Critics needed. WLT Balkan Sobranie blend

[FmGrowit]

I need four or five volunteers to sample my Balkan Sobranie pipe mixture. This blend will be offered as a cigarette blend, but I'd like some input as to what might be able to be done to it to make it closer to the legendary pipe mixture.

Please reply to this thread with your intent to contribute your opinion and then please send me a PM with your name and address. Yes, I know I have your address, but please save me a few minutes from tracking it down and send it to me again.

We've been working on this blend for several years and I think we've got a dead ringer for the cigarette mixture. I actually think it's better than the original cigarette tobacco.

Thanks,
Don

 

[SmokesAhoy]

I'd love to review this pipe mixture, pm incoming

 

[Gavroche]

I am sorry Don, I do not support(bear) any more the latakia I too much smoked it and it is as oysters, a pipe of excess and I was disgust...


Je suis désolé Don, je ne supporte plus le latakia... j'en ai trop fumé...et c'est comme les huitres, une pipe de trop et j'ai été dégoûte...

 

[Jitterbugdude]

What the hell.... I'm in
I'll PM you in a bit

 

[FmGrowit]

Here's a link to the cigarette blend

http://wholeleaftobacco.com/Balkan-Sobranidje-Blend8.htm

 

[DIY Pete]

Don
Ignore my PM. I was writing it while you were posting the link to purchase it.
Pete

 

[deluxestogie]

The pipe mixture (Balkan Sobranie Smoking Mixture, aka Balkan Sobranie White) contained no casing, only tobacco. Although I did smoke Balkan Sobranie cigarettes (in the black paper, with a gold filter wrap) over a couple of decades, I no longer smoke cigarettes. I could certainly identify if the new cigarette blend is close to the original.

As for the pipe mixture, the closest I've come is the "Balkan White" in my blending matrix:



The Balkan Sobranie Smoking Mixture was always a moving target, since the blend kept changing over the years. But the last lame production of it was cased, and was no longer smokable in a pipe.

Bob

 

[Smokin Harley]

Sure, i'll try some pipe balkan mixture ...pming you my address.

 

[ProfessorPangloss]

I'm not old enough to know the original, but a friend has some stashed away (would it be helpful to try to dissect the blend under magnification?). I would be interested in beta testing when you get further into the pipe mixture, but you shouldn't waste any of it on me if you have better testers.

Bob, is the Xanthi in your matrix the same as "Xanthy" from Northwest Seeds? I'm a little confused about the difference between the spelling and the regions of origin.

 

[Brown Thumb]

Don, what does it taste like in a Menthol tube.

 

[FmGrowit]

Don, what does it taste like in a Menthol tube.

Not sure, but I'll bet it tastes like a menthol cigarette.

 

[deluxestogie]

Bob, is the Xanthi in your matrix the same as "Xanthy" from Northwest Seeds?

The tobacco grown in Xanthi, Greece, is a Basma type Oriental. There are a dozen or more Xanthi versions from various other locations, and many more Basma varieties.

Even with the same batch of Xanthi seed, what you get varies from year to year, from both weather differences during growing as well as specific conditions during curing (sun curing). This is true of my home-grown, as well as the bales that Don imports. So blending recipes using specific Orientals are just a starting point--a suggestion. I believe that one reason the recipe for Balkan Sobranie Smoking Mixture was altered at intervals of every several years is that the qualities of the available Orientals used in the mixture were not stable.

I applaud Don's attempts to bring these treasures back from the glory days. But like a photo of General Grant, it can just capture a moment in time. When we reinvent the past, it's never the same as it actually used to be. But it may be a perfect duplication of how we remember it, or even of how we wish it to be. And it's fun.

Bob

 

[SmokesAhoy]

Oh wait you were talking about smoking it in a tube? cross me off Don, I'd have smoked it in a pipe.

 

[DGBAMA]

Oh wait you were talking about smoking it in a tube? cross me off Don, I'd have smoked it in a pipe.

The way read, is it is listed as a cig blend but he needs PIPE testers for the blend.