[Please note that, in this review, I used the Jungle Tobacco as a pipe tobacco] Definitely an interesting tobacco (in a good way). Immediately after slicing open the bag, I buried my nose in it to get a whiff of the concentrated smell. I'm not sure if it was just me, but, the plug had a 'dark' fruity note... almost like a newly-opened jar of homemade blackcurrant or blackberry jam. Since first hearing about it, I thought that this plug/flake/bundle would be like a rough, similarly-bundled rustica that I smoked several years ago (I even had some ibuprofen and a tall glass of water on standby). I have to admit... I was dead wrong. As Jitterbugdude said, "nice and robust, not to be confused with 'strong.'" I when I sliced down this plug, I left it in thicker, still-pressed strips, like a lightly rubbed flake, and smoked it in a pipe... this slowed the burn and likely contributed to the relative mildness of the smoke. Still, not the nicotine freight train that I expected. Though relatively mild, I would consider this a 'drier,' woodier smoke... almost like smoking a light cigar wrapper leaf without an over-powering 'cigar flavor' (that may just be me). In any case, I like the Jungle Tobacco... it's a nice change of pace. It seems like it would be right up the alley of people who enjoy cigar leaf or straight burley pipe blends. Because of its relative mildness, this tobacco would be great for pipe smokers experimenting with cigar blends and, as Jitterbugdude points out, cigar smokers transitioning to (or, at least, experimenting with) pipes.
