Charing Cross (aka Balkan Sobranie Time Machine)

To my mind, you can basically split English/Balkan blends into two camps: sweet or savory. Sweet blends include Maltese Falcon, Odyssey, Larry's Blend, Plum Pudding, and quite a few others. The savory ones include things like Westminster, Nightcap, Quiet Nights, Squadron Leader….and Charing Cross.
When I light up a bowl of this I think of olives, charcoal, eggplant, red wine, and any number of earthy flavors and aromas. Although latakia is one of the primary flavors, it never really dominates the smoke and the virginias barely even whisper. Instead, the focus seems to be on the orientals. This provides a tremendous amount of complexity, enough in fact to make it one of the most complex blends I've ever sampled. So complex, even, that it tastes somewhat off-balance to me, although I'm sure it turned out exactly as Pease wanted it. This is a very nice blend, but it's not my cup of tea -- I prefer my latakia mixtures to have a lot more sweetness.
Also, for what it's worth, Charing Cross is probably the closest thing on the market today to the original Balkan Sobranie White.
A couple of years ago, an acquaintance of mine on one of the many pipe-related internet sites sent out generous samples of Balkan Sobranie from the early 1970s. In return for this generous gift, he wanted us to also sample Charing Cross and then compare the two. He had concluded, after many years and many experiments, that CC was the closest thing to the original BS available. Although we recognized there would be difficulties making comparisons to a blend that had aged for nearly two generations, we all pretty much agreed that CC was almost eerily similar to the venerable BS. So, if you are wanting to get a sense of what that legendary product was like, then have a go at Charing Cross.
So, in light of that revelation, why don't I award this one four stars? As I said, it might well be a dead ringer for the old BS but that observation only serves to reinforce my belief that BS wasn't really all it's cracked up to be. I suppose that if I had been smoking in 1971 and BS was the only mixture of its type on the market, then I might well have considered it to be some kind of earthly nirvana. As it stands today, however, I greatly prefer Odyssey, Maltese Falcon, Magnum Opus, and several other mixtures to both Charing Cross and Balkan Sobranie (for the record, I've tried several other more recent vintages and have been even less impressed).
So, for me at least, this is a three star blend. The quality of the leaf and the skill that went into it probably warrant four stars if you are fond of this type of latakia blend, but it's not one I plan on ever buying again.

Derfargin wrote: "I recently had some of the new Germains Balkan Sobranie and thought it was ok at best. If I may ask, in regards to the older Balkan Sonranie how many different offerings did they have? Is the "original" referred to as BS White? Is that supposed to be what todays Germain's version is supposed to fulfill? Where does the 759 Mixture fall in?"
Yes, I am referring to BS White. As I recall, the company offered four pipe tobaccos: Balkan Sobranie Original Smoking Mixture (white label), BS 759, plus a cigar blend and a straight VA blend. If I'm incorrect, I am sure someone with more knowledge will correct my error. The only two I tried were the Original (several vintages, but most from the late 80s and 90s) and 759 (mid- to late 90s only). If I recall, 759 was a more latakia-heavy version than the original, with fewer Vas, which gave it a much heavier and smokier flavor.
If you are curious about 759….While I am aware of the blending contest which sought to emulate 759 and ended up producing Blackhouse and Blue Mountain, I know quite a few guys I know who were intimately familiar with the products that the best "match" on the market is actually GL Pease's Abingdon. I don't feel comfortable asserting that from personal experience, but I do trust their judgement and can say that Abingdon is a fantastic Balkan regardless of whether it reminds anyone of 759. In fact, out of the few "less sweet" Balkans in my rotation, I think it is by far the best.
And yes, the new Germain's version is supposed to be riffing on the original "White" label.

Shaintiques asked: "So are you saying this closely resembles the Balkan Sobraine that did not contain Yenidje? I once got a sample of the original straight black BS and it was divine. I liked it way better than the Yenidje recipe."
It closely resembles the BS that DID contain yenidje, although CC doesn't contain that particular leaf. I never meant to imply that it's a clone of vintage BS, merely that it is the closest thing to the original that I've ever come across. It differs in several ways, in fact -- the cut is entirely different, the virginias aren't as noticeable, and CC does not contain all of the incense/spice notes lent by the BS orientals. But CC does contain enough of those spices to closely resemble BS's overall flavor profile. It's quite distinctive, IMO, and I can understand how someone who was enamored of this blend years ago would feel that nothing on the market right now is the same.

Voorhees --

Are you talking about the Balkan Sobranie that is currently in production? If so, we are talking about different blends entirely. The BS made 40 years ago used a different recipe with different ingredients.

Insofar as CC is concerned, how old is the tin you have? Pease's blends need to age for a year or more, I think, before they really begin to come into their own. His stuff is blended with aging in mind, and I consider several of my favorite products in the GL Pease line-up to be almost unsmokeable until they've got some time under their belts.

Moriarty --

Thanks! I actually prefer Pease over H&H, but not by much. Russ Oulette has produced several of my "desert island blends" (Magnum Opus, Fusilier's Ration and Classic Burley Cake), although I've not been all that happy since the company was sold to its new owner. I have tried Ambassador's Blend and enjoyed it, but it didn't make my regular rotation (I have so many "favorites" I have a hard time keeping it trimmed to a manageable size LOL). Of course, I cellared some anyhow to see what age will eventually do and I plan on revisiting it, maybe when the weather starts to cool off. Thanks for the recommendation, though!

Lordnoble,
I'm not overly fond of it and don't believe it tastes anything like BS, although the yenidje flavor is definitely recognizable. But keep in mind that the Balkan Sobranie was primarily latakia and virginia, with the orientals/yenidje playing a condimental role. The blend also went through some distinctive processing before it was released.
Even without the yenidge, I feel that Charing Cross is the closest thing I've ever come to BS. While the yenidje was an integral part of the blend, it was only a part, and Charing Cross manages to evoke the original flavor profile pretty closely.
Yenidje Highlander is a damn fine blend, but I wouldn't consider it to be similar to BS. Part of the problem is that the latakia is FAR bolder in BS than in YH. Another issue is the McClelland virginias. Simply put, I don't think it's possible to re-create any classic blend using McClelland's virginias because they are so very distinctive, tangy, "ketchupy," what have you. They are wonderful, but they simply don't taste like the African virginias used by the European blending houses. Given how vital the virginias were to the flavor of BS, I simply can't imagine recreating that blend without using similar VAs. In fact, I would say the Vas had far more of an impact on the flavor than did the orientals!
All that being said….If you want to try a McClelland blend that comes at least a lot closer to BS than does YH, I highly recommend Wilderness. It's not a ringer for BS (again, the virginias are very different) but the mixture of orientals in Wilderness seem to be closer to that found in BS. In fact, I think Wilderness is a better blend that YH, Charing Cross or (gasp do I dare say it?) even the vintage BS I smoked.
YMMV, of course!