I often go to www.tobaccoreviews.com to see what people are saying about blends I have or am thinking about trying. TR is a great site and allows one to search and sort by blend types. So I was surprised to find the way the site classified a few blends I was searching. Now to be fair, TR is user driven and the users can edit many fields include Blend. So with that I went to Cornell and Dielh to see what they classify the products. Well that was interesting as they classify them different yet.
This found me sending them an email and asking what distinguishes English and Balkan. Below is the reply, which does clear the mud... a little:
The hard truth is, nobody knows. In recent times, the Balkan descriptor is typically applied to blends with are more Latakia and Oriental forward than Virginia forward. A good Enlgish example in our line up might be Piccadilly by Pease or Mountain Camp by C&D, while a Balkan mixture would be something far heavier on the Latakia and Oriental components such as Star of the East by C&D or Odyssey by Pease. The descriptors are murky at best and have been the topic of much debate and discussion on online forums and in smokey back rooms where pipe clubs meet. Historically, things are even harder still to follow. Many of the pure Virignia blends of old were once described as English simply because they had no extra flavorings added.
This found me sending them an email and asking what distinguishes English and Balkan. Below is the reply, which does clear the mud... a little:
The hard truth is, nobody knows. In recent times, the Balkan descriptor is typically applied to blends with are more Latakia and Oriental forward than Virginia forward. A good Enlgish example in our line up might be Piccadilly by Pease or Mountain Camp by C&D, while a Balkan mixture would be something far heavier on the Latakia and Oriental components such as Star of the East by C&D or Odyssey by Pease. The descriptors are murky at best and have been the topic of much debate and discussion on online forums and in smokey back rooms where pipe clubs meet. Historically, things are even harder still to follow. Many of the pure Virignia blends of old were once described as English simply because they had no extra flavorings added.
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