What is a Balkan Blend?

Balkan II from Altadis and the Tinder Box Balkan (not sure of provenance) don't seem to have

Latakia, if my observation of the product and taste are telling me the truth. But this article

points out that the term Balkan isn't definitive. That was sort of my intuition, but it's good to

read it from someone who knows his stuff. Nonetheless, so-called English and Balkan blends

shouldn't have flavorings and other dressings, and that is enough to know in buying tobaccos.

The two Balkan's mentioned above are straightforward enough to be flavorful on their own,

and they bear a little mixing at home when the mood strikes. I've never tried any of the tinned

tobaccos pictured, but I'll seize the opportunity when my supply dwindles (in my imagination!).

Balkan II from Altadis and the Tinder Box Balkan (not sure of provenance) don't seem to have

Latakia, if my observation of the product and taste are telling me the truth

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I don't know about the TB blend, but, according to Altadis (and my taste buds) there's plenty of lat in Balkan II - more than in Balkan I.

Here's the description from P&C website, provided, I assume, by Altadis.

While many people have fallen in love with Balkan I, there are those who crave richer and bolder flavors, so for them we have created Balkan II with even more rich Turkish tobacco and a larger amount of intense and smoky Latakia. Despite its powerful flavor, Balkan II is smooth and very cool smoking.

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It's good to read that piece of Greg's again, too. ::

What is a Balkan Blend?

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Tasty as hell and perfect on a cold winter day?

I also enjoy them in the summer.

I'm confused.......

Don't worry about the labels! Just enjoy! I had a big bowl of H&H Larry's Blend today - am I worrying about labels? Hell no.

Jud, my bad. I went back and smoked both, and looked them over packing the pipe, and Altadis Balkan II,

and Tinder Box Balkan both have Latakia. Actually, I did this before reading your response, so something

was bothering me. Don't know how I remembered it so wrong, but I don't taste the Lat in those like I do

in some "English" blends. Nevermind. I need to research and copy edit my entries better, and fact check.

Groan. But thank you for the good catch.

It seems that he is saying a Balkan Blend is an English blend similar to Balkan Sobranie. Or did I get it wrong?

That was a tedious and difficult read. After three read throughs I still fail to know what in samhell is really going on.
I like Balkans and English anything with a healthy dose of stink weed.

if its got stink weed and spicy swamp weed even better.

Don't know how I remembered it so wrong, but I don't taste the Lat in those like I do

in some "English" blends.

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Maybe 'cause there's a good dose of various other orientals in there that don't make the lat as noticeable? :puffpipe:

Jud, yes, that likely confused me. But I should have stuck my nose back into those zip locks and

the Lat would have hit me in the snoot. Thanks for your patience.

The problem is is that time has marched on. At one time a "Balkan" blend was made only from tobaccos grown in the Balkan region of the world. Also, "English" blend meant something that was blended in England. It did not matter where the tobaccos were from. England had some pretty strict laws at one time regarding calling something "English".
Over time this has all morphed in to calling blends that have Latakia in them English blends. Blakan blends are now a subset of English and usually refers to a particular smoky flavor profile that we have decided to call "Balkan".

kcghost, that sounds like a good concise synopsis to me; I can hold that in mind, mostly.

If you haven't experienced SPC's Plum Pudding or MC's Bombay

Extra just yet, I would put it on your next TAD order

Of course, we all have a different understanding of tobacco history, too. I don't think there were any blends called "Balkans" until blenders started trying to emulate the Balkan Sobranie, and that trend didn't even really start to emerge until the 1990s when the BS became increasingly harder to get. Also, there weren't any laws regarding whether something was called an "English" blend. No one in the UK called anything an "English" blend, ever -- there was just tobacco, and if it was made in the UK for a long time there were restrictions on what kind of additives/flavorings could be used, but that had nothing to do with what they were called. Some folks have maintained that the British became enamored of latakia, orientals and perique because they weren't allowed to use non-tobacco flavorings, but that theory can't be true since we also know that the "Lakelands" (including some of the most heavily sauced aromatics in the world) have been in production since the late 18th century. In any case, the term "English" blend was invented by Americans who were seeking to differentiate domestic-style products from the latakia-laden mixtures that many Americans associated with British smokers, such as the Dunhills and Balkan Sobranie (American blenders used latakia, too, but they tended to use it differently).
Heck, I'm not sure I understand why this debate keeps popping up. It really doesn't matter how precise any of these given definitions are or whether there is such a thing as a "Balkan" blend. The term "English blend" has been in currency for so long here in the States that pretty much everyone knows in general terms what it means (virginias plus orientals plus lat without added toppings), and what's the point in eradicating it from our vocabulary? The same goes with "Balkan blend," which I think is pretty much interchangeable with the term "heavy English." I guess the whole discussion is a tempest in a teapot, so to speak.....

After reading that article, it seems that the terms English and Balkan have morphed into descriptive terms defining flavor profiles of blends rather than being definitions of the components in the blends, and that these definitions have evolved via Vox Populi and not by any academic means. If one surveys the taste of blends deemed English you find that these are latakia forward in flavor, and that mixtures deemed Balkan are oriental foward with latakia playing much lesser role. At least that has been my experience. The virginia leaf component in these blends seems to be where things blur even more, as some blenders claim generous portions of virginia that get lost under the potent condimental leaf while others (like Mccleland) manage to produce a quite assertive virginia presence in their blends. At this point, we should probably just accept the somewhat generic terms as they are, as they appear to be driven by romance and marketing more than anything else.

Puffdaddy -- Nicely said! The only quibble I'd have is that it seems to me that most blends called Balkans are actually quite latakia-forward, often to the point of being "lat bombs." Both Abingdon and Odyssey, for instance, are VERY heavy on the latakia yet they are archetypical Balkans.