Mac Baren Classics Plumcake

Great mix, my favorite so far.

Just started this one I like it so far

...but somehow, love this blend. After years of avoiding Latakia, I somehow found one of my favorite blends of all time. Plumcake has just the right blend of sweet, smokey, and 'pure tobacco' ...if you like Mac Baren blends, don't sleep on this one. Cheers!

I like what I like.....Enough said

A very nice room note . I like this blend as the plum casing is much stronger than the beloved plum pudding

Such a complex aroma out of the tin. Smokes beautifully, and is surprisingly on the stronger side.

This is one of the best tasting tobaccos in the world. I've smoked it for a long time and it has to be smoked on the verge of going out. You never want to get this hot. If you can lightly smoke this tobacco it's one of the world's best in my humble opinion. The flavors from start to finish are never ending. I say again, if you smoke slow and sip.

Excellent all around flavor for Aromatics and English lovers.

Plumcake is a crossover blend. If you are looking for a tobacco that smells good in the tin, that tastes smooth and satisfying, and yet has a room note people will complement, your choices are very few. Plumcake is on that short list. That and the generous tins are the reason it is my desert island smoke.

Excellent!

Tasty

Tasty, Tasty, Tasty Merry Christmas Pipe and Cigars, Thank you for great service

This is a delightful blend. My first taste of it was in the mid-1970s when it was given to me by a friend from Germany. It has been a favorite ever since.

Awesome, smooth tobacco. Keep moist.

The smoke is very enjoyable

Mild, excellent flavor, long burner.

My go-to evening pipe mixture.

About once a year I try an aromatic that reviews suggest may be appealing to a non-aromatic smoker in hope of adding diversity to my usual fare of neutral Virginias and light Latakia blends. This tobacco has a lovely tin and, according to my wife, room aroma, burns nicely after a bit of air drying, and does not bite if you take it easy. But, like all aromatics, it tastes trashy in the mouth. The people around you may enjoy your smoke if that's your goal and perhaps aromatic smokers would like it. Not for me.

One of those "try before you die" blends. First bowl right out of the tin was like hot air and I overdid the puffing, leading to some wonderful tongue bite. Did a little research, listened to my betters, and left the tin open on a shelf for about two hours, then packed my pipe, leaving to sit another hour that way (life got in the way). Slowing cadence and I've found a new top 5 blend for me. After drying a bit, I got the flavors of fruit and a little hint of rum. Haven't caught latakia yet but I'm still looking for it. Not an overly sweet blend but it's just sweet enough. Just go ahead and order some. Good stuff.

Good smoke

Splendid blend with a pleasing room note.

great smoke

This seems to do best aging in a jar for a couple of weeks. Smoke it slow and you will be rewarded. There is no reason to get tongue bite with this if you watch your cadence.

Very good tobacco with a bold taste.

I'm going to echo Roy O's review below. It took me a while to realize that (for me anyway), the Mac Baren blends bite harder than most – until you learn how to smoke them. I really disliked Plumcake the first 2 times I tried it, but that's because I took it too fast. But when you slow it down, WOW. One of the most complex, varied, rich, enjoyable blends I've tasted in 25 years. It is almost impossible to sip this too slowly. The easier you take it, the more you will be rewarded. There's a reason that Mac Baren has been around for 200 years, and is the favorite of a lot of serious folks. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to unlock why. (It's worth it.)

very good blend smooth but full of flavor after taste

The Plumcake is a delight, a very balanced blend with good flavor. The rum is a very nice topping, subtle but present. Easily an all day smoke. Requires some drying time, mine was a bit moist out of the tin. Will definitely re-order.

Heavenly, complex tin note. Very pleasant, slightly fruity, mild navy blend. Good, but not a knock out. Easily worth the scratch. Very nice aroma in the den.

Good leather boot smoke. roomnote reminds me of what my father smokes

I have been wanting to try this for awhile. This tac packs well, stays lit and delivers a great smoke.

