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History of Latakia Blends

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antipodesman

antipodesman

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jan 25, 2011
134
0
Vancouver Island
A quick review of old tobacco tins for sale on ebay leads me to believe that Latakia blends were not so popular in olden days as they are today. Of course there was Squadron Leader and a few others but by far codger blends, virginias and burleys predominate. When did Latakia blends become so popular and why did it become popular.

 
P

piperl12

Part of the Furniture Now
Apr 7, 2012
970
4
@antipodesman, from what I have read about Latakia the tobacco became much more popular after pipe smoking British soldiers returned from conflicts like the boar war where Latakia tobacco's where more prominent. I think it really had to do with the world opening up and becoming a smaller place that like fine wines allowed new world pipe smokers to try something more exotic. Course I could be completely wrong and if I am someone out there feel free to tell me my wife is out today so know one else is going to do it :nana:

 
antipodesman

antipodesman

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jan 25, 2011
134
0
Vancouver Island
That is an interesting story "piperl". One of my favorite writers and a pipe smoker too was Conan Doyle who served in the Boer War in a field hospital and then wrote a history of the Boer War. He was in fact knighted for his writing about the Boer War and not his stories about Sherlock Holmes.

 
judcole

judcole

Lifer
Sep 14, 2011
7,185
33,530
Detroit
Define "olden days". :P
What you have to remember is that, before the internet, most folks generally bought from a local store. Many smokers bought from their local drug or grocery store. That meant that what they had available to them were American blends, along with some of the Dutch or Danish blends. (Amphora, Troost, Sail, MacBaren, Flying Dutchman.)

The English blends, which had the latakia, tended to be available only in pipe shops.Some pipe shops sold by mail order, but you had to know about them - and some pipe shops only sold their own blends.

There were American blends with latakia - Revelation, Country Doctor, Barking Dog, Spillman's, Blue Boar, and probably others I don't know about - but not that many.

Lots of the old-timers, I would, had one or two blends that they smoked, just like someone smoked 1 brand of cigarette - and they were probably American blends, because they were ubiquitous and inexpensive.

 
P

piperl12

Part of the Furniture Now
Apr 7, 2012
970
4
See this is why I love this group. I learn something everytime I come here. If course now I am going to have to read more Arthur Conan Doyle books! Thanks! Hehehehe

 
pitchfork

pitchfork

Lifer
May 25, 2012
4,030
606
I think Jud has part of the story there. Also, many people who were pipe smokers 50 years ago were just smokers, not pipe and tobacco enthusiasts/hobbyists as most of us are. It seems that a much greater proportion of pipe smokers are now hobbyists than was the case earlier. And most hobbyists are just naturally inclined to try new flavors in tobacco, including latakia. Relatively few of us hobbyists smoke the OTC codger blends that were universally popular back when.
Neill Archer Roan has an interesting story of his encounter with a genuine old codger. The old man relates that lots of people back in his day used to smoke pipes, but only a few people smoked fancy tobaccos like Balkan Sobranie. I think the demographic change among pipe smokers explains part of the sense that latakia is more popular now than say 50 years ago.
When latakia blends were first mass marketed is a different question. Certainly Squadron Leader (introduced c 1925) could be a milestone for that shift.

 
pitchfork

pitchfork

Lifer
May 25, 2012
4,030
606
Here's the link to NAR's story about his park-bench encounter with the old codger:
http://passionforpipes.squarespace.com/neills-blog/2012/12/30/lessons-from-a-park-bench.html

 
judcole

judcole

Lifer
Sep 14, 2011
7,185
33,530
Detroit
I thought about mentioning the hobby aspect that Pitchfork does, and then forgot. Thanks!
I can't see why the Boer War would have much to do with latakia - latakia is from Syria,and the Boer War was in South Africa. Syria was part of the Ottoman Empire at that time.

 
pitchfork

pitchfork

Lifer
May 25, 2012
4,030
606
I don't know about latakia, but I've seen a late-18th century text that comments on the different oriental growing regions. Strangely enough, it singles out Yenidje as the prime oriental tobacco. Earlier 18th-century geographies I've seen mention the port of Latakia (aka Laodicea) in terms of the amount of tobacco being moved through it, much of it grown in the hills around the port of Latakia -- no mention in that one of whether these are oriental tobaccos or smoked orientals (i.e., latakia).

 
misterlowercase

misterlowercase

Lifer
May 31, 2012
4,295
34
"I can't see why the Boer War would have much to do with latakia - latakia is from Syria,and the Boer War was in South Africa. Syria was part of the Ottoman Empire at that time."
That's a good point Jud, I think it was more than likely soldiers returning from the Crimean War that popularized Latakia in Britain.
I've only recently came around to liking Lat, at first I hated it, I never thought I'd actually enjoy smoking it!
There's a good chance that British travellers first encountered Latakia when visiting Egypt, because the Egyptians loved it.
I've gone off on a bit of Sherlockian excavation on google books looking for references and here's what I found.
A dictionary cites the first use of the word Latakia being used as a descriptor of tobacco instead of the place-name for the Syrian city as 1833:

The Arabic Contributions to the English Language: An Historical Dictionary

latakia/Latakia, n. (1833)

[Ad. of al- Lddhiqiyah, the Syrian port of Latakia L Laodicea, its ancient name] A superior, highly aromatic Turkish smoking tobacco. ..was orig. borrowed as Latakia tobacco.
also:

The progressive dictionary of the English language: a supplementary wordbook (1835)

 
sparroa

sparroa

Lifer
Dec 8, 2010
1,466
4
I have heard the story about the Crimean War.
I don't think the Boer War has anything to do with latakia.

 
pstlpkr

pstlpkr

Lifer
Dec 14, 2009
9,694
31
Birmingham, AL
Good stuff guys. :clap:
A dictionary cites the first use of the word Latakia being used as a descriptor of tobacco instead of the place-name for the Syrian city as 1833:

The Arabic Contributions to the English Language: An Historical Dictionary

latakia/Latakia, n. (1833)...etc.
Click to expand...

I think I remember reading that quite a while back...

I had quite forgotten about it.

:puffy:

 
foggymountain

foggymountain

Lifer
Aug 14, 2012
2,872
123
There are some good points made above. When I started smoking 57 years ago, pipesmokers smoked just one tobacco. As someone mentioned it was because before the internet you could only buy what they had in the local pipeshop, and the selection was much more limited than it is now. You found what you liked and stuck with it.

 
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