Amphora Full Aroma: an Aromatic Blend

[AKinser79]

And so I continue my Amphora series. Amphora Full Aroma is an aromatic blend produced by Mac Baren, and is obviously part of the Amphora family (See my reviews of the English, Burley and Virginia blends--and there are upcoming reviews for this family). Like the other Amphora blends (except the English) it is a ribbon cut that appears to have been pressed into a cake at some point. Pouch note strongly reminds me of dark fruit and perhaps chocolate--dollar store chocolate.

According to the packaging the following tobaccos are used: Burley, Dark Fired Kentucky, Virginia. The flavoring is supposedly fruit and chocolate.

First let me preface this by saying I don't usually smoke aromatics. I did smoke a lot of aromatics when I was a novice smoker but I never truly loved them and they have a tendency to cause tongue bite for me. So coming in I know I have bias against aros in general. I must say that I was somewhat pleasantly surprised by this blend. The room note is actually considered pleasant by others--I asked, I usually don't--however the first char and third of a bowl tastes bity and hot to me. I'm not a fan. However, delayed gratification is your friend here because if you burn off whatever nasty concoction Mac Baren is using to cover up the flavor of the otherwise quality Virginia, Dark Fired Kentucky and Burly gets burned off it is slightly sweet tasting, and rather pleasant in a middle of the road sort of way.

I rather wish that this blend didn't have the flavoring agents on it because the underlying tobacco is quality leaf and for me the chocolate/fruit flavor covers that quality up--not to mention tastes like burning garbage. Those that like the chemical taste that most aros have might like it, I don't. As such to truly enjoy this blend I find giving the tobacco an initial char and light smoke necessary and then I have to let the pipe go out and rest for an hour--longer is better--and upon relight the tobacco is substantially improved by the dissipation of the unnecessary added flavorings.

I did try drying this also, but without charring first, and the smoke was still bitey and hot tasting the first third of the bowl. I don't recommend that as a technique to dissipate the flavorings. If anything drying made it worse.

If one likes aromatics give it a shot. For me it isn't something I'm going to be buying again. I'll probably smoke the pouch though...the room note is considered pleasant by others so my latakia hating aunt can get to smell this instead when I go over.

This is a solid 2 out of 5 for me.

 

[mso489]

I smoke aromatics, but they're not my main blends. When the flavoring upstages the tobacco, that's a blend I won't repeat.

 

[Merton]

I did not like it at first, but have really grown to love it. In the past year or so it has become one of my three regular blends along side Wessex Fragrant virginia and sutliff red virginia crumble cake. It is lightly sweet, does not bite and well made. Keep smoking it , it may well grow on you

 

[AKinser79]

I did not like it at first, but have really grown to love it. In the past year or so it has become one of my three regular blends along side Wessex Fragrant virginia and sutliff red virginia crumble cake. It is lightly sweet, does not bite and well made. Keep smoking it , it may well grow on you

Well I'll finish the pouch at any rate. I have enough left over to tinker with blending it with some non-aromatics to see if I can tone down the flavoring (as the underlaying tobacco is quality).

 

[PaulTheScandinavian]

along with Amphora Brown original and Burley I'm having this Amphora Red quite on a regular basis, in order to avoid bite,I prefer letting em dry some 15-20min prior to smoking yet I'm packing them loose, nontheless I must admit this Full red , same as with Erinmore tend to lose flavor if dried too much,I still have to dry this delayed gratification technique,this is typical Dutch type of tobacco same as other Burley forward Amphora blends,which as such, i don't consider being aromatics in proper sense of word,same as with Erinmore and Mc Barens Scottish Mixture, I'd rather call these as semi-aromatics(not to be confused with semi-automatics)

 

[workman]

I didn't care much for it when I first tried it, but it has grown on me. I treat it like I treat all my blends: dry it out thoroughly and pack it loose. This will bring out the sweeter nuances of the tobaccos and tone down the toppings a little.

 

[olkofri]

not to be confused with semi-automatics

Are those the blends that almost smoke themselves? ?

 

[PaulTheScandinavian]

I didn't care much for it when I first tried it, but it has grown on me. I treat it like I treat all my blends: dry it out thoroughly and pack it loose. This will bring out the sweeter nuances of the tobaccos and tone down the toppings a little.

< ^* This

 

[markus]

I smoke the Amphora brown (regular) quite a bit, I usually leave the pouch open to dry it sufficiently and let some of the toppings dissipate.
It seems to be made with quality leaf and those around me seem to appreciate the room note.
Amphora Full is a little too aromatic for my tastes.

 

[F4RM3R]

I thought it had some orientals in it? Anyway was a nice all day type of smoke and tobacco forward aromatic. The light touch with the topping is nice and doesn’t diminish the quality and blend of tobaccos.