I will always have a special place in my heart for this wonderful concoction. I’m a newer pipe smoker and not much of a tobacco snob. I saw this locally (and overpaid notably over the price here) But I remembered ready several descriptions of Mac Barren products I’d wanted to try...this being one of them. You have to spend some time with this one...the tin note alone sold me. If you oversmoke/push this one too hot you’ll loose most of what it has to offer...and it can get hot as well. I also (being a noob) picked out several big chukier pieces that didn’t seem to be stems but I didn’t know what to do with them so they went to the side. I later realized they were kind of like shards of flake or pressed tobacco that just needed a little rubbing out. After doing so and working the tobacco a bit remixing it and leaving it in the tray for 20-30 minutes...I loaded. Don’t overload or over pack it...but once you get it to a spongey (but not packed) bowl be careful during initial light and relight (s) But once you get it going and SLOW down...holy crap! I feel like this is the tobacco that taught me how to sip. I moved from needing any temperature feedback to letting the smoke/flavor profile instruct me. It was very nearly a metaphysical expirience. This is a proverbial 12 year old sipping whisky of tobaccos. The reward for listening and finding the perfect sipping cadence is a long flavorful experience that not only made my evening...but taught me something along the way. Try it...but don’t judge it right away. Also just as people handle flake differently I’m sure with the right loading technique additional rubbing out or breaking up of the larger pieces may not be warranted...but to a novice it helped me get results. I’ll expirament with this one much more in the future. I’m not snobbish...I actually like carter hall ect at times. But when you compare this to the many Lane price range aromatics...it’s just a different animal and jungle completely.

While it’s not the original, it’s still great. But it’s kind of a chameleon. It’s got so many kinds of tobacco in it that it changes depending on what’s in that particular pinch. But it’s never bad.

One of my favorites.

Really like the flavor.

Its ok

It smells like rum in the tin/jar, but that barely comes through in the flavor for me. It’s a very smooth smoke with a very subtle hint of sweetness. I could probably smoke it every day! (Also, it comes in a much larger tin for the price than many other tobaccos. Gotta love that!)

This has been my favorite smoke for years but I have been unable to get it until I found you. Great prices and service

I found Plumcake to be a mildly sweet and fruity aromatic, thoroughly enjoyable and light. Will bite, if provoked. I've had my best smokes with a balsa filter on this one.

A good pipe tobacco.

Great blend. Many people claim that MacB products will bite your tongue, but this is not true. You just need to know the MacB "Secret Handshake": pack it bit looser than other blends, light slowly, and sip away. DO NOT puff away like a freight train. This is as true of Plumcake as it is any other MacB blend. Plumcake is a true classic. It's been around for a hair over 60 years, so it's got some legs to it. The Syrian Latakia and rum add just enough spice to make it interesting, and compliment the toast and honey-like quality of the basic MacB blend of Virginia, Burley, and Cavendish. The room note is fantastic, and it's as popular with my family as it was the sailors I served with back in 1990 when I first discovered it in a small pipe shop in Dubai. Not sure I'd call it an all day blend, cuz you need to have enough time to sip on it and lets its wonderful flavor find you. But when you have the time to fill a pipe with a medium to large bowl and slowly puff away in your special quiet place you'll be greatly rewarded. But even if I don't have that sort of time, I still find it enjoyable. And at about $12USD for a 3oz tin, it's quite reasonably priced.

From what I smoked so far it has been enjoyable. However, I have trouble keeping it lit when packed out of the tin. Aside from that it’s everything I hoped it would be. Thank you for asking. Regards, Art Mathis

Still my favorite tobacco,smoke it slow and be rewarded with one of the best tasting navy blends available.

I was a little scared of this blend do to all the talk of tongue bite. Man am I glad I tried it! I’m not a big aromatic guy, but this stuff is the perfect go between for me. Sweet, but not the typical artificial sweet that is in a lot of other aeros. I plan on ordering several more tins to put in my cellar. Don’t be afraid of the bite. If you know how to smoke a pipe then you will be fine. Get some.

I really enjoy the plumcake and I love the tins that the tobaccos' arrive in as well.The tobacco has a really nice mellow flavor,I will be ordering more flavors from you guys!

I personally didn't care for it, I thought it was kind of dull. I gave the whole can away. The Sutliff Black Cordial was really good and more to My taste.

I expected more, i.e., rum and plum. But otherwise a pleasant smoke.

A very nice English blend tobacco that requires you to smoke slow with good technique or you get a wicked tongue bite.

Too many novices out there who think they are experts. Take it out of the tin, and put it into a mason jar. Leave it in there for a couple of weeks. “Properly” pack your bowl with plumcake and take easy draws on the pipe. What a pleasant and flavorful smoke. Don’t listen to the reviewers who say this will give you tongue bite. Novices get tongue bite, pipe smokers enjoy a smoke.

