Tabac Manil Semois Questions

Hopefully mso489(Tom) will chime in. He's our resident Semois guru.

I have smoked all three. I prefer the La Brumeuse the most (the green label).

It's creamier and more balanced than the others.
Next I like the Reserve (brown label). It is similar to the Brumeuse. I find it to be a little spicier and more peppery. It burns a bit slower. I use it in smaller pipes.
I do not care for the Le Petite Robin very much. It's very finely cut and seems best suited for a cigarette rolling tobacco.

It has a little sweetness. It seems to have none of the signature earthy, creamy, cigar components of the other two.

I agree with lasttango. My thoughts are similar. I enjoy the classic green label the most, it is great for fishing or when outdoors because it is dry cured tobacco and doesn't need to be in a moisture sealed pouch.
The only slight difference is that I sometimes enjoy the Le Petite Robin blend.
That said, most of my semois sits on the shelf. I don't have a strong "hankering" for it. It is more a novelty that I smoke here and there because I have it. I don't search it out or cellar it per se.

I prefer the cut of the brown labelled Reserve du Patron. Being very dry, a shag or thin ribbon allows you to pack it tighter for a better smoke, IMO. I also enjoyed Le Petit Robin, but I wasn't so enamored with it, that I keep it in stock in my cellar. It was good, but just didn't thrill me.

@npod where did you see it was dry cured?

All tobacco is cured till bone dry. It is not fully cured till the stem has lost all water, making it crackly. This is how it is sold to manufacturers. Then it ages for months to years while bone dry. This is why I am always so amazed that guys hate for their tobacco to be dry, thinking that makes it stale, when tobacco stays very dry throughout most of the processing, till just before it is blended or tinned.
Semois is merely sold still in the dry state, which would be perfectly fine for any tobacco to be sold. We use tins, because of marketing expectations, and the whole aging cellaring concept is driven by tins. But, it would be perfectly OK for any tobacco to be sold dried and pressed into a cube, like semois. Also, this was how tobacco was sold before the 50's. You could buy a burlap bag full of your tobacco. Or, it would be wrapped in foil, like the semois is.

^^^What he said^^^

Semois comes in a brick shape wrapped in paper only. No tins. It's a dry tobacco and smoked as such. For me it's like dry cured cigars that I used to smoke in the car, no need for humidification. So I use the term "dry cured", which is technically correct, but maybe not the term the tobacco industry uses.

dry cured

Click to expand...

There is air-cured, sun-cured, fire cured, and flue cured.

In an air cured cigar, it doesn't mean that the cigar is drier. All curing processes makes the tobacco bone dry, sometimes for up to three years. But, to roll the cigar, it has to be re-humidified back to at least 65% to make the leaf pliable enough to roll.

Well, I learned just a little more about tobacco curing today. Thanks.

I don't think of myself as any sort of guru for sure, but I do love me some Tabac-Manil Semois. The three versions I've enjoyed, as I think of them, are the thick and medium cut and the Petit Robin shag cut that is a blend. The other two are single-leaf, as I understand. After these other two, I found the shag-cut blend exceeding mild, pleasant but not the same charge for me; I like other unrelated mild blends better. But the thick and medium cut are always a wonderful smoke for me, a burley variant with lots of vibrance and (to me anyway) subtle complexity. I know, some are saying, complexity, huh! But if you love burley, these may have a special appeal. If I had to pick a favorite, it would be the thick cut, but by a nose. Speaking of nose, sniffing the just-opened package may be a put-off; a lot of stable sweeping smell to it, but not once it's in the bowl. It comes extra dry, but you get more tobacco smoking per ounce. It does burn quite fast, but I counteract this a little by using tall not wide-chambered bowl pipes, and this slows down the burn a little and gives you plenty of tobacco in one smoke. For this purpose, for examples, I have a MM cob freehand with a nice acrylic stem; a magnificent Ferndown smooth bent billiard generously given me by a Forums member, and a La Rocca rusticated (curly looped carving) slightly bent poker, all with the taller bowl with standard (not wide) chamber. The member who sent me my first full package of Semois said he'd tried one bowl and thrown up; not sure if that was hyperbole, but he sure didn't like it. Another member had sent me a sample, about which I raved. So it's been quite an experience with Semois. For a trial run, I suggest the thick-cut. If you like blends that are mostly or based in burley, you may find this really good. It's just plain my favorite among many.

My question regarding drycured stems from my knowledge of cigars. A regular cigar needs to be stored and smoked 60-70% humidity. The ones sold as “drycured” like Villiger and cafe creme, danneman, etc... are smoked and stored with humidity. Ive had all of the Manil offerings as they came. It was just an interesting mental connection to make it terms of curing vs hydration. Now what i’d Like to track down are the bouchons de semois!

The Le Petite Robin reminds me of my old favorite rolling tobacco called "Three Castles."
I also wanted to mention that I have two pipes dedicated to Semois (green label). One is a typical 6 inch billiard with a 2 inch bowl. I pack it tight and enjoy a longer smoke with this pipe.

The other is a very small pipe. A nose warmer with a shallow bowl. I use the second for quicker smokes. It's for when I just want some nicotine and I only have 5+/- minutes for a smoke.

I really enjoy Semois in a 1" wide chambered massive bulldog that Dan Chlebove made for me. A really wide chamber really brings out those cigar notes in the smoke, IMO.

Cosmic, I'll try it in one of my broad chambered pipes and see how it goes. Just seems like it would burn really fast, but I'll give it a go, in a pot or author with a wide bowl. I've never thought of Semois as having cigar notes, since I enjoy some cigar leaf blends and have single-leaf cigar leaf I smoke alone or mixed. I was so pleased with my tall narrow bowl theory, and how it smokes, that I haven't experimented much, but I will.

Actually, semois is an air cured cigar leaf. They also make cigars from this tobacco.

Most interesting, cigar leaf. It smells different in the package and burning than what I'm used to as a cigar smell or taste. The burley variant designation makes it sound all very unusual, grown there in Belgium. Supposedly the different climate makes it unique, or that's the pitch. Thank you for the info. I'm not a Semois guru by a long shot, but I'm learning a little bit. Does Semois market the cigars, or does it show up in other cigar brands? I think I'm happy with it as pipe tobacco. It really is a hot fudge sundae in a pipe, to me.

There are quite a few Belgian cigar companies, Ashton being the one that comes to mind first. But, I have no idea what the tobacco is called once manufactured. If it is like in the US, the seed stock would be called semois, but the finished product could be called anything. It would taste relatively different once fermented (or socialized). Also, keep in mind that cigars just don't taste the same in a pipe as they do as a cigar. If you cut up a fine Olivia and put it in your pipe, it doesn't taste anything like a cigar. It's just a burley with a little oily fermented taste on the aftertaste.

But, on the otherhand, I am a little shocked that more people don't taste the obvious cigar notes to semois, even my wife will ask me if I am smoking a cigar in the house if I light up some semois in the next room.