Mac Baren Symphony

[fnord]

This isn't a pipe tobacco review for a couple of reasons. Even though I've been smoking a pipe on and off for almost 40 years I don't feel comfortable with the terminology more learned types use. I can talk wine and I can talk bourbon but pipe tobacco still eludes me. I'm a fast puffer and am always happiest surrounded by billowing clouds of smoke. Some days I do better than others cooling my jets but I really should just throw in the towel and give up on trying to become a sipper.
So, this is really more of a tobacco reaction. I picked up some tobacco recently from Hiplainsdrifter and he chucked in an oz. of Mac Baren Symphony. (The only thing I know about that manufacturer is that everybody here bitches about tongue bite.) The cut is very rough and maybe I should've prepared it with a little rubbing. It felt dry so I loose packed a thick walled Charatan second and gave it a charring light.
Judas Priest! That stuff tastes like hell on toast. It was a combination of nasty-assed medicine and scorched pizza with a metallic coating on my tongue and a weird tingling in the roof of my mouth-bone. One of my kids walked into the living room and said, "Did you burn a Pop-Tart, Dad?"
Twenty minutes later I fired up the pipe again and it still tasted like shit so I set it aside while we watched the last 30 minutes of a Season Three "Deadwood" episode. My other kiddo walked into the room, took a whiff and remarked, "That's nasty." (My twins are 19 and both love cigars. They've never once bitched about my pipe tobacco until tonight.)
Finally, on the third light I started smoking this really wonderful tobacco. It didn't taste like hell. It didn't taste like shit. It tasted like... Prince Albert. Excuse me, and I'll be go to hell, I like Prince Albert.
I don't ever want to be disrespectful to tobacco blenders. Or winemakers. Or bourbon makers. You people walk on water as far as I'm concerned. But when it comes to Mac Baren Symphony I'm thinking I better set the entire mess on fire for 45 minutes or so before I put it inside of one of my burners.

 

[puffy]

I tried this blend.I just didn't like the taste or the way it smoked.

 

[rcstan]

That's weird. To me, Symphony is one of the tamest McBarens. The loose packing probably had something to do with it I think, and it is very bowl sensitive. As with McBaren VA #1 I have gotten the best results from a narrow-bowled thick-walled Pete with a P-lip and sipping the smoke.
I found Symphony very mild and if nursed properly quite citrusy sweet, that is, if it doesn't bite ya.

 

[zanthal]

"Did you burn a pop tart, Dad?" :lol:
I guess that one fails the room note test.

 

[foggymountain]

It is not my favorite, but I like it well enough to have put away two pounds. I smoked it for years layered with their Virginia #1, out of laziness, because it was easy to buy in the neighborhood.

 

[stumpy]

Hi. I tried to smoke Symphony over 20 years ago, ultimately failing, but have recently figured out how to do it.
First, do not pack the pipe using the 3 step method. Using your judgment based on the bowl size, grab a plug of Symphony, unrubbed out and squeeze it, then simply put the pre-compressed plug in your pipe without compressing it vertically (tamping), thereby leaving a little room at the bottom of the pipe. The plug will expand slightly horizontally holding it in place. In other words you compress the tobacco from the sides and insert it in the bowl. It's easier to do than to describe !
Light the pipe carefully and tamp with the lightest touch. Smoke it slowly, as soon as the pipe gets a tad more than warm, stop smoking for a few minutes and let it cool.
You should be able to enjoy this very subtle burley based blend using this method and slow smoking. Most of the classic Mac Barens need to be enjoyed in a similar way.
Symphony is really a wonderful tobacco, and has a lot more to offer than PA, but its different in that the flavors and aromas are extremely subtle and only come out with slow smoking (gentle smoldering).
Hope this helps. You do have to like burley to enjoy Symphony !
-dave

 

[swampmouth]

I always liked it. According to something I read recently, 90% of you allegedly smoke something I consider horse manure. To each their own. I have moved on to better stuff than Symphony.

 

[elpfeife]

I have only smoked one tin of it several months ago and didn't much care for it. I may well give it another try someday - far in the future - but there are other offerings more to my liking to bother with it now.