green with block lettering, in Mac Baren’s signature round tin—and a large one at that. On the reverse label, the introduction is basic but with a little history, mentioning it’s one of the oldest in the Mac Baren line as well as crafted in a more than 400-year-old tradition. Whole leaf Virginia and Kentucky dark-fired comprise the contents. When the tin is opened, there is an unmistakable smell of the dark-fired leaf, which has an almost spiced plum quality to it. Underneath the Elizabethan-pleated collar of paper are charming little coins of the product, some of which are brown Kentucky eyes surrounded by Virginia staring back; others are delicate, contrasting spirals. This is where the ramen connection comes in: kamaboko are cakes or loaves of delicate fish cake made in Japan, often sliced into small coins with a pink or orange spiral in the center. I’m clearly a sucker for crafted, beautiful little presentations such as this.
Each coin of Stockton Spun Cut is easily rubbed into just the right ribbon for packing a bowl to smoke and the moisture content is just right for my tastes (which tend to be like my humor—a tad dry). Lighting is fairly easy, but the tobacco has the tendency to want to jump out of the bowl, so keep a tamper handy. The first puffs explode with the Kentucky dark-fired flavor, however the richness of the smoke suggests the rolling and pressing, even some steaming, has mellowed out the normally spicy and sticky tobacco. Fret not, dear reader, this tobacco still has quite a bit of backbone. The Virginia adds a stiff dryness and a pleasantly fresh-cut alfalfa sweetness. The plum scent when the tin is opened doesn’t transfer much if at all to the first puffs—if this smells too sweet to your nose, not to worry. This isn’t an aromatic.
By the time the midway point of the bowl is reached, Stockton’s dark-fried really takes over the more subtle flavors. It’s more of a pine wood flavor, but it’s backed up with a distinct buttery richness that even leans nutty in some aspects. If I might go back to the ramen comparisons, the pork that is included in the soup is usually quite fatty. In many cases, a gently seared and/or braised pork belly is used, and the fat globules float around in small, round pools. This is where the Japanese peppercorns come in, which have a distinct, direct spice and a wood-like quality. This is the same pleasing quality of Stockton: richness is enhanced by spice, not by thinning it out. It frames the flavor in a way without being apologetic for the bulk it carries on top. As with each spoonful of ramen, each puff of Stockton is both rich yet balanced in spice, and this isn’t an easy thing to do properly in cooking or in tobacco production.
About three-quarters through a bowl of Stockton, I found a little of a problem some people have with Mac Baren: it threatens to be rough on the tongue. I’m a slow smoker, methodical by some standards, and this has been one of the key elements of tobacco that has a bad rap for being a bit of a bully to the taste buds. I usually attribute this to body (and by that, mouth) chemistry, because our bodies are as much chemistry as tobacco is. Bad reactions happen, and yet there are so many variables, often we blame the tobacco and not so much ourselves. Genetics, what we ate for dinner, the beverage we chose to pair with our smoke: there’s a lot going on even if we’re in blissful clouds of blue relaxation. The flavor of this tobacco I adore, but I had to pay attention to how I approached it. I’m of Slavic (Ukrainian) descent, and I prefer a clean rye vodka from the motherland, and this went quite well with Stockton. Rye whiskey after a bunch of shell pasta and tomato sauce? My mouth was not very happy. When all things are balanced with Stockton, the flavors continue to be meaty, somewhat smokey, almost fatty and lively on the tongue. This tobacco has an added bonus of being favorable to the “delayed gratification technique,” because the flavors after letting the pipe sit and relighting are fantastic—there’s even a hint of lemony citrus that floats along courtesy the Virginia.
By the end of the bowl, and mostly through the tin, any minor disagreements Stockton and I might have had were worked out. Another factor is the lower in the bowl the tobacco smolders, the less it likes to keep lit. Which is great, because each light and tamp revives the flavors of the smoke beautifully. Like many good relationships, it’s about being understanding and to a greater or lesser degree, compromise. The point is to bring out the good stuff, not the imperfections. Stockton finishes consistently gentle by the time the bowl is dwindling to its last gifts, and the concentration of tars, flavors of allspice, and that wonderful nuttiness all come together in a well-rounded finale of smoke. In addition, tobacco gets naturally sweeter and punchy as the flavors concentrate in the heel, and this is something I look forward to.
I think I’d happily add Stockton Spun Cut to my cellar. There’s many tobaccos I enjoy, but perhaps that are so niche for my personal tastes that I don’t want to have a dozen tins on hand. Stockton, on the other hand, would be great aged a decade or more. The charming coins that are so easy to work with are a charming plus. Nicotine is fairly solid in small amounts, and it would be advisable to pair beverages with an open mind until you find the right combination. The downside I think it’s fair to mention at this point is newer smokers may get a bit of a road block with the tobacco’s need for such mindful puffing, and veteran smokers may either judge it too quickly because it might not be the first choice for an “all-day raking-the-leaves smoke.” With that in mind, the wild, hearty and rich flavors available in Stockton are well worth the effort.
Happy Halloween; spook what you like and like what you spook.
- Editor Rating
- Rated 5 stars
- Spectacular
- Mac Baren Stockton Spun Cut
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Pipe tobacco tasting is quite similar to food tasting as this review aptly demonstrates.
