Tambolaka Natural Tobaccos Tambolaka Pipe Tobacco

This was the rubbedout variety, and came pretty crisp. I only smoked 1/3 of a bowl of a traditional clay and it wasn't too much. From now on, I'll use my tiny-bowled Elizabethan-style clay for this (I'll need to get a small-headed screw or nail to use as a tamper). Need a N hit coupled with the taste of a v good strong cigar? This is for you. This is tasty in small doses. Smoke a large bowl of this and you either have a very high N tolerance, or you should not operate any complicated machinery, like a pencil.

Since I know there are many tobaccos out there I would rate a 4, the question arises would I rebuy this particular tobacco, assuming my tastes don't change much more. In this case, the answer is not very likely. But it IS very tasty!

Tambo is a great tobacco IMO. I got it in stick form and steamed it, bringing it back to life. Kind of like Frankenstein, this stuff really is like a monster! After the steaming process I left it out to dry up a bit for about 6 hours. At that point I put most of it in a jar and kept some out to smoke. Upon lighting I feel like I am smoking toby in a far away Indonesian village, it is cool stuff. Figuring that most of the people in the world have never even heard of this stuff. It is very strong, but I like that. I love ropes and plugs and this is right up that alley. This could also be used as a condiment to spice up another tobacco. This is one that should be tried by everyone (except the faint of heart)!

TL;DR: Get This. This is excellent. Might kill you though.

Indonesian tobacco growers managed to create something really close to a miracle, and if it would be any more common and easier to get, it put many many of tobacco producers to a great deal of shame

The combination of qualities in this tobacco is truly amazing: it is very soft, extremely complex in flavour and yet it is strong as hell.

I've received mine in its raw form: 3 inch long round stick about 1.5 inch in diameter, wrapped in very rough cord. The stuff was stiff as a brick and looked like it is made of dried-up clay, from outside there wasn't a single hint that this log has anything to do with tobacco leaves.

Some people asking whether they can simply rub it as you would do with a normal flake, and it is about as possible as rubbing a stone. It took me a very sharp and sturdy knife to chip a disk off the stick. Inside, it was as solid as outside, but very nice and oily. It is a tobacco in it's purest form: nothing added or taken away (however I did think that they might keep those logs a bit too close to compost heap when I was steaming and unraveling it)

It took good amount of steaming to get this thing to break apart, but once it started to do so, it definitely looked promising. I've separated it into very subtle and very oily, fermented tobacco leaves. Word of warning though, it expands A LOT: 160g stick probably will yield around 1-1.5 litre jar full of proper tobacco. Which then will need cutting and a bit of drying out. And you WOULD WANT to use rubber gloves while working with it, the amount of oilyness once it's steamed is astonishing.

And then I smoked it, a small bowl corn-cob pipe full of wide-cut ribbons. It took a bit of relights to get it started (probably could use a bit more drying), but once it was lit, it stayed this way, burning very evenly and cool.

The taste was amazing. Being a simple tobacco without any additives, the taste is so soft, rich and satisfying that I couldn't believe it. It does resemble a very, very good cigar (which is understandable since same tobacco is used for cigars). Despite the fact that smell during steaming was sometimes rather hideous, both flavour and room note are very nice. Prepared tobacco actually does smell like a tea somewhat.

It started with excellent earthly and somewhat fruity notes, and stayed excellent till the end of the bowl, with various smell nuances appearing along the way. It gives a hint of smokiness and pretty much every taste nuance that can come from tobacco during smoke, but stays unbelievably smooth and full-bodied all the way.

The smoke is thick and rich, very cigar-like but much softer and smoother. No matter what I did, be it sipping or puffing like a steam train, I wasn't able to overheat the pipe. There was no bite at all, no matter how hard I puff. It is cool all the way, and very little moisture was found on balsa filter, despite tobacco being very oily and rather moist when I packed it. It is unbelievable. I never smoked anything like it in my whole experience. God save you, by the way, if you decided to inhale it, unless you have lungs and throat of steel and generally you are a solidly-built robot. It probably would crumble lesser robots too.

It is also strong. No, it's STRONG. It is really surprising how something this smooth, soft and tasty can be that strong, it's almost if you are making love with Monica Bellucci, but in the end you realize it was Mike Tyson all the way and he actually was beating you pretty hard. I once made a mistake of taking it as a morning smoke on empty stomach and I was barely able to walk from a small bowl. Imagine having a really full-bodied churchill cigar, only in a small bowl and this probably would be it. Only stronger and tastier.

It probably would be nice in a blend with something (latakia?) to reduce it's strength, but frankly, I can't think of anything that might add something positive to the taste.

Get this tobacco. Smuggle it, steal it, buy it - if you are a tobacco aficionado, missing this one would be a disaster. Get it fast: there is no way something like this can exist long enough in modern world, it is bound to get worse, and if big tobacco brands realize full extent of this tobacco, they probably will bomb Indonesia to make sure no-one knows of it.

Commit war crimes in Indonesia and ask this as your last wish in front of a firing squad if you have to, but get it.

And don't smoke it on empty stomach, for god's sake. Also do not get the idea of smoking packaging rope too, i've tried it and it wasn't great at all.

Well, after a couple of dozen bowls, in a half dozen different pipes...this one is certainly a welcome item. To me it comes off as being sweet, smokey, and with a kinda strange undertow of an 'anise-raisin-hemp' flavor/aroma. It smokes cool and very, very clean and is totally at the ideal mositure level as it came, in the pouch. Super easy to light and get going. Haven't played with the 'stick' thing as yet. The stuff looks like last year's leaf mulch that's been left in the compost pile for a year, then nicely dried, and dyed to a uniform dark reddish brown color...just taking part in the description contest here. Whatever...it's totally heaven in the bowl. Dy-No-Mite!

