With one of my orders last month from a large tobacco mail-order, I got a small packet of Mac Baren Modern Virginia.
Having a somewhat solitary night of bumbling around doing all the odds 'n' ends jobs that crop up at the end of a weekend, I figured what the heck and loaded a bowl. The description said something about Virginia and a fruity topping. I should have known that I had opened the Book of the Dead.
Match hovering over the bowl, I inhaled gently and lowered the flame. This tobacco blend is drier than the average aromatic. It comes as an elegant mass of Virginia ribbon with darker bits here and there, but the top note gave little warning of the 400 ft tall pineapple that was now assaulting my palate and nostrils! And, as I stared into into the night, also assaulting the world around me. My ears stretched to catch the sound of rending metal and collapsing stone as the giant fruity golem smashed its way through humanity.
Nervously, I gave the pipe another gentle draw. A blast of slightly soapy pineapple flavor flared into my mouth. This emboldened the monster. I could see it now, towering over the trees, staggering toward me with the zombie-like walk of the maniacal and damned. Distant sirens and screams wafted in with the cool night air, and I knew it would not be long before the Army appeared to slay this hellion beast from regions beyond.
Pineapple-scented smoke -- potpourri for men, some say, but now a harbinger of Death -- floated around my head.
"I have made a grave mistake," I thought, but there was nothing left to do but try to burn out the beast. The second burst carried a fair amount of fruity doom, but the tobacco started peeking through. The threat lessened. The giant pineapple looming over civilization seemed to fade, like a ghost backing into a wall.
"That's low key for an aromatic," I muttered, and contemplated the pipe. The next puff rewarded with even more tobacco flavor as the pineapple retreated. People breathed easily again. The sounds of normal human activity resumed and the birds came out again. Doom was averted for yet another day.
Summary: this is a nice blend, quality tobacco that takes up most of the flavor, with an initial hit of pineapple topping that needs to be banished back to the abyss from which it originated. A few full puffs will do that, and while there is only as much nicotine in this blend as one can get from reading about a pipe being smoked in a magazine article, it provided a gentle way to finish a quiet Sunday night.
Having a somewhat solitary night of bumbling around doing all the odds 'n' ends jobs that crop up at the end of a weekend, I figured what the heck and loaded a bowl. The description said something about Virginia and a fruity topping. I should have known that I had opened the Book of the Dead.
Match hovering over the bowl, I inhaled gently and lowered the flame. This tobacco blend is drier than the average aromatic. It comes as an elegant mass of Virginia ribbon with darker bits here and there, but the top note gave little warning of the 400 ft tall pineapple that was now assaulting my palate and nostrils! And, as I stared into into the night, also assaulting the world around me. My ears stretched to catch the sound of rending metal and collapsing stone as the giant fruity golem smashed its way through humanity.
Nervously, I gave the pipe another gentle draw. A blast of slightly soapy pineapple flavor flared into my mouth. This emboldened the monster. I could see it now, towering over the trees, staggering toward me with the zombie-like walk of the maniacal and damned. Distant sirens and screams wafted in with the cool night air, and I knew it would not be long before the Army appeared to slay this hellion beast from regions beyond.
Pineapple-scented smoke -- potpourri for men, some say, but now a harbinger of Death -- floated around my head.
"I have made a grave mistake," I thought, but there was nothing left to do but try to burn out the beast. The second burst carried a fair amount of fruity doom, but the tobacco started peeking through. The threat lessened. The giant pineapple looming over civilization seemed to fade, like a ghost backing into a wall.
"That's low key for an aromatic," I muttered, and contemplated the pipe. The next puff rewarded with even more tobacco flavor as the pineapple retreated. People breathed easily again. The sounds of normal human activity resumed and the birds came out again. Doom was averted for yet another day.
Summary: this is a nice blend, quality tobacco that takes up most of the flavor, with an initial hit of pineapple topping that needs to be banished back to the abyss from which it originated. A few full puffs will do that, and while there is only as much nicotine in this blend as one can get from reading about a pipe being smoked in a magazine article, it provided a gentle way to finish a quiet Sunday night.
