Manifatture Sigaro Toscano Forte

Wow! Straight Kentucky....nothing more, nothing less. Opening the envelope you can smell an earthy baccy, no topping or flavoring at all: that's what I love! A bit dry but perfrect to be lit at once, straight from the package to the bowl. It burns a bit fast but it's ok, smoking is always cool, no tongue bite, never harsh. Strong stuff, with a good N load, always full and satisfying, never tiring. Earthy, with some cigar notes, sweet in the background, you will crave for its simplicity and round taste, I would say complex considering it is only Kentucky. Almost an all day tobacco, a bit too much N kick after breakfast but puffing with respect it is fine. Always in my rotation. A must try for all pure baccy lovers like me!

The Forte is classic italian tobacco. The composition is a Kentucky based with Burley Tobacco. The cut is regular - shag in prevalence - and the colour is dark. The fragrances and aromas are limitated to wood and eartly. When lit the smoke is very acrid, but the nicotine level is not too high. The smoke is unbalanced and dominated by elementary notes of wood. During the years Forte has changed, unfortunately, for the worse. Today this tobacco can't be recommended.

Welcome to the Italian Way! Please have a seat and let Forte introduce you to Beneventano, Apuano, Sansepolcro -italian fired burleys, I know we call them Kentucky’s but not this time, since it’s 100% italian 😉

I’ll tell ya my story about it: when I started smoking pipe, I asked the tobacconist for ANY sort of tobacco I could start trying, EXCEPT that very one that smelled like a stinky smokey mumbling chewing old man strolling everyday the same downtown alleys...

Years have passed, that (go....n) tobacconist gave me a BORKUM RIFF to start (huuughhhh, I must say thanks because aros were the first weeds I dropped after just few months smoking!!). So I went through Virginias, “sweeeeet”... then va/per, “sweet but with a punch”... then I bumped into va/bur, “wow wait, there’s something here..”. Finally, why not a Toscano cigar? And why not put it in a bowl? Well, years after I’M THAT OLD MAN strolling and swearing!! 🙂

So, I had to try that (in)famous one, the one that smells like my grandgrandpa... and finally loved it. And yes, smoking Forte is like crumbling a Toscano in your pipe!

We know that Forte (and his lighter va/bur/or cousin Italia) has changed through the years, edges have been smoothed, some efforts in casing... Still it IS the italian tobacco, straight, cigarish, natural, crucial add-on for the home-blender -add a pinch to EVERY tobacco and enjoy 😉

The tin aroma is just country: grass to wood to hay to soil to leather to darn to malt to TOBACCO!!

Super easy to pack, it will need some humidification if kept for too long or too dry. Pack it HARD (forte!) and sip slowly: not many smokers can imagine how much evolution and transition you can get from a natural straight weed like this!).

Strong in nicotine, will never bite (because if you push it to biting then it means you’re already dead from tne nic-hit and throat-fire!).

Will leave such an empty and clean bowl that we seldom use Forte to reset a ghosted pipe: after two bowls the pipe is like new! 🙂

A Traditional to preserve, just like Semois or FVF: these tobaccos REMIND US what tobacco really is!

A note for the blender: add Forte to FVF 30/70 to get -say- Kendal Cream. Add Forte to Telegraph Hill (20/80] and get Triple Play. Add it to EVERYTHING which you think is “lacking something” 😉

Essentially pure Italian Kentucky (tiny traces of different tobaccos are present). Completly natural and unflavored, very strong, full and satisfying, it is an excellent tobacco. I like it very much. If you like Kentucky, this is for you. I smoke it straight, but it is also a perfect blending tobacco. In my system rating (from 0 to 10) my score is 8 and three stars.

There are different Forte kind in Italy, like Forte Gusto Pieno and Forte Taglio Fino, but basically they have a common smoked Kentucky blend. In the past, before industrial cigarettes our grandfathers use to smoke it like rolling tobacco whitout filters. today someone still does it. Forte is a strong genuine rough tobacco with no fine elegant flavours, based on a few persistent notes, like oak smoked wood,leather,walnuts and wet soil. It's a great blending tobacco too. Simple,cheap,effective.