This is the most outstanding pipe tobacco I ever bought. Supposedly, it contains latakia but I do not detect it. I wpuld classify this more as an aromatic. Normally, I detest aromatica because they are overcased and often have a chemical taste. This is different. Tastes of honey and fruit overwhelm the palette but the tobacco taste, mostly Virginias, come right through. Easily lit, few relights and very little dross left in the bowl. Smoke this baby slowly and you will be rewarded. I suggest using a 9 mm pipe with a charcoal filter. This is an all day smoke with a light nicotine hit.

I like it. The rum scent is nice and spicey.

As soon as I tried it, I creamed my fucking pants. There was jiz everywhere

Wonderful flavor from start to finish despite not personally being fond of Latakia in other blends, this is the exception. The Navy cut reminds me of how I rub out my favorite flakes and the Latakia doesn't overwhelm you. This is a new favorite of mine. A great smoke from start to finish. Try it!

You'll enjoy this during a quiet evening with a good book!

I bought this for my husband. He will be totally surprised be cause he loves the tobacco PlumCake. It's his Christmas Tobacco.

I just love the stuff.

This has been one of my favorite tobaccos for many years.

One of the all time great pipe tobaccos. Great flavor that last the entire smoke. No bite and never bitter. Try it. You'll like it.

Excellent ! smoking it every day since I got the tin.

Plumcake is one of my favorites for two reasons: we would pack tins of it in my uncle's care packages when he was serving with a US infantry division in Vietnam. And, it's one of the most consistently satisfying smokes out there. I've read comments about "not pushing it too much" because it will cause serious tongue bite, but I've not had that problem. It's loaded with taste and character and I've been told that the room smell is quite pleasant as well.

I like the flavor of this tobacco by Mac Baren's but it does smoke a bit hot so it bites about half way through a bowl. I like Mac Baren's Dark Twist better, I wish you could buy it in bulk.

with warmer weather coming I wanted a tobacco that was somewhat aromatic. MacBaren's Plumcake was just the thing. The burley gives it body, the Latakia a touch of smoke, the Virginia some sweetness and the light rum flavor, well what can I say. This is my go to smoke until the cooler weather arrives.

I smoke this when I want to re-set my flavor buds o the taste of PURE tobacco. I don’t seem to suffer from tongue bite with this as I have others mention, maybe its because I always some this in a deep billiard. The only problem I have is when I place an order and it meets the free shipping requirements, PC sends it by UPS SURE POST which is the worst possible deliver scenario for those of us living in the “BIG EASY”. Regards CW

Good smoke, nice touch of latakia, nice taste. Runs a little hot.

I'd call this "real" pipe tobacco. Strong like a Viking! It may have a bite to it, but has full flavor and fine aroma. This is the tobacco for the experienced smoker who can appreciate the art of tobacco blending. There's a reason Mac Baren's Plumcake has been around all these years: it is one of the best.

5 Stars

Romance !

Product is great . Shipping is terribly slow. provide faster shipping at a fair price.

I pretend it's not an aromatic, that makes me love it all the more. A great smoke bowl after bowl.

great tobacco and better service.thanks

First opened a tin of Plumcake in 1967 and, while my senses have dulled some since, it is still smooth, rich and flavorful. That pinch of Latakia makes for a nice experience. Nice to know that Mac has kept up quality over the years.

This is my all-time favorite tobacco. That said, I smoke about 2 pounds of Black Ambrosia to one of Plumcake. It's not a blend to just fill your pipe and puff on. As others have noted, it'll burn you if you aren't careful. Why put up with that? Because when you're ready to just sit and savor a nice long smoke, it really shines. The rum note is there. So is the Latakia. Neither overwhelms. It isn't as sweet as a lot of aromatics. Reminds me a little of my cat: rewards attention, will bite you if you take it for granted.

Started smoking Plumcake over 30 years ago. Recently started smoking pipe again and surprised Plumcake was still available. It still needs to be smoked slowly or it still bites my tongue. It continues to be a tobacco that I still return to. A full nice tasting and smelling smoke.

Very good tobacco. The tin when opened hits you with some Latakia and a sweet burley type smell. Not much to say about his if you enjoy Latakia. It's a dry smooth smoking blend similar to any Balkan blend with sweetness added. Roommate very pleasant as well

Time to eat some crow. I reviewed this a while back, and slammed Plumcake hard. In my defense, it did hurt me. Anyhow l didn't throw it out, I left it to rest, and read a article on using a 9mm filters to smoke McBaren products. It works, it removes the bite, Im now in love with Plumcake. Its in my top 3 favorites. But its a little hard to smoke with my foot in my mouth!