When I first saw the title of your post, I immediately thought of Tambolaka. I really like it, and your assessment is spot on. I am nursing my jar to make it last, but that's okay because it is definitely not an everyday smoke for me. If you haven't tried it, you must, at least to boast that you survived the experience!
I recall the texture being between beef jerkey, plastic, and rubber. It was thin.
I recall reading that it had a sudden strong effect, so I was very careful to avoid smoking a full chamber-worth. I put some strips in my pipe and didn't stuff the chamber full. I smoked ~ 1/3 of the bowl.
The effect from what I smoked was enough to give me my fill, but it wasn't overpowering or knock me down like I feared. To put it another way, the nicotine load from what I smoked was OK and under control.
I keep a pipe blend list of what I've tried, and this was what I noted in it about Tambolaka and about Whole Leaf Rustica:
Tambolaka: Indonesian cured tobacco with Beef Jerky texture, Black color, strong nicotine, and little smell. The slight smell was maybe like sweet tropical wood or leafiness.
Nicotiana Rustica from the "Whole Leaf" company: I only smoked half a bowl and it was like smoking most of a strong cigar in terms of nic impact. I smoked it dry like it came. The tin note was like a bit dusty 19th century wood-walled museum, with a weak, normal tobacco smell and slight sweet natural tobacco plum note, with maybe a marginal crude/rough/rustic quality.
I don't recall getting woozy from Tambolaka or N. Rustica. Pipe Smoking is a slow enough process that I have the nicotine load under control.
When I started smoking a few decades ago, I gravitated to cigars because I liked the theme of Cuban cigars. I've typically avoided inhaling tobacco over the years, the main exception being hookah/kayan smoke.
But ironically, cigars are the tobacco product that has knocked me down the strongest. On ~4 different days I've felt so sick in the stomache or gotten such a headache from cigars that I spend the rest of the day in bed. Often a single full-sized cigar is enough to knock me out like this.
After getting more into pipes as a hobby I've learned more about eating and drinking sugar to avoid this. Showers are good too. But cigars still have a strong impact on me.
