Tabac Manil La Brumeuse

This tobacco surprised me a bit. I thought it would have more body. That's due to the strength rating employed here. When I rate strength it's in regard to body, not nicotine punch. I don't inhale so I pretty much don't care about nicotine content. I forgot that most others do. At least it seems that way. Anyhow, I find the body at mild to medium. The flavor is mild and does resemble Burley to a small extent. It might be my imagination but I keep getting faint traces of a vanilla-like nuance. Comes and goes and is most prevalent during the initial lighting. If you're careless it can burn hot and then it loses all flavor and becomes harsh. As SteelCowboy said, packing is very important and as JimInks said, it needs to be slowly sipped to get the most out of it. In spite of it being a small pain in the ass I'll give it 3 stars. One is for being unique.

Came very dry and crumbly in the brick and I jarred it immediately. As this is how it is supposed to be smoked, I wasn't concerned. Cigar aroma with a very lightly floral undertone. I found that I did have to be careful with the load to keep too much air between pinches. Tighter was better.

The first few puffs showed heavy cigar flavor with settled down very quickly to a burley-type flavor with added sweetness. I'm not sure what the casing flavor is but I've tasted it before - just not in a pipe tobacco. As someone who experimented with a lot of European high quality cigarettes, there are a couple that I will never forget: the Balkan Sobranie non-filters, 10 to a tin (those were absolutely wonderful!) and the French-made Gitanes/Gauloises brands. Both were distinctive. This pipe tobacco reminds me of the mellower Gitanes cigarettes. Not entirely satisfying. As a straight smoke, I found this tobacco theoretically interesting in its unique-ness but not terribly interesting to smoke. A bit too unrefined and crass. And BTW, hydrate it at your own risk. With additional moisture, this tobacco changed characteristics so dramatically that it could only be called a huge failure.

It was as a mixer that this showed it's true strengths for me. As dry and thin as it is, I did have to dry out the other tobaccos, but this brought a heavy body and a sweet flowery presence (not unlike Lakelands, but less powerful) to straight Virginias and a sort of alternate dimension to straight burleys - similar but different. It changed every mix to which it was added, some for the worse, but it showed enough positives that I'd like to experiment more. I think this is an exciting product - definitely unique and it merits more than the 2 stars-worth of my personal enjoyment. Plus it shows huge promise as a blender. 3 stars. And if you're a smoker of natural tobaccos, you have to give this one a spin.

I honestly can’t recall smoking a blend that is similar to La Brumeuse. It came to me as part of a sizeable sample from a good friend and was on the dry side, which is the way I like it. The scent is also unlike anything I recall smoking. In the pouch is does smell a lot like certain cigars, however I don’t find LB to taste like a cigar, although there are small similarities. I find when packing LB that it can take quite a bit of this to fill a pipe. The short ribbons will leave a lot of air between them unlike any tobacco I have smoked. The pack is very important and I found myself over packing and more often under packing, leaving the blend to burn very fast (like a lightly packed shag) and hot. The flavor is very earthy, offering little sweetness. When smoked properly, I find LB to be very smooth and very straightforward in flavor. It doesn’t offer much complexity and is a little heavy on the nicotine, but not a knockout. LB is definitely a “niche” blend. I would not recommend it to newer pipe smokers. It was nice to smoke something out of the mainstream, but I don’t see myself looking for more. Kudos to Vincent Manil for bringing something interesting and unique to market.

This is interesting and unique for sure. As the story goes it's grown, processed, and packaged by one guy. Making this the "heirloom artisanal tomato" of pipe tobacco. As that's not a common thing in pipe tobaccos, this is rather distinctive for that reason alone.

The packaging is simple, a bunch of super dry tobacco stuffed in a gold foil brick with a simple paper label wrapped around it. When opening the brick, the super dry compressed tobacco sorta springs up and greets you with a faint cigar aroma. There's also some earthy, musty aroma present, outdoorsy and similar to what you might expect a foggy European valley to smell like.

Packing is peculiar, this leaf is so dry that you have to pack it way tighter than you normally would. And even still, it burns rather quick. Once packed as tight as the dry leaf allows, it lights very readily as you might imagine. The initial aroma and flavor is predominantly cigar, although a little less robust. That tone stays through the whole somewhat quick smoke. There are earthy, loamy flavors present that you wouldn't normally find in a cigar. About halfway though the bowl, it starts hinting at Turkish Oriental and that trend continues towards the end. Burns down to fine gray ash readily. Fairly full flavor, pleasantly medium nicotine. Strong room note, not exactly crowd or spouse friendly.

All told, I'm glad to have tried this. Distinct character and it's hard to find fault with one guy keeping a unique strain in production. I imagine this is best in a blend rather than smoked straight, although you certainly can smoke it by itself. Sits between a good burley and Turkish in my opinion, with some added earthiness that I wouldn't necessarily expect to find in either.

