This is not a formal review as there are plenty of those available on line. Also, if there is any dissent from the consensus that the Stokkebye and Arango tobacco's sold under this name are the same, I can't intelligently address that issue.
What I can say is that, based on having smoked about two ounces of the Stokkebye version out of a pound purchased from 4 Noggins, this is absolutely one of the best bulk Balkan blends I have ever smoked, going back to around 1980. I am stunned at how good it is. One respected reviewer characterized it as a lat bomb, on that I would dissent. I think the orientals are very much in evidence, though the Latakia is definitely present. There is a roundness that might be attributed to the Cavendish, though I can't really say for sure where it comes from. It is rich, layered, complex, etc.etc. Great for an after dinner smoke, but it burns cool and clean so I have smoked as many as three bowls a day.
And it is cheap. 4 Noggins sells it under the Stokkebye label, Smoking Pipes sells it as Arango and Pipes and Cigars sells it as plain Balkan Supreme, just do a search and that is the bulk that comes up. My pound arrived at an ideal moisture content, which for me is very much on the dry side ("steam is hotter than smoke"- Bob Rex) so you will probably want to get this in jars on arrival.
By the early 1980's, I had been turned on to the virtues of aged tobacco. I have smoked Balkan, English and Scottish mixtures that were indisputably made back when blenders worked from stocks of aged leaf, and it is frankly unreasonable to expect that anything made after that practice became obsolete can precisely duplicate that experience. But, if I had smoked this back then, I would have considered it a very worthy blend.
What I can say is that, based on having smoked about two ounces of the Stokkebye version out of a pound purchased from 4 Noggins, this is absolutely one of the best bulk Balkan blends I have ever smoked, going back to around 1980. I am stunned at how good it is. One respected reviewer characterized it as a lat bomb, on that I would dissent. I think the orientals are very much in evidence, though the Latakia is definitely present. There is a roundness that might be attributed to the Cavendish, though I can't really say for sure where it comes from. It is rich, layered, complex, etc.etc. Great for an after dinner smoke, but it burns cool and clean so I have smoked as many as three bowls a day.
And it is cheap. 4 Noggins sells it under the Stokkebye label, Smoking Pipes sells it as Arango and Pipes and Cigars sells it as plain Balkan Supreme, just do a search and that is the bulk that comes up. My pound arrived at an ideal moisture content, which for me is very much on the dry side ("steam is hotter than smoke"- Bob Rex) so you will probably want to get this in jars on arrival.
By the early 1980's, I had been turned on to the virtues of aged tobacco. I have smoked Balkan, English and Scottish mixtures that were indisputably made back when blenders worked from stocks of aged leaf, and it is frankly unreasonable to expect that anything made after that practice became obsolete can precisely duplicate that experience. But, if I had smoked this back then, I would have considered it a very worthy blend.
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