Imperial Tobacco Group, PLC Saint Claude

Saint Claude is a quite good tobacco, really natural, in line with Caporal Export. Perhaps a little bit more subtle than Caporal Export but with the same character. In fact it is a typical French tobacco (brown tobacco) with Paraguay (cigar leaf) as fundamental element. Nevertheless I am not convinced about it: this blend is a national-popular mixture, good…..but so and so. In my personal system rating (from 1 to 10) my score is 7 and two stars.

A fast burning, aggressive tobacco. Could be smoked in rolled cigarettes. It gets bitters in the third tier, before that is pretty flat and really strong (I inhale my smoke). I find the burn hard to control, needs to be watched all along as it gets real hot quickly, but it is hard to keep lit. Probably made for cigarette smokers seeking N hit.

This is a better version of the Caporal export, if you look for a refined and complex smoke. This contains a part of Virginia and a part of Semois leaf, so it returns more subtleties during the smoke than his Caporal cousin. It is sweeter, firstly, and a lot less hot, but pay the same attention in smoking it slow because it can easily turn bitter.

One of the classic French national offerings, made for about 92.5% of tobacco and the rest of additives (which certainly contribute to the strong sweetish/honeyish smell of the mixture) as the pouch states. It comes quite dry, in a ribbon cut which is more suitable for pipe smoking than the shag cut of many similar Italian offerings. The taste is, anyway, similar to that of the Italian traditional tobaccos (after all, Italy and France are quite near...): half way between Comune and Forte, if you have tried them. The taste offers a rustic taste which shows some sweetness from the virginias and some woody bitterness (especially at the end of the bowl) typical of burley or kentucky. It is also reminiscent of some versions of Half&Half that have appeared in these last years. Not a completely bad tobacco, but not one that I would gladly smoke every day... It burns fast and even. Beware because it dries VERY fast, and when it does it becomes unbearably bitter like a bad cigar! Well, it does so even when at the right moisture... but only at the end of the bowl!

Back in Paris after a long pause due to the pandemic and out of pipe tobacco I visited a shop that's known to carry some decent tinned tobaccos - À la Civette du Palais Royal. This shop is currently almost entirely devoted to cigars, with a relatively small offering of pipe tobaccos. Tobacco taxes are outrageously high in France. At this shop, a tin of the Dunhill (now Peterson) Early Morning Pipe costs 32 euros. I purchased a pouch of this stuff for 15 euros. The helpful young salesperson informed me that this blend contains cigar leaf. This may be so, and another review here claims that it contains cigar leaf from Paraguay. Manufactured by MacBaren, and available ( I subsequently discovered) at most "tabac" shops in France, that company's web page describes the tobacco thus: "A fair amount of Dark Fired Kentucky is balanced by the natural bright Virginia tobaccos. The special air-cured tobacco adds the French touch and magic in quite a unique way". Whatever that "French touch" is supposed to mean, the pouch odor is very light, slightly flowery. The taste is bland but not unpleasant. The ribbon cut burns easily. Apparently a good example of the French "braun" tobaccos, it will have to tide me over until my C.A.R.E. package arrives from the U.S. Until then I'll use it for blending.

If you've smoked really cheap cigars of the kind that come in a little tin and constantly leave little crumbs of baccy on your tongue; then you already know the taste of Saint Claude. Not too bad is the best that can be said.

My packet was very dry (as many other reviewers have said) so I don't think it was old, it's just that's how it comes.

I use it to cut aromatics with and get a dryer mixture as an everyday smoke. Other than that I don't really use that stuff by itself, it is strong and harsh with a potent roasted smell. This is not for sissies. Some of the reviews evoke some kind of honey casing...well, I can't find any of that, even when I open a fresh pouch, only what a gypsy caravan would probably smell like... Fairly available all over France.

It has got a havana like taste at firstbut turns into kentucky futher down the bowl. Samson and Drum are about the same exept for the cut

The St. Claude I am smoking I have had for quite a while and it is thoroughly dried out. It is a medium brown ribbon, a bit tangly but not too difficult to pack. The smoke is mild with no bite. It has a distinctive nut-like flavor which could be entirely due to the Kentucky burly or it could be a flavor enhancer because it is not a drugstore burly. I have picked up this flavor in a couple of Germain tobaccos. There is plenty of tobacco flavor which I like. The only drawbacks are that it burns far too fast and it is difficult to get. I doubt that I will go to the trouble of searching out a regular source for this tobacco, but if I could get it easily I would keep it on hand. Well recommended