Possible Bad News For Latakia Lovers

[mso489]

I'd sorely miss Lat, but it is hardly the centerpiece of my pipe smoking. It is more the trend of blends suddenly missing, as mentioned in sable's post, that makes me uncomfortable. I can shift around and can enjoy a fairly wide variety of blends and single leaf, but I don't like the idea of old favorites being suddenly missing in action, and the concept of products being unavailable by decree, however well-intended the decree may be. The public health community pros feel they must be doing something, but as with a lot of human activity, the intent and the consequences are frequently at disparity.

 

[jitterbugdude]

A couple of years ago they were producing record breaking amounts of Latakia. It'll be interesting to see if pipestud has a real lead on this. He might.. he probably knows some blenders that know some distributors, that know some importers, that know some exporters, that know some farmers. We shall see. I find it hard to believe based on the amount of tobacco being recently produced but I'll wait for the next blog from pipestud (with one finger on the buy it now button for bulk latakia).

 

[johnbrody15]

Rumors about Cyprian Latakia have been circulating for the past several years. Eventually, yeah, it will stop being produced. When? Your guess is as good as mine.
But this much I will predict. Blends of every genre that you like are going to go bye-bye without warning. That's been going on for the past couple of years and it will continue. So it there's a blend that you would really miss were it to become deceased, put some away while you still can.

That's the reasonable answer I was looking for to quell my initial fear.

 

[litup]

The thing that makes this a bit of a bummer for Latakia lovers is that Latakia mellows over time.

Lightmybriar - I think that's an important point. We can cellar all we want, but if new production stops, all Latakia lovers will be worse off since they won't be able to enjoy the blends they love at the optimal time for smoking.

 

[verporchting]

The heat death of the universe is nearly upon us in any event. Enjoy what you can, while you can, 'cause we're all doomed in the end anyway. Cue, Monty's Python's "Life's a Piece of Shit" .... :nana:
Still, it was an interesting article and not entirely unexpected. I've seen so many things disappear lately that I just realized, DAMN, I'm getting old. :lol:
For those who have the resources and the interest it is way past time to build your cellar. If you don't have the resources or the interest in building a cellar, enjoy it while it lasts.
I'm going to go enjoy some Frog Morton Across the Pond now.

 

[pipestud]

A couple of years ago they were producing record breaking amounts of Latakia. It'll be interesting to see if pipestud has a real lead on this. He might.. he probably knows some blenders that know some distributors, that know some importers, that know some exporters, that know some farmers. We shall see. I find it hard to believe based on the amount of tobacco being recently produced but I'll wait for the next blog from pipestud (with one finger on the buy it now button for bulk latakia).jitterbugdude

It has been way more than a couple of years ago that record breaking amounts of Latakia was produced, jitterbugdude, but you sure hit the nail on the head regarding the chain of command on how to get to the bottom of this story. I'm still working on it and learning something new every day!

 

[cigrmaster]

Steve, the entire pipe world is waiting with baited breath for you to come up with the info. Thousands upon thousands of people are depending on you. No pressure or anything but we expect a full report by your next update on Saturday by 11:00 am CST. Don't disappoint us.
Oh yeah, I don't smoke any Latakia so it isn't an issue for me. I just want to see you sweat is all.

 

[pipestud]

LOL!
Just knowing you, Harris, causes me to sweat and break out in hives every day.
Pipestud

 

[cigrmaster]

LOLOLOL, good one Steve.

 

[hawky454]

Damn it! Up until now Lat blends were relatively easy to get. Say goodbye to those days, the herd has been alerted and those with deep pockets will end up buying out everything that the working class pipe smokers can’t afford in one go. I have been noticing blends like Arango Balkan Supreme have been out of stock for some time now, that blend totally sucks so when it comes back in stock, stay away, you’ll thank me later.
But seriously, if Cyprian Latakia is going away, that will be a huge loss for the community! It is such a unique leaf and there is so much that it can be used for. I’m about to tear up now.

 

[3rdguy]

Geez Maltese Falcon was hard enough to get restocked last time...

 

[gerryp]

This is my fault because I returned to pipe smoking last year and I really like latakia.
I used to really like EMP, Nightcap, Frog Morton's Cellar, and St. James Woods too, and look what happened to them.

 

[scottfree]

If Cyprian Latakia goes away, I will stop pipe smoking. All of my pipes and my meager cellar will go up for auction. Plain and simple.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

The hits keep coming.

 

[bazungu]

I read somewhere, I believe it was a Dutch Pipe Smoking Forum, of someone who went to Cyprus for holiday and once there thought to go visit some tobacco fields/ latakia processing plants. He was told almost no(or none) latakia was made in Cyprus anymore and most of the latakia comes from Turkey which would not be a surprise as Cyprus is quite small while Turkey is huge with probably some place with similar terroir as in Syria/Cyprus and the same kind of trees that are used for processing growing as well.

Is this true? No idea. But in some way it does make sense that Cyprus does not and cannot provide latakia for the whole world.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Bazunga, if you went to LaPoche in St James, you would say that St James can't possibly supply the world with perique also. The entire production of perique from LaPoche could easily fit into my garage... and possibly leave room for my bicycles and the lawnmower. Maybe less perique is used in blends, or maybe some companies are buying "fake" perique, or maybe just possibly, there really isn't that large of a market for pipe tobacco... or non-aromatics, anyways. We do make up a very small minority of pipesmokers, which is also a very small percentage of smokers in general.

 

[odobenus]

This is Part II:

https://www.pipestud.com/is-cyprian-latakia-dead-or-alive/

Thanks, Pipestud!

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

The total amount of perique used vs latakia is very small from what I've read. How many OTC blends have perique in it? You are correct, we are a very small portion of the pipe smoking world. Much of the pipe smoking world smokes Carter Hall and other OTC blends that do not contain perique. If you asked most pipe smokers what a VaPer was, they'd probably tell you it was one of those plastic things people suck on to get nicotine and flavoring.

 

[prairiedruid]

Looks like the Black Frigate will be setting sail for the Mediterranean to "safe guard" a hold's worth of bales. Lord help them if the Captain doesn't like the quality.

 

[Chasing Embers]

:rofl:
The Captain's not a big fan of Latakia! :rofl: