THE PROFOUND AND SOUL-STIRRING STENCH

This post was written after shabbes ("shabbat"; the sabbath), the events described herein occurred well before then.  For the benefit of my Jewish readers, I maintain the pretense that I do not set fire to or lift anything on the internet, from Friday dusk till Saturday same time.
Actually, that would be just BEFORE nightfall on Friday, and a short while after that the next day.

Many of my readers, or the fellow opinionists listed in the blogroll on the right-hand side, are sabbath-observant, whereas being myself of solid Protestant heritage (mostly of the severely disapproving kind, going back over a dozen generations), I cannot lay claim to any Judaic significance.
And I'm too much a skeptic to make a sudden leaps of faith.
In case you were wondering about my own "spirituality".

They abstain for a day, my gears remain in overdrive.
It seems an unfair advantage to take.


But I explain this primarily as a preamble to what I wish to mention, which is that Mordche's pipe has been reamed.

Mordche, as you will davka shper, is Jewish. A relaxed black hatter.
He brought in his pipe yesterday, which is when it was reamed and given a quick buff. No melacha on shabbes was involved, and everything took place well before shekiah. The stem is black again, the inside smooth.
This is the same pipe he bought back in October (on a Sunday), which was mentioned in this post: 'Bearded men emitting smells.

[To clarify, it was on the safe side of shekiah, whether or not he is makpid Rabbeinu Tam. There was plenty of time for him to daven mincha, so the whole machloikes isn't even relevant in this case.]

While I performed the necessary twiddling and fiddling, he told me that until the first cup of coffee of the day, plus a pill for his fibrillation, and the lighting of that first pipe, he feels ghastly.
But once these things have been accomplished (coffee, pill, pipe), life is beautiful and sunny again.

This is something I can easily understand. I too rely on that first cup of coffee for rays of sunlight in the morning. The first pipe waits, because my apartment mate is a non-smoker. And I do not have any medical conditions that need chemistry. But good lord that first cup of coffee, good lord.
Ya Ribon Olam, ravrevin ovedach ve takifin!

Coffee gets it all up and running.

Mordche's first pipe each day is Dunhill Nightcap. Which is a lovely sooty Latakia bomb, all creosote and terpeneols, with a little black Virginia to carry and extend the smoke-cured leaf, and some brown Virginias to support. But over fifty percent Latakia. Non-smoking vegetarian wheatgerm freaks and many women will likely run away screaming if you light it up. Which is a delicious concept, if you think about it. My pipe tobacco of choice will seldom do that.
Except for people who are "innocent".
And super "refined".

He says there is nothing nicer than sitting indoors, near the window, smoking a bowlful from the dark side of Asia Minor while listening to the rain outside. Given that he's a very old man now, he's had an entire lifetime of enjoying that; it's lovely that he still does so, and has relatives who will tolerate it.

This is the second time he's been by since October. He now has enough Nightcap and Arango's Balkan Supreme to last until January.
It's going to be a very wet month.


VALKENSWAARD?

Maybe I will switch back to the Balkan blends myself for a while, as rain and Latakia are indeed a wonderful combination, one rich with evocative associations and pleasurable memories.

[Balkan blends: a misnomer, as these are also called English mixtures, which is also not strictly correct. The proper term is 'Oriental mixture'. English mixtures in American parlance are Orientals with Latakia forward, Balkans are English mixtures with a very noticeable Turkish element. The British, bless their hearts, will sometimes call something 'Balkan' when it has no Turkish at all, but does have a crapload of Latakia. Most English pipe smokers in this day and age smoke perfectly horrid aromatics. Unless they stil swear by St. Bruno and Gold Block.]

In Valkenswaard the day would be dark, and lights would be on well before nightfall during downpours. The Eindhovensche Weg outside the club would glisten wetly in the semi-dusk, reflections from the wet pavement augmenting whatever thin light came through the clouds. Nobody was at Parsifal at that hour, I had the space all to myself. Big pot of tea on the table, newspapers and schoolbooks, a full tin of tobacco and a selection of pipes to smoke. Ah, fragrant heaven!

I was the only one of the lads that enjoyed Balkan style mixtures. The other pipesmokers indulged in various brands of ribbon-cut Maryland ("Bay tobaccos'), or mild Dutch Cavendishes. One or two loved Virginia flakes. They might be around in early evening, and a fresh pot of coffee would be brewed at that time.

There rich stink of the Balkans is infinitely comforting and home-like.

Dunhill 965, Dunhill Nightcap, Dunhill Standard Mixture, Dunhill London Mixture, Balkan Sobranie, Rattray's Highland Targe, Rattray's Black Mallory, Rattray's Red Rapparee, Rattray's Accountants' Mixture, et autres.

[These are all between thirty and fifty percent Latakia. At the low end, it adds depth and richness, at the high end it dominates and permeates. Turkish is anywhere between fifteen and twenty five percent, from a team-player to a grassy resinous sultry whoomp. The rest is Virginia: the more Latakia and Turkish there is, the less complex the blend of flue-cured leaves underlying it, and the more important it is to have a strong-minded Virginia that can support the stinky profundity. At fifty percent plus Latakia, perhaps a medium brown flake, and a streak of black ribbon only. Which in any case shades it towards a Scottish mixture.]

Forests and autumn glades, meadows wet with descending evening mist. Bogs, fens, moorlands, country lanes deep in leaves, tall trees shielding the solitary wanderer from the winds, the Dommel river winding it's way past the old mill toward the village a few miles distant, grey twilights, sheltered farms, and dark copses of trees along the way.


One of these days, when I am home and it is raining cats and dogs, I will open a tin of either Dunhill or Greg Pease, load up a big bowl, and light up. And life will be sunny again.

Boruch Hashem.

TOBACCO INDEX


==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================

QUITE NICE WITH A SILLY LABEL

Late lunch: lo mai kai, charsiu sou, and jin dui. Plus a bowlful of Russ Ouellette's imitation of Balkan Sobranie 759 (Black House Pipe Tobacco, marketed by Hearth and Home).


糯米雞
Lo mai kai

Glutinous rice and chicken chunks, black mushrooms, and lapcheung, wrapped in a lotus leaf and steamed. The flavours meld magnificently, and the chicken-infused sticky rice is a comforting and hearty meal.
Very good with hot sauce.


叉燒酥
Chaa siu sou

A small flaky pastry filled with barbecued pork. Delicious, and available at dimsummeries and coffee shops all over Chinatown. Tourist do not know what it is, and consequently look at it without realizing that it is edible.
Very good with hot sauce.


煎堆
Jin deui

A glutinous rice flour dough ball filled with sweet lotus seed paste, rolled in sesame seeds, and plonked into a vat of hot oil. A mysterious fried object which any Dutchman would instinctively love. Except he would almost certainly call it onde onde, and buy it at the toko.
Not so good with hot sauce.
You knew that.


BALKAN SOBRANIE 759
An imitation of, acclaimed.

There was a competition in 2011 to duplicate, if possible, a legendary pipe tobacco blend which is no longer made. Personally I think such events are remarkably silly, as people's nasal-memories always shift over time, and consequently within only a few years each person remembers something different about a tobacco.