A few on other sites have mentioned it as a blender, though I think it stands very well on it's own. Blending might be interesting, though, as it has a distinct likeness to an Oriental already with that smokey background and the musty sweet hempish notes. But I'm not a blender and I digress. I think I'll just enjoy it as is. It's unique, quite potent and overall one of the most significant new finds I've come across in a long, long while. Like I said above...it's heaven in the bowl.

Short Story: This is an instant classic.

I received an ounce of Tambolaka as a gift; it was already rubbed out and ready to smoke. It was on the dry side when I smoked the first bowl. There is a gamey, vegetal aspect in addition to natural tobacco flavor that was particularly noticeable in the first few bowls. I didn't know if I would be able to get past that at first but found that I kept coming back for more. This stuff grows on you. The taste that I spoke of is not unpleasant but is unlike anything I've experienced up to now. It is a relatively strong (nicotine) tobacco compared to most available tobaccos. It burns fairly quickly and dry, but that may be because my sample is fairly dry. The flavor is very satisfying, just plain tobacco without adornment. I did not find it to be bitter.

I have the rubbed-out version. Didn't want to struggle with the cylindrical granitic blocks I've been reading about. Mine is quite dry, with tough little flakes that look like miniature black Corn Flakes. It packs beautifully, and because it's dry (I prefer all my tobacco on the dry-ish side) there's little worry about packing it too tightly. I crammed it in and there's still plenty of air flow.

I first smoked this fresh off the UPS truck five years ago. My memory is not that razor sharp for things like this, but I feel it's mellowed in flavor over the years. It's still strong but surprisingly smooth.

Yup, it's strong. If you like vitamin N look no further. I like to exhale through my nose when possible to get more of the flavors in a tobacco, but I don't really do that with this one - it's just a little too spicy for that, so it actually robs from the nuances in the flavor.

Speaking of flavor, it's similar in some ways to the strong ropes and twists. Some call it an "industrial" or "oily" taste, which in my opinion is a good thing. It's certainly unique, very earthy but not campfire smoky like a strong Latakia blend.

Tonight I'm enjoying it with a generous pour of Talisker 10 Year which actually stands up to the Tambo very well. This weed is a very good alternative to cigars, but be careful - one inch of this in a bowl about the same diameter as a cigar will put a noob on his or her tush faster than any six-inch stogie. And I like strong cigars!

Many talk about blending it with other tobaccos, but I am a purist and rarely do that. However, I am tempted to mix in a little pure Latakia to give it that smoky punch I love. I'll let you know how that turns out...

I have tried only several times. 6 bowls total. It's a pipe tobacco, yes, but not so good pipe tobacco as its told.

Never tried to mix with other pipe tobacco. Just smoke it straight several times in local pipe smokers gathering. No door- slam, dog-bites, or even smack down effect, or any other story proven. I don't know, perhaps I have to inhale to get those effects? No thanks.

I've made order directly to TNT, and got a fast reply. But I have made mistake by adding extra letter. No rejection confirmation from my bank. Until tonight I realize there was a rejection. I sent again, and I asked for apology for this misunderstanding. I attached PDF file (bank prove) and an edited pic (to hide my balance, of course). The respond from seller was very unpleasant by accusing me as an online fraudsters, photoshop freak.

For just an ordinary pipe tobacco, just average, and this kind of service, i think this pipe tobacco is not worth to buy.

don't get caught by the hype.

A solid tobacco, but I use it only in small quantities and mixed with a burley or an english... otherwise the taste and nicotine are just TOO much... not to mention the powerful tingling I get in my mouth and throat if I smoke it straight!!

As a condiment however, I enjoy it very much... it adds richness - somewhat cigar-like - to a smoke. However, even like this my wife can't stand being near it!

An aside: Preparation went a bit sour for me (make sure to let it dry FULLY)... all seemed well until spots of mold started forming in my largest jar of tambolaka! Needless to say I had to do some emergency surgery, amputating a decent bit of it, but the rest seems o.k. :s

Loose, pre-chopped. WOW! Looks and smells like Jagermeister barfed onto the floor and soaked up by pieces of a cigar that got slammed in a car door a few times, allowed to dry, and then chewed up by a dog. I tried to rub it out. Bruised the palms of my hands, which were by then tingly and slightly numb from the nicotine. Put it in the mortar & pestle to no avail - just left some skid-marks. I contemplated going down to the corner Mexi-Mart to obtain a Molcajete (South American mortar & pestle hand-carved from lava, available at every bodega in Los Angeles), but curiosity got the best of me and I dropped a few of these unprocessesed black rocks into an unsuspecting Featherweight. Lit, puffed once, put it down. Dang. I'm going to have to learn some manners if I want to smoke this stuff. God help me if I accidentally inhale. Oh well, the hospital is only two blocks away, and the cell phone is handy. Lit again, puffed a few times. My nose burned and my eyes watered, but the flavor was starting to come through. My tongue was starting to get that bitter taste around the edges like I had eaten too many sweets. Puffed again, very gently, snorking by using the "humming-bird" technique with my tongue. Never thought I would use that in pipe smoking. Wow that's good. Like a Virginia / Burley blend digested by a vegetarian dinosaur. Slightly sweet, barely spicey, robust and full flavored. Light notes of chocolate & natural licorice. Burned all the way down to black-speckled grey ash, fully blackening a pipe cleaner that was used for cleanup. This is now at the top of my list. I will be ordering a meter of this in stick form. Loading the Featherweight again...