Not so long ago, I loathed Latakia and found it to be disgusting, but eventually it has come to be something I greatly enjoy. I wouldn't even consider a blend if it had only a pinch of Lat and I paid no mind to all the praise heaped upon the 'ol Balkan Sobranie, it was just BS to me! :lol:
Now that I'm navigating my way through the various Lat blends, I do pay a little more heed to the reverence for BS, although so far I haven't found a Balkan blend I really like, unless Odyssey is considered a Balkan?
I'm still in the dark for the most part...
"don't know much about art, but I know what I like"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15YOlykQKL4
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...so, I found this old tin for $30, it had been opened but still full. I had to make a quick decision, was it worth it? Had the seller filled an old tin with another tobacco? These thoughts flashed across my mind and then impulsively I went ahead and bought the stuff. It arrived yesterday. It's pretty amazing to feel the heft of a full 2oz cutter-top of Balkan Sobranie, one of the reasons I went ahead and got it was that the prices are astronomical to say the least and I thought it'd be cool to sample it.
The nose aroma was there, but subdued. The baccy was in good shape, it was dry but not dust dry. It was packed very tightly, compressed to fit. There wasn't very much sugar crystallization, but it was there in places, especially deeper in the tin. I could tell it was indeed old, but was it really Sobranie? I looked online for pictures and my stuff lined up with the few photos of Smoking Mixture that I could find, so I decided to assume it is real.
I've only smoked one pipeful so far, as expected, the Lat has lost any oomph, but it's still there like a soft rumbling thunder in the distance, a shadowy cloud covering the overall profile. The main flavor is I suppose that of the Yenidje, and it is a profoundly deep flavor, a kind of nuttiness and slightly soursweet, hard to describe, but I was astonished at how robust that flavor came through. I'll have to smoke a few more pipes to get a good handle on it. Otherwise, I'd have to say it's past its peak and doesn't encompass the full Balkan Sobranie profile in all its glory. I think I'll experiment and mix some with fresh Lat to see how it goes...
...these cutter-tops often have an address printed on the back, this one does not. However, it does have a paper insert which lists the addy as 17 Worship St. where the Sobranie House was from 1960-68, so my best guess is that this tin dates to the mid 60's.
I'm glad I found it and that I've been able to sample it, even though on the whole it's past its prime, some of the elements are quite distinct --- through all the years that the Smoking Mixture has been made, there's a large variety of different versions, each vintage slightly different, so instead of being just one massive monolithic myth, it's like series of individual monoliths forming the whole.
In the end, I think it was worth getting it!
Now that I'm navigating my way through the various Lat blends, I do pay a little more heed to the reverence for BS, although so far I haven't found a Balkan blend I really like, unless Odyssey is considered a Balkan?
I'm still in the dark for the most part...
"don't know much about art, but I know what I like"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15YOlykQKL4
:
:
...so, I found this old tin for $30, it had been opened but still full. I had to make a quick decision, was it worth it? Had the seller filled an old tin with another tobacco? These thoughts flashed across my mind and then impulsively I went ahead and bought the stuff. It arrived yesterday. It's pretty amazing to feel the heft of a full 2oz cutter-top of Balkan Sobranie, one of the reasons I went ahead and got it was that the prices are astronomical to say the least and I thought it'd be cool to sample it.
The nose aroma was there, but subdued. The baccy was in good shape, it was dry but not dust dry. It was packed very tightly, compressed to fit. There wasn't very much sugar crystallization, but it was there in places, especially deeper in the tin. I could tell it was indeed old, but was it really Sobranie? I looked online for pictures and my stuff lined up with the few photos of Smoking Mixture that I could find, so I decided to assume it is real.
I've only smoked one pipeful so far, as expected, the Lat has lost any oomph, but it's still there like a soft rumbling thunder in the distance, a shadowy cloud covering the overall profile. The main flavor is I suppose that of the Yenidje, and it is a profoundly deep flavor, a kind of nuttiness and slightly soursweet, hard to describe, but I was astonished at how robust that flavor came through. I'll have to smoke a few more pipes to get a good handle on it. Otherwise, I'd have to say it's past its peak and doesn't encompass the full Balkan Sobranie profile in all its glory. I think I'll experiment and mix some with fresh Lat to see how it goes...
...these cutter-tops often have an address printed on the back, this one does not. However, it does have a paper insert which lists the addy as 17 Worship St. where the Sobranie House was from 1960-68, so my best guess is that this tin dates to the mid 60's.
I'm glad I found it and that I've been able to sample it, even though on the whole it's past its prime, some of the elements are quite distinct --- through all the years that the Smoking Mixture has been made, there's a large variety of different versions, each vintage slightly different, so instead of being just one massive monolithic myth, it's like series of individual monoliths forming the whole.
In the end, I think it was worth getting it!
top, but the patina of the thing along with the great graphics, made it a beautiful object unto itself...
