I hadn't remembered quite that extensive a write-up on the home-made Latakia. I still have some of that Blue Ridge Latakia that I've stored. The more aggressive terpene off-aromas have dissipated over the intervening years. My first impression of the jar aroma of this Blue Ridge Latakia today is "Latakia", so it's in the ballpark. I believe the process of making it at home is encapsulated in that experiment.
To address squeezyjohn's Latakia comparisons,
it's all in the selection of woods and herbs to send up in the fire-cure process. I am more and more confident that in both Syria and Cyprus, the wood part of that blend has always been an opportunistic one, and varied from one year to the next. They burned whatever local wood varieties they could obtain during any particular season. Cedar and Live Oak seem to dominate, and were probably added as both burnable wood and live greenery. The curing batches were relatively large, and all of the production from a single year was baled together and warehoused together.
If we had a time machine, and could sample Syrian Latakia from several different seasons, my guess is that each one would have its own distinctive character. My recollection of the pure Syrian Latakia that I obtained years ago is not as poetic as squeezyjohn's. It was quite nice. A bit softer and less "smoky" than the current WLT batch of Cyprian Latakia. And the Syrian did seem to have a higher nicotine content. (Perhaps istanbulin is correct in identifying "Shek-el-Bent" as Yayladag.) But the several pounds of the Syrian that I purchased back then had probably been stored by the tobacconist from whom I purchased it for at least a decade. All tobacco becomes a little less edgy with the passage of time.
I believe it is the "herbs" used in the process that provide the "incense from a very old church" character. This likely varied by the boy who was sent out to gather some greenery to produce smoke. The various
Pistacia spp. (e.g. mastic, pistachio) and common myrtle--both evergreen shrubs that grow up in untended, cleared land throughout the Mediterranean basin --seem to be the determinative elements here. It is unlikely that much if any of the
wood was burned, but rather that
Pistacia and myrtle leaves and sprigs were added to the smoking process. Other herbs (as in a spaghetti sauce) contribute subtle uniqueness to each batch.
So, like a memorable vintage of wine from a particular vinyard (Ah! Remember the 2005 Pauillac?), we may regret the passing of Syrian Latakia, but that is the nature of things agricultural.
Bob