Mac Baren Virginia No. 1

[RJpuffs]

This is the best straight VA I have ever had - it is also the only straight VA I have ever had, so there.

After diddling with aromatics and turning my entire warcquone into a vanilla smelling mess - I picked up a tin of Mac B Virginia No. 1. Aptly named, this contains some very nice Virginia leaf!

The tin said "ready rubbed" but I wasn't quite prepared for what I found. It looked like X-Men's Wolverine had slashed at the bark of a tree. Light, golden shreds packed into the round tin-cake with typical Mac Baren thoroughness. Tried to rub then down further but these are long shreds, some almost an inch long.

Lightbulb lights up. Collected a bunch of slivers in the palm of my hand, lined them up, pinched them together - just a little thinner than the diameter of the bowl - and dropped the "tube" right in. Remembered that tobacco expands when it burns, clever me. Drizzled bits and dust on top - and lit up like a champ.

A delightful and naturally sweet VA smoke. The sweetness is not overwhelming, but complements the taste of the VA very well. A refreshing change on my palate from the heavily cased aromatics I had been toying with thus far. The eccentric packing method required a few relights until the top layer was ashed over evenly, after that it burned through like a locomotive - but stayed cool throughout. The taste escalates when you let the pipe sit for a while and almost extinguish - it goes from mellow to sweet to clean woody VA as it heats back up. It does end up with a dark gray, almost black, ash which is odd looking and difficult to know when you hit the bottom of the bowl.

I seem to smoke at least one (or part) bowl of VA No.1 every day now, alternating with the other tins I'm popping open and trying out. I guess thats what you call a "go to" smoke? Really good stuff, would recommend it happily!




RJ

[monsoon]

Nice review .. I like VA#1 ... allways reminds me of fresh baked home-made bread when I smoke it.

[wharfrathoss]

it's one of my favorite VA's so far-i keep hearing talk about how it bites people, but haven't had that problem myself-i usually rub it out a little b4 smoking

[RJpuffs]

Originally Posted by wharfrathoss

it's one of my favorite VA's so far-i keep hearing talk about how it bites people, but haven't had that problem myself-i usually rub it out a little b4 smoking

This is the first Mac B I've tried that hasn't tried to take my tongue off. Usually their stuff is like pirhana-in-a-can.

I noticed (in the few months that I've been doing this) that lumpy tobacco tend to give me the bites. Blends with lumps or sticks in it almost always give me grief. I did do forensics on biting bowlfuls by extracting the still burning contents to examine them. The lumps seem to burn hotter and smoulder longer, which usually gives uneven burn and requires more draw, which probably takes the temperature into the danger zone. Flattening out or smashing down lumps does reduce if not eliminate tongue problems.

For VA No.1 I always pack it vertically oriented, so the sticks don't get a chance to burn all at once. Harder to light, but works for me


RJ