Manufacturer Description:
This elegant, mysterious inhabitant of the African jungle was first spotted living in Zaire today, at the transition from the 19th to the 20th century. And the fragrance and taste of our new homonymous tobacco are also mysterious. Sugar-containing golden Virginia, after careful flake pressing carefully gently made ready for smoking by hand, forms the basis. To lift the tobacco sweetness, a creamy vanilla flavor was added and refined with rose essence, optically underlined by the addition of real rose petals. An aromatic-gentle dream!
Characterisation:
The Okapi is a medium and light brown Ready Rubbed, with small bright inclusions. The cut is medium long and wide and generally very evenly loosened. In between you will find individual rose petals, which can also be heard clearly in the scent, but you also sniff an aroma that clearly reminds of biscuits, which results in an attractive combination. Since the pressed tobacco still has a slight residual moisture, it should be allowed to pre-dry briefly before being plugged.
Plugging:
With a little experience in using Ready Rubbed tobaccos, the plugging is quite easy. One should not give the tobacco too hard or too high in the pipe and maybe even choose a not too small pipe, so that the compressed tobacco has space and can expand. Loose crumbs and rubbed fibers as completion of the filling facilitate the acceptance of the flame.
Light up:
If, after the first flame, one observes that the surface of the tobacco is smoothed with the tamper, and then once more thoroughly fires, then one obtains, without much effort, a uniform glow, which does not cause any difficulties until the end.
Smoking properties:
The Okapi is very gentle, but not surprisingly light. This works very harmoniously in combination with the rose petals mixed in the tobacco, which give the mixture its very own floral component. This aroma reminiscent of oriental rose water is found in hardly any other tobacco, which makes the Okapi very special. The Virginia is well chosen, fit its mild, absolutely non-snappy natural flavors with their sweetness but very well to the flowery character of Okapi. Thanks to the used Ready Rubbed the burning is very quiet and also uncomplicated. The aroma is preserved until just before the end, before the tobacco extinguishes. There are only a few unburned crumbs left, with some medium gray ash and a little condensate. But all that does not do much cleaning work.
Redolency:
In the room smoky tobacco mixes with the flowery rose aroma, so that it depends on the society, whether it suits the Okapi.
Conclusion:
For those who are familiar with Ready Rubbed tobaccos, the Okapi is not a big challenge, but even for beginners, the medium and light brown tobacco is suitable, as it hardly makes problems in the pipe and forgives mistakes. The interesting thing about the Okapi is the mixed in rose petals that really give the tobacco that certain something. One should, however, like flowery tobaccos, such as Irish mixtures, because the rose flavor can be very intense and even the mild-sweet Virginia does not oppose it. If you like the fragrance in an oriental perfume shop, you will love this tobacco! The Okapi is a tobacco that you either like or dislike, but it's always worth a try.
Copyright © 2019 by TECON GmbH
with friendly support of Dennis Hübel
