March 07, 2025
Product: Tabac de la Semois Le Petit Robin 100g
Definitely have to pack it tight and slow down with this one or it'll go up like gasoline. If you do that the flavors are great. Wouldn't smoke this one if there's any amount of wind or it will get hot fast.
Essential. Occasional. Beguiling
December 05, 2024
Product: Tabac de la Semois Le Petit Robin 100g
Took a few sessions in a few pipes to find the right one. Settled on a small, narrow-bowled churchwarden (as another reviewer suggested). A churchwarden is especially fitting, because no doubt this is what Gandalf would've smoked.
I've never had anything quite like it. Took several attempts to understand this tobacco. It's a wispy fine shag and you have to pack the hell out of it, and tamp it down with a fairly heavy hand as you go. It's also a very slow sipper. It's a very dry smoke, and it gives off a lot of it. Lots to ponder with this one. Once aquainted I could coax a number of flavors out of this blend. My first impression was a monotone earthy kind of thing, which will likely be the initial impact for the majority of us I'd bet; but there is a lot here to discover.
I find myself craving this tobacco. It's a seldom had notion (maybe once a week), but I do crave it. It's absolutely a unique experience. It didn't blow my mind at first, but it was so different I kept coming back. I'm now at the point that I think I'll need to stockpile it because I fear running out without the means to replace it....Read More
December 29, 2022
Product: Tabac de la Semois Le Petit Robin 100g
This one I like when I want a slow smoke. Packing tight and sipping slowly will yield some surprising flavors. I like it in a smaller bowl. Great choice for a churchwarden. Just remember that shag cut gets hot in a hurry if you puff too fast. A nice tobacco when you’re in the mood for something different....Read More
December 13, 2022
Product: Tabac de la Semois Le Petit Robin 100g
Package note of mildly sweet, earthy, and mild licorice. Tobacco is brown very fine shag, a little on the dry side but soft, no prep needed. Burns fast with few relights. The strength is medium and nic is medium. No flavoring detected. Taste is medium and very consistent, with complex notes of a moderately spicy cigar, rich dirt, mild sweet nuts, dry wood, very mild cocoa, very bready, floral hay like, mildly tangy-sweet background note, and a peppery retro. Burley is leading with the "secrete leaf" (maybe red Virginias?) supporting. Room note is pleasant to tolerable, and aftertaste is great....Read More
March 26, 2022
Product: Tabac de la Semois Le Petit Robin 100g
Honestly it just didn’t work for me at first. It’s something I came back to a couple of times a year and now that I “get it“ I can’t get enough of it. Definitely something that grows on you and don’t be surprised if you don’t enjoy your first puff or first bowl but give it a chance. It is different and unusual and delicious....Read More
March 13, 2022
Product: Tabac de la Semois Le Petit Robin 100g
This stuff is fantastic, but it takes adjusting your usual approach to appreciate and enjoy. Presented neatly in its cube, it is meant to be very dry. Pack it tightly, smoke it slowly, and you'll be treated to an extremely mild and enjoyable blend.
January 24, 2022
Product: Tabac de la Semois Le Petit Robin 100g
Update Oct. '22: Sadly, I've come back to reduce the rating from 5.0 to 3.0 based on my second purchase of LPR. This run lacks the subtle complexity of the previous brick and instead is one-dimensional, even somewhat harsh and bitter starting one-third of the way in. It is fair to recognize that a smaller-scale artisanal product is subject to variance, so I hope to have a future batch that measures up to the wonderful first brick I purchased last year. The sun shines; the rain falls.
(Original review) This is just to concur with all the praise of this rich and nuanced tobacco. I agree in particular with Mart V's writeup, especially his observation of "malty bread" at the core. Earthy, floral, subtly sweet. Really like nothing else, an elegant tour de force....Read More
January 08, 2022
Product: Tabac de la Semois Le Petit Robin 100g
A lovely and unusual thing indeed. The cut is extremely fine, more so even than most cigarette tobacco. It burns clean and remarkably cool, needing hardly any intervention from tamp or cleaner. The top of the bowl is dry and almost Kentucky-like, but if smoked gently, many new aromas of earth, and fruit, and spice reveal themselves over the course of the smoke.
Or, to put it another way, it’s like Five Brothers, but if all five brothers went out and had amazing solo careers, and then joined back up for the reunion tour to end all reunion tours....Read More
July 23, 2021
Product: Tabac de la Semois Le Petit Robin 100g
The flavor and retrohale of this blend are excellent. It's fine shag cut is perfectly suited for a slow even burn to allow those aspects to be fully enjoyed. As with all Tabac Manil blends, it's dry, but doesn't burn too fast or hot, as long as you pace yourself. The tin note is lots of hay. The room note has an airiness to it. Almost as if I were smoking it on a patio. The burleys used here have much of the traditional grainy/ nutty flavors often found in burleys, however, there is a pepperiness, no doubt from whatever mystery leaf Mr. Manil has used here for the forward element of this blend, which is quite reminiscent of the essence of perique in a VaPer, for example. Whatever it is, it works for me. A fine Burley indeed....Read More
April 15, 2021
Product: Tabac de la Semois Le Petit Robin 100g
Others have addressed the cut, so I won't belabor how fine it is. Suffice it to say, it is very finely cut. More so than even I had expected. Like a fine moss, or a dust bunny.
And dry, very dry, like a fine tinder for starting a campfire. But I think it would lose something if it was re-hydrated. Resist the urge to humidify.
It is spicy, grassy, and has a wonderful flavor that I have not tasted in any other tobacco. Packed tightly it still burns in about half the time of other blends in my bowl, but not hot if "sipped."
Fragrant, floral, all of the stuff others have said.
I think you'll like it, or reject it, but I cannot see being ambivalent. Put me in the "like very much" category.
At the size, and the resulting cost (it's not like you can just pick up an ounce to try), I was reluctant to take the plunge on an unknown, but I am very glad that I did. Now it makes me want to get and try the other cuts of pure Semois while I can. GO FOR IT. If it turns out that you don't find it a favorite you can always gift it to your friend who will!...Read More