Manifatture Sigaro Toscano Italia

When I started smoking the pipe, I think 20 years ago, Italia wasn't at all a world reknown pipe baccy. And it really was also a really different pipe tobacco compared to the one sold today. Ordinary pipe smokers used Italia to add character to untasty or poor pipe blends. Whenever one happened to buy a bag of Italia, the long stripped ribbons were dry more often than not and the colour darker than in the recent days. An aromatisant spirit (probably cheap rhum or grappa) was used at the average of 5% to keep the blend humid. A scent of natural tobacco characterized the blend. No preservants were used. The blend had also a tipical smell of jute - probably due to the presence of oriental tobaccos such as Xanthy or Greek domesticated seeds. To my surprise, I sometimes bumped into Italia bags delivering a scent of seasoned Pecorino cheese.

Anyway, once packed in whatever the kind and shape of pipe, the tobacco lit up and burned easily, though a bit fast, delivering a cigarish room note. The strength and the taste of the blend was strong enough to deliver a bitter stubborn taste on any pipe smoker's tongue and a middle-to-strong nicotine punch at middle-end of the bowl. Nothing special, really. And a very difficult blend to smoke...not at all an all day tobacco, nor for beguinners.

And no surprise that the blend was cheap, provided that one was lucky enough to find a bag in a tobacco shop. Italia costed the old 4.000 liras, equivalent to € 1,50...the price of a capuccino today. At that times - mid '90s of the last century - very excellent buccy still lingered in the tobacconists' shelves - namely balkan sobranie bags and Three Nuns tins - whose fabulous and unrivaled content I loved and smoked most of the times if my finances allowed it.

To be fair, Italia was the kind of blend which pipe smokers could smell when stepping into the old villages cafes, frequented by old peasants pulling and puffing hardly Italia, Trinciato Comune or even worse Nazionale on their old fashioned and seasoned tarry, heavely caked briar pipes.

Those times have long foregone! The Monopolio di Stato - the producer of our four and only national pipe blends Italia, Comune, Forte and Golf - has recently been tranformed into a private share company with the state owning just a 40% share. Tobacco brands have changed and somewhat increased in number as far as the cigarette pruduction is concerned. Traditional cigars and pipe tobaccos are still in the tobacconists' shelves keeping the old brands (some anyway have been cancelled). The composition, tasting and aromatic features have indeed changed - I think to reach the international smokers' taste.

Of course, Italia also has. First of all, nowdays the blend's ribbons are less stripped and shorter than before, the colour is brighter, and a sweety/honey liquorous aromatizant (up to 10/15%) has been added together with humectants. So that, when one opens the bag a scent of honey, spirits and wallnuts hits the nostrils, and the natural tobacco smell taking its space after some seconds.

The blend composition has also undergone a variation; one can find more burley, orientals (Xanthy and Greek seeds....the jute bag scent) and Italian virginia than kentucky leaves in different grades (I think 60% of the first and 40% of the remainder). The result is a pretty different smoke experience: the ribbons still pack and ligt up easily.

The first half of the bowl sounds sweet, smooth, nutty, delivering spring fragrances, whilst when approaching the second half the blend starts delivering its traditional character though with more complexity in the backgorund, with tastes of fresh wallnuts, oriental flowers and jute (the Greek seeds) and a good but not strong nicotine kick towards the end of the bowl. The bitter stubborn taste of the old times disappeared, not a fresh smoke but not even a tongue bite - so one can also smoke it faster with no risk.

In all, Italia has become an all day more balanced pipe smoking blend, akin to Amphora Original but less sugary and with less body and with more fragrance complexity and smoothness. And obviously with more nicotine content than Amphora...that makes the smoke experience more interesting.

P.S..: Just a smoking directive: keep the bag open for an hour before you smoke it to decrease the sugary/honey scent and to appreciate more the blend complexity from the first puffs.

In all an excellent still cheap four stars Italian blend.

