Tobaccos Manifatture Sigaro Toscano - Forte

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	JackSparrow (16)	2014-05-04		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Full	Tolerable to Strong

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!

Pipe Used: Castello

7 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	L'Italiano (233)	2014-05-02		Strong	None Detected	Full	Very Strong

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.

6 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Lingo (39)	2019-03-19		Very Strong	None Detected	Full	Strong

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” ;)

5 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Marco D. (17)	2019-09-30		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Medium	Tolerable to Strong

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.

Pipe Used: Savinelli, Chacom

Age When Smoked: One week

Purchased From: Tabacconist in Italia

Similar Blends: Comune (MST), Burrus Bleau and Burrus Jaune (STG), Landtabak.

4 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	LVciAn777 (7)	2018-11-24		Strong	None Detected	Medium to Full	Strong

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.

Pipe Used: Mastro Grandolfo dublin half bent

Purchased From: Borgi shop- Poggiardo,Lecce, Italy

Similar Blends: MST Comune, Toscano cigars, Samuel Gawith Lakeland Dark.

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Leppo (3)	2018-04-04		Strong	None Detected	Full	Strong

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.

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Strichetto (21)	2013-02-27		Very Strong	None Detected	Full	Pleasant to Tolerable

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...

Purchased From: Italy

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2012-08-14		Very Strong	None Detected	Full	Very Strong

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.

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	TEO (33)	2011-10-25		Strong	None Detected	Full	Tolerable to Strong

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.

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2008-11-22		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Full	Tolerable to Strong

Hello all, well i am italian and i smoked cigars (Old and extra old toscano as well); i'd say i prefer cigars even if the leaf type in this tobacco is the same. Best quality of this tobacco is that it's really cheap, but i am not looking for this quality. There are much better Kentuckies if you are looking for something really good. This one can be smoked just to say "well i tried it" and maybe you can add this one to others tobaccos (as said in a past review) but i am not going to buy a new pack. Cheers.

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	sasha (228)	2005-06-30		Medium	None Detected	Full	Tolerable

The best thing about this tobacco is its price! While smoked, it can give satisfaction to people who like plain kentucky: I'm not in that number. It gives its best when smoked in a corncob or meerschaum, maybe even in a clay, to smooth it out a little its sharpness. I know about people who find it great to mix it 50/50 with Clan: a rare case in which by blending two disgusting tobaccos together you can come across something smokable!

3 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Steden (100)	2012-02-18		Strong	None Detected	Full	Very Strong

Forte is one of the most natural pipe tobacco in world, that's sure till to the point to being one of world's rougher tobaccos: pouch aroma is fusty, taste and flavors are very woodsy and earthy, room note is musty, almost redolent of humus… Not the right choice for a refined gourmand but good if you look for a walk in the wild side.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2011-12-21		Very Strong	None Detected	Full	Tolerable to Strong

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!).

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2010-06-23		Medium	None Detected	Very Full	Tolerable to Strong

This tobacco is like a hot, good, strong cup of black coffee. Honest, true, dark, mediterranean tobacco. Though someone smokes it all day long, I wouldn't be able, 'cause I like to change, but it's definitely in my rotation. When I'm in the mood for something very traditional with great body, I'm looking for this tobacco. Must have for the Kentucky lovers.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Beer (345)	2004-10-13		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Extra Full	Tolerable to Strong

This is one of the cheapest tobaccos sold in Italy: for its price, it actually can't be despised! It's not a subtle or elegant tobacco, but it delivers a stout, sturdy natural taste that will appeal to lovers of Toscano cigars (the kind of leaf in the same).

Forte can be smoked even carelessly: you can stuff it in a corncob, and you only have to take care not to rush it. Being very finely cut (it can be used for RYO too) and dry, it can turn hot and quite bitter.

Anyway, a tobacco that has many decades of history on its shoulders: plain robust old stuff, with lots of taste, a pleasant nuttiness and cigar overtones.

Many old smokers in Italy (but also some young ones) swear by this tobacco, as it is cheap, completely natural and without frills.