Black House Pipe Tobacco, by Hearth and Home

Like another praiseworthy contender ('Blue Mountain', by McClelland Tobacco Company of Kansas City), this mixture barely resembles the target, being not even faintly recollective, and barely even in the same ball park. And like that other one, it is a very enjoyable smoke, which is worth buying for its own sake. Whatever the heck goes on in Russ Ouellette's subconscious -- or his nose -- is a disturbing and profound mystery, and sometimes yields interesting and strange results.
I like it. But if I ever tell Greg that, he may think me queer.
So I shall keep diplomatically silent.


For some reason, many things I like go well with hot sauce. I'd go out on a limb and state that pipe tobacco probably doesn't, but before or after the hot sauce is fine. Many pipe smokers like hot sauce.
Those that don't are likely perverts.

Lo mai kai, charsiu sou, jin dui, hot sauce, and pipe tobacco.

If you like four out of those five you are probably great to hang around with, a remarkable person, and lovely company.
We can work on the fifth.

TOBACCO INDEX


==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================

BALKAN SOBRANIE ARTICLE BY G. L. PEASE

Greg Pease discusses Balkan Sobranie Smoking Mixture in an article at PipesMagazine.com.
It is a significant essay, which pipe smokers will find well-worth reading.


BALKAN SOBRIETY by G.L. Pease
http://pipesmagazine.com/blog/out-of-the-ashes/balkan-sobriety/#more-5519


One of the things he reveals is that the original recipe contained 50% Latakia, which would put it exactly in line with several other well-known mixtures, including what was probably the most popular blend at Drucquer & Sons in Berkeley.

The proportion of 'Coarse Cut Turkish' was 20%. The other tobaccos are unidentifiable, but were most likely flue-cured products.


I have not smoked a significant quantity of the Gallagher versions of Balkan Sobranie - his evidence establishes that Gallagher tinkered with the recipe several times, reducing the Latakia content - and as far as the Drucquer mixtures are concerned I did not smoke them after the early eighties either, as I was going through a bit of a non-smoking spell.
By the time I woke up, both Drucquers and Balkan Sobranie had disappeared.


50%

That fifty percent proportion is very interesting. When I started blending on my own again, I remembered what I had smoked before among the Druquer spectrum, and compounded accordingly.
The Latakia was not the same as it once had been.
Many of the varietal Virginias and other American tobaccos that were available to Drucquers were no longer made.
Black Virginia Ribbon was nowhere to be found.
Consequently my first efforts, while conceptually similar to what I had liked in the past, were unsmokeable monstrosities.
This was back around the turn of the century, and since then I have come up with better personal mixtures.
Of some of them I've made several batches over the years.


It wasn't till Marty Pulvers at Sherlock's Haven on Battery Street introduced me to Greg's products that I realized that actually there were still many fine tobaccos well worth smoking. My initial stockpiling of the new era was several dozen cans of Greg's blends, significantly Kensington and Blackpoint.
Since then I've also put aside a few score tins of Westminster.
Et autres. Lots of autres.

G. L. Pease learned at Drucquer's that age makes a difference.


Age was something that many of the factories in operation since the sixties did not fully understand. They had streamlined their production methods, tightened up their supply chains, and by the eighties what had taken years from farm to smoker was often a much younger, "fresher" product. Some old-style manufacturers had been notorious for having blending stocks older than the owner's grandchildren.
In the modern era, tying up funds for that length of time lessened competitiveness, especially when others kept no more on hand than what was needed for the next production run.
The effect of increased efficiencies on the blends was noticeable over time.
Retail tobacconists and wholesalers also tightened up their stocking practices.
That too had its effect.
Even if the composition was EXACTLY the same as it always had been, it no longer yielded the same end-result.

Robert Rex at Drucquer's understood the effect of age on tobacco.
Greg Pease understood the effect of age on tobacco.

When I first popped open a tin of Greg Pease's Kensington, it reminded me of the smell from tins of Balkan Sobranie when I first became fond of the mixture back in Valkenswaard.
My tobacconist at the time had a supply which had been acquired years before, and I was the first customer in a very long time to develop a fondness for stinky English offerings, as the vast majority of his clientele prefered cigarettes or Dutch cigars. At some point he ran out of stock, and I survived on various other products, including some Dunhill mixtures that had been gathering dust. The newer supply didn't taste quite the same, and when I returned to the States in 1978, the Balkan Sobranie here did not taste the same either.
A certain smell was missing. Plus something else.

Was it really Balkan Sobranie? I had doubts.

But it did have the right amount of Latakia.

So it kept me happy for a while.


THAT CREOSOTE REEK

Nowadays I do not use more than about 42.5% Latakia in my own experimental mixtures. And really, given the blending tobaccos available to the average consumer, 36% to 40% is probably best. This week I've smoked several bowls of something I put together a few months ago that's around thirty percent Latakia, the rest being mostly a medium red Virginia flake, plus some other stuff including Turkish.
The proportions seem quite balanced. And it's pleasantly leathery.


In conversation recently, Greg stated that the quality of Latakia available today is excellent, and again mentioned that since the seventies or earlier the leaf available has been Cyprian rather than Syrian.
He avers that the Latakia today is much the same as we used at Drucquers.
The differences between the two types can be significant - Cyprus grows Smyrna seed tobacco (small leaf, more or less 'Turkish') - whereas Syrian was usually Shek al Bint; large leaf, and to my mind that suggests something more akin to a mild air-cured tobacco, possibly somewhat similar to Maryland (?).
The smoke-curing is also different.

I tend to doubt that modern Latakia is sustainable in a mixture at anywhere near the measure that was once fairly common. But Greg has access to much more good blending stock, and greater variety too. Plus a lot more familiarity and experience with tobacco.
So I'll yield the floor, and refer you to his article for more assured information about Balkan Sobranie.


Besides, Kensington and Westminster are among my favourite tobaccos.
He sure knows how to make a lovely blend.

TOBACCO INDEX


==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================

YENIDJE

Much of the mystique surrounding the term 'Yenidje' as used by Sobranie of London revolves around a Turkish tobacco which allegedly gave the product a rare perfume, a sweetness, and a resinous quality.
And part of the problem in correctly identifying that leaf lies in the name itself. Yenidje simply means "new settlement" or "new village".

[The term 'Turkish' refers to all tobaccos grown within the Ottoman sphere, including the Balkans, all of Asia Minor, the Levant, Persia, the Black Sea regions, and Egypt. Nowadays it generally is applied to small-leaf tobacco grown in a Mediterranean climate which is comparatively low in nicotine and possesses a grassy fragrance.
Turkish tobaccos, generally speaking, are a labour intensive crop that varies considerably from region to region and from soil type to soil type.]

So what is 'yenidje'?


YENIDJE

Giannitsa in Greece is in Macedonia near where Alexander the Great was born.
Gennisea in Xanthi is near the border with Bulgaria.
Yanitsa ('yeni shehir': new city) in Thessaly is now named Larissa.
Yenice in Çanakkale Province of Turkey is opposite Gallipoli at the entrance to the Dardanelles.
Yenice in Karabük Province is in the north, just south of the Black Sea.
Yenice in Mersin Province is in the south on the Mediterranean Sea, near Hatay.