Written by Kyle Weiss
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Before we begin, I should tell you: this tobacco review is being written by an A.I. Not the fancy new GPTs or their ilk; no, this is last century’s meat-and-bone, all-organic model. To be fair, a large part of what we call knowledge is merely the accumulated perceptions and impressions gathered from a life wandered through, synthesized into a spongy mass of what-it-is-that-we-think-that-we-know. The algorithm for this prompt is simple enough: pump thousands of bowls of smoldering plant matter into a gaping maw, cross-reference the chemical sensations with all other matter previously ingested or inhaled, sieve it all through the diffuse and fractal twin lens of memory and emotion, and churn out a panoply of adjectives that attempts to convey the sensations to someone who hasn’t experienced it yet. Odds are that a diligently trained monkey could succeed half the time; if this reviewer nears fifty-one percent then that would qualify as an unrivaled success. There must have been some similar musings perambulating through the mind of Per Jensen when he began his mad scientist routine at Sutliff with the Pipe Force project, which brings us to the current mixture under the microscope—Sutliff’s Pipe Force: Episode I. Here again are the unusual ingredients that engendered the series, with the stoved Rustica being the defining voice in this composition. From the tin: The Latakia-forward English mixture offers plenty of smoky flavor from the fire-cured leaf, which is artfully harmonized with floral, earthy Stoved Rustica. A mixture of high-grade Virginias imparts a natural sweetness. Katerini, the sole Oriental component, offers herb and spice notes bringing complexity and nuance to the flavor profile. It’s certainly Latakia-forward, with the stoved Rustica doubling up on the rhythm section like a second bassist. A first whiff from the tin releases the aromas of shoe leather and hide glue in a base of clay soil with a campfire wafted over it like last night’s beach party. Once it’s been accustomed to oxygen again, subtle hints of sweetness poke through from the Virginias: lemon rind, light milk chocolate, the dregs of a peaty Scotch, and muddled cherry. Old regulars like fresh-sawn oak and tilled earth are there, of course, with distinct notes of truffle, creosote, damp peat, and pine bark mulch. As an aside, I’ve been re-potting my camellias and the similarity of aroma to the ericaceous soil mix is notable; the Katerini really brings the unique depth of its vegetal complexion when supported by the Rustica and afforded more voice in the mix. The smoky Cyprian Latakia, in turn, is backed by equal earthiness from the Rustica, which overall exhibits a profile similar to dark-fired Kentucky; it leans more toward the woody and vegetal end of that spectrum, echoing and amplifying those traits of the other constituents. The tobacco is presented pressed and cut into a couple of thick, hearty flakes in the tin, lightly moist and easily crumbled to prepare—I prefer mine with a bit of drying time. The out-of-this-world tin art for this episode in the series is Major O’Meara smoking a cavalier. In the absence of confirmation, I’m going to hazard a guess he’s of the Ithklur species. The first taste from the light is sweet, with hints of that milk chocolate dancing around the edges. The Virginia leads the smoke through the top of the bowl, and orchestrates it well. Thoroughly smoky with lemony, grassy highlights from the Virginia spectrum, it soon segues into the mid-bowl profile: heartier, smokier, with the flavor leaning to the mildly acrid and tangy tinge that is the campfire-esque signature of English blends. Caution advised, it can turn overly bitter if pushed—this is where one’s sipping technique is required to maintain the fullness of flavor through to the heel. I did tend toward a lot of relights, though it may have as much to do with technique as with the blend. Pacing is also important as the nicotine starts to manifest; though the Rustica’s contribution has been tempered well by the stoving, it can certainly upend an empty stomach. At the end of every bowl, the mouthfeel somehow gets better. The balance of sugars in the tobaccos would seem to be spot-on in this regard. I started out my tasting in cobs, then cut short an unpleasant bowl in a meer, and finally landed on my best instrument with the lovely Dunhill 4427 pictured, a quaint group 4 shell briar with a gentle curve and Cumberland stem supporting a perfectly executed acorn bowl. It surprised me here, as I’ve learned through the years that I generally have the best experience with English blends in large, wide bowls. With this blend it seems that to get the best out of the Katerini’s somewhat diaphanous influence the smaller bowl fared much better. Room note is very English, so the company you keep will either love it or hate it, and it doesn’t linger too much. I find it paired best with a strong coffee; Sumatran beans complement the flavors well, as do Ethiopian if a lighter brew is preferred. Overall impressions of the blend are that it’s a curiously interesting take on the English genre, almost a reductive reconstruction of the theme using the unique components. This blend, if nothing else, expanded my vocabulary of sense perceptions with the uniquely treated leaf. While the average human can distinguish approximately one trillion (1,000,000,000,000!) different aromas, multiplied by seven basic tastes, and wholly dependent on variables from body chemistry to atmospheric conditions, our overworked and underpaid simian brains can’t effectively catalog them all. Our pet adding machines are exceedingly good at this, however, and someday soon they’ll be the ultimate and unequivocal authority on what something tastes, smells, looks, or even feels like. Until that time, friends, revel in the moments that can be stolen to savor over a bowl of Pipe Force: Episode I.
