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.