These aren't the only Yenidjes of record. In fact, almost everywhere in the Turkic world, including Central Asia and the Balkans, Yenidje in various spellings littered the land.

Tobacco is grown or traded in all of the places named above. Yenidje could therefore mean Macedonian, Bulgarian, Xanthi, Samsoun, something akin to Smyrna, or something else entirely.

NOTE: for an earlier mention of Yenidje on this blog, see this link: http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2008/08/balkan-sobranie-postscript.html.
Mentioned in regards to Balkan Sobranie.


BALKAN

By the late nineteenth century the Balkan region was split among different powers and divided along ethnic, religious, and linguistic lines. Ottoman Turkey, the Austro-Hungarians, Greece, and Russia either ruled outright or meddled in each others' bailiwicks, and intrigue in St. Petersburg, Vienna, Athens, and Constantinople often had consequences in local affairs.
With the Serbians and Russians taking sides in the Macedonian question and the Bulgarian National Revival, the Southern Balkans became of interest also to Russian revolutionaries.
Add the ambitions of the Italians and the Germans, and it is easy to see why the region was an irresistible political tinderbox.

David Redstone of Sobranie Ltd. was originally Dovid Roitenshtein (or Roitenshtern) from Odessa, a political troublemaker who emigrated to England in 1907 following stints in jail for anti-Czarist activity, and subsequently Anglified his name like relatives who preceded him in London.
After a number of years in the tobacco trade on behalf of others, he established a name not only for pipe mixtures, but also for excellent Russian and Turkish cigarettes.
Since words in his hands were both political and cultural more than dryly factual, there is little reason to assume that the term 'Yenidje' meant either a dominant ingredient or an actual specific origin.

Prilep and Yaka tobaccos were cultivated in Macedonia since before 1873 when the Ottoman Tobacco Monopoly started processing crops locally for export, and were I a betting man I would wager that the term Yenidje as used by Sobranie of London (established 1879) was meant to differentiate Balkan tobaccos from Orientals grown further south (Turkey), or even as a marketing gimmick, rather than to identify the main leaf in the blend.
It is quite possible that the term Yenidje was useful to distinguish this 'newer' Macedonian leaf from other more established 'Turkish' varieties.

[The Ottoman Tobacco Monopoly was one of the institutions created to increase revenue in the interests of satisfying foreign banks and whittling down the enormous national debt. Tobacco was one of the few crops in demand for export. Under their aegis, growing areas were expanded, and processing improved.]

Given that geographic source terms such as Turkish, Virginia, and Burley have long referred to three separate styles of tobacco and are used quite generically, except on a certificate of provenance 'Yenidje' might be nearly meaningless in any case.

[Virginia: flue-cured; the tobacco leaf is killed and fast dried in heated barns, which preserves the natural sugars yielding a sweet medium strength leaf. Burley: air-cured, originally from Kentucky and Tennessee; the leaf is dried outdoors, maintaining nicotine and certain chocolate-like flavours. Maryland and Caporal are close relatives of Burley which are often steamed under pressure till dark to further develop the taste.
Nowadays Turkish is used primarily for Greek, Cyprian, Turkish and Levantine tobaccos that are not Latakia.
Latakia, formerly tobacco from the port of that name in Syria, now also comes from Cyprus. What differentiates Turkish from Latakia is the curing process, Latakia being a smoke-cured leaf that is dark, tarry, and crumbly because of the incorporated soot. Both types fall under the heading of Oriental Tobacco - which doesn't include Indonesian leaf, Virginia or Burley grown in India, Thailand, or Indo-China, or the thin and acrid tasting Chinese crops. Russian tobacco can be any one of these types, or even some nasty greenish-black shag of unidentifiable origin, depending on region and process.]


With all that in mind, you will surely understand my interest upon once again opening a tin from McClelland's 'Grand Orientals' series, even though I've smoked the product in question before.


YENIDJE SUPREME
[GRAND ORIENTALS, by McCLELLAND]

Tin blurb: "The finest of Xanthi in this blend comes from the best original Yenidje growing area of Western Thrace. These small, delicately aromatic, top leaves from the mountains (Djebel) and lower slopes (Yaka) have been renowned for their sweet, mild, fresh flavor and delicately tangy aroma since the 1600s. This blend is designed to demonstrate why this particular Xanthi is known as "The Queen of Tobaccos."


Even after leaving the tin open for several hours, the reek of that vinegary treatment to which McClelland is addicted is almost unbearable. Surely there are better mold-retardants and bug repellents than British sweatsocks?
I've often thought that the presence of acetic acid narrows the flavour spectrum of many McClelland products, almost killing those tobaccos which are furthest from fully fermented Virginias.
It is especially objectionable in something that purports to have a "delicately tangy aroma".

The appearance of this blend is of small shreds of medium brown and darker hues, the amalgamation likely steamed to meld the flavours.
Taste-wise, it is a smoke that induces contemplation, and while the pong of vinegar in the tin is unacceptable, when lit little thereof is even noticeable, especially if smoked with a steady pace. Instead, there is an old-fashioned quality that promotes peacefulness.
You should not smoke this if you are a nervous or easily agitated person.

It has a pleasant real tobacco taste all the way down, due to the inclusion of other leaves in the blend. Enough nicotine to satisfy, nowhere near enough to knock your sock off. But if you are smoking this, that isn't what you wanted anyhow.
Reduces to a velvety ash, only slightly gritty.
Rather reminiscent of Virginia Woods, though much more like McClelland's Orient 996. Both of those also contain red Virginia. The smoker of paler tobaccos will find the first a good companion to Yenidje Supreme, the aficionado of darker Orientals will favour the latter in rotation with it.
Goes well with black coffee.

This is not a tobacco for a talkative man. If I were still employed in draughting, this would be perfect to smoke at the office..... if one could still smoke at the office.
Quite possibly my father would have liked it.
I shall have to try it in his old Canadians during a quiet weekend.



AFTERTHOUGHT: TOUTOUN

Most of the lower grades of Turkish leaves, irrespective of country where they are grown, are destined to become cigarettes, and will consequently be treated much like American tobaccos. Usually the factories will augment the sugar-content and steam or toast the leaf to make it fit the flavour-profile expected by smokers, who since the Second World War have been exposed to 'Anglo-Saxon' preferences.
Where formerly there was a large market for the Turkish taste, especially in Central Europe, most brands now cater to smokers of blonde leaf. Exceptions are elderly fossils, hinterland peasants, and intolerable eccentrics - but other than the French and Mittel-Europeaner, these are not a large audience.
Pure 'Oriental' cigarettes are a specialty market. Pretty much the only things that can be said for mass-produced smokes is that both nicotine and sugar will be present; the one for the addictive hit, the other for the smooth taste.

Pipe tobacco is, of course, another story.

TOBACCO INDEX


==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================

BLUE MOUNTAIN PIPE TOBACCO

There was a Balkan Sobranie Throwdown at the 2011 Chicago Pipe Show.
Naturally, I was not there. The idea of spending two whole days surrounded by fellow-aficionados ("fanatics") of any type has about as much appeal to me as attending a weekend with the Moonies.
I may be crazy but I am not crazy.