Parlerò del secondo prodotto nostrano per eccellenza l’Italia o per essere precisi Italia Gusto Classico. Esporre un parere, un gusto su questo tabacco è una operazione ardua, in rete esistono moltissimi giudizi e sicuramente il mio non aggiungerà nulla di nuovo, ma cominciamo. Innanzitutto si tratta di un mix di Kentuky nostrano, Virginia ed Orientali in un taglio trinciato: Shag. La confezione è un punto di riferimento essendo uno dei tabacchi ubiquitari presenti dai rivenditori, la sua busta rossa penso sia passata almeno una volta fra le mani ti tutti i fumatori. Apertala si percepiscono aromi fruttati, il Virginia sembra prevalere sugli altri tabacchi, poi continuando ad annusare si percepisce il tipico aroma di cuoio del Kentuky. La pipa si carica molto bene, il tabacco è abbastanza secco, poche, ma buone prese e si ottiene una giusta carica, come tutte le folte le prove di aspirazioni a pipa spenta sono essenziali per comprendere se si è ecceduto con la forza di pressione. Anche l’accensione è rapida, attenzione ad usare subito il pigino, questo tabacco reagisce subito alla fiamma tendendo ad espandersi. I primi puff sono rudi, acidi oserei dire, poi questo gusto cambia per lasciare spazio al kentuky coi suoi sentori di fieno e cuoio. Gli Orientali sono molto nascosti, si vede che la percentuale è molto bassa; il virginia invece mitiga l’asprezza tipica del Kentuky nostrano. E’ comunque un tabacco schietto, non evolve e in questo poi è il suo grande pregio, può anche far impazzire per quanto si usa il pigino, ma anche un buon fumo per quando sono un po’ sovrappensiero. Alla fine è sincero, non promette, ma mantiene, si fuma tutto e non lascia delusioni o chissà quale sensazione. E’ un buon bicchier di vino, di quello prodotto dal contadino, sanguigno, deciso, ma per questo schietto. Che poi lasci la gola aspra, non importa è lui e lo ama o si odia per questi motivi. Si dice che ottimo per i neofiti per la sua felicità di fumo, io invece dico che il neofita si può spaventare perché è troppo diretto e sincero. Ottimo per le miscele, ma poi perde il suo essere un trinciato nostrano, senza le vette dei tabacchi inglesi, ma non per qesato di minor sensazione. Certo la nota ambientale non è delle più blande, ma un toscano è ben più forte e nessuno ne parla. Lo consiglio come fumata senza avere pensieri di trovare alle sottogusti o profumi quando si vuole fumare solo per il piacere del fumare il tabacco. Ecco perché il lento fumo mi piace. E’ lo stesso motivo per cui mi piacciono la musica e la letteratura: le pvie per orientarsi in questi universi sono infinite, sta ad ognuno trovare la propria. Provando e riprovando, con attenzione e con pazienza, a patto di non farsi del male per giungere a determinati obiettivi o volere a tutti costi essere arrivati ad un traguardo; il tabacco successivo sperimentato sarà ottimo o pessimo a seconda dei momenti e del gusto non del tabacco. Dò un 4/5 perché come tutti i prodotti nostrani non illude mai.

Excellent blend of italian natural tobaccos.

The virginias are good, although not very matured and complex. I consider this as a plus, since that is not the main point of the blend. You can taste the toscano-ish bitter notes from the kentucky, while the orientals start to kick in at mid bowl.

It's a great tobacco for beginners, as it's quite easy to keep lit, doesn't burn too much and doesn't suffer from overheating, provided that one actually likes fire-cured kentucky.

Many people use it for breakin-in new pipes and tame rebel pipes, as the kentucky tends to absorb moist and harsh woody humors.

Good as a tasty and satisfying all-day smoke. Plus, it's cheap (at least in Italy, I don't know about elsewhere).

This tobacco is nearing perfection. First off, it costs around 5€, and if you're a cheap smoker like me, this is awesome. That's not even close to being it's most important quality however. Italia is a tobacco you can smoke any day, any time of the day, it's got that sweet tang for the first third (sometimes even first half of the bowl) coming from the virginias which can be appealing during the morning. It's got that nice nice hit and raw tobacco flavours from the Italian Kentucky that show from the very first puff all through to the ashes on the bottom of the bowl. It's got that leathery, peppery, spicy, sweet, acidic tang from the Italian Kentucky that leaves you oh ever so satisfied after dinner. It can be a beautiful relaxing smoke on a summer's evening or a calm warm pipefull after a hearty winter dinner.

The cut is perfect, it comes off pretty dry off the pouch and imho, that's how you should smoke it. Pack it tightly and it will burn slowly all the freakin way down with very little relights. It evolves, from sweetness and tanginess to peppery spicy nuttiness. This tobacco leaves an amazing after taste on your mouth, and if this bites your tongue, you're doing something wrong, because I puff this like a freight train and the smoke remains cool.

There is a casing or top flavor added that I cannot identify, but it's there especially during the first 10 minutes of the bowl, and don't get me wrong, it works perfectly.

