Balkan Sobranie - New Breed

[Kyle Weiss]

Yak, I did tell you I picked up a Blackpoint tin from '06 when I was in Sacramento, right? Because of you lauding the epicness of aged Blackpoint? :lol: Even opinions have a volume/density ratio worth considering when they're encountered.

So...I'm getting to the point where another Latakia-type tin is to be opened...should I? I don't want to go over the ripe-age mark.

8)

 

[glpease]

759 genre replication : mark the tin of Blackpoint you have put back "Do not open until (5 years after tin date)"

When you taste, you know.

Until then there is, as Mumbles keeps pointing out, Opinion.

:face:

I need to squeak up on this...

First, this is quite rewarding to read for me, as Blackpoint WAS sort of "modeled" after a specific 4oz tin of 759. Rather, it's more correct to say that it was modeled after my impressions of that tobacco after sniffing it, smoking it, and having a brief love affair with it. There was no perique in 759, but after all those years, the fermentation resulted in something quite perique-like in the nose, and in the taste. So, when I set out to create the blend, I added a bit of the reeky stuff to emulate what time had wrought. It's cheating, I know, but I didn't have the luxury of waiting 20 years, and my time machine is on the fritz.

Overall, the flavour profile of the blend was satisfying after a brief incarceration in the tin. Like the old? Of course not. The virginias needed time to ferment further, and the latakia needed to have its edges polished off. A few years can do just that, and it seems to have worked. My guesses, little more than first approximations in the beginning, were fortunate ones. Blackpoint continues to reveal itself as a good shot across the bow of that old black and gold beauty, at least, measured up to the persistence of memory. (Interesting thing, that. As we continue to explore what might be similar to something buried in our consciousness, that memory will, simply due to the nature of neurobiology, drift somewhat, so the convergence is likely less than it appears, at least from my end, since I'm doing this all the time.)

But,, it's also rewarding to read that Abingdon reminds some of 759 when it was more youthful, as this was the intent, there. Whilst Blackpoint was chasing the ghost of something very well aged, Abingdon was trying to capture a leaky memory picture of what it was like when young, though adjusted to suit my own palate.

Ironically, as much as I loved 759 when I smoked it, and I went through a lot of tins when it was standard fare at the local shop, I find Abingdon's overall profile to be a bit softer than my recollection, which I prefer today. I would never be so bold as to suggest it was an "improvement" over the original, but I steered it a bit in the direction I prefer today (more accurately, nearly ten years ago, when I developed it). It's a bit less strident, a little less spicy. Overall, I still dig it, especially with a few years under its old belt virginias...

 

[Anonymous]

We can now rest content 8) :cheers:

Or at least assured

:face:

 

[Kyle Weiss]

PERIQUE??!!?? Greg, you're killin' me. ale:

:lol:

8)

 

[glpease]

PERIQUE??!!?? Greg, you're killin' me. ale:

:lol:

8)

Man up, Kyle. It's not much. Heck, try it. If you hate it, we'll talk...

 

[Anonymous]

When you taste, you know.

Until then, there is only imagination.

Visualise trying to tell someone what cinnamon tastes like.

Yet that idea-trip mode is where people want to spend every waking moment. And even insist that it's the gold standard of knowledge.

People are crazy.

Try it

:face:

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Quick trip in the TARDIS...

https://www.brothersofbriar.com/t17979-i-just-tried-gl-pease-blackpoint?highlight=blackpoint

...'07 was the year that stuff was made, so the '06 might be better? That was my only real question. That, and the sample wasn't nearly enough for me to really get to know the rest of it.

I was just teasing ya, Greg, 'cuz ya called me a Cajun Hater at one point. Gotta live up to my witch-with-water fