Two Updates:
1) I tried out Dr. Pierce's blend tonight before dinner. I liked it, nice flavor, fairly sweet, but was amazed how dominate the Latakia presence was in relation to the small amount in the blend. I attribute this to the amount of Scotch I used in the casing - distributing the flavor throughout all the tobaccos. Next batch I will lightly mist before pressing, instead of really wetting it down.
2) I played with my essential oil collection trying to ID the "soapy" essence in the Latakia. From just smelling the bag, all I really picked up was SMOKE, phenol, and some menthol. Postulating that the alcohol from the Scotch acted as a carrier to the multitude of organic compounds, I added a tablespoon of vodka to a clump of Latakia and let it sit for 20 minutes. Definitely now had that "soapy" smell to it that I immediately noticed yesterday when I unwrapped the plug! I then alternately sniffed the bowl of Latakia and various essential oils applied to q-tips to try to find similarities. I narrowed the most prominent scents (to my nose) down to three essential oils: Lavender, rosemary, and peppermint. (Note all three have some amount of menthol in their makeup.) The lavender brought the main floral/soapiness, the rosemary some earthy notes, and the peppermint the brightness of menthol. I added a few more drops of each into a second bowl along with the q-tips, added a few drops of vodka as a carrier, and sniffed some more. I thought they were as close as I could get without an HPLC machine.
Looking for a second opinion, I brought the two bowls to my wife and asked her if she thought they smelled similar (excluding the smoke of course). Sniffing both, she immediately said yes, especially the lavender component.
Am I suggesting that they add lavender to the woods and herbs used to smoke the latakia? Nope! All I'm saying is that this mix smells similar to me. Who knows what kind of magic voodoo happens in a hot, humid environment filled with a million different VOCs, enzymes, and the local terroir. Or maybe Zeus is sitting up on Mt. Olympus just messing with us!
Cheers! Steve