Are Balkan Blends Actually Balkan?

[woodsroad]

Because hops are my second-favorite vegetable. Why balk at Balken hops?

 

[anotherbob]

It's hard to know why people say what they say. You would have to ask them where they got their information from exactly.

True. One of them is an interesting guy he's got confirmed stories that sound like lies. And some stories that are certainly lies. Haven't seen any him or anyone else I knew from that area in a while. But they did all act like their town and that brand where somehow synonymous.

Theoretically whoever gave them the info could have been either confused or telling a tall tale. There are a bunch of places in the US calling themselves the first in the same category. Yuengling claims to be the oldest continuous US brewery because they were selling beer supposedly medicinally during Prohibition.

Yeah reminds me of how one of local bars is the longest running in the area. Opened the day prohibition ended. It's pretty obvious that it was running during prohibition though. Even in their pictures of opening day. You can see signs that the place was well used before that. The owner of the bar/restaurant I worked in at the time had a great reaction to my observation. Which was you're probably right but we're going to honor their official story. Since we can know and not prove anything past that.

But it seems like the concept itself is questionable. Maybe you could find people some place who were operating illegally prohibition whose operation went back further.

Certainly. Fun fact Walgreens made their money selling medical whiskey during prohibition. Basically there was a dispensary system in place not too unlike ones in various states now.

If you go, they have two walls with almost 100 25 cent sample jars, and a once a month pipe club.

That's pretty awesome.

The clerk was knowledgeable, maybe mid range in knowledgeability within the pipe market.

That's great. I know that really helps with getting people to smoke a pipe. As long as they know enough to get a new person to have a few decent smokes before they figure out how to handle a pipe. My local had a pipe tobacco blender. He was pretty knowledgeable. I didn't talk to him much until I had been smoking for a few years.

I also saw they had a coffee machine and non-alcohol fridge.

An example of people who don't know their stuff is some clerks at some Discount stores.

I don't mind when they don't know. I mind when they pretend to know.

They can sell you cheap nonbriar wood pipes, RYO leaf, tell you torch lighters work great. That might be the worst combination:

I've actually helped a few people get into smoking a pipe. And none regularly but at least they got to enjoy themselves and not burn the hell out of their mouth and tongue.

Torch light RYO in a thick varnished ebony wood pipe. Then switch to overly goopy aromatics with the same pipe and torch. Yes I have done this kind of thing as a beginning level piper and many others have too.

Terrible. A torch lighter is usable with a pipe but it's a very specific and careful process. I personally don't like bics. I think a bic works but a zippo/soft flame/match will work too and be more forgiving.

A couple youtube pipers tell people to use torchlights and cheap mystery wood. It's so bad it's entertaining.

So glad I hate watching youtube pipe videos. After the third guy acted like we really needed to know what pipe he was smoking and held it so close to the camera it turned into a blob, I just got annoyed.

If you go to the Smoking Pipes store it's a great trip for a few days because Myrtle Beach is nearby with great seafood and beaches.

I have only been there once. I had a great time and had to leave early cause of a big storm. Still have a turtle puppet I got there.

Mead just means honey drink, so it can have anywhere from practically no alcohol to like 20%. Above that it becomes more like liquor. At a low percent it's like a honey version of root beer or fizzy apple cider, so it's my favorite.

Both sound great.

The "Bottles" wine store in SC carries liquor mixes like Collins rum. I think that the product includes molasses. At least the jar has a thick brown goo.

We have some of those around here. I personally prefer neat and almost never touch mixed drinks. I don't drink often but when I do. It's Brandy, Bourbon, sometimes a good rum or gin. Always neat with no mixers. I know room temp gin is supposedly horrible but I actually like it.

I can't say you need to try FVF Plug.

It's never called to me. I honestly just go with my gut and it's been pretty good at guiding me.

Everyone has their own preferences, so I could telling that an aromatic is amazing like your favorite drink, and you could try it and say it's like a bad version of your drink.

I have certainly learned from reviews that we all have different tastes and senses. People get things out of a blends good and bad I never do and miss things that are super obvious and apparent to me.

CRBM is like that. It's like cherry juice for me and I like it. But some people think it's like cough syrup.

Never tried it. The best cherry blend I tried I barely liked. It just never seemed like a combo I liked much. Which is funny because I do like aromatics.

It seems worth trying a variety though.

Yes it is. Even just to to keep the regulars from getting stale to you. I mostly smoke a few blends and throw in a new thing or an old almost favorite a few times a year. I also have trouble stocking up on tins. A lot of my favorites come in bulk options so why spend the extra.

The category that I think Americans and Westerners tend to miss the most is non-Latakia Orientals, or what we could say a lot of people actually have smoked in the Balkans and Black Sea region.

I need to smoke more VAOrientals. I always like them a lot but shy away from them because they're extra temperamental for me. They always kind of first hit me like a good cigarette before giving up their charms. They're the shy but pretty girl who is actually really cool when you get to know here of the pipe tobacco world. First couple conversations you enjoyed but seem kind of flat and then one day you find out she does have some spice to her.

