Planta Cellini Forte

I do not fully agree with the previous reviews. It is true that the smell in the pouch is strong, the addition of liquor going over the smell of the tobacco. Nevertheless smoking it is nice, with the aromatic character quite strong. That put off those whose aromatic tobaccos is not their cup of tea! No biting in the mouth as mentioned in previous reviews. I see that these are not recent: if someone else would volunteer to taste it that would be interesting. May be Planta has improved the blend. We do not get much tobaccos inspired by South of Europe taste, leaving aside the 'latakia' blends, so this tobacco with an Italian formula is worth a try.

I see Cellini Forte as tobamel that somehow made it into my pipe. Very little tobacco taste, and a lot of flavoring. The latter comes as a strange mix of wine and mango, and it's very difficult to tell which base leaves hide behind those chemicals.

Tongue bite is another big issue. I didn't think it was gonna be so bad when I first opened the pouch and found very dry tobacco inside, but the lack of propylene glycol will only fool you into thinking this is a "natural" aromatic.

If you're intrigued about hookahs, try this tobacco first. If you like it but can't stand the tongue bite, you'll be far better off smoking El-Mazag Mango with some red wine in the hookah's water jar. If you don't, you should probably use the money for a nice briar pipe and some real tobacco.

I live in Piemonte, the region of northwestern Italy where some great wines are made: one of the most renowned of them is certainly Barolo, made from the grapes which bear the same name. How could I resist to the idea of trying a pipe tobacco flavored with Barolo grapes/wine, in spite of being an aromatic (while I like english mixtures), of being sold in a pouch, of being rather cheap? The first pouch I bought was rather dry: I went back to the tobacconist, and he exchanged it with another which had a decent moisture level. Well, this isn't supposed to be a sticky and wet aromatic, but at least you should check it's not in a crumbling state if you want to buy it. The base tobacco is a mixture of virginia, burley, black cavendish and indonesian leaves: but as in most cases with aromatics, what matters is not the tobacco in itself, but the flavoring. And the flavoring is strong indeed: the smell in the pouch is rather unpleasant, very sour, reminding more of vinegar and of grapes than of wine. I can't find any traces of the deep, dark, scent of the Barolo wine! This made me fear for the worst... Anyway, upon lighting, I found partial relief: the tobacco burns nice, not too wet, and certainly not goopy (which DOESN'T mean that the flavor will easily go away from your pipe!). The taste, like the smell, does not remind of Barolo at all: it is very sweet, and if one should really find a comparison with foods, it reminds of fruits and grapes (though I can't tell if it's really Barolo grapes). As the bowl reaches bottom, the fruity taste never disappears. It only gets complemented by a more tobacco-ey taste, which is rather strong and full bodied. The burley clearly makes its presence felt, and the underlying taste is a bit harsh and rude (definitely not a smooth Burley like the one in GLP Barbary Coast...). A couple of relightings may be needed. My final judgment is that, while not exactly my favorite genre of tobacco (I doubt I will buy it again), it is a nice aromatic, better than the average artificial blends that plague drugstores all over the world. Worth trying if you want a nice, different from usual, aromatic which mantains its aroma troughout the whole bowl (which is indeed a bit too artificially sweet for my taste).