History of Latakia Blends

[antipodesman]

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.

 

[piperl12]

@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]

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]

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.

 

[piperl12]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

"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)

 

[misterlowercase]

"The Tobacco also which is smok'd in the Levant, is the best in the World" (1741)
"After dinner we took Mocha coffee, and smoked Latakia tobacco, lying alfresco under the great tent" (1815)
"...and could tell accurately all the nice distinctions of tobacco, define the particular effect of the sparkling latakia" (1837)

 

[misterlowercase]

" an okka of Latakia !" (1828)
James Payn, the novelist, puffs eternally at a pipe of Latakia. Even while at work he smokes persistently, still at that Latakia which the doctors once told him would " kill the strongest man in ten years" (1833)


The tobacco smoked in Egypt comes principally from Latakia, and the mountains near. (1833)

 

[misterlowercase]

from the Count of Monte Cristo (1844)


"The chief produce of the mountainous part of the Latakia district is tobacco, of which the quantity exported is very great, and is sent chiefly to Alexandria" (1861)
from Thring's criminal law of the Navy (1877)

"A. B. did then unlawfully obtain from the said C. D. two pounds of Latakia tobacco"

 

[misterlowercase]

"new variety of tobacco"

The American Farmer (1866)
"latakia is little used in the USA" (1893)
Dear Sir : Probably the most unfair tax in the revenue bill is that on tobacco. (1909)

 

[misterlowercase]

this very well may be the origin of the famous camel-dung myth:

The soverane herbe: a history of tobacco (1901)
...and this is troubling as well:

"According to a telegram I received from London a report has " been spread there that Latakia tobacco is cured by human urine" (1903)

 

[sparroa]

I have heard the story about the Crimean War.
I don't think the Boer War has anything to do with latakia.

 

[fnord]

misterlowercse:
you're useful. please continue hanging around.
welcome to the forums, pard.
fnord

 

[pstlpkr]

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.

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

I had quite forgotten about it.

::

 

[judcole]

There's some great stuff,here! Thanks.

 

[foggymountain]

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.