Hey Wiktor,
For some reason I didn't receive notification that someone had replied to that thread. I did received the first time, when Bob replied.
No they can't. "Oriental" is as loose term as "Cigar leaf". Samsun is mild. Krumovgrad is stronger. Xanthi - even stronger.
Furthermore their flavor profile doesn't match. "Macedonian" or "Balkan" varieties have different flavor from the Turkish ones.
My advice will be to create flavor and taste couples with Flue cured and Orientals first, then move to more complicated blends. Explore how given variety develops in different quantity. In the case of Balkan tobaccos start with 10%.
Also age them. I wouldn't expect the flowers in the Balkan flavor to come before some ageing.
For some reason I didn't receive notification that someone had replied to that thread. I did received the first time, when Bob replied.
Kos,
From your comments, it looks like you are in agreement with a point I was making a while back. I suggested that Oriental tobaccos can't be exchanged 1:1 in the recipe because of their different characteristics and the impact. In our example, 5 g of Samsun can't be exchanged with 5 g of Krumovgrad because Krumovgrad is much "stronger" than Samsun (according to a scale from Wiktor Index).
No they can't. "Oriental" is as loose term as "Cigar leaf". Samsun is mild. Krumovgrad is stronger. Xanthi - even stronger.
Furthermore their flavor profile doesn't match. "Macedonian" or "Balkan" varieties have different flavor from the Turkish ones.
My advice will be to create flavor and taste couples with Flue cured and Orientals first, then move to more complicated blends. Explore how given variety develops in different quantity. In the case of Balkan tobaccos start with 10%.
Also age them. I wouldn't expect the flowers in the Balkan flavor to come before some ageing.