Entirely aside from which, while I myself have waxed more prolix about Balkan Sobranie than many other pipe smokers, the idea of trying to duplicate something that has not been in production for several years strikes me as, forgive the expression, an exercise in pipe dreaming.
Doing so for an audience of fiercely opinionated (and often staggeringly wrong) obsessive types is a form of circle-jerking in which I want no part.


In consequence of that event, there are now at least two new commercial products being offered to the cognoscenti.
One of which is (was) available at the local tobacconist.
A sample of which was offered to me.
Which I took.


BLUE MOUNTAIN
Manufactured by McClelland Tobacco Company of Kansas City, Missouri.

Tin blurb: Rich with the finest Mountain Latakia, a classic full Balkan pipe tobacco mixture, smooth and deeply fragrant. The inspiration for this elegant mixture was a 21-year-old tin of the legendary #759.

"Take a Journey Back to Yesteryear"


Ghastly concept, tasteless graphics, and on the whole a glib slick approach guaranteed to nauseate me.
I am an utter cynic when it comes to marketing aimed at nostalgic oofuses who yearn for the products of their own fondly legendarized past.
Taking a journey back to yesteryear has no buggery appeal.
Yesteryear sucked, in some ways more than it didn't.

Fortunately McClelland, in my estimation, has come no closer than anybody else in bringing it back.
This blend only bears slight resemblance to Balkan Sobranie 759.


Balkan Sobranie 759 (in the black tin) was a creamy full bodied English-Balkan, heavy on the Latakia, with some Turkish mixed in, and a base of Virginia Cavendish ("black Virginia"), a little ribbon, and possibly something in the nature of red cake.
Because it was steampressed into the container, like all products of certain English firms, there was a pleasure upon popping the lid off a fifty gramme tin that many of us have fondly implanted, permanently in our subconscious.
A satisfying thwack as the vacuum was violated, then looking at the neatly crimped paper and admiring the smooth surface of the disk of tobacco, which just begged to be teased and roughed up as you stuffed your pipe.
McClelland's product naturally has similar tobaccos, though without the flat enameled tin, the neatly crimped paper nest, and the smooth surface.
The way the tobacco has been tumbled also yields a different appearance and bowl-pack.


A CHARMING OFFENSE

Within the first minute of setting fire to the sample, I rushed off to the tobacconist to purchase all the tins they had.
I deliberately kept my gaze averted when I passed the other smokers at the wall, as I did not wish to be delayed or interrupted.
Tight-jawed determination, decisive action, and a purposeful stride.
Those tins are mine, dammit.

Again, not much like Balkan Sobranie 759. But indeed a very fine product.
Didn't want the others to grab tins before I had assured myself a supply.
Well, actually I just didn't want them to have any of it at all.

It's sweeter than the old 759, and the perfumed quality I remember is also missing.
The Latakia is excellent, however, and the components of this high quality blend compliment each other well.
Perhaps not the symphony advertised, but absolutely rocking chamber music.

No, I'm never going to like the uninspired label art. Metallic blue squiggles on copper sheet.
Blue mountains mean absolutely flange-all to me, aesthetically or otherwise.
Are there even any blue mountains in Turkey or Syria?
They might have blue-ish stones or bumps.
But who the bucket cares?


The first taste at lighting up is wonderful - rich, delicious in the nose upon exhaling, sweet and resinous. The middle of the bowl is satisfying, meaty, and easy to keep lit. At the bottom there will be some crumbs remaining unburnt, and the ash that the tobacco renders is mixed, both feathery and gritty.
I did not feel hungry after this, but strangely satisfied.
Blue Mountain Pipe Tobacco is the perfect breakfast.
Several bowls later the world seems bright and new.

The only things missing are a purring cat and a thunderstorm.

TOBACCO INDEX


==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================

SOLOMON'S PRESBYTERIAN MIXTURE BY PLANTA

There are times when, despite my better judgment, I will smoke something odoriferous in the television room. Years ago I learned that my apartment mate scarce notices a flake if she is elsewhere in the building, but will come bounding in all piss and vinegar when there is Turkish or Latakia in the blend. Fortunately, part of the year her allergies are such that she cannot smell a darn thing, and late at night I can push envelopes I dare not touch when she is still wide awake.
Boruch Hashem she is a heavy sleeper.

I popped open a tin of Presbyterian mixture recently. Despite the name there is nothing dour or severe about this blend. It is in fact so indulgent a product that all stern Calvinists would be convinced that partaking guarantees one a special place in hell.
The truth is far otherwise.



PRESBYTERIAN MIXTURE

This blend exemplifies everything that most women hate about your bestial habits. Oriental tobacco has that effect. Which, of course, is why you should only smoke it very late at night, when your good lady is asleep, or out near the kitchen-midden, amidst the rotting fish heads and cabbage cores.
This tobacco will make your sojourn at the pile of garbage extremely enjoyable. Your wife shall regret kicking you out of the house.

There is Latakia in this blend, but it is by no means a Syrian dump. Rather, the inclusion is more traditional in measure, before blenders realized quite how much smoke-cured leaf they could get away with. The dominant taste is Macedonian, augmented very nicely by Virginias and other New World leaves, and possibly a touch of Perique (though that is doubtful). Due to the high proportion of Orientals it is relatively low in nicotine and will not leave you buzzing. Resinous, of a medium sweetness, and to the person smoking it slightly floral. To the nearest female, however, it is not nearly so divine.
Peaty, yeasty, plummy, leathery.


It is very moist in the tin, and must be aired for considerable time before you stuff into your brier. But it packs well, due to the narrow cut. Once dried a bit, it smokes easily - twixt spice and cream.

[Previously I wrote about Presbyterian Mixture here: Degenerate Man of God.
What I said then was somewhat intemperate. But I stand by it.]

Every time I open a tin, I go through it at a very rapid clip.
I hop around among tobaccos too much to make this a constant smoke, though.
But I do have several tins in my stockpile.

Comparable to Dunhill Durbar Mixture in some ways, also similar to Squadron Leader. Manifestly NOT like Gawith Hoggarth's Balkan Mixture, except in cut.



PLANTA TABAK MANUFAKTUR

Planta in Germany produces a number of fine English blends, Virginias, and several innovative aromatics and pouched mixtures.
Those last two categories are more popular in Europe than normal tobaccos.

From their internet site: "The PLANTA company was founded in Berlin-Spandau in 1956 by Dr Manfred Obermann, who is still the CEO of his company today. As early as 1962 the management of PLANTA decided in favour of the production of foreign pipe tobaccos in Germany under licence. The pipe tobaccos RUM AND MAPLE and WELLAUER’s ENGLISH BLEND proved most successful and soon gained a very good reputation all over Germany. They laid the foundation for our expansion, which required PLANTA to move to its own premises in Hagelberger Strasse in Berlin-Kreuzberg in 1963, where the headquarters and administration are still situated."

Planta blends are carried by a number of internet retailers, in case you cannot find them at your local tobacconist or apothecary.

TOBACCO INDEX


==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================

WILDERNESS: A BLEND FOR FOREST CREATURES

I was prepared to be less than quite impressed. After all, I consider myself fairly immune to the poofle written on labels nowadays.

Poofle, I know. I’m responsible for some of it myself.

