The Oriental tobacco type used for production of Cyprian Latakia tobacco is
generally from “Smyrna” type seed. Anecdotally it is mentioned that in addition to hardwoods, some pine and aromatic shrubs and woods such as “myrtle” are used in the smoke-curing process.
We initially suspected that one of the main aromatic woods used was Juniperus oxycedrus, as the exotic, tarry aroma of Latakia has a similarity to the empyreumatic Cade oil produced by the destructive distillation of Juniperus oxycedrus (10,11-12). While J. oxycedrus contains nearly all of the sesquiterpenoids found in our analyses, the absence of cedrol, humulene oxide II, cedrenes and thujopsene in the Cyprian Latakia tobacco headspace would tend to indicate that it is not a major aromatic wood used (11-14). However, as the amounts of these sesquiterpenoids in J. oxycedrus, J. excelsa and J. phoenicea (which are all present in Cyprus) can vary dramatically by species, subspecies and location, their possible use to some degree cannot be totally dismissed.
It has been reported that the Mastic shrub (Pistacia lentiscus) is primarily used in the smoke generation for Cyprian Latakia tobacco (15). The following formula, based on this report, may approximate the shrubs and woods used for the smoke-curing process.
- Mastic (Pistacia lentiscus) 90%
- Myrtle - Myrtus communis 4%
- Cypress - Cupressus sempervirens 4%
- Stone Pine (Pinus pinea or Pinus pinaster) 4%
- Other 1%
Virtually all of the terpenoids and sesquiterpenoids found in our headspace analyses are also known constituents of Pistacia lentiscus which leads credence to Mastic being a primary smoke contributor. Pistacia lentiscus not only grows wild in Cyprus but is also commercially cultivated.
Following the smoke curing process, the tobacco is usually bulked in large piles of bales which allows fermentation to proceed over a period of 3-6 months (16). Fermentation is said to improve the flavor.
http://www.leffingwell.com/download/latakia2013.pdf
