Describe me the flavor of "orientals"

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thomasmartin

Can't Leave
Jul 13, 2015
324
1
Unesco world heritage
I always associated the underlying subtle sweetness of an English blend to orientals but realize that I was wrong and that sweetness is rather due to virginias whereas most reviewers commonly attribute spicyness to orientals. This confuses me. Supposedly EMP has a high oriental content and this blend doesn't strike me as particularly spicy. Quite the opposite. Can someone describe the taste of orientals?

 

warren

Lifer
Sep 13, 2013
11,699
16,205
Foothills of the Chugach Range, AK
My palate would be nothing like yours. Heavy oriental blends are pleasantly sharp to me. Less loaded blends and I lose the oriental, sometimes completely, depending on the percentage of oriental and the accompanying leaves. Of course, I'm not one to attempt to "parse" blends.

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
Thanks for this! Tremendously informative, and thanks for the link papipeguy; Russ is always helpful. I printed his brief but comprehensive essay.

 

jitterbugdude

Part of the Furniture Now
Mar 25, 2014
993
8
Like others, I'd agree the taste is something of an herbal/woodsy/sour thing. It all depends on the cultivar. Some like Kavala do not have much of a taste but they are very aromatic. Prilep doesn't have much flavor or aroma but Samsun Maden has a very pronounced "oriental" flavor.
Orientals are not high in sugar. Virginias are high in sugar, Orientals are medium to low. Burleys have none.

 
Mar 1, 2014
3,646
4,916
I wish people would stop using "incense" as a flavour descriptor, not only is it not something you taste but at least half of the people in the world have absolutely no experience with it, and from what I've heard there are as many varieties of incense as there are tobacco blends.
It's like saying something smells like "smells".
Unless "incense" is one specific recipe and all the other smelly stick things that you burn are called something else?
I'm sure that I've seen entire stores stocked with those things, surely they're not all the same scent when they have dozens of boxes of them layed out all at once.

 

bigpond

Lifer
Oct 14, 2014
2,019
13
Frozen, as Thomas mentioned incense = Frankincense. The influence of which is amazingly widespread and it's history is deep.
OP, check out McClelland's Grand Oriental series. The tin descriptions should give you an idea of what each leaf tastes like. There is a lot variability but some of the descriptors are, cinnamon, chocolate, woody, leather, must, cumin....

 

andrew

Lifer
Feb 13, 2013
3,042
400
Too many variables, there are many different types of orientals, you would have to ask specific orientals.

 

hakchuma

Part of the Furniture Now
Jan 13, 2014
791
77
Ya it's kind of funny. I have a closet full of cellar. Go through the descriptions and nearly every H&H has the same little Virginia, oriental, little latakia. Well.that might explain why 5 different blends taste nearly identical lol.
I would explain oriental as floral.

 

bigpond

Lifer
Oct 14, 2014
2,019
13
Well, I suppose we are taking for granted that folks are aware that blenders buy "orientals" as mixed lots and not as single cultivars. When you see "orientals" you are receive a blend of different tobaccos from a given region, Turkish, for example. Occasionally a blender will provide a list of specifics strains that are used and that will help you pin down your expectations. This is why I recommended the McC's Grand Oriental line as they are able to source specific cultivars for these blends.

 

newbroom

Lifer
Jul 11, 2014
6,087
6,394
Florida
I just pulled this description from a website I'd been fished to run by The Scandinavian Tobacco Company:

Oriental leaves are 1 – 6 inches in length and range in color from light golden to dark orange. Oriental tobacco is grown in nutrient-deficient soil in a hot and dry climate (Greece and Turkey), which produces leaves containing a high level of aromatic oils. These leaves have a light and sweet aroma and the plant is harvested leaf-by-leaf before being dried on a string in the sun (sun cured).

https://thispipelife.com/tpl-tobacco/

 

cossackjack

Lifer
Oct 31, 2014
1,052
647
Evergreen, Colorado
Germain's Special Latakia Flake is OR & VA forward with Latakia as a condiment. The OR, reportedly Drama, had an olive oil taste.

In Dan's Bill Bailey's Balkan Blend, the OR had a Frankincense aroma & taste (though some of this may have been due to its Syrian Latakia).

 

andrew

Lifer
Feb 13, 2013
3,042
400
I would attribute the secret of which orientals are used due to kind of the same thing why KFC's recipe is a secret blend of spices. I don't think many blenders would just be buying mixed bags of orientals, it would be pretty hard to have a consistent product. As mentioned the best way to explore single leaf orientals is the Grand Orientals series by McClellends. I find EMP to be very sweet, it's confusing as it states on the tin it's delicately flavored so I don't know if they mean by the orientals or if some kind of topping is used.

 
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