“This luxurious tandoori specialty recalls a Caravan-serai along the exotic Silk-Road, redolent with the spice-fragrances of antiquity, tickling tastebuds long dormant as it induces exquisite dreams of paradise.”

Or something like that.
It wasn’t originally quite so purple, but between the owner of the restaurant and myself we selected my five best texts (in his mind), and sort of clobbered them together.
I had written over a hundred samples, tailoring my style to his personality.
The result was a text that for several years afterwards I wanted to forget.
Or leastways deny any responsibility for.

Poofle.


WILDERNESS McClelland Collector Series.
Blender: Fred Hanna

Tin poofle: “This remarkable blend formulated by Fred Hanna provides a multi-layered, rich, taste experience. The highest quality Syrian Latakia combines with a small amount of Cyprian to form the base for an exquisite array of rare and precious Orientals - sweet Drama, exotic Yenidje, and more. Red Virginias complement the blend, adding sweetness, richness, strength, and creaminess. Smoke this mixture and listen for the echoes of savored memories.”

[Wilderness Pipe Tobacco. From McClelland Tobacco Company in Kansas City, Missouri.]

I am nevertheless exceptionally pleased with this product. This is not a bold knock-you-over-the-head blend as that first-position mention of Syrian would suggest. Yes, it's a medium-full English, but withal an extremely civilized and enjoyable tobacco mixture.
Well-balanced, rounded, rich on the tongue and velvety in the nostrils.
The room-note, if you are a pipe-smoker, is utterly delightful.

Why they called it wilderness is beyond me.

I have no urge to go out into the wilds while smoking this, rather, I would prefer to find a nice comfortable fauteuille somewhere quiet, where I could happily sit a while, perhaps reading back-issues of North-American Shoe Collector or The Odd Man Digest.

Nothing in this blend is over the top. Everything comes together beautifully, especially in a somewhat smaller pipe.
I have been smoking it on a daily basis in one of my knock-arounders, a Charatan Zulu from the mid-fifties that never really performed for me.
That pipe has now been promoted, and I shall henceforth think of it fondly.


"Listen for the echoes of savored memories"

What the bucket does that mean? This isn't the stuff of memory, this is something for here and now. An extremely present tense blend.
Reverie inducing, day-dream prompting.

"...It is nearly tea time when I ring the doorbell. You come down the stairs to let me in - that pleated skirt suits you so nicely, by the way, and those are lovely pearls - with your own pipe in your mouth.
Together we go up to the living room, where in silence we sit at the big table, deep in study. You with your tome on the history of Flanders and Brabant during the high middle-ages, me with a thick volume on butterflies of the South-East Asian rainforest.
There is a tin of pipe tobacco between us, and a packet of pipe cleaners.

Occasionally my hand brushes against your small warm fingers when we both reach for the matches or the tamper. Life is very good indeed. We are isolated from the cold San Francisco weather and the chill winds that bring in the fog. Afternoon glides gracefully into evening.
After a last cup of tea (milk and sugar, please), I load up a third bowl-full, and head out into darkened streets. Thank you for a truly wonderful time!"


Wilderness is the type of fine mixture that mr. Badger should smoke.
I must order more of it.

TOBACCO INDEX


==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================

BALKAN SOBRANIE

Links to Balkan Sobranie posts: these are the articles on this blog that discuss what Balkan Sobranie Mixture was, of what it probably consisted, and which modern blends are similar.

[This is not about the famous 'Balkan Sobranie Turkish Cigarettes' in the flat white tin with the same illustration on the front as the round tins of pipe tobacco. Those, along with Sobranie's other fine cigarettes (imperial Russians, Cocktails, Chaliapins, Balkan Sobranie Turkish Oval Cigarettes, etcetera, are deserving of their own post. Particularly the Imperial Russians that Donald W. Daniels at Drucquer's was so fond of. They were an excellent product the disappearance of which is much lamented.
If you're looking for Turkish cigarettes, I suggest finding out if 'Khedive' is still around. Lovely sweet ovals, from Austria or Germany. They were delicious!
There are also probably still products made by Greek companies in Alexandria, using a variety of Oriental tobaccos. But it is almost certain that you won't find them in California - rules here are stricter (i.e. 'goofier') than many other places.]



BALKAN SOBRANIE - POSTSCRIPT
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2008/08/balkan-sobranie-postscript.html
Discusses the terminology and the name. Goes into the component tobaccos of the legendary pipe tobacco in some detail, though if you really want to know more about various blending tobaccos, nothing beats hands-on experience.
Describes the taste of Balkan Sobranie Original Mixture.
August 07, 2008


FURTHER NOTES REGARDING THE KEY LARGO SMOKING MIXTURE BY G. L. PEASE: CONSTITUENT TOBACCOS AND CONTEXT
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2008/07/further-notes-regarding-key-largo.html
As the title says, primarily about Greg Pease's 'Key Largo'. But because comparisons are inevitable, mention is made of BALKAN SOBRANIE VIRGINIAN NO. 10 ("with choicest cigar leaf").
Various types of tobacco more commonly used as filler or wrapper for cigars have also been incorporated in pipe tobacco blends - everything from Cuban and Centro-American through Brasil and Indonesian. Most such blends are composed of an aged Virginia base upon which cigar tobacco and other condimentals are layered.
If you treat cigar leaf as if it were equidistant between Turkish and Burley, you can construct something quite rewarding. Too much, though, and the cheroot funk will overwhelm. Tolerances differ.
July 24, 2008


BALKAN SOBRANIE ORIGINAL MIXTURE
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2007/10/balkan-sobranie-original-mixture.html
Mention of first encountering the Balkan Sobranie Mixture in the famous white tin, as well as comparison with some Germain's blends, Dunhill mixtures, G. L. Pease, Cornell & Diehl, and 'Bill Bailey's Balkan Blend'.
October 31, 2007


IT SMELLS LIKE VICTORY
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2007/11/it-smells-like-victory.html
Account of compounding a personal blend that to me resembles Balkan Sobranie exceedingly. But I shall not give the recipe, for two reasons: primarily because nose-memories vary considerably, with each person remembering a discontinued product differently; secondarily because there are other imitations and substitutes out there which are both admirable and a sufficient basis for your own blending experiments.
November 12, 2007



YOUR OWN BALKAN SOBRANIE DUPLICATE

If you were to try creating a replacement, I would suggest 40% Latakia or more, 20% - 25% Turkish, 30% to 35% Virginia, and a small quantity of an unflavoured black Cavendish OR 'Toasted Cavendish'.
Proportions are recommended approximates, vary them according to what you remember most about the product.

Note several things:
Latakia nowadays is usually from Cyprus, and is not the same as Syrian (it has a stronger flavour, and it doesn't weigh quite the same). Turkish varietals are no longer available in the spectrum that once was common - Cornell & Diehl sells 'Smyrna', which I particularly like. The Virginia component should contain mostly a medium flake rubbed out, and just a little Yellow Virginia for taste, colour, and smoking effect (even a little will look like a lot, as it is very light in weight), and lastly, both the unflavoured Cavendish as well as the Toasted Cavendish will be air cured tobaccos treated to darken them, and consequently will have a profound impact in small amounts, but will dominate if you are careless.