 

[AKinser79]

along with Amphora Brown original and Burley I'm having this Amphora Red quite on a regular basis, in order to avoid bite,I prefer letting em dry some 15-20min prior to smoking yet I'm packing them loose, nontheless I must admit this Full red , same as with Erinmore tend to lose flavor if dried too much,I still have to dry this delayed gratification technique,this is typical Dutch type of tobacco same as other Burley forward Amphora blends,which as such, i don't consider being aromatics in proper sense of word,same as with Erinmore and Mc Barens Scottish Mixture, I'd rather call these as semi-aromatics(not to be confused with semi-automatics)

I've yet to try the "brown" (AKA Original) for reviewing purposes. However, I would consider any tobacco that features an artificial flavoring prominent enough to be detected (almost all tobaccos are cased in some fashion as is the supposed word of G. L. Pease--and he should know) to be an aromatic.

In my, possibly uneducated, opinion if a blend is flavored by means other than curing or some other mechanical processing (steaming, pressing, etc, etc) the blend is an aromatic. Some class latakia as an aromatic but I disagree as it is flavored by curing it in smoke and by being a curing method rather than a chemical addition later it would not be an aromatic--burning tire/campfire room note not withstanding.

Interestingly enough I just opened the Special Reserve Cavendish and I'm actually liking it, and the flavoring is forward--but it is a spice/peach schnapps or apricot schnapps flavoring. I'm also really fond of Missouri Meerschaum's American Patriot which has both latakia and a detectable bourbon top note. MM calls American Patriot an "American English blend" but I'm not even sure what that really means.

I didn't care much for it when I first tried it, but it has grown on me. I treat it like I treat all my blends: dry it out thoroughly and pack it loose. This will bring out the sweeter nuances of the tobaccos and tone down the toppings a little.

I may have to try that. I did notice that it seemed more pleasant in larger bowls, but I may have to be more judicious with my drying, as the method I did with the Full Aroma is similar to how I dry the Burley Blend. I rubbed it out on a piece of copy paper and folded it up and set it on my desk for a morning smoke.

I really like doing this with the burley blend for my first smoke so I thought I'd try it--but it actually felt hotter and less enjoyable this way. Maybe it dried too much.... @PaulTheScandinavian posted he only dried it 15-20 minutes as opposed to several hours. I may have to try it that way.

I smoke the Amphora brown (regular) quite a bit, I usually leave the pouch open to dry it sufficiently and let some of the toppings dissipate.
It seems to be made with quality leaf and those around me seem to appreciate the room note.
Amphora Full is a little too aromatic for my tastes.

Out of seven blends in the family, I've tried four. So far each seems to be quality leaf. I love the English Blend (and smoke at least a bowl of it every day actually--sometimes more than that), I like the Burley quite a bit in the morning with coffee--it is no Carter Hall but it scratches the itch very nicely. Mind you I smoked CH and only CH for quite a few years. The Virginia was a bit one-dimensional for my tastes but I've found it is pretty good on hot sticky Florida Summer days as I've taken to smoking it during my 30 minute breaks, and I have to smoke outside due to state regulations.

I thought it had some orientals in it? Anyway was a nice all day type of smoke and tobacco forward aromatic. The light touch with the topping is nice and doesn’t diminish the quality and blend of tobaccos.

I checked the specs on several retailers. They claim Dark Fired KY, VA and Burley no mention of Orientals at all. I certainly didn't taste any.

I would also not consider the topping light in any degree. However, different people have different tastes and I don't usually smoke aromatics at all so I may have perceived them as being more prominent than others would. I also don't think I could smoke this all day either.

The Black Cavendish Special Reserve though does have Orientals listed in its specs (along with black cavendish, and Dark Fired KY) and even though I'm on my first bowl (and no where near close to reviewing it yet) I can taste them. They are complementing the spice notes very well, and the peach/apricot schnapps topping while prominent isn't to me offensive (which in and of itself is unusual).

I should have a review for Amphora Black Cavendish Special Reserve in a few days, maybe a week.

 

[anotherbob]

Are those the blends that almost smoke themselves? ?

they have a big clip and taste like gun powder. Also the second hand smoke can be instantly fatal if it bounces of a hard surface. Excuse me I am going to go smoke a pistol

 

[Briar Lee]

About fifty years ago my father died, and his Grade A milk barn became my smoking room, to find refuge from my mother who frowned on my tobacco addiction.

I was probably 14 years old, the first pouch of Amphora I bought for maybe fifty cents at Springfield (age was not a barrier to tobacco purchase then) instead of Sir Walter Raleigh, Carter Hall, Half and Half, Field and Stream, Prince Albert, and Velvet that all then cost a quarter at the local grocery store in Humansville.

I note that even today, Amphora costs about twice what drug store blends cost.

I keep some Amphora at the farm so I can smoke it in the milk barn. It’s still very different, much stronger, more delicious than drug store blends.

The full aroma version is the regular Amphora with more candy flavors in it, and it smells better when I leave the barn and come back.

God does not subtract the cost of good tobacco or fine pipes from our net worth.

If not spent on tobacco, we’d waste it on other things we could not have the pleasure of burning up.

 

[briarfriar]

I always thought of it as a Cavendish rather than an aromatic.