Savinelli Armonia

Maybe this is an unfair review due to only trying the sample pack that Savinelli is mailing out to promote their tobacco, "Armonia".

Then again, if the sample pack doesn't grab you; why go out and buy a tin or a pouch of it?

Upon opening the sample pack, I sensed chocolate covered raisons. ....The next day, I still sensed the same plus a whiskey? ala "Borkum Riff smell".

Upon lighting and thru the top 3rd, I still was reminded of chocolate covered raisons. By half way, I started tasting a burnt chocolate. Near bottom, a charred chocolate/fudge taste. ...None of which, grabbed me.

No innocent bystanders were present to comment on the room note.

Tin Aroma: My first impression upon smelling this was; 'man! is this ever cased!' Very pungent, very fruity, with perhaps some hints of coconut as well. According to the marketing blurb about this blend, the casing is supposed to be 'all-natural fruit flavors', but I can ascertain nothing in the aroma that smells even remotely natural. Even the coconut scent has a chemical edge to it.

Physical Characteristics: A long thin ribbon cut, moist enough to stick together in great clumps. If seperated strand by strand, it packs moderately well, though it retains it's penchant for clumping, even after leaving it sitting out on my desk for a few days, a sure sign of a heavily PG laden blend.

Notes: This is crap, pure and simple. While I am no great lover of aromatic blends, I have smoked a good number of them, and have enjoyed quite a few of those. This, however, fails in almost every category. The room aroma is pungent and unpleasant, driving away friends, relatives, badgers and skunks. The astronomical moisture content guarantees the impoosibility of taking more than two or three puffs before relighting. The burn is uneven and haphazard, even with the most careful packing and tamping technique. The flavor, such as it is, wavers between burnt sugar, which of course, burns the tongue, and a gin distillery, both unpleasant in their own right, but geometrically more so when so inelagantly juxtaposed. Laid over top of this foul conglomeration of tastes is a healthy layer of hot steam, as this burns perhaps the hottest of any tobacco I have ever smoked. It is one thing to be careless when smoking a bowl of high sugar Virginia and find that afterward ones tongue is a bit sensitive, but it is quite another to have the entire inside of ones mouth screaming in agony before one even finishes the first third of a bowl. The only vaguely redeaming quality that this tobacco has is that due to the insanely high temperature it achieves, it does manage to burn quickly enough to spare one the unremitting torture that would be an average length smoke.

Verdict: Given the repellant aroma of this blend, the outrageous moisture content, the penchant for clumping into a sodden mass, and the extreme difficulty in keeping it lit, not to mention the scorching, asbestos like flavor and the room aroma that would be better used to test gas masks in the military, I would have to say that the person or persons responsible for this tobacco abomination need to be unceremoniously taken out back and beaten.

Older pouch with notes of apricots. Tobacco is a ribbon cut of dark brown, black, brown and a little tan. Moisture content is great. Burns moderate with few relights. The strength is mild to medium and nic is mild. Flavoring is medium, with notes of apricots. Flavoring is fairly strong in the first 1/3 before lessening. Taste is medium and moderately consistent, with notes of apricots, sugar, herbal vegetation, molasses, toast, spicy, bitter orange peel, vinegary sour, wood, very acidic, floral, spices, a very dry sour background note, and a peppery retro. Burley is leading with Flavoring, Kentucky, Oriental/Turkish and Virginia supporting. Room note is tolerable, and aftertaste is unpleasant.

This is a blend whose primary characteristic is the tongue-bite. Comes with a pleasant pouch aroma and smokes rather indifferently in terms of complication in taste. One of the few cases where I had to actually throw the tobacco away in the bin after a few attempts.

Several years ago, I have smoked this mixture, and I was not impressed at all. It was heavily flavored(tutti-frutti), sickly sweet, tongue biting, and very mild. This newer(?) incarnation is mildly scented (chocolate + orange), not sweet but nutty, not biting and medium in nicotine strength. Tobacco quality seems OK but moisture level is high. I don't know if there is a difference between European version (which i smoked) and American version. PS. It does not DGT well.

The truth is that I expected more from savinelli....Not a bad all-day smoke though; packs well and burns well with a mild woody taste. However, not the greatest of tobaccos here; you get what you pay for..

I do not know if everybody refers to the same blend. For starters, my pouch has somewhat different description from the one here (the last sentence differs).

The pouch has somewhat peculiar aroma - in between citrus flowers and choclate dipped slices of orange. I do not detect this during the smoke though. To this extent I agree with the observations of one more reviewer (only!!!). Even so, I did not detect any wood-burning flavor/taste or such, as he did.

More important, where I bought it from, the salesman characterized it as "base" - i.e. essentially non-aromatic. And I wholly agree. The blend (virginia and oriental) is similar to cigarette blends.

I did not get any tongue bite, and the resulting room note did note differ much from your average cigarette room note. Also, it did not burn hot.

The next few bowlfuls was more acceptable than the first one. Overall, I do not find anything fundamnetally wrong with it. I just do not like it much.

I mixed it up (about 50-50) with Brebia #4. The results is OK - but the room note may be somewhat too heavy (heavier that the note of each blend separately).

Skandinavik Regular is similar and more affordable than this - so I do not see myself ever buying a second pouch.

I received my first puch of Armonia and have to say, I enjoy it. It has a nice flavor and aroma. As for the casing, it is hard to tell, but to my snses, I couldn't find any.