Blend somewhat wetter than you would smoke. Use mild heat to promote melding of flavours. Do this in a closed container to prevent loss of fragrance. When cool, pack it away for a week before testing it.


YENIDJE, GIANNITSA, YENICE

The term "Yenidje", as used on the label may have been a false clue, an almost deliberate misdirection. Possibly as a marketing strategem, though equally likely it was meant to misdirect and obscure sources.
There are SEVERAL places in Northern Turkey, Greece, and Macedonia called Yenidje - it means 'NEW TOWN' - the Turkish spelling is "Yenice". There is even a Yenidje that produces Xanthi leaf.
I believe that mr. Redstone simply appreciated the sound of the name, just as he liked the terms 'Balkan' and 'Sobranie'. Balkan sounds exotic and adventurous, Sobranie means assembly (or 'congress') and makes reference to the turbulent politics of the area, with which the Redstone family had connection.
I myself suspect that most of the 'Turkish' tobacco in the Balkan Sobranie Original Mixture was actually Macedonian, perhaps comparable to high-quality Prilep tobacco. Tzarich iyun ("needs further investigation").


There are a number of resources mentioned in the blog-roll on the right in the section titled 'TOBACCO'.
There are also clickable 'labels' underneath this post.



AFTERWORD

This post was actually written on Wednesday June 6, 2011. But because many of my regular visitors are rather sick of my obsession with Balkan Sobranie, it was placed on the blog between the previous Friday morning post and the Friday evening post, so that readers don't cruise in, conclude "darn it, he's off again", and cruise right on out.

TOBACCO INDEX


==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================

URBAN LEGEND: YOUTUBE WILL REMOVE IT UNLESS YOU WATCH IT. YES, YOU. ONLY YOU. IF YOU DON'T WATCH IT NOW, THE WORLD WILL END AND PUPPIES DROWN!

Recently someone sent me an e-mail begging me to view something on Youtube, and tell others to do so, lest the poor deserving video be yanked for not generating enough hits.

Hmmmph!

Youtube does not take stuff down because it's unpopular.

Youtube takes down stuff because it sucks. For which the working definition is that it promotes hate or violence, shows and/or lauds breaking of certain laws, or infringes upon copyright.
Hits have absolutely nothing to do with it.

When you are viewing youtube, you will likely notice all the other stuff listed......... plus the advertising (usually in top right corner of your screen).
Plainly put, they want you to watch. They don't care what you watch. As long as you watch. You're bound to click one of the other videos sooner or later.
Or actually join their cult


There's stuff on Youtube of not even questionable interest to anyone, barely a few hundred hits......


Videos such as this one (473 views, uploaded 1 year ago):
http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7F_5-QasTA
['Sing a Long Leading to Balkan Sobranie']

Or this CLASSIC, showing a distinguished gentleman smoking a Falcon pipe while talking about a British tobacco that is heavy on the Latakia (298 views, uploaded 1 year ago):
http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=sLDp56iv18o
['Commonwealth Mixture']

Seeing as I doubt that my readers will actually click on either of those links, I'll embed the Falcon-smoker and his fine English mixture. Go ahead, watch it. You don't even have to leave this blog to do so.
Tempting, what?


MISTER HEILBUTT DISCUSSES SAMUEL GAWITH'S COMMONWEALTH MIXTURE


As he says, Commonwealth is "angenehmer, kühler langsamer Abbrand - leider nur medium und nicht full wie auf der Dose steht."


For more about Samuel Gawith, see this link:
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2010/07/clean-wholesome-habits-only.html
For my own review of Commonwealth mixture, go here:
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2008/08/good-latakia-dump.html



AND JUST AS WEIGHTY

Now, here are TWO videos that really should be watched by as many people as possible, lest for lack of hits they get taken down:

"McGahey Tobacconist in Exeter"
http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=oC2XRahqW_k
32 seconds, 128 views.

"My Pipes and other things that live in Tobacco Corner"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgTSfhxe7N0&NR=1
6 minutes 26 seconds, 85 views.


Fascinating stuff.
Please forward widely.
Thank you.


==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================

HOW DO YOU FEEL?

The answer to that question is "seriously affected". Sick, even.
You see, I had a foretaste of Purim last night. No, I did not have a riotous party with the younger members of my shul, and no we did not end up stumbling down Polk Street at four in morning singing 'Yankif der Gonif' at the top of our lungs. That would have been better.


The evening started off quite different than it ended. A friend from the yeshiva was in the area, we went and had dinner at the only kosher restaurant in downtown San Francisco. Over dinner we discussed various things, and true to Godwin's Rule of Analogies, eventually the Rambam was cited.

[Godwin's Rule of Analogies, also called Godwin's Law. To paraphrase: "As a conversation progresses, the likelihood that someone will mention the Rambam approaches 1", meaning that it is almost inevitable that you will hear the name Moishe ben Maimon today.]


Then the Ramban was also mentioned, as well as a gentleman named Pablo Cristiani. At this point a rabbi from Australia joined in the conversation. So far, so good.

Continuing the discussion after dinner, I suggested that as I wished to smoke, and would rather not do so in a downpour, we should go to the Occidental Cigar Club to indulge in a hospitable atmosphere.
So we did.

Normally I light up a pipe while there but I did not do so last night, because, as I explained to my friend, I was experimenting with a new blend.
The logic is this: normally I smoke two or three bowls while there, which means two or three drinks. This new experimental tobacco recipe is the best imitation of the Balkan Sobranie Mixture that I have ever compounded, and so delicious that I would end up smoking five or six bowls, finally stumbling out at closing with a serious whooze on.
That would mean that I would wake up in the morning with a headache and nausea from the five or six drinks, and a mouth feeling like a camel had crawled in and died a violent death there.
So no. No pipe. Just a small cheroot, and just one drink.

After my friend left for the airport, I went to another bar.

That's when things began to go south.

During the first drink there (my second drink of the evening), a woman entered.



COSSACK SLUT

Meaning, in this case, a deliciously curvy Mongolian girl-person with bad clothing choices and exhibitionist tendencies. She caught my eye from the moment she sat down twenty feet away, and even from that distance I could tell that she was dangerous. Eric, another customer of the bar, was near her, and after ten minutes he moved over to my end of the bar muttering to himself "stay out of trouble, stay out of trouble".
When he went to the bathroom she snaked out a hand and grabbed him by the shoulder. He politely wrestled himself loose.
When he came back, she followed him to our end. Within minutes Eric excused himself and left. So she focused her attention on me.
Now, something you might not know about me is that I am able to have a calm conversation, looking people in the eye, instead of stuttering while staring at their extremely attractive and creamy luscious cleavage, no matter how low-cut and flimsy their upper garment. I'm talented that way.
That flesh looked incredibly soft and warm while we talked. Good heavens.

Her off-kilter looniness and my dry responses cut the discussion short.

Disappointed in me, she headed over to the far end of the room, where she made a succession of men aware of her assets. They were indeed very fine assets - lovely poofy roundnesses, not of any great size, but utterly perfect of shape. And kudos for presentation!
Alas, the sheer craziness of her discourse chased all of the gentlemen away, one after another. At various points she huffed to herself, palm-smacked a table, bent over deeply, twitched, extended a leg in an eccentric dance move, or pouted fiercely (her face looked kissy-poo insane when she did so), before advancing on the next victim.
She seemed to have more tics than a clock, and the spectacle was exceedingly entertaining - I had four more whiskeys while enjoying the show.

