Balkan Sobranie, Anyone?

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NorthernLights

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Ok. So it's amazing, or over rated. I don't care. It was my grandfather's favourite, and he passed when I was three years old. I want to have some.

The proposition: We form a group, and purchase a tin from eBay. Minimum age to be voted on, as well as maximum price. All members are to transfer funds to the group master, BEFORE purchase. No transfer, you lose your spot and are permanently barred, and someone else gets a crack at it.

Maximum group number to be decided by more experienced smokers than I, based on the understanding that it is one tin, divided by a number of smokers that would give us all one 3/4 to full bowl.

Shipping charges are the responsibility of each member, and will be added to each persons portion of cost.

Shipping storage method to be voted on by group.

Thoughts?
 
Even the last, pale reflection of that stuff is so far over the hill by now that you'd have no idea what it was like.

If you want one, smoke some Balkan Sasieni and imagine it with 80 more horsepower.

:face:
 
@RR wow, sorry.

If I have breached board rules, please delete this post and PM me an explanation why, rather than ban me.

Genuinely sorry if I have offended.

To the other poster (bad phone won't let me see your name): Yes, I know. As I said, I don't care. It is what my grandfather smoked. You could tell me it was trash, and I would still want to smoke one bowl. Mea Culpa. Mea maxamia culpa. I don't care.

I think many who would want some agree. They know it won't be the same. But to draw leaf from that tin, to smoke it, would be divine.

When Napoleon left the battlefield, his soldiers left cases of vino. They can still be purchased. Are they good? Flip no. They aren't even drinkable. Would BS be awesome? I don't know, or care. It would be smokeable, and I want a bowl. Many agree, for their own reasons. You don't. A chaq'un son gout.
 
I don't see any crime being committed here. Who called the police, anyway. Was that you BD? I might hafta run YOU in for bringing false charges, or something. Humpgh! 

All right. Move along citizens. Nothing to see here. Be about yer bidness. 


Oh! Unless you want in on the lad's 'group buy' that is. 



Hmmm. Who is this guy? Here for a couple of days and already causing trouble. I better keep my eye on that one. :suspect:
 
Blackhorse":c2o6gvw1 said:
Hmmm. Who is this guy? Here for a couple of days and already causing trouble. I better keep my eye on that one. :suspect:
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:lol!:  Sounds like me and the new guy have something in common.

NorthernLights

Thanks for shaking the hornets nest! I can finally take a day off from causing trouble here. Keep up the great work! :twisted: :lol:
 
An interesting offer, but I am with Yakster on this one. You'll get a tin of it all right & they're out there, but you never know what you might find when you pop that lid. Plus Flea-bay makes me itchy.:p 
 
I have two unopened tins of the new Balkan Sobranie, bought it in the December 2011. It wasn't my cup of tea. I'd be up for a trade for four tins of MM965 (I can get MM965 for $8/tin, I paid $18/tin for the Sobranie).
 
@Blackhorse & leftover421: lol thanks, I guess.

Again, I know it will never live to expectations. Frankly, I have none. You could tell me it was sawdust. I want a bowl because it is what my grandfather smoked, and we lost him before I could get to know him.

I'm sure others have their own reasons for wanting a bowl.

I don't think this will give me the experience of true BS, back in the day. I don't want to "gain experience", so I can boast that i have smoked it. I don't want to pretend I know what it was like to finish a hard weeks' work, and go home, swinging by the local tobacconist and grabbing a tin, and sitting down to a bowl while listening to Nat King Cole on the radio.

I don't care. About any of it. I never got to know him. I don't care what it tastes like. I just want to smoke a bowl of what he looked forward to, on special occasions.

The reality is, if i scored a bowl of 50s or 60s stuff, it is quite possible that my grandfather smoked a tin from the same lot or batch.

It sucks. But that may be the closest I get to him. So I don't give a flip what it is, or was, or tastes like. I just want a bowl.

And if I can get a few BoBers in on it, I figure we can all experience a bowl for a tolerable price.

 
I wouldn't trust eBay for something like BS.

I'm sure BS was a great blend back in the day but there are so many good blends still in production that it's a big waste of cash to chase someone else's memories. Take the money and buy a new pipe and 10 tins of something else.

It's like the effect of a time machine. The future you go back to can't be the same.

That said, try some clones. I bought McC's and H&H's versions and settled on Blackhouse. I don't know if it tastes like the original BS but I like it. I always have it on hand.

You could buy an old tin off eBay and fill it with Balkan Sasieni and call it a day! :D I bet many open tins on eBay aren't filled with their original contents. :|

Also remember that BS suffered from changing blenders like most other modern tobaccos do. You really have to do your research to make sure you get the "right" one.

If I had the cash I would rather "tour" blender's portfolios. Like buy a tin of everything SG or GLP offers.
 
There's something to be said about wanting to reach back and find the blends of yore, but they do not age indefinitely.

There's also something to be said by the mind-dizzying array of stuff that's out there right now, still being produced--and living in the moment of "now." At least that way, you can definitively get personal results...and repeat them if they are good.

That said, Balkan Sasieni is one of my still-made favorites of that "Balkan" ilk.

8)
 
I've been fortunate to acquire a goodly bit of Balkan Saseni over the years from BoB's who found it not to their liking. I also brought back from South Africa, five years ago, eight pouches of Balkan Sobranie; long since jarred and enjoyed in small doses. Point is, after 'piping" for almost 50 years, my tastebuds can't really tell the diff between the two. I enjoy the hell out of both of them. But I would be careful getting into an eBay bidding frenzy over a tin of Sobranie. FWIW FTRPLT
 
NorthernLights":h5hz6ep4 said:
Ok. So it's amazing, or over rated. I don't care. It was my grandfather's favourite, and he passed when I was three years old. I want to have some.

The proposition: We form a group, and purchase a tin from eBay. Minimum age to be voted on, as well as maximum price. All members are to transfer funds to the group master, BEFORE purchase. No transfer, you lose your spot and are permanently barred, and someone else gets a crack at it.

Maximum group number to be decided by more experienced smokers than I, based on the understanding that it is one tin, divided by a number of smokers that would give us all one 3/4 to full bowl.

Shipping charges are the responsibility of each member, and will be added to each persons portion of cost.

Shipping storage method to be voted on by group.

Thoughts?
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Just gp ahead and bid enough on it so that YOU get it and when you do load up your pipe and smoke it. it WILL NOT be what your grandfather smoked but it will be THE tobacco from HIS TIME and that's all. Be realistic, though fantasy is supposed to be healthy :twisted: 
 
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