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Davey
Age : 36
Joined : 11 Dec 2007
Posts : 302
Location : New York
 |  Subject: Balkan taste??  Mon Dec 31, 2007 9:00 pm | |
| I tried my first Balkan blend today....and almost gagged. Was gifted to me and not sure of the make. I have some English Stout I enjoy and I love Penzance. Is Balkan much more pronounced, it was just too much something...?
Any of this making sense???
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Justpipes
The Duke
Age : 49
Joined : 17 Dec 2007
Posts : 3166
Location : American by birth, Southern by the grace of God!
| | Subject: Re: Balkan taste?? Mon Dec 31, 2007 9:32 pm | |
| | Davey wrote: | I tried my first Balkan blend today....and almost gagged. Was gifted to me and not sure of the make. I have some English Stout I enjoy and I love Penzance. Is Balkan much more pronounced, it was just too much something...?
Any of this making sense??? |
Dave,
I used to smoke a lot of Balkan Saseini and really liked it. Some Balkans have a huge amount of Cyprian Latakia in them that can be over powering. Penzance has a lot of Latikia in it but it is also very well balanced with orientals and VA's. That might be the problem with the blend you tried. It might not be very well balanced with the other blending tobaccos in it.
I am not really all that fond of heavy Latikia blends anymore. They tend to stay with me way to long after I have finished smoking. One of the things that I like about Walnut is that with the very small amount of Latakia it is just enough to give it interest and Walnut leaves you with a very clean natural tobacco flavor but doesn't linger long after the smoke.
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"Man is the only religious animal. In the holy task of smoothing his brother's path to the happiness of Heaven, he has turned the globe into a graveyard."
Mark Twain |
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Davey
Age : 36
Joined : 11 Dec 2007
Posts : 302
Location : New York
| | Subject: Re: Balkan taste?? Tue Jan 01, 2008 3:46 am | |
| Alright, that makes sense. now all I have to figure out is what component is it that I do not care for!
Thanks for the input, and you have me drooling for this Walnut stuff...despite the heckles from the audience 
_________________
"The floggings will continue until morale improves." |
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Carlos
Moderator
Age : 51
Joined : 10 Dec 2007
Posts : 1659
Location : Chestnut, IL
| | Subject: Re: Balkan taste?? Tue Jan 01, 2008 8:19 am | |
| | Davey wrote: | Alright, that makes sense. now all I have to figure out is what component is it that I do not care for!
Thanks for the input, and you have me drooling for this Walnut stuff...despite the heckles from the audience |
Not all Balkans are created equally. 
Bohemian Scandal and Renaissance are among my favorites. (Yes, I know. Renaissance is described as a Medium English. Well, it's loaded with orientals and to me, that's a Balkan.) They are both hard to get. Fairmorn's Sterling Balkan 759 is tasty, as is Nightcap, and Ashbury. Oh, many Balkans are just wonderful.
But then there are a few. That even for me I rarely smoke or do not cellar. The most well known of this group is C&D's SOTE (Star of the East). Bill Bailey's Balkan Blend is another and finally C&D Baalbeck. I can smoke the Baalbeck, but it's not as enjoyable as it could be.
What happens for me with these few well known blends is, (Well, maybe the Baalbeck isn't so well known as it cannot be made anymore.) I get a medicine like taste on my tongue that almost numbs it. Drinking coffee, tea or water does not prevent the effect. I had to bag up several ounces of Baalbeck yesterday for a Balkan boxpass and loaded a bowl in a John Crosby. I paid close attention to what happens. For me, I get a tingle, very light, on the front edge of my tongue. Not the tip. Like the front corners. About half-way though the bowl, the whole front of my tongue is almost numbed, not in feeling, but in ability to taste. If that makes any sense. Was a pretty good tasting bowl till it faded away.
I have no clue what particular combination, or variety of spicy tobacco does this to me, but the effect is pronounced in SOTE and BBBB. Less in Baalbeck. I have only noticed it with these three blends.
Perhaps, the Balkan you tried had something you didn't like in it. But don't stop smoking all Balkans. Others may be delicious for you.
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Rules of Acquisition:
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Mikem
The Coordinator
Age : 53
Joined : 14 Dec 2007
Posts : 621
Location : Glendale, Arizona
| | Subject: Re: Balkan taste?? Tue Jan 01, 2008 8:47 am | |
| Very interesting observation Carlos. I get the same feeling with SOTE. Another blend that the same thing happens to me is Bufflehead's Snow Goose (another blend not available). Yet I don't get the same reaction to London Blend 1000 or Old Ironsides.