When I got home at twelve, I decided to smoke a pipe after all.
Which, as it turns out, was the mistake that made the Purim Fairy come early this year - I poured myself a drink to accompany the smoke. Then I had another pipe full, and another drink. And another. One more of each.
What the heck, one more.


And that, my friends, explains today's very first post. And why I feel like crap.

TOBACCO INDEX


==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================

TOBACCO COMPANIES, TOBACCO BLENDS

This post is about pipe-tobacco, and consequently there will not be much here for many of my regular readers; sorry, but I promise that there will be the usual zany antics later on - in particular something quite perverse in time for Purim.

[NOTE: There are several links scattered throughout the text below - clicking them will bring up my own posts on that subject (EXCEPTIONS: GLP and C&D).]


TOBACCO COMPANIES

Since the nineties several of the old tobacco houses have changed, due to the deaths of guiding hands and profound legal and tax developments in Britain.


DUNHILL

Dunhill blends have not been made in the British Isles since the late nineties, and have been unavailable for the past few years nearly everywhere.
British American Tobacco, which had owned the blends since Rothmans ceased to exist, quarreled with the company to which they had farmed out the manufacture.

Dunhill tobaccos were made in England till 1981, when Rothmans (who had acquired the company from Carrerras in 1972) moved manufacturing to the Murrays factory in Belfast. While a lot of later smokers praised the Murrays product in comparison to what Orlik put out, it should be remembered that the early Murrays tins were quite unsmokeable - sourcing and quality control improved considerably over the years.


RATTRAYS

Now manufactured in Germany by Kohlhase, Kopp und Co. KG (who also do Astleys, formerly of 109 Jermyn Street, as well as the blends of Robert McConnel) according to the recipes developed by Charles Rattray in Perth. The Germans are doing a decent enough job. The one thing they cannot reproduce is the microclimate of the Scottish home of these blends - moisture content in the air, temperature ranges, and the eccentric non-standardization of manufacture combined to produce some very fine tobaccos. What Charles Rattray never realized was that combining different batches of the same blend had more impact on smoking quality than his much vaunted panning method. A variety of ages united to produce richness, whereas uniformity of age and heat treatment makes for a mono-dimensional smoke.

[PLEASE NOTE: The Rattray Virginias are described in this later post: RATTRAY'S VIRGINIA TOBACCO: OLD GOWRIE, MARLIN FLAKE, BROWN CLUNEE, HAL O' THE WYND. They are excellent, still. If you age the tin for a year before popping the seal, you will have a treat. There's enough Rattrays of various ages stashed under the bed, in the book shelves, and on the desk to last quite a long while. Good stuff. ------- ATBOTH, August 12, 2013.]


SAMUEL GAWITH

Still the same, still in Kendall, boruch Hashem. An ancient company with all of the eccentricities of previous generations smoothed out by age, still producing tobacco as they believe it should be. Except for a few monumentally odd aromatics, they are right. They also make snuff.
Supplies are spotty at present - no explanation.


GAWITH HOGARTH

Less pronounceable a name than their cousin Samuel, but no less respected. More steampressing, and more aromatic disasters, but a fine company.
They also make snuff.


MURRAYS

The originators of Erinmore. Which has been described as the painted whore among the tobaccos, the veritable clapped-out harlot drenched in cheap cologne that shakes a syphilitic tit at the unwary. The factory closed in 1998 and the blends moved to Denmark. If you ever wondered why Dunhill Flake seemed reminiscent of a perfumed tart, now you know - same factory and same machines as Erinmore Flake.
Which, despite my austere Calvinist tastes, I am actually fond of, though I will not admit it.

Erinmore Flake, calmly smoked, burns down to a fine white ash, and leaves scant funk. If smoked fast, the top-dressing boils into your cake, and you will experience profound regret.


J. F. GERMAIN & SON

This company makes some very fine tobacco, both under their own flag and for Esoterica Tabaciana. Unfortunately it is becoming harder and harder to find either - blame the continentals for that, as the Europeans have become as daft as the Californians and wish to cripple the tobacco industry entirely. A good place to start the final assault is small eccentric family companies, in the estimation of Brussels.
Supplies are spotty, there is no explanation. And that is likely to continue.


BALKAN SOBRANIE

Yes, it was only a matter of time before I brought up that name - you were anxiously waiting its appearance in this text, weren't you? The company was started by an Eastern-European Jew with Russian and Southern Slav connections. He made very fine cigarettes and a limited range of pipe-tobaccos. The Balkan Sobranie Mixture in the white tin was more famous than any other product, and is no longer available. Nor could it be reproduced exactly in any case - European Tobacco laws would prevent it.

In order: Syrian Latakia, Yenidje and other Orientals, a medium flake, a lighter Virginia ribbon, a dark toasted or steamed flue-cured leaf, and something I cannot identify that wasn't tobacco. Probably deertongue, but I wouldn't stake my life on it. Combine everything except the Latakia and meld with light heat, then add the Latakia, age for a few days, and press it into the tin - which means more heat. Like many tinned tobaccos, the moisture level was upped to make it more malleable and less likely to crumble and fragment with this treatment.

Note that the preferred Syrian Latakia in the sixties and seventies was choice Shek El Bint with far more smoke-curing than is used for any Latakia-style tobacco nowadays. Consequently that exact flavour will not be possible. Yenidje may be replaced with other Greek or Macedonian tobaccos - again, not an exact match. Prilep might not be a bad choice, with Samsoun and Smyrna for a better spectrum. It is worth experimenting, but don't get your hopes up too high.
For more about the Balkan Sobranie Mixture than you would ever want to read (no exaggeration), click here: BS CLICK

[NOTE: Because this post discusses Balkan Sobranie, as of this writing it will be the very first post that you see - simply scroll down for other articles.]



Even though these companies and many others have disappeared, the situation is comparatively rosy. Here in the States we have three companies that make enough fine English tobacco to sink the empire.



GLPEASE

Greg Pease worked at Drucquer and Sons in Berkeley nearly a decade after I left that firm. He learned far more than I ever did. Drucquers was known for its English mixtures, and Greg continued that blending tradition on his own. To such commendable result in fact that his nickname on the internet is "The Dark Lord".
G. L. Pease owns Latakia in the same way that McClelland owns flake.
He has in recent years also done some very fine things with pressed tobaccos and Virginia mixtures.

[For all other posts mentioning his tobacco, click here: GLP. This post will also be shown - just scroll down to whatever you have not read yet. Same rule holds for some of the links embedded elsewhere in this post.]


CORNELL & DIEHL - CRAIG TARLER

Despite having a peculiar fondness for Burley tobaccos, Craig produces some of the best blends in the business. As well as manufacturing Greg Pease's blends. If you are so inclined you can purchase many blending tobaccos from his company, or simply order the blends that your local tobacconist does not stock.
I particularly recommend Red Odessa.
Yale Mixture and Old College are also very fine products.
His flakes are excellent and deservedly well regarded.


