Tobacco Review: Mac Baren Mixture Modern

History

The Mac Baren Tobacco Company is a Danish manufacturer of tobacco products. The company manufactures a range of pipe tobaccos, rolling tobaccos and smokeless tobaccos in their factory in Svendborg.

The company was established in 1887, when founder Harald Halberg purchased Svend Bønnelycke’s tobacco spinning mill and continued as a modern tobacco factory under the name Harald Halberg Tobaks og Cigarfabrik (Harald Halberg Tobacco and Cigar factories). The company was renamed the Mac Baren Tobacco Company in 1995, as the company had become synonymous with its successful Mac Baren line of pipe tobaccos.

The company remains family-owned, and Henrik Halberg is both the firm’s owner, and chief blender. The company employs 140 people, and exports tobacco products to 70 countries.

The company’s most popular line of tobaccos is currently its Mixture line of pipe tobaccos, introduced in 1958. Mac Baren’s Choice series is a line of mild aromatic pipe and flavoured hand-rolling tobaccos aimed at a younger audience. In 2010, Mac Baren introduced 7 Seas, a line of American-style aromatic pipe tobaccos broadly similar to, and intended to compete with, Scandinavian Tobacco Group’s Captain Black.

In 2013, Mac Baren agreed to purchase Sutliff Tobacco, the Pipe Tobacco Division of Altadis USA, immediately renaming the company back to its original name of Sutliff Tobacco Company. Sutliff was thereafter appointed distributor of all Mac Baren products sold in the United States.

(Adapted from WikiPedia.)

Mac Baren started producing Mixture — a secret blend of 35 tobaccos — in 1958 and it soon became a classic. You can still get it today, renamed as Mixture: Scottish Blend, in bulk, a 3.5oz tin, and a 16oz bag.

But this review is about a different version of Mixture — Mixture Modern: Danish Blend. The idea behind Mixture Modern was to give people a milder version of Mixture, blended with current trends in mind but connects back to over six decades of history.

Packaging

Mixture Modern comes in a 50 grams pouch and 100 grams (3.5oz) tin, though you can’t find the pouches in the US. The 100 grams tin is a “standard” tobacco tin — flat, goldish in color, and vacuum sealed. I’ve always been a fan of Mac Baren’s tin art; it’s quite simple and very appealing. On the front of the tin is the Mac Baren logo consisting of the family crest against a pale yellow background. The Mac Baren crest also forms a sort of off-set watermark. It has “Danish Blend” in script.

On the back of tin, Mac Baren has the following description:

Mixture Modern is made of loose cut Virginia tobaccos, the Mac Baren Modern Cavendish, and just a little Ready Rubbed Burley. No tongue bite is to be found due to the composition of the tobaccos. If you are looking for a gentle smoking experience, we highly recommend Mixture Modern.

I would give it a higher pipe rating for the packaging except there’s a large, black warning label making up and about almost half of the tin art.

Rating: 

Contents

As the tin description states, Mac Baren’s Mixture Modern consists of Virginia, Black Cavendish, and Burley. I’m not sure of the topping (I detect molasses or plums). Tobacco Reviews states it’s topped with “Other / Misc, Sweet / Sugar,” while SmokingPipes.com says it consists of “a hint of vanilla and fruit.” So your guess is as good as mine. 

The cut is a mixture of ribbon, some almost chopped, course cut, and ready rubbed black, brown, copper, and a few gold strands of tobacco. The moisture content out of the tin is just about perfect; no drying time nor hydration needed.

Rating: 

Tin Note

As I mentioned above, I get some molasses and plum scents. It’s not overly sweet but sweet nonetheless. I also detect some deep, earthy fragrance and a slight citrus scent. All in all, I think it’s a lovely scent.

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Smoking

Since there’s little to no moisture in the tin, you can open it and smoke Mixture Modern right away. While packing the pipe was very easy, it takes a little extra care because of the inconsistent cut. That means you might get some ribbon cut but there will be a larger, flat, course cut, too. Again, not difficult to pack but just something of which to be aware.

Mixture Modern takes to flame very easily, too. The tobaccos play well off each other really well. The original version of Mixture contains 35 different tobaccos but I’m not sure that’s the case here. While there is a very robust flavor that’s quite comparable to the original Mixture, I don’t think Modern contains 35 different tobaccos. While it doesn’t have the depth of, say, Sutliff 504c, Mixture Modern is very smooth, mild, and creamy with very little nicotine. Easily, an all day smoke with a pleasant room note and shouldn’t offend others around you.

Rating: 

Overall rating

(3.5)

Mac Baren’s Mixture Mild: Danish Mixture comes in a 3.5oz tin and, as of this review, can be purchased from SmokingPipes for $12.79, Cup O’ Joes for $12.78 (although it’s currently out of stock), and Pipes and Cigars for $12.79.