Latakia Will Be Smoked Till I'm Sick Of It

[The Clay King]

The Clay King does NOT like the taste or smell of Latakia
I did smoke a bowl of Latakia in Nottingham last year but didn't get burnout from it; I normally favour golden coloured Virginia and Cavendish blends.
Shame Chaukisch appears to have vanished; he said he was making me a special "Clay King " clay pipe baccy...

 

[Coreios]

Same with me @bullet08 .

My first "WOW" smoking experience was a freshly opened tin of Nighcap. So I went a little overboard ordering English blends. Now I have a few too many in my cellar I think, including several lat bombs like unopened tins of C&D Pirate Kake and G.L. Pease Gaslight; both of which I'm intimidated to even look at.

Over the holidays, I bought a Peterson pipe which came with a tin of C&D Ghost of Christmas Past. It's an interesting blend which includes, as the tin description states, a "fantasm of Latakia". It was quite good.

So, like @sablebrush52 said, Latakia might best serve me as "condimental" for a while. Perhaps I will use the supply I have by adding bits here and there to non-english blends I have opened.

Good luck my brother! Your courage is an inspiration to us all

Night won me into Latakia as well!

 

[Searock Fan]

Thanks to all who suggested blends. I'm going to make it a point of getting a many as I can.

This thread, like every other thread on this site, shows one thing.... we can't all agree on anything. Ain't it grand? If we all agreed there wouldn't be anything to talk about.

 

[elvishrunes]

My journey with latakia is the same as what happened with Islay malts. First taste was a revelation. As I learned to appreciate the more subtle flavors in milder blends and malts, I now only return to the more intense smoke flavors occasionally. Still love 'em but you can easily burn out on them. I prefer a light hand on both, rarely interested in lat bombs or overly peated scotches as anything more than a curiosity.

funny, I just had some Laphroaig tonight, I never tire of the peat although my wallet stops me from too much, but I did finally cut back the Lat last year.. I smoke more Va’s and aros now, and I do appreciate all scotch flavours tho.

 

[LeafErikson]

The only lat heavy blend I've ever tried was stratfordshire. I smoked 1/4 of the bowl and the remainder of the bowl, along with the rest of the 2 oz sample, ended up in the garbagio. Similar to @didimauw and @Grangerous I prefer my burley blends any other blends by a country mile. I do enjoy some vas and va/pers but I would be devastated if they were all I had to smoke.

 

[bullet08]

Balkan Supreme today. It was glorious. I don't know what it is, when things line up right, Latakia is just lovely. Might have to open one of GLP to compare. I remember enjoying every one of GLP Lat blends.

 

[mso489]

I think what's saved me from Latakia burn-out is my devotion to burley and burley inclusive blends. What gets people is the overuse of Latakia and Perique as default condiments seemingly added to every possible blend. I love 'em both, but I can see how people get jaded. There are so many other interesting and tasty tobaccos -- unflavored black Cavendish to build smoke volume and sweetness for example, or cigar leaf to set off other leaf, not to mention various Orientals and dark-fired, to name just a few. Variety is the spice of life.

 

[irishearl]

The only lat heavy blend I've ever tried was stratfordshire. I smoked 1/4 of the bowl and the remainder of the bowl, along with the rest of the 2 oz sample, ended up in the garbagio. Similar to @didimauw and @Grangerous I prefer my burley blends any other blends by a country mile. I do enjoy some vas and va/pers but I would be devastated if they were all I had to smoke.

When I'm in my latakia- loving phase, that's my second favorite latakia blend, while my favorite would be Balkan Sobranie 759 match. I'm still sitting on a little bit of the latter til my desire returns to some degree.

 

[Ray Popp]

So what is Maryland exactly? I’ve seen it on a tin or two in the past but never really figured out what it is.

Maryland is a State, north of Virginia and south of Pennsylvania with some of it hanging out in the Atlantic. But that is not important ... (Do I get extra points for being a wise arse?)

 

[Ray Popp]

Hope it wasn't Old Bay Seasoning.

No, probably the crabs ...

 

[Ray Popp]

Now on topic ... I started smoking the pipe more than 45 years ago ... my first pipes being MMs because that was all I could afford at the time. My first briar was a gifted Jobey from a GF purchased at the Tinderbox in the Westown Mall in Knoxville. I had a year of 4 behind me in the AF and was in Texas that Christmas, 1977. And I smoked English blends from B&Ms exclusively and loved the Latakia in them. I never smoked tins, smoked a lot of Capitan Black and Borkum Riff while in Germany because I could get those at the Exchange and not have to pay the German taxes. I think I have only purchased two tins, I know not what.

I have been on a hiatus from my pipes for the past 10 years give or take ... Coming back to them. I appreciate the wisdom all of you have imparted on this forum, things I learned the hard way.

This time, I'm going to leave the Latakia behind, at least for a while, and learn to enjoy Virginias and Vapers. Not certain about the whole flake thing. I have smoked some rolls ... rubbed them out. Did not like them, too hot ... now I know why. Will give the "cake" genre a go. A new experience from always having tobacco ready to go ... I guess it becomes part of the mystique ...

But I will still have my English (re Latakia) around. It is my favorite cold-weather tobacco. And all of my pipes have been more than simply exposed to English blends, so they are tainted. Will pick up new pipes for my journey through Va's and VaPers .. I want to be fair to the tobacco.

 

[anotherbob]

for me latakia is weird. I either find myself not interested or it's the thing and it's all I really want. This want can last one smoke or several weeks. It's not ever terrible to me but more no interest.

 

[PipeIT]

My Palate has recently really shifted.

I woke up one day, to my surprise, and when I started thinking about smoking, and the various blends I had, just the mere thought of some made me actually feel sick.

I thought this was really odd, as I’d never experienced, hitting, I’d call a Tobacco wall.

So, really sweet Aros, like Exotic Passion, no more. No more extreme tart/tangy Red VAs. No more heavy perfume Lakelands, and no more Latakia.

To be honest, my body is now finding enjoyment in light VAs/VaPers, and just good old honest tasting tobacco.

But, for now, if I had to consider blends topped, to the extent of flavors on a spectrum of strength, the Sun Bears, and the newer drops of Grousemoor, these are as much flavor as I need/care for, anything more intense, is becoming yuck.

 

[Honkytonk Man]

I really liked strong Latakia blend until the day if didn't. Don't know why but my taste buds moved over to the VaPer part of the spectrum but at times I wished it hadn't.

As did mine...

 

[tmcg81]

What's funny to me is that I didn't stop liking latakia. I just kinda didn't smoke it for the better part of a year. I smoked at least 2 bowls of English blends every day for a while and bought quite a bit of them as well. I was sampling vapers and burley blends at the time, and then one day I accidentally let a Rubbed out Flake of Solani Aged Burley Flake sit out drying way longer than I meant to, and when I smoked it, it blew my mind and I went so unbelievably hard on burley blends. Ive recently come back around to the English blends though. Plus side is that I've now got probably enough latakia to last the rest of my life, and I'm starting to crack into tins with 4/5 years of age and they're pretty great.

The ones I smoke the most are:

GL Pease Westminster
C&D Star of the East Flake
Rattray's Highland Targe