Vinent Manil -Reserve du Patron
Pure Semois - Medium Cut
Okay, I'm a bit of a newbie, trying a bunch of different tobaccos, and I'm a sucker for a good backstory. A farmer and his wife in Belgium growing, processing, packing and selling their own regional tobacco, and doing it all themselves? Sounds pretty cool. Reading the reviews of this, I did also come across the New York Times article that brought this brand to greater public attention, too. What the heck, I thought, I'll give it a try.
I got my "golden brick" in the mail today, and smoked some.
The reviews I had read said "unlike any other tobacco" with an earthy,"barnyard" pouch note, and some cigar-like qualities.
Well, when you're a beginning pipe smoker, a lot of the varieties you try taste different than anything you've had before, so I guess that was accurate for me.
As far as the "barnyard" aroma, I did get that. A bit of a smell of manure, hay, grain, silage, etc. This might not be to everyone's liking, but I grew up in farming country in Northern NY, and it's a pleasant, comforting smell to me that brings back a lot of good memories.
Cigar like? I'm not a fan of cigars, and I guess this does smell and taste closer to a cigar than most pipe tobaccos, but I thought it was still quite a bit different.
Overall, I found it to be a very pleasant, natural, earthy-type smoke. Not at all harsh to me, and very enjoyable. I'm concluding that I lean towards burleys anyways, and I liked this a lot.
It's packaged very dry, and I packed it pretty tight, and it burned well.
It's expensive, $24.90 for 3.5 ounces. Would I buy it again? Well, I'm a fairly infrequent smoker, so this will probably last me ages. But I'd probably be up for more when this runs out. Very nice.
So that's the take from my uneducated palate.
Pure Semois - Medium Cut
Okay, I'm a bit of a newbie, trying a bunch of different tobaccos, and I'm a sucker for a good backstory. A farmer and his wife in Belgium growing, processing, packing and selling their own regional tobacco, and doing it all themselves? Sounds pretty cool. Reading the reviews of this, I did also come across the New York Times article that brought this brand to greater public attention, too. What the heck, I thought, I'll give it a try.
I got my "golden brick" in the mail today, and smoked some.
The reviews I had read said "unlike any other tobacco" with an earthy,"barnyard" pouch note, and some cigar-like qualities.
Well, when you're a beginning pipe smoker, a lot of the varieties you try taste different than anything you've had before, so I guess that was accurate for me.
As far as the "barnyard" aroma, I did get that. A bit of a smell of manure, hay, grain, silage, etc. This might not be to everyone's liking, but I grew up in farming country in Northern NY, and it's a pleasant, comforting smell to me that brings back a lot of good memories.
Cigar like? I'm not a fan of cigars, and I guess this does smell and taste closer to a cigar than most pipe tobaccos, but I thought it was still quite a bit different.
Overall, I found it to be a very pleasant, natural, earthy-type smoke. Not at all harsh to me, and very enjoyable. I'm concluding that I lean towards burleys anyways, and I liked this a lot.
It's packaged very dry, and I packed it pretty tight, and it burned well.
It's expensive, $24.90 for 3.5 ounces. Would I buy it again? Well, I'm a fairly infrequent smoker, so this will probably last me ages. But I'd probably be up for more when this runs out. Very nice.
So that's the take from my uneducated palate.