I bet that blending with some Virginias and some more delicate Kentuckys can lead to interesting experiments. I know some people who also add it to EMs to "spice them up".

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Pipofilo novizio (3)	2020-06-27		Strong	None Detected	Medium	Very Strong

Cheap Italian Kentucky with an unpleasant surprise. I never paid too much attention to the contents of this tobacco before starting to smoke the pipe. I used to roll this in cigarettes because it's cheap, gave me the nicotine fix I needed and it has a simple Kentucky taste. Then one day I read on a forum that someone was complaining about the presence of reconstituted tobacco in the blend: I then pured the contents of the bag on the table, turned on the light and armed myself of a pair of plastic tweezers with the goal of finding and taking out of it all the reconstituted tobacco. I found around 5 to 8 grams of the stuff in the bag, it looks like coarse recycled paper and it's lighter in color than the real tobacco in the bag. I then tried to smoke that crap on its own in a cigarette: zero taste, zero nicotine. Then the real tobacco on its own in my pipe: without the reconstituted tobacco in it it's even stronger in taste and nicotine hit. It's a simple Kentucky not particularly aromatic, just plain strong tobacco taste, good if you want to smoke a simple inexpensive tobacco or if you have some tobacco that needs a bit more body to it ( add some forte to it and it will be fixed), but if you want the taste of a sigaro toscano in your pipe just crumble a piece of a real one.

Pipe Used: Savinelli 626, Mastro de Paja bent apple

Age When Smoked: Fresh form bag

Purchased From: Local tobacconist

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	milabros1981 (15)	2018-07-18		Medium to Strong	None Detected	Medium to Full	Tolerable to Strong

This blend is very similar to Comune. However, this one is a bit milder: same pure, raw taste of good tobacco, no flavors, no toppings, no aromas whatsoever. The result is that Forte, despite its name, can be smoked a bit more pleasantly than Comune. Not an every day smoke, yet a must-try blend.

Pipe Used: Various briars

Age When Smoked: Fresh

Purchased From: Rome

Similar Blends: Austria Tabak Landtabak, Comune.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Cakici (29)	2018-04-08		Strong	None Detected	Full	Strong

A pleasant smell welcomes you when you first open the pouch. Sometimes it comes humid, sometimes quite dry. One may love to smoke, especially this tobacco, a little moist, which you won't regret because it has minimum level of additives. One's tongue would catch a silky, more like a velvety smoke. The optimum humidity level burns medium to fast. Taste doesn't change if you smoke the bowl straight ahead. If you are not a pure tobacco lover, an average size bowl would be enough to leave you feel relieved at your chair. If you dare to try two bowls straight, then it's guaranteed that you feel the nikotine in your veins. It's always good to consume some water when smoking Forte.

Age When Smoked: 5 months

Purchased From: Local tobacconist

Similar Blends: Manifatture Sigaro Toscano - Comune.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2016-10-08		Strong	None Detected	Full	Tolerable to Strong

Very good quality Kentucky: dry and unflavored. If you like Kentucky, so you will like Forte. If smoked slowly, so it doesn't bite. Very cheap in Italy.

Pipe Used: many briars

Age When Smoked: new

Purchased From: local tobacconist

Similar Blends: Manifatture Sigaro Toscano - Comune.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2013-01-14		Strong	Extremely Mild	Medium to Full	Strong

I love kentucky! Forte it's a italian pipe' tobacco. It contains some types of italian kentucky and some burley (despite what someone said). Since 2012 the recipe is changed a little (also package). . Now it's a little less strong and rough (unfortunately). It has some flavouring (not completely natural, however it stays on natural taste). It's not so simple to taste the first time. The taste is of wood, earth and pepper (remainds toscano cigars that are made of kentucky). Room notes are strong. Full nicotine. Easy to burn. Good also to give body and strenght to mixture without influence them (without exceding). It's cheap. It remainds very old and rough times. Not reccomended who likes aromatized.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2012-02-19		Medium	None Detected	Medium	Very Strong

This blend is full bodied, but very smooth taste, is really great, five stars!