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Arizona, where the temperature is always warm but the pipe smoking is always cool. Mikem
I highly recommend Scott Bundy at www.piperestore.com for all of your pipe cleaning and restoration work. |
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Carlos
Moderator
Age : 51
Joined : 10 Dec 2007
Posts : 1659
Location : Chestnut, IL
| | Subject: Re: Balkan taste?? Tue Jan 01, 2008 9:41 am | |
| | mdmiller5 wrote: | | Very interesting observation Carlos. I get the same feeling with SOTE. Another blend that the same thing happens to me is Bufflehead's Snow Goose (another blend not available). Yet I don't get the same reaction to London Blend 1000 or Old Ironsides. |
Snow Goose had not done that for me. Unless. Well it has occurred to me that maybe my tongue got overwhelmed so quickly in Snow Goose, that I always thought the blend was a mild blend. Just smoky as all get out. I have had that same impression with both Westminster and Odyssey. Supposed full flavored blends that for me are mild. More study and tests are warranted.
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Rules of Acquisition:
#223. Beware the man who doesn't make time for oo-mox. |
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puros_bran
Nightrider
Joined : 10 Dec 2007
Posts : 1499
Location : Lower 48
| | Subject: Re: Balkan taste?? Tue Jan 01, 2008 1:45 pm | |
| The only blend to overwhelm my tongue is Piratecake. It starts out great but after the first third of the bowl I cant taste anything for days and I cant stand Latweed for the better part of a month.
Latakia isnt what makes a blend a Balken, its the heavy oriental component that puts a blend into that catagory, IMO anyway. |
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Davey
Age : 36
Joined : 11 Dec 2007
Posts : 302
Location : New York
| | Subject: Re: Balkan taste?? Tue Jan 01, 2008 8:59 pm | |
| Ok really good to know. I love Nightcap, so there goesmy theory. I didn't know that was considered Balkan.
maybe this stuff is just crap...I will have to open up the tin of Maclelland Yenjde Highlander I just got and see what happens.
.
_________________
"The floggings will continue until morale improves." |
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puros_bran
Nightrider
Joined : 10 Dec 2007
Posts : 1499
Location : Lower 48
| | Subject: Re: Balkan taste?? Tue Jan 01, 2008 9:04 pm | |
| | Nightcap to me is an English blend. The problem with the whole catagory thing is that theres no clear 'line in the sand' for a blend to cross from one catagory to the next. theres tons of tweeners. |
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Davey
Age : 36
Joined : 11 Dec 2007
Posts : 302
Location : New York
| | Subject: Re: Balkan taste?? Tue Jan 01, 2008 9:25 pm | |
| 
_________________
"The floggings will continue until morale improves." |
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Justpipes
The Duke
Age : 49
Joined : 17 Dec 2007
Posts : 3166
Location : American by birth, Southern by the grace of God!
| | Subject: Re: Balkan taste?? Tue Jan 01, 2008 10:19 pm | |
| | puros_bran wrote: | The only blend to overwhelm my tongue is Piratecake. It starts out great but after the first third of the bowl I cant taste anything for days and I cant stand Latweed for the better part of a month.
Latakia isnt what makes a blend a Balken, its the heavy oriental component that puts a blend into that catagory, IMO anyway. |
That Piratecake is some mean stuff! It is at least 50% Latakia.
_________________
"Man is the only religious animal. In the holy task of smoothing his brother's path to the happiness of Heaven, he has turned the globe into a graveyard."
Mark Twain |
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Carlos
Moderator
Age : 51
Joined : 10 Dec 2007
Posts : 1659
Location : Chestnut, IL
| | Subject: Re: Balkan taste?? Wed Jan 02, 2008 6:47 am | |
| | Davey wrote: | |
You are not alone. It's an eternal question. At what point does the addition of orientals to an English blend, make it a Balkan? AS PB said, "no clear line in the sand".
_________________
Rules of Acquisition:
#223. Beware the man who doesn't make time for oo-mox. |
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smokey422
Joined : 21 Dec 2007
Posts : 140
| | Subject: Re: Balkan taste?? Wed Jan 02, 2008 8:20 am | |
| | Justpipes wrote: | | puros_bran wrote: | The only blend to overwhelm my tongue is Piratecake. It starts out great but after the first third of the bowl I cant taste anything for days and I cant stand Latweed for the better part of a month.
Latakia isnt what makes a blend a Balken, its the heavy oriental component that puts a blend into that catagory, IMO anyway. |
That Piratecake is some mean stuff! It is at least 50% Latakia. |
Actually, I believe it's 70% Latakia. C&D has one other blend with even more (75%). It's a tinned blend called DaVinci.
Smokey |
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pencils
Age : 41
Joined : 29 Dec 2007
Posts : 16
Location : UK
| | Subject: Re: Balkan taste?? Wed Jan 02, 2008 6:18 pm | |
| Have to say that Pirate Kake may well be my all time favourite 
Perhaps that is because I haven't yet tried the da Vinci  |
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Bob Oakley
Age : 56
Joined : 29 Dec 2007
Posts : 30
Location : Erie, PA
| | Subject: Re: Balkan taste?? Thu Jan 03, 2008 8:11 pm | |
| It sounds as if I am in the minority here. I really enjoy C&D Star of the East and celler it. I buy in bulk and get some age on it. Then I load up a fat billiard or a nice briar calabash and light it up. Maybe my tongue is calloused.  |
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