Mac Baren Tobacco Company's Owner & Master Blender Henrik Halberg's personal account of the birth of Cube.

THE FAMILY SECRET

I am a fourth generation tobacco man. It gives me great satisfaction to think that the men in my family from my great-grandfather to myself have all been dedicated to pipe tobacco. Not only have I inherited a production process, I have also inherited my forefathers' burning desire to develop the best pipe tobacco, the best taste and the best aroma.

Much has happened during the company's 117-year history; progress has been rapid, and the world has grown smaller. Just in the 30 years I have been engaged in the purchasing and selection of tobaccos it has become far easier to journey to those parts of the world where I know I can find the greatest smoking pleasure - and fortunately too, as otherwise a blend such as Cube would never have been born. The fact is that Cube contains a blend of 27 unique raw tobaccos from three continents.

I inherited the secrets about how one creates the best tobacco from my father, just as he had inherited them from his father and grandfather. One of these secrets was the method by which one controls all the different sense impressions you receive when buying tobacco around the world. The reasons for Mac Baren's constant high quality and smoking pleasure have been gathered in one place: I owe the fact that I can continue to discover new pipe-smoking experiences such as Cube in particular to a well worn leather-bound book which I always carry with me on my travels. This book is similar to the one my father used and yet at the same time it is the greatest secret in the production process.

The fact is that any journey into the world of tobacco leads to new tastes and experiences. On all of my travels I test different raw tobaccos and based on the aroma of each one I decide whether it is suitable for use in our multifaceted production. And for each purchase the taste, aroma, distinctive characteristics, plusses and minuses discovered during test smoking are carefully noted down in this little book. I have developed my very own notation and assessment system which I enter in it, so that it is absolutely certain that no one else besides myself will be able to interpret what is written there, but for all that, these notes remain the heart of the production process.

The various jottings are gradually put together in the jigsaw puzzle which is the final recipe of each individual blend. Since the book has been used so assiduously I have to keep it in one piece with the help of an elastic band. In fact, the secret lies in keeping the notes together and not replacing them until the last page has been used.

Tasting the possibilities

The raw tobaccos I taste on my travels to North America, South America and Africa are untreated and therefore do not taste the same as pipe smokers are used to, the taste is more concentrated. The familiar pipe smoking pleasure we all know stems from a blend of these raw tobaccos which together result in a fine harmonious ring.

The art is to taste this raw tobacco with the object of finding a taste experience, a kernel, which precisely matches the taste I have in mind. In other words, the art lies in perceiving what the tobacco could become if handled with loving care back home in Svendborg. And having got as far as being able to gather the various tastes from around the world, once again I need the notes in my secret little notebook.