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	p4p4 (59)	2011-03-26		Medium to Strong	Extremely Mild	Full	Tolerable to Strong

A popular and cheap tobacco with full body & strenght. Natural taste. Flavor: old woods, campfire, dry hearth. Easy to burn.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Skando (203)	2009-08-07		Strong	None Detected	Full	Tolerable to Strong

Having passed through Italia and Comune, I couldn't do without trying Forte.

I cut this short since I underwrite most of the esteemed Beer's review. There is nothing subtle in a plain/robust Kentucky like this. Just a strong, earthy, Toscano-ish, masculine smoke. Something of the likes of the French Scaferlati (I still have two small cubes of that), old time (or grandfather's) stuff.

I would add that the quality of the tobacco has improved so much from the times ago when Comune and Forte (and Nazionale...) were packed in those small 20grms paper packs, and I may fully understand those pipsters devoting themselves to an "organic" tobacco like this.

Regarding me, after 10grms smoked straight in pipes of various sizes, always with pleasure, I have immediately started experimenting mixing with some Virginias. Very good results are coming from mixing three parts of Forte with one of HOTW.

Recommended... to myself obviously.

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30167)	2008-12-11		Strong	Extremely Mild	Medium to Full	Pleasant

Forte is a very good tobacco. Kentucky is very pleasant. Try it!

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Madox07 (43)	2021-01-26		Strong	None Detected	Full	Tolerable to Strong

Quite frankly I am writing this mostly out of memory, with the aid of some old notes I have found in my cellar journal - I am in the habit of inventorying my cellar with pen and paper, and take notes on occasion. This was years before I, personally, stepped in an Italian tobacco shop. By the time I got to be haunting brick and mortars in Italy I lost all interest for this blend, as it was not quite my suit. Originally I was looking for the pipe version of the Toscano cigars, but I have found hardly the sort. It does have a distant resemblance to the Toscanellos - the classic fresh ones I mean, as on this subject matter there is quite a bit of variety, with your Garibaldis and you Mazzinis, your aged and Antica Rezerva, etc. In all plainness though, this is less of a blend but more of a straight tobacco varietal, a straight Kentucky, smashingly strong and peppery, that doesn't smoke like a toscanello - obviously since this is looser smoked (regardless how tight you may be tempted to pack) than the dry fermented cigars. It is quality tobacco, although I ended up giving it away or using it as a mixture component in other experiments. If you will, the Forte is the single level cured bulrey more like Rober McConnel's single varietal tobacco tins (Straight Latakia, Straight Perique, etc. - ever try to smoke straight latakia and felt like having a heart attack? yeah something of the sort). I love my Toscanos and I will stick to them, leaving this to the more astute pipe smokers, lovers of burley.

Nobody has rated this review yet.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Bri1967 (2)	2019-12-18		Very Strong	None Detected	Full	Very Strong

This tobacco is italy. When smoking, it reminds you of a farmer and his land, of the history of the country, of the partisans who fought in the hills in a not so distant past. It's all in there: The smokiness, the earthy and woody taste, it just feels like the taste of Italia. Ideal when taking a walk in the campagna while gazing at the distant hills or mountains after enjoying a good italian meal. If you haven't tried it, try it. But beware, it has a strong nicotine punch and will hit you pretty fast (not friendly to begginers). Also, it smokes hot, so patience and slow smoking is crucial if you don't want to burn your mouth.

Questo tabacco è Italia. Mentre lo fumi ti ricorda un contandino e la sua terra, la storia di questo paese, ai partigiani che hanno combatutto sulle colline in un passato non così lontano. E' tutto qui: Il sapore affumicato, terroso e legnoso si sente come il sapore d'Italia. Ideale quando si fa un giro in campagna osservando le colline o montagne dopo aver goduto del buon cibo italiano. Se non l'hai provato, fallo. Ma attenzione, ha un colpo di nicotina forte e ti colpirà velocemente (non adatto ai neofiti). Inoltre riscalda molto quindi pazienza e fumare lentamente è cruciale se non vuoi bruciarti la bocca.

Purchased From: Italy

Nobody has rated this review yet.