English Blends and aging

PaulTheScandinavian · Nov 24, 2016

I'd curious to know if so called English or Virgina/orient(tin tobacco) blends benefit of some aging ,does the cellaring improve these tobaccos flavor in some degree in such way as straight virginas becoming more mellow after year of two of aging in factory tins'Thank you for your comments,and Happy Thanksgiving to All of you the members

Chasing Embers · Nov 24, 2016

The Virginias get sweeter, and the Latakia will mellow. The entire blend will marry for a more balanced flavor, but after 15 years or so, the Latakia will just start to fade.

judcole · Nov 24, 2016

And that pretty much sums it up.

mikestanley · Nov 24, 2016

Every blend I have ever smoked have benefitted from five years in the cellar. With the exception of aromatic blends, I prefer ten. With Virginia heavy tobaccos, I shoot for fifteen to twenty. For my taste, Latakia improves with age. The only caviat is that once you open an ancient English blend, it tends to lose flavor in a week or so, they need to be smoked soon.

Mike S.

andrew · Nov 24, 2016

Everyone talks about English blends fading but I just read a post here recently about how all the legendary blends of yesterday like Balkan Sobranie were so good because the blenders had aged leaf to work with. Also the Syrian lat that everyone wants is probably about 20 years old. So I don't know how aging will do anything other than marry the flavors together mostly

pipesmokingtom · Nov 24, 2016

Also the Syrian lat that everyone wants is probably about 20 years old

True, but if you notice, blends like HH Vintage Syrian have to use upwards of 45% of the stuff to get a balanced blend. I suspect if the stuff were newer, not as much would be required.

sablebrush52 · Nov 24, 2016

Actually, the Syrian is getting up there, but well shy of 20 years of age. This does have me wondering how it's stored until use for blending. But don't worry. The remaining Syrian stock will be used up in another 2 years.
The changes to English blends have been summed up very well, with the additional note that orientals don't fade, but the flavors do become richer. With decades of aging the various components marry with each other and you get a united flavor, rather than one which is constantly varying depending on what is simmering. Lats do fade, but I've tasted a pretty good presence in blends 20 -25 years old. Lats seem to be very faded after that.
As for the aged leaf of yesteryear, it wasn't aged for decades before using, so the Lat wasn't decades old when tinned.
Mike Stanley's point about the instability of aged blends is important. Once opened these blends tend to go downhill pretty fast, so enjoy right away.

sablebrush52 · Nov 24, 2016

Actually, the Syrian is getting up there, but well shy of 20 years of age. This does have me wondering how it's stored until use for blending. But don't worry. The remaining Syrian stock will be used up in another 2 years.
The changes to English blends have been summed up very well, with the additional note that orientals don't fade, but the flavors do become richer. With decades of aging the various components marry with each other and you get a united flavor, rather than one which is constantly varying depending on what is simmering. Lats do fade, but I've tasted a pretty good presence in blends 20 -25 years old. Lats seem to be very faded after that.
As for the aged leaf of yesteryear, it wasn't aged for decades before using, so the Lat wasn't decades old when tinned.
Mike Stanley's point about the instability of aged blends is important. Once opened these blends tend to go downhill pretty fast, so enjoy right away.

PaulTheScandinavian · Nov 24, 2016

Dear Sirs,Thank You for your comments, Happy Thanksgiving to you all,

mso489 · Nov 24, 2016

I had a tin of GLP Westminster that lost its Lat flavor completely, and the Virginia aging did not improve it enough to bring up the taste. So I would plan to smoke English blends with Lat within a few years of new purchase. You can get lucky, but also remember, once the tin is open, the Lat will fade even faster. Or this has been my experience. English blends without Lat seem to hold their own, as Virginias, Orientals, Turkish, dark fired, burley, and Cavendish seem to hold for quite a while. Remember, not all English blends have Latakia. Incidentally, I smoked up the Westminster by adding a little Turkish and/or cigar leaf, and it was pleasant, not euphoric but pleasant.

hawky454 · Nov 24, 2016

In my experience and to my palate, I have had nothing but disappointment as far as English/Balkan blends age. I would never spend a lot of money on those legendary type blends. If someone spends $1,200 on a tin of Balkan Sobranie he is going to claim that it's the best tobacco he has ever had regardless if it tastes like horse shit or not. I have had good experiences with 2 to 5 years of age on them, one of them being Balkan Sasieni... damn that was GOOD! In my experience these type of blends start degrading around the 5 year mark.

Mike Stanley's point about the instability of aged blends is important. Once opened these blends tend to go downhill pretty fast, so enjoy right away.

That's a good point. That's why it's a good idea to store your tobaccos in small jars.

kiel · Nov 25, 2016

I recall reading G.L.Pease's writings on syrian latakia. I described sryian as quite powerful, andhow a little goes a long way as far as taste in a blend. So I think it would make more sense that older blends that used sryian latakias would have a longer latakia flavor "shelf life"

andrew · Nov 25, 2016

Yeah Syrian lat also packs a big nicotine punch apparently too. I doubt there's many or even any blends left that uses pure Syrian Lat, and I doubt macbaren uses 45% in their Syrian mixture. Even Solani's and Robert Mconnell's blends say Syrian latakia right on the tin but there's none in the blends

hawky454 · Nov 25, 2016

Even Solani's and Robert Mconnell's blends say Syrian latakia right on the tin but there's none in the blends

I'm just curious. How do you know there's no Syrian in those blends?

pipesmokingtom · Nov 25, 2016

I doubt macbaren uses 45% in their Syrian mixture

This has been discussed before. I believe that they do. I even recall reading or hearing that someone picked out all the latakia from the blend and weighed it and it was indeed around 45%, for whatever such anecdotes are worth.

hawky454 · Nov 25, 2016

Yeah, Syrian, in my experience has been very light and not near as full bodied as Cyprian. I don't doubt at all that they use 45%. Why would they lie about that?

balkisobrains · Nov 25, 2016

I think that the McConnells Pure Latakia marked Syrian is a Cyprian-fowards "mixture" with just enough Syrian to taste. It looks very similar to the tins marked Cyprian, but it actually does smoke a little differently and the tin note is a little different.
Who purges their canning jars or mylar bags with nitrogen before cellaring? I've been thinking about maybe doing this with Latakia, and blends containing it, in an attempt to slow the aging process. I thought it would be good if I could put up a jar/mylar bag for ten years and end up with two years of age on it. I guess the only problem is that for tinned blends, you would have to open and empty any that you wanted to process. That's a lot of extra jars/bags. Plus with the bags I guess you would want to heat-seal them vs. relying on a zip-loc type seal.

woodsroad · Nov 25, 2016

I have a few pounds of Latakia from 1997 that I bought from wholeleaftobacco.com. I have no idea what it was like when it was fresh, nor do I know under what conditions it has been stored, but it is exceptional stuff. Smokey, but fragrant, it can be enjoyed all by itself.

andrew · Nov 25, 2016

http://www.glpease.com/Articles/Latakia.html
Read about syrian latakia and then ask yourself what a blend with 35% syrian lat would be like. This is no different then 3 nuns ready rubbed having perique flavoring added. If you had a very limited amount of something left, would you be putting that much into a blend and selling it at a regular price?

hawky454 · Nov 25, 2016

If they say they put 45% Latakia in there, I'm taking their word for it. They are a stand up, well respected company that would have absolutely nothing to gain from a lie like that. I really don't see the point. I would like to think that we can trust our brothers in the tobacco industry.

English Blends and aging

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