La Brumeuse is a straight Semoise tobacco, therefore I don't consider it a "blend". Semoise is a bit of an offshoot of Burley, adapted to the particulars of it's growing region. Out of the unique brick packaging, it presents as a very dry tobacco, somewhat compacted and easily broken apart with a medium neutral to warm toned brown appearance. Somewhat of a coarse, thick ribbon cut, there are noticabe sectioned pieces of what appears to be variously sized stem cuts. The mandatory piper's sniff reveals dominant notes of roasted walnut and dry earth, with a backing aroma which I can only describe as a strong black tea. The odd lack of moisture is "stranded in a desert" dry, but this is apparently intentional. By all accounts, this stuff does best with a heavy handed pack; therefore I opted for an assertive 3 step packing of the bowl. This produced a unique and somewhat unsettling crunch with each application of the tamper. If one needs any drying time with this stuff, maybe the way of the pipe is not for you. Charring light, unsurprisingly, goes without any concern and it takes off with significant exuberance. Be prepared to tamp down the rapidly expanding ash layer, it tries to escape the bowl with assertiveness. If someone can't get this started off, "step away from the briar and drop the lighter". On the flavor front, this echoes the pre light aroma, only with it ran through a Marshall half stack amp. The walnut and earthy notes are near equal in intensity, with the black tea lending a slightly less potent astringent quality to both taste and mouthfeel. As these flavors dance upon one's pallate, they never seem to fight for dominance. Altering one's puffing cadence does not reveal any lurking subtleties, but does impact the intensity of the experience. Not surprisingly, this tobacco goes quick, despite the assertive packing of it. The burn is complete, requiring only attention to keeping it well tamped during the bowl and leaving behind a thoroughly burnt tidy pile of salt and pepper toned fine ash and zero moisture. Smoked outdoors, I can't honestly quantify the room note, but I suspect it will not earn any friends among nonsmokers. No cares given on my part; I smoke for my enjoyment, not to smell like a fruit stand or perfume counter. Overall, a rather pleasant experience and unique change of pace from "traditional blends". I'm giving a solid 3 stars. Nothing wrong with this import 'baccy, but I worry that rating it at 4 stars will make it become an everyday blend and doing so would cause it to lose it's uniqueness in my book. I would rather keep a block or two on hand to serve as a change of pace; a means to break the monotony of more traditional pipe blends. Certainly a unique smoke, and for that it's one that I wouldn't suggest as an everyday tobacco. A beauty because of it's straightforward simplicity for those that can appreciate the simple things in life. Dedicated pipe connoisseurs should give this one a test drive and discover the art of simplicity, so wonderfully demonstrated by it.

I bought this due to a sale of buy one get one free and the fact that it looked liked something unusual to try. The smell from the package is like an earthy/grassy and want of a better word barn smell. I do not find it pleasant nor bad. Other than pipe tobacco with burley such as Prince Albert, Carter Hall, etc. I guess this is my first pure burley blend. And yes, this tobacco is dry as a tinder box. I started out with the 'Little Devil' corncob but the bowl just seem too small for this one so I upgraded to the 'General' and it smoked and tasted better. It does burn fast. Since I am trying to review this on the tobacco itself and not the fact that I am not much of a burley smoker fan I will say that it is pretty good and a nice break from the other tobaccos I smoke. The packaging is nice and reminds me of the 50s and 60s.

I like this stuff alright, but more for a blending tobacco than to smoke it straight. I was fortunate to have a lot of this given to me. First taste was when a friend who attended the Chicago show about three years ago grabbed me a couple samples and later when another friend decided he didn't like it and sent me the rest of his 100g package. So what I really have liked about it so far is that it has been free. 🙂

Reading the description, I was not surprised to see this described as cigar like. This was the first thing that went through my mind when I smoked it. It is a burley so far as I know, but it is different from many of the burleys available in the states. Less chocolate and nutty sweetness. More stout, not unlike the burleys used in the C&D burley flakes. IN fact, I would say this is the closest I could compare this too. Semois, however, is more forgiving, to my tastes.

Many stout Burleys just tend to taste like ash when you push them too much and many can be difficult to find that sweet spot where your tempo is just right and you are rewarded with that nutty/chocolatey sweetness. I did not find this to be the case with the semois. It held its taste pretty consistently from beginning to end, almost to a fault as I just found the blend to be too boring and one dimensional by itself. Now added to other blends that may be too weak or too topped, I found this to be an excellent addition that always improved whatever I was smoking.

So in summary, I would give this three stars in all around utility and would recommend everyone to try it if you get a chance as it will be a different experience. Two stars though for a solitary smoke as it is just too boring on its own. Four stars for a blending burley.

I've had a couple dozen bowls of this product so far, and really I want to like it more, but I don't think I can give this the 4/4 that I give to Le Petit Robin. Semois is very unique and it is very good, but I am not reviewing the merits of Semois as the leaf itself, but I must also consider the preparation and smoking experience of this product. The first complaint many have about it, and it might just be the way that it is, but the packaging makes every thick-cut or medium-cut version of this blend I have tried very dry. People say "it is meant to be a lot drier than ordinary tobacco", but when you smoke it, it smokes with the harsh characteristics of tobacco that is much too dry and this definitely puts a damper on otherwise beautiful flavors provided by the tobacco. I have tried re-humidifying it a bit, but the difference is negligible to my taste. Others who really love this product may find this criticism moot, so take it with a grain of salt.

Interestingly, I've not had this experience with Le Petit Robin, a VA/Semois mix from Manil. Le Petit Robin comes in the same packaging, but I'm not sure if it is because of the VA in it or if it is due to a mild humectant of some kind on the blend or just the VA, but it at perfect smoking humidity in the package and I don't experience any such harshness.

Overall I recommend this tobacco because I think the flavor lives up to the hype, but I have ordered my own and sampled from other people's packages of this tobacco, and each time it was way too dry and contributed to a harsh smoking experience. You might not perceive this to be the case and this could be a 4/4 tobacco for you, as others here enjoy.

This was a generous sample from a friend. The tobacco is a chopped ribbon with a few thick bits that are almost like half cubes. It is uniform in color and came dry.

I packed it fairly tight as delivered in a pot. The smoke is earthy with a few notes that are hard to describe. They are not spicy exactly, but there is a sharp, slightly edgy quality to it. There is a little bitter in that edge. I come back the the earthy. I have seen the comparisons to a cigar, but that is not quite it. As I said, it is hard to describe.

This was a good smoke, and I am glad to have tried it given the traction it has gotten on the various forums. It smoked fairly quick for me, and left a slightly sour aftertaste when I was done.