Mac Baren HH Vintage Latakia

[cachimbero]

Anyone here has tried it?

I have smoked a few bowls and am a bit confused. I´ll post a review when I finish the tin and my mind is made up, but I would like to know the opinion of fellow pipers. I thought I was going to find a Vintage Syrian with the Syrian substituted by Cyprian, but I think something different is going on. I have not found the reviews on tobbacoreviews.com helpful on this particular tobacco.

 

[redglow]

I have two tins of HH Vintage Syrian. But have never tried HH Vintage Latakia.

 

[cachimbero]

Do you know if it is available in the US? There is an HH Balkan Blend which, as far as I know is not available in Europe, while I can´t find the Vintage Latakia in US online shops. Maybe they are the same blend with different names for marketing reasons? Constituent tobaccos, according to Tobaccoreviews.com are the same but, being the genre it is, this could mean nothing.

 

[redglow]

I'm sure someone in here is well versed in the HH line. I'm assuming that the HH Latakia blend came about after Syrian Latakia was no longer available? But, I'm not sure.

 

[elessar]

HH Balkan came about when Syrian Latakia ran out. HH Balkan is a new blend to replace HH Vintage Syrian, but they did not just replace the types of Latakia. It is a different blend in other ways also. There is also HH Latakia Flake. Both HH Balkan and HH Latakia Flake are available in the US.

 

[raybrown55]

I've smoked several pouches of HH Vintage Latakia and I like it very much, more than the Syrian version, and yes, the Ciprian latakia is not the only difference, this new version seems to me burley-forward and with less latakia taste.

 

[unkleyoda]

Per Jensen said that when they ran out of Syrian Latakia, they formulated HH Vintage Latakia. They had to sub Cyprian for Syrian. Because Cyprian is different flavor than Syrian, they had to play with the mixture because the dynamic was off. Because of this, the taste is different.
As far as HH Balkan and HH Vintage Latakia, I think they are the same. I think the US market gets HH Balkan, and Europe gets HH Vintage Latakia.

 

[cachimbero]

Thank you. I suspected the latter.

I have smoked four bowls so far and it is starting to grow on me. I´ll write a review once the tin is over and share with you. I think 50 grams is too little for a review but 4 bowls is unacceptable. I find lately that I need to smoke at least half a tin to make up my mind about a tobacco.

 

[foursidedtriangle]

I tried it and it is not the same as vintage Syrian, actually not that much latakia in it.