I'll be stocking up on a lot of this, age will help it become even better due to the virginias in here. If you're an Italian pipe smoker and haven't tried this, please do so. If you're an Italian pipe smoker and "don't like this", stop being a snob and admit that this 5€ italian made pouch tobacco that's readily available even at the shadiest tobacconist is on the same level of not better than many ,25-30-45€ blends you find around here. If you're visiting Italy, do yourself a favor and buy a few of these, you won't regret it.

Very honest tobacco, it never lets you down and it will be a great help in mixing and fixing. Everytime I have to rush out, I pass quickly in its dedicated humidor where I keep it fresh, and rapidly fill whichever of my briars comes to hand. I can find some wood-nuts in the very background, but unfort'ly it burns very quickly and it needs a little calm to feel it. It is my "pipe-cigarette-tobacco", a good and no-problem busy-minded smoke. Like my "reset key".

Thanks to Steden, I have the opportunity to smoke this blend. There isn't anything I can add to Skando's description but I can add my opinion regarding flavor and quality. I like it. The tobaccos are expertly blended and of good quality. Its flavor comes from the tobaccos alone and not any kind of topping that I could detect. The Oriental is the magic in this one.

I only wish this could be found as an "over the counter" tobacco in the US as I think this pouch will go up in smoke rather quickly. If I have the opportunity to visit Italy again, this will be the tobacco I bring back.

Italia is a honest natural blend produced in Italy, I believe entirely from italian harvested tobaccos.

Sometime it's suprisingly good quality... sometime not. It depends from lots and age, I think. The fact is that E.T.I. - the ex-public monopolist company, now belonging to B.A.T. group - seems not having interest enough in developing (or even maintaining) the pipe tobacco market: Italia stands as the only italian pipe tobacco, being its two brothers Comune and Forte something born for the RYO scope.

It's a medium ribbon mix of bright and brown leaves: the declared composition is Virginia, Oriental and Kentucky, which I find to be absolutely correct. The pouch smells fresh, grassy with flowery notes coming from the Orientals, and some faint toasty notes from the Kentucky. No doubt I was luck to find a fresh pouch.

Italia is far better smoked into medium to large bowls. Lights and behaves absolutely easy. The smoke is something of the VaOr family plus the earthy/smokey character of the Ky. Strenght starts from mild-to-medium and develops to medium-to-strong. It never bites nor stresses the palate, the pipe remains always fresh. The slow smoke delivers very natural tobaccoey notes, sometimes sweet, others salty, flowery, peppery, toasty.

Due to it's composition and cut, Italia is a blend very good for home made english mixtures, from the simple addition of some pinches of Latakia to more complex adventures.

Another god rating tobacco, tasting of packing carton.

I smoke Toscano cigars and I appreciate them, but here we are faced with a cheap product of very low quality.

I also read online about a problem with tobacco waste present in industrial quantities in this blend, called Recon. and I would say that we are there.

If you want a bad tough situation in your pipe while you are in Italy, purchase the Scalferlati Caporal, which is French but at least it gives you what you want.

The Toscano line for pipe looks awful. Try the Brebbia line, which is in another price tag but at least you get quality.

Toscano Golf for pipe has good review too, but I am not brave enough to try it.

This tobacco is a classical tobacco in Italia. The composition is Virginia based with Kentucky fire-cured and a bit of Oriental. The cut is very regular and short (shag) and the colour is dark brown with lighter shades. The frangrances and aromas are delicate and dominated by vegetal notes, the Virginia overbear the Kentucky. The smoke is easy with hay and wood notes, difficult to recognize the Orientals. This tobacco is perfect to use as first tobacco is easy to pack, to smoke and it is simple to interpret. Last note: there is an extrimly mild fruity note in the background, perhaps aromatization?

I was pleased to receive this as a gift from my stepson, who picked it up in Rome on his honeymoon.

It's nothing out of the ordinary, just a mild Danish-type blend with a fine pouch aroma. Not sure that there is cigar leaf in it, but this feels rather lacking in depth, though not unpleasant, just rather samey.

It doesn't have the quality of blends like Larson's or Stanwell's aromatics, being more akin to Meine Mischung mixture from Germany. It's also rather dry and may or may not benefit from being decanted into a jar.

And indeed, that is where is going to stay, jarred and in the cupboard alongside the impossible-to-smoke Sunday Fantasy.

Having said that I am sure I'll dip into this if the mood warrants it and it will be interesting what a few weeks shelved will do to this blend (if anything). Also I was given a pack of Cellini at the same time (which I will open and review later) and it will be interesting to do a comparison.