About "Hungarian" varieties

[istanbulin]

As you know from another post, I believe that Hungarian as a tobacco variety is a concoction. Why I think like this ? First, although Bitlis is an Turkish variety it's classified as a Hungarian variety in ARS-GRIN. There may be similarities among these tobaccos but some of them are really orientals.
Today I searched the others.

As you know there's a tradition that tobacco varieties get theirs names from the growing regions.

Some Hugarian variety names,
1- Bitlis = A city in Turkey and the variety.
2- Erzegovina Lecce = Erzegovina is the Italian name of (Bosnia and) Herzegovina (Italians always omit the "H"). Lecce is a city in Italy, located not very far from Adriatic Sea, the exact opposite of Albania.
3- Haskovo = Haskovo (Bulgarian: Хасково) (Turkish: Hasköy), is a city, an administrative centre of the Haskovo Province in southern Bulgaria, not far from the borders with Greece and Turkey.
4- Kumanovo = Kumanovo (Macedonian: Куманово) is situated in the northeastern part of the Republic of Macedonia, near the capital city of Skopje. The etymology of the name is connected with Turkic tribe Cumans (only an additional info).
5- Tekne = A Turkish word means "boat".

Of course, these don't show the entire case but may be good starter donnees.

 

[leverhead]

Thank you! I have some Erzegovina Lecce and Haskovo (spelled Haskowo on the package) seed. I suppose I could call Haskovo a Bulgarian tobacco. What would I call Erzegovina Lecce? Do you think it's a Herzegovinian tobacco maybe grown in Italy? If ARS-GRIN doesn't care about the seed, they probably won't mind the classifications getting straitened out.

 

[deluxestogie]

I have to confess that I've come up empty in my attempts to research Hungarian tobacco and its history. Skychaser has provided the most detailed physical descriptions of the Hungarian varieties that he's grown. I would not be surprised if the various Hungarian tobaccos originated in the regions suggested by instnbulin's etymology, were later grown in Hungary, and were subsequently replaced by other varieties in their regions of origin.

Of course, all Oriental tobaccos derived from South America, and have been gradually selected for their current traits since their arrival in the Ottoman Empire (I believe some time in the late 16th century). The quite columnar Peruvian Machu Picchu that I grew this past year is somewhat suggestive of Smyrna, though darker, richer in alkaloids and larger in leaf.

Bob

 

[istanbulin]

I just check the internet site of Bulgarian tobacco (probably a part of ministry of agriculture) there's no information available about Haskovo, its production may be stopped. This is a common problem in the tobacco industry, traditional and low yielding strains have no production nowadays. For example in Turkey, there's no or very little amount of growing of Mutki (no), Düzce (very low), Tombac (no), Pazar (a hobbyist is growing), İzmit (no, since 90s), Bursa (no), Bucak (no), Edirne (no), Artvin (no), Sinop (no), Balıkesir (no), Agonya (low), Yenice (low), etc. Today Bulgaria is growing large amounts of Virginia, Burley and some different types of Basmas (I'll post them soon in a different thread).

 

[istanbulin]

... I suppose I could call Haskovo a Bulgarian tobacco. What would I call Erzegovina Lecce? Do you think it's a Herzegovinian tobacco maybe grown in Italy?...

I think calling Haskovo (and may be the others) as an oriental strain may be rational. Because, for example growing regions of Kavala, Xanthi and and other Balkan oriental varieties are very close to each other and they're called oriental varieties.
During the WWII and after Italians took some seeds from Balkans and made studies on them (for example Xanthi variety) so the seeds of Erzegovina Lecce may be took from Herzegovina and grown or breeded/improved in Lecce.

 

[istanbulin]

...
5- Tekne = A Turkish word means "boat".
...

I learned that Tekne is an oriental variety growing near Yambol (or Jambol or Yanbolu in Turkish) province of Bulgaria.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Kumanovo was in my 2015 grow. The leaves grew best out of all of our varieties. The one on the left is Kumanovo, while the one on the right is Frog Eye Orinoco.

It air cured easily to a reddish brown. I have found the flavor to be very interesting. I can see a person using it as a minor component of a cigar, or a major component of a cigarette or pipe. It has a cedary, spiciness to it, and it is entirely distinct from all of the other tobaccos I've ever smoked. It has a decent amount of tongue bite to it until it is kilned and rested, and I believe it should be blended with more basic tobaccos like a burley or perique. I am presently smoking a 3hr pressure cooker cavendish made from it. It darkens up faster than every other tobacco I've made cavendish from. It has a profile like a dark virginia, maybe, and all of the tongue bite is gone. It is very good this way. I see Kumanovo as the gift for the person who has everything. This is a photo of kilned leaf.