Latakia Doesn't Age Well ... Or Does It?

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Smoking a Pipe Right Now
Staff member
Nov 16, 2008
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4,932
St. Petersburg, FL
pipesmagazine.com
Let's see what legendary tobacco blender Gregory L. Pease has to say about that.

Latakia Doesn't Age Well

Vintage-Latakia-Tins-from-Gregory-L.-Peases-Collection-1536x1152.jpg
 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
I had a tin of premium pipe tobacco with Lat in the blend that I kept unopened for a few years, and when I popped it, there was distinct Lat in the first few bowls, and then it disappeared. I bolstered the rest of the tin with condiments, though I didn't try to replace the Lat, but the blend definitely changed after opening.
 
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bullet08

Lifer
Nov 26, 2018
8,932
37,913
RTP, NC. USA
Never went after older tins. Mainly due to not being into pipe smoking long enough, and not believing in paying arms and legs for already aged tins. Having said that, I wouldn't mind aged Latakia too much. Fresh open current Latakia is sharp and pungent in its characteristics. But even couple of weeks will mellow it down and let it play with others better. I'm hoping, more age down the road will allow better enjoyment of Latakia.
 

cfreud

Starting to Get Obsessed
Feb 1, 2014
256
284
As one who has two tubs-worth of English-style pipe tobacco in tins with 5-7 years, I am happier than a pig in slop. (Being born and raised in San Francisco, I'm not used to using a phrase like that.) The 7-year-old Gaslight in my pipe is saying, "Yum."
 

OzPiper

Lifer
Nov 30, 2020
5,756
30,562
71
Sydney, Australia
The collorary is cellaring a bottle of wine.

Do you prefer the brash fruit of a young wine or the rounded complexity of a 10-15 year old bottle ? It depends entirely on your tastes.

I have only recently returned to smoking pipes in the past 3 years, so have not had the chance to smoke many aged blends, except for ones gifted by a pipe buddy, or the occasional tins bought on the secondary market. So I cannot comment without the experience of tasting a vast variety of aged blends like many of the Forums members can with their huge cellars of tobacco.

But I have been buying wine and cigars for years. Most of the wine I buy will definitely benefit from cellar time, but I also buy bottles for immediate drinking.

Which is a very long winded way of saying that some blends will definitely be better with cellar age, while others are better young and fresh. But it all depends on your taste and preference ?
 

hawky454

Lifer
Feb 11, 2016
5,338
10,220
Austin, TX
I am one of the ones that do not like aged lat blends as much as their relatively “fresh” counterparts. That being said anything under 5 years for me is “fresh” I’ll still smoke em after 10 years but that’s when they start tasting flat to me, like @mso489 , when first opened the Lat was very much full and present but a few days after opening the tin the Lat seems fade. There are always exceptions though. Misterlowercase gifted me a tin of some well aged Krumble Kake and some Balkan Sobranie from the late 70’s both of those blends were stellar! The Sobranie was a trip, the Latakia did not taste as if it had faded at all, it smoked very much like a “fresh” tin of tobacco t’was just divine!

Here soon, I really won’t have a choice, I have very few blends that have less than 5 years age on them so I’ll be smoking a lot of aged lat blends in due time. I’m always open to changing my mind, this has just been my experience so far.
 

elvishrunes

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jun 19, 2017
268
485
I’m really enjoying Eastfarthing a Frog Morgan imitation and it is excellent. It is mostly aged Lat. It does mellow the smoky note, but it is still there…. I like both aged and young Lat for different reasons.
 
Jan 28, 2018
12,952
134,606
66
Sarasota, FL
Good article. I think the key point is Latakia doesn't go flat as much as the other components become more robust which results in the Latakia flavor not being as prevalent. Not being a huge Latakia fan, I certainly enjoy aged Latakia blends well more than fresh ones.