What is the next Balkan Sobranie?
- Thread starter Apalea
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You'll never get a concensus on that one. Too many different smokers and too many different blends.
Maybe individually, but never as a group, taste is far too subjective. For instance, I never cared for the old Balkan Sobranie.
American produced American codger pouch blends. They're already disappearing and people are scouring the backwater cig stores for the last few big tubs.
I miss Daughters and Ryan TAPS VIP. I came to the realization it is the only va/per that I genuinely enjoy before getting caught off guard with the partial sale and catalog shrinking. Day late and a dollar short.
I have about a third of a tin left I've been smoking and to me, it's a pinnacle va/per.
I have about a third of a tin left I've been smoking and to me, it's a pinnacle va/per.
I would trade Esoterica to get more of their London Dock.
London Dock was in my wish list for probably 2-3 years but I just kept procrastinating on spending more time with D&R before it was too late. I had had a bowl here and there of TAPS, but it wasn't until after they shrunk the catalog that I really concluded how much I like it (and their process in general). I like Rowland Gold as well and I bought a post-sale bag of it last year. While I still enjoy it, my bag was devoid of the light cocoa topping the Gold used to have. Not sure if a fluke, or a change.
London Dock of course, there went that wish list item. Spent too much time chasing what everyone else was ranting on about instead of good, quality stuff I already had.
The great thing about people doing that is that it keeps eyes off of the tobacco that I like.
It helps to have delusions of grandeur. When a blend is being pushed too hard at me, I always think I can find a blend more suited to my own tastes among the blends that aren't being pushed as hard.
It's the same way I could never cheat in school by turning in a plagiarized "theme" or paper because I always thought I had something to say that would educate the teacher or professor, and enlighten the world. At least it was fun to imagine that. I chuckle at myself at the thought, but probably still believe it way deep inside.
It's the same way I could never cheat in school by turning in a plagiarized "theme" or paper because I always thought I had something to say that would educate the teacher or professor, and enlighten the world. At least it was fun to imagine that. I chuckle at myself at the thought, but probably still believe it way deep inside.
Nothing, likely. The name, even when it's attached to a copy that tastes like crap, is enough to cause smokers to clamor for it and declare it the best thing they have ever smoked.
And the genuine product has not be made in decades. I smoked quite a bit of this in the '70's and '80's and the current iteration just tastes like gasoline infused puppy farts to me. And people will pay $70 to well over $100 for it. Why? Because the tin says Balkan Sobranie, and looks like the old Balkan Sobranie tin.
The power is in the name.
Stick that hideous concoction in a different tin under a different name and it would be largely ignored.
We're also at a point where quality is taking a hit because of economic and social factors. PIpe smoking is a niche market within a widely reviled habit. Less and less tobacco is being grown as farmers turn to more profitable crops. This doesn't seem like the time for new tobacco legends, except in terms of hype.
As stated above
You'll never get a concensus on that one. Too many different smokers and too many different blends.
As I am not an American I have never sampled your codger blends ,so they would not be something I chased.
Irish Condor however
I'm just a newbie here, so take that into account. But to my understanding, Balkan Sobranie represents something that was really special but also commonly available. Widely respected, if not necessary loved by everyone. Perhaps blends like Dunhill/Peterson 965 or Nightcap might also be in that category -- so well-known and easy to get now that we don't consider them *that* special, but if they were to disappear tomorrow, we would have lost products that were considered benchmarks for those styles.
Of course, with all of the cloning that has gone on in recent decades, there's more of an effort to preserve/reverse-engineer what we like in these blends, so perhaps a better example might be something whose unique production makes it harder to clone, so the loss would be harder to take. Penzance comes to mind there, but that seems more niche than BS was back in the day, so it's not a perfect comparison either...
Of course, with all of the cloning that has gone on in recent decades, there's more of an effort to preserve/reverse-engineer what we like in these blends, so perhaps a better example might be something whose unique production makes it harder to clone, so the loss would be harder to take. Penzance comes to mind there, but that seems more niche than BS was back in the day, so it's not a perfect comparison either...
I'm not an American either, just making an observation based on current market trends. People are already paying above retail for US produced Carter Hall.As stated above
You'll never get a concensus on that one. Too many different smokers and too many different blends.
As I am not an American I have never sampled your codger blends ,so they would not be something I chased.
Irish Condor however
Jon,
Were you NEVER a miscreant? Have you NEVER smelled gasoline when refilling the tank? Have you NEVER owned a dog? And most importantly, Have you NEVER filled a paper sack with dog shit, placed it on some asshole's porch, set it on fire, rung the doorbell, and hid while watching the resullts?
Did you live in a NUNNERY?