MCCLELLAND

By now this company has the hoary veneer of respectable age, having been founded over a quarter of a century ago, and many of the other tobacco houses having disappeared since then. This company is famous for pressed Virginia, on which they more or less base all their products. They also employ heat and steam for particular effects. Many house blends at local tobacco stores are bulk McClelland mixtures; many other retailers depend on blending tobaccos supplied by McClelland. Not everyone likes them. But without them, pipe smoking in America might have disappeared.
You can find out everything you need to know about them elsewhere.



With GLPease, Cornell & Diehl, and McClelland in the market, we need not worry overmuch at present. These three are keeping America's smokers more than adequately supplied with high quality pipe-tobacco.



BLENDING A BALKAN MIXTURE

Balkan Sobranie Mixture as made by Gallagher was probably around 36.00% Latakia, 24.00% Oriental (Yenidje etcetera), 32.00% Mixed Virginias, and 8.00% Black Virginia (steamed and baked, rather than pressed or fired), or an unflavoured Black Cavendish.
Black Virginia is quite unavailable nowadays, and unflavoured Black Cavendish is extremely hard to find.

If you simply want to blend a good Balkan, you may increase the proportion of Latakia or Virginia - the Oriental is nearly at full capacity anyhow, and as long as you use some remarkable Virginias you can not go wrong.

Fluffed flake should not be much more than the other Virginias unless you are aiming for a slow and almost boring blend; ribbon Virginias increase smokeability, but also heat and tongue-bite.
Plain Cavendish is smooth, and doesn't add much flavour - it can be used in lieu of too much yellow ribbon.

Toasted Cavendish (actually fire-cured Kentucky) up to one twelfth of the total adds depth and body. Any more and you might end up with something too acrid.

If you use Perique, be discreet. Optimum percentages are between four and eight.

Avoid dark pressed (black) flake as a blending tobacco. It doesn't really work, as it is only narrow-range compatible. Which means Virginia mixtures and nearly nothing else.


Final note: Do NOT create a Latakia dump. While Latakia is a remarkable tobacco, it works best in concert with others, not as a solo. Anything over fifty percent is both juvenile and excessive - maximum 45% is plenty. You can increase the dark component of your blend by adding unflavoured black Cavendish (if you can find any) and Toasted Cavendish (which is actually similar to Burley and other air-cured leaf).
Doing so will produce something remarkably Scottish in character, which is probably what you want anyway.


LABELS

For further reading, do please note all the labels underneath this post. Clicking any one of them will bring up all posts which have those labels appended - today, this post is on top of the heap (and you have already read it) so simply scroll down to the next one.

TOBACCO INDEX


==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================

INTERNATIONAL TOBACCONIST CONSPIRACY

A correspondent who is newly posted to the barbaric hinterlands sent a plea that speaks volumes of the primitive hickville swamp-burg where he is in exile.

Well, actually, that is not quite correct.
It really indicates that he is seriously buckling down and working, rather than off gallivanting around town with the hot hot hot shiksas.
Oh, those zesty native girls. A hardship.

He asked "how does one order a 50g tin of Dunhill London Mixture via the intertubes?"

The question establishes three things.
He is spending much time at his desk with the books.
He is running out of stuff to smoke.
He has good taste.


"How does one order a 50g tin of Dunhill London Mixture via the intertubes?"


With an excess of faith.
That's how one orders London Mixture.
Seriously, good luck. It may no longer be available.

There are several stores that do business over the internet.
I have dealt with these two:

Cup O` Joes: http://www.cupojoes.com/

PipesandCigars.com: http://www.pipesandcigars.com/



ALTERNATIVES

In lieu of Dunhill London Mixture, you might like Cornell & Diehl's Red Odessa. It has less Turkish, but is a profoundly old-fashioned style English blend.
Of course there's also the GLPease stuff - Westminster comes to mind - but that may not be what you are looking for.
[I say this because I know that you have been exposed to much of the Dark Lord's domain. If it satisfied you, you would not need to consult me.]

Other good medium-range English mixtures with a Turkish overtone are Peterson's Old Dublin, Esoterica (actually Germain's) Margate, and J. F. Germain & Sons Latakia Mixture or King Charles Mixture.
All are deliciously degenerate.

There's also Samuel Gawith's Squadron Leader - a perfect Balkan style blend, very old fashioned, nicely reeky. Bit of a broad cut, which makes it a little hard to get used to, but once you've got the rhythm of it, delightful.



ADVICE TO EVERYONE, NOT JUST TOBACCO MAIVENS

In regards to "read-testing" a blend before you buy it, tobacco reviews dot com (http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/browse_all.cfm) is a good resource, and can be very amusing, as a pipe smoker who realizes he just spent fifteen dollars on a tin of boggy sphagnum he would never touch again, even if it were the last tobacco on earth, becomes a very angry, very venomous, very eloquently foaming at the mouth critic. Such a man's review will spill out in lyric sputtering rage exactly how he feels about the heart-wrenching loss of fifteen bucks. The heavens will tremble, the earth will shake, and all the world will know of his agony, despair, and righteous indignation, by gum. He has been robbed, and he seeks justice!

Many of such reviews are seriously good reading.
You will really feel for the bereaved cheapskate.
Or resolve to rib him without mercy if ever you meet him.

==============================================

On a different note, I think I have succeeded in blending Arcadia. Arcadia is properly called the Craven A Mixture, which was formerly produced by Carrerras, and has long been unavailable.


ARCADIA

The writer J. M. Barrie was a customer of Carrerras at Wardour Street during the 1890s. His book 'My Lady Nicotine' mentions the Arcadia Mixture, which he later admitted was actually Craven A. With Barrie's approval Carrerras featured this in his advertising, thus cementing the association of Craven A with Arcadia - which Arthur Conan Doyle subsequently drove home in 'The Crooked Man': "Hum! You still smoke the Arcadia mixture of your bachelor days, then!" (Holmes to Watson upon entering the latter's bachelor digs).
[See: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Crooked_Man
From 'The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes', by Arthur Conan Doyle, published in 1894.]


Arcadia was heavier on the Orientals than a regular English blend, though lighter on Latakia than you would assume. It had a range of Virginias for several different notes of flavour, and a touch of Kentucky ("Toasted Cavendish") to accentuate the Turkish.

Drucquer & Sons had a blend called Arcadia when I worked there in the seventies and eighties. It was quite good - very Oriental, though with a smidge too much Kentucky.
McClelland acquired a decades-old tin of the Craven A Mixture in the late nineties or early two-thousands, and analyzed it meticulously, eventually producing 'Arcadia' as part of their Sherlock Holmes series. It is decent, but it has that well-known McClelland characteristic, and to my mind far too heavy a Virginia taste.
Craig Tarler of Cornell & Diehl avers that his Yale Mixture is in fact the nearest approximation of the famous blend. I will gladly admit that I am fond of it, and will attest that it is a very fine product indeed.

But personally, I think they're all wrong. Of course.
What I have comes closest to Arcadia.

Neener neener neener. Neener neener neener. Neener neener neener.
Neener neener neener. Neener neener neener. Neener neener neener.
Neener neener neener. Neener neener neener. Neener neener neener.
Neener neener neener. Neener neener neener. Neener neener neener.
Neener neener neener. Neener neener neener. Neener neener neener.

TOBACCO INDEX


==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================