AceFour
Well-Known Member
We ever going to see this available again?
Yenidje
- Thread starter AceFour
- Start date
Juxtaposer-
Well-Known Member
I am reading that Yenidje is commonly known as Basma.
Basma is a category of Oriental leaf shape.
Yenidje is a Xanthi-type Basma that is grown in the vicinity of the Greek town of Yenidje (Genisea), down the valley from the city of Xanthi.
Bob
Yenidje is a Xanthi-type Basma that is grown in the vicinity of the Greek town of Yenidje (Genisea), down the valley from the city of Xanthi.
Bob
I've seen Yenidje seed available from NWT. I know we don't have the exact soil or sun as its usual place, but I don't know how much that would matter. I compared my own home grown Samsun to some I bought commercially, and they're indistinguishable. Well - to me anyway. I'm sure they are different, but they're not enough different enough for me to tell them apart. So, while home grown Yenidje may not match what we got in Sobranie products in the 70s, I suspect it would be a fair replacement.
An interesting comparison would be to grow "Yenidje", Xanthi and "Basma" during the same season. (Smyrna and Izmir are also Basma types.)
Bob
Bob
I smoked a little Izmir in my pipe, straight, when I received it. The taste and aroma transported me back to 1970-something and a tin of Balkan Sobranie cigarettes. Funny how something can do that. I had no idea a tthe time just how special those were; if I could go back in time with what I know now, I'd stockpile a box of those in a hermetically sealed container and hide them somewhere.
OK, there's a lot of things I would do if that happened, but that's one. But hell, today I'd love to just have the tin from those cigarettes.
OK, there's a lot of things I would do if that happened, but that's one. But hell, today I'd love to just have the tin from those cigarettes.
Surprise Announcement:
Some of the things you enjoy today will be different a half-century from now!
Bob
Some of the things you enjoy today will be different a half-century from now!
Bob
Bob, or whomever -- I have some Samsun, both home grown and a little I bought for comparison -- they're indistinguishable to me (which makes me happy; it kind of validates my growing and curing). I have a little Izmir, which is definitely different from Samsun. Lighter, more floral, I like it a lot more. I notice two of the recipes in your book, Bob, are identical except for the variety of Oriental called out -- simply "Oriental" for Towers of Antioch, and Xanthi or Yenidje for Balkan White. How much difference is there in taste between Xanthi or Yenidje, and Izmir? Is it as great as the difference between Samsun and Izmir? To me, Samsun is -- just OK. Izmir is wonderful. Debating whether I need to order some Yenidje seed immediately so I can grow some this year, or not. I don't have any Oriental seed started yet.
Samsun, Trabzon and Bafra are similar to one another. Xanthi, Izmir and and the many other Basma types are similar to one another. Although I have not grown seed labeled as "Yenidje", I would imagine that it differs less from other Basma types than any single Basma type might vary from one growing season to the next. "Yenidje" or any variants of its spelling does not appear in the USDA ARS-GRIN germplasm seedbank data, and I have a suspicion that it's not the legendary Yenidje leaf of the late 19th century, since it was obliterated by massive flooding during that century, and was re-seeded afterwards with tobacco from upstream (Xanthi). Although I don't doubt that Balkan Sobranie used leaf grown around Yenidje (hence, Yenidje leaf), only the marketeers believed it differed from Xanthi.
By contrast, Prilep 66-9/7 is distinctly different from Basma types, both in its floral nature and its productivity.
Bob
You may enjoy reading the Constantinides book (free download) listed in the Oriental section of our Index of Key Forum Threads.
Bob
Bob