As the name says, it's a really strong tobacco, that reminds the taste of Toscano cigar. It contains a very good and really tasty kentucky tobacco. It's the first tobacco I smoked in a pipe, but I don't recommend it if you have never smoked in your life. Forte is really easy to smoke, it burns very well and the smoke remains fresh.

I tried this good italian tobacco in 2012, it's a quite thin cut and low moisture natural italian various Kentucky mixture, roughly the same used to make typical italian famous cigars "Toscani". Bought in Italy, really cheap, and that's a plus. It smells earthy, woody, and a bit smoked, as correctly noted in other reviews.

Aroma: none

Taste: strong, but in a different way than, i.e., full bodied EM or cuban leaves mixtures; rich in nicotine

Room note: surprisingly not strong

Burning: quite fast, smoke not heavy, not dense

Best briars: ... no briars, it gives its best in corn cobs (really!)or magnesium silicate meerschaum; it's useful to "clean" a pipe from unwanted aromas, one only bowl burns away every reminiscence better than napalm!

Recommended, but moderation is necessary, it's a good, "macho", tobacco, I could smoke not more than two bowls in a day, at the third it can be mouth inflammatory, at the fourth sometimes the room begins to turn around you: if this tobacco is not strong enough for you, you can only try TNT, for your LAST bowl...

Stumbled upon this in a period when I decided I was smoking full pouches of tobacco before trying something else (finish the pouch before opening another.

A fully natural tobacco is nowadays something very rare, indeed... It is something reminding of old times... before all those fancy tobaccos were around people were smoking this and, I can tell you, they were really right.

It is a simple tobacco in the making... based on mixing italian tobaccos (mainly Kentucky), but it's not so simple in the tasting process as it is, despite its strength, very elusive: smokey with a hint of wood and pepper, I think, and reminding me, at low temperature and around half of the bowl, of nutmeg.

It has a full nicotine kick, so it is more adapt, I think, for late evening... could make a very nice last pipe of the day, but nothing to be afraid of if you smoke it with the due respect... even for your briar as it can burn very hot (cut is very thin and moisture very low).

The perfect tobacco for a bonfire at the seaside, I feel, or for being reflexive.

A last thing... Room note of this is quite strong and nothing your wife would gladly smell on her curtains.

A natural blend of Italian kentucky, Beneventano and Nostrano del Brenta. Very thin cut. There's no Burleys in the recipe. Strong Toscano cigar taste but without any fermentation. Very dry and extremly strong, like the name saids. Probably the strongest tobacco never produced. Usefull to clean any residual taste in used pipes and to quickly reform base encrostation. Added in mixtures give body and strenght without heavy infulence in the flavour (obviously without exceding). Beyond its more "technical" adoperation this is an excellent natural pipe tobacco, practically composed by pure Kentucky. This is one of the few remaining tobaccos without any chemical treatments. You can recognize in taste persistant notes of wood and hay. Highly recommended either for blending either for simply degustation of the true taste of nature.

4 Stars, and I subscribe!

Type: Natural strong ; Contents: Italian Kentucky, Beneventano, Nostrano del Brenta ; Cut: Very thin shag, ut to 1 mm ; Humidity: Dry but not dehydratated ; Lighting: After the starting explosion burn fast like the Hell! ; Pipe recommended: Bent or with long mouthpiece, small and thin bowl (for your own safety!).

This is a popular and historic blend here in Italy, and it's the best choice when it comes to harden another one without adding any other flavor. Very cheap too for its purpose, no doubt. The aroma and taste are full, earthy and smokey, not really a gentle blend. I rate it 2 stars because, although it is really cheap, I think there are way better kentucky blends to be purchased than going for this pure wall of Nicotine. I never smoke it alone. It is always quite dry but it doesn't bite even if the cut is nearly a shag one. It can turn a little bitter to the bottom of the bowl and it is cigarish as you may expect. I am not a straight burley-kentucky lover and I'll keep on using it only to give some nicotine kick to other blends I'm usually into.