Probably the best known example of what I mean would be Camels cigarettes, Cherokee Black, and Turkish export.

One of my favorites is Cairo by GlP and that at first tasted like a Camel and now I get great tobacco with a whiff of spice and incense. Like smoking a good pipe while walking towards an open spice market.

Less common would be pure leaf Katerini, pure leaf Samsun, and D and R's Bulgarian Blend.

Never tried any of those.

Usually when Americans smoke Orientals, they have it with Latakia, and while it's understandable and a lot of people like Lat blends, there's a non Latakia Oriental genre that they don't pay as much attention to.

I like Latakia but it's weird for me it's like that band I don't listen to hardly ever but really love when I do.

I love my fill bent Grabow.
It looks good to me, very classic, like a grandpa pipe. They are reliable quality too.

I've wondered for years about this observation. I have seen more Grabow smokers get burn out then I have with any other brand. A lot of those smokers are also heavy puffers. I wonder if it's them or the pipes. They do have a few I like and the estates I've seen are often great. But they always just feel aesthetically off to me. I can't quite put my finger on it. I think it's something to do with the finish. They always look somewhat plastic to me. Though I do have to admit I miss seeing them in the bubble pack at the supermarkets and drug stores. Both of which randomly would have cobs for some reason. I got my first cob at a CVS and then abused that poor thing so badly.

Reasons why people might not be impressed with them is that they are simple looking and very affordable.

I try not to look at the price when shopping pipes. Which means there are a lot of pipes which I think that's a nice pipe but not a five hundred dollars worth of nice. I tend to find the pipes I like seem to be in the 100 through 300 dollar range. Though occasionally a cheaper pipe really catches my eye.

But for me those are fine qualities.
I am guessing that it's the best of the standard mass produced classic pipe brands.

I think that's an outdoors hiking or fishing pipe. Also side note I think pipes are somehow less offensive to wild animals then other tobaccos. I swear I've accidentally snuck up on more wild animals while smoking a pipe then not smoking or smoking cigs or cigars.
Though side note bees like Solani Sweet Mystery X. Only thing I have ever smoked that bees swarmed around.

 

[rakovsky]

Yeah reminds me of how one of local bars is the longest running in the area. Opened the day prohibition ended. It's pretty obvious that it was running during prohibition though. Even in their pictures of opening day. You can see signs that the place was well used before that. The owner of the bar/restaurant I worked in at the time had a great reaction to my observation. Which was you're probably right but we're going to honor their official story. Since we can know and not prove anything past that.

Part of the issue is they might not want to get the downsides from an image of their bar as having operated illegally in the past.

I don't mind when they don't know. I mind when they pretend to know.

I've actually helped a few people get into smoking a pipe. And none regularly but at least they got to enjoy themselves and not burn the hell out of their mouth and tongue.

Terrible. A torch lighter is usable with a pipe but it's a very specific and careful process. I personally don't like bics. I think a bic works but a zippo/soft flame/match will work too and be more forgiving.

So glad I hate watching youtube pipe videos. After the third guy acted like we really needed to know what pipe he was smoking and held it so close to the camera it turned into a blob, I just got annoyed.

At the nearby discount store I told the lady clerk I wanted a refillable lighter that I could light by pressing a button, and she said that torchlights were good. So I got one. I used it on my nonbriar Chang Feng unknown wood pipe and got nausea at the end of the bowl. Then the next time I used it I got nausea after two puffs. Maybe I vomited. The cause was somewhere between the irritants of certain toxic nonbriar woods, the heavy varnish on the cheap pipe, the results of using a torchlight. The next day that I tried, I switched to a soft flame BIC and the nausea didn't repeat.

There is a Youtube video called "Why you SHOULD use a torch lighter on your TOBACCO PIPE". The presenter has an entertaining presentation style, but a bad argument. It is basically that he is an Individualist who does what he wants and he likes using a torchlight. I guess his real reason is that he finds it easier than using a soft flame because the torch's flame is so strong. He mentions the downsides like hurting his health and his pipe and he just comes back to the idea of doing what one wants.

Imagine going to a Discount store, and saying, "Good afternoon, may I please ask what lighter you recommend?"
And the clerk answers, "You should use a torch light. I use one because I WONT to."

We have some of those around here. I personally prefer neat and almost never touch mixed drinks. I don't drink often but when I do. It's Brandy, Bourbon, sometimes a good rum or gin. Always neat with no mixers. I know room temp gin is supposedly horrible but I actually like it.

I like Bombay Sapphire. I trust a cheaper gin brand and didn't like it so much. It might have been tanqueray, but I don't remember for sure.

Some non-alcohol drinks can themselves be good, and then the liquor adds more flavor.
So for instance I like to drink Black Tea. Black Tea with boiled milk can be better in flavor. Boiled milk black tea with brown sugar and a bit of whiskey can be better in flavor.

Part of it depends on the mood I'm in. Pina Colada is a great drink whether it has alcohol or not, for my senses.

