Mac Baren

Best-Selling Burley Tobaccos

November 21, 2025 by Kayla Ivan

35 Comments

Burley tobacco has been a widely popular leaf varietal since it was first cultivated in 1864 and has been used in pipe, cigarette, and chewing-tobacco blends. When included in pipe blends, the air-cured leaf creates rich, earthy flavors that pair well with virtually any combination of other components. Today, we're going over our top-10 best-selling ... Read More

2024 In Review

December 31, 2024 by Sykes Wilford

25 Comments

The year 2024 has been the single most tumultuous period for the pipe-tobacco industry since the beginning of my career in the late 1990s, even more so than in 2016 when the publication of FDA's Deeming Regulations upended the regulatory environment for pipe tobacco in the U.S. ... Read More

The History of Mac Baren Tobacco

April 12, 2024 by Chuck Stanion

34 Comments

In Svendborg, Denmark, on the coast of the Baltic Sea, a very small tobacco factory with the name S. Bønnelyckes Tobaksfabrik opened in 1826 and did business primarily in snuff and chewing tobacco manufacturing. It continued for 50 years, never seeming to have attained much success, and in 1887 its owner lost it in a poker game. ... Read More

Top 10 Best-Selling Mac Baren Blends

March 6, 2024 by Kayla Ivan

7 Comments

Mac Baren began in 1826 as a small snuff and chewing-tobacco production facility in Svendborg, Denmark. Originally dubbed S. Bønnelyckes Tobaksfabrik, the factory continued for 60 years with little renown before its proprietor lost ownership in a poker game in 1887. The winner, then, traded it to Harald Halberg for a horse ... Read More

Top 10 Best-Selling Coin Tobaccos

June 23, 2023 by John McElheny

2 Comments

Like flake tobacco, spun-cut or coin-cut mixtures were originally developed to transport tobacco efficiently, and they're among the oldest styles of pipe tobacco, dating back over 400 years. Instead of pressing tobacco leaves into blocks — or plugs — coin-cut mixtures involve tightly spinning whole leaves into a rope, ... Read More

10 Pipe Tobaccos New Smokers Should Try

September 22, 2022 by Gabriel Bass

10 Comments

For new pipe smokers, the vast number of blends available from today's blenders can be intimidating. On the other hand, it can cause what some refer to as Tobacco Acquisition Disorder, when one buys all the tobacco they can fit in their house. I experienced both in my early days smoking a pipe, going through periods of smoking only ... Read More

Top 10 Best-Selling Pure Virginia Pipe Tobaccos

August 18, 2022 by Truett Smith

2 Comments

Virginia tobaccos are arguably the most ubiquitous of all pipe-tobacco components. Few blends would exist without Virginias — even Aromatics and Latakia-forward mixtures rely on Virginia leaf for balance and condimental complexity — and some blends, pure Virginias, entirely comprise the flue-cured leaf. ... Read More

Tasting Notes: Mac Baren HH Rustica

May 6, 2020 by Shane Ireland

4 Comments

Welcome back to another episode of Tasting Notes. Today, I'll be reviewing the latest entry into Mac Baren's celebrated HH series, HH Rustica: an extremely strong, hot-pressed flake featuring a historic strain of tobacco native to the Americas (Nicotiana Rustica). ... Read More

Per Jensen of Mac Baren: Tobacco Ambassador to the World

May 1, 2020 by Chuck Stanion

9 Comments

Per Jensen has been the product specialist at Mac Baren tobacco since 2001, but he was entrenched in the pipe industry from the time he was nine, when he started helping in the family business: Georg Jensen pipes. That business had an unusual start. ... Read More

The History of Nicotiana Rustica

May 1, 2020 by Andrew Wike

11 Comments

Europeans first encountered tobacco in October of 1492, when the local Arawak population of Hispaniola presented Christopher Columbus with a peace offering of dried leaves from a sacred plant, a plant we would later know as Nicotiana Tabacum, the species from which nearly all modern smoking tobacco originates. ... Read More