It's never called to me. I honestly just go with my gut and it's been pretty good at guiding me.

I have certainly learned from reviews that we all have different tastes and senses. People get things out of a blends good and bad I never do and miss things that are super obvious and apparent to me.

Never tried it. The best cherry blend I tried I barely liked. It just never seemed like a combo I liked much. Which is funny because I do like aromatics.

There's no guarantee that someone will like what other people do in the pipe world.
1Q I heard is the most popular selling blend. But I'm thinking that Captain Black might be actually the most popular blend. Those are both Cavendish though.

I was in a cigar/pipe shop in the Myrtle Beach area when a lady came in and said she wanted to get a blend for her Dad or husband. The same kind of thing happened in the Smoking Pipes store when I was visiting. The women wanted to know what was good and what to get. The owner in the one store, and the clerk in the other, told the women that it depends what their relative likes. It's a tricky situation because you want them to get a nice present. But lets say that their relative only smokes one kind of blend, then the present might not work as well.

It's like with ice cream flavors and candy. What flavor would you be a guaranteed sure shot for someone's preference if they came from Africa and never tried US flavors? Normally I would think "Chocolate." I grew up in PA and my favorite chocolate is Hershey's from PA. I love it. It has a slight citrus flavor in it that balances its chocolate out, whereas Swiss Toblerone is more boring. 6 years ago I mailed Hershey's chocolate to a farm coop in Africa as a reward for mailing me coffee.

It turns out that Hershey's marginal citrus flavor is a natural preservative that shows up in sour milk, and when adults from other continents try it for the first time, it tastes like sharp rotten milk to them.

One of my favorites is Cairo by GlP and that at first tasted like a Camel and now I get great tobacco with a whiff of spice and incense. Like smoking a good pipe while walking towards an open spice market.

Tobacco Reviews says about Cairo, " This tobacco has a distinctly Oriental character, reminiscent of the spice markets in the bazaar."
I'm wondering if there are some spices used in making it.
Otherwise, I've been very careful about what people call "incenselike" blends, since I'm into church incense and smell it on a regular basis. Margate Esoterica and Indonesian Frankincense AKA Sintren remind me the most of incense of what I've tried, whereas Gaslight and Star of the East remind me the least out of what some people describe as incenselike.

Never tried any of those.

I like Latakia but it's weird for me it's like that band I don't listen to hardly ever but really love when I do.

One of the reviews for Cairo on Tobacco Reviews says

• (Post-logue: Cairo is unlike any other tobacco available - hence my ability to identify it. Non-Latakia Oriental blends (plus gorgeous Virginias here) are few and far between, but the intricacy, variation, complexity and development of Cairo leaves me breathless.

So Cairo is a good example of the genre that I was talking about for non-Lat Orientals. Typically "Oriental" blends sold in the US include Lat, and it affects the smell in a mustier direction.

I've wondered for years about this observation. I have seen more Grabow smokers get burn out then I have with any other brand. A lot of those smokers are also heavy puffers. I wonder if it's them or the pipes. They do have a few I like and the estates I've seen are often great. But they always just feel aesthetically off to me. I can't quite put my finger on it. I think it's something to do with the finish. They always look somewhat plastic to me. Though I do have to admit I miss seeing them in the bubble pack at the supermarkets and drug stores. Both of which randomly would have cobs for some reason. I got my first cob at a CVS and then abused that poor thing so badly.

Grabows have varnish, so I could see that varnish as making the pipes interpreted as plastic. My Grabows are both Smooth wood in design. The Grabow Rustic ones I recall as seeming more artificial to me, with perhaps the lines or valleys not exactly matching what I would imagine to be the natural grain.

Grabow has some sandlasted pipes that have bumps that match the natural grain.

If you have a savinelli you won't have that varnish to distract you from seeing the wood.

People have their own preferences. For me, the varnish plus smoothness of a Grabow pipe make it look pretty like a hotel desk or chess piece.

The Pipe Steward cleaned down a Grabow to remove varnish and got great results:

Rescuing a Dr. Grabow Regal Ajustomatic Pat. 2461905 Dublin

The next pipe on the worktable came to me in what I have named the St. Louis Lot of 26 in December of 2018. My son Josiah was instrumental in finding this Lot in a local antique shop in St. Louis …

thepipesteward.com

Maybe some of the older Grabows weren't made as well and got a hole burned in them sometimes. People classically tried to build up cake inside the pipe to prevent burn out. Grabows are made of briar wood, so they are good quality, and they classically came pre-smoked, which helped protect their chambers.

I think that's an outdoors hiking or fishing pipe. Also side note I think pipes are somehow less offensive to wild animals then other tobaccos. I swear I've accidentally snuck up on more wild animals while smoking a pipe then not smoking or smoking cigs or cigars.
Though side note bees like Solani Sweet Mystery X. Only thing I have ever smoked that bees swarmed around.

Sweet Mystery X has Black Currants with Bacardi rum. Rum is based on sugar and usually molasses. So the fruit and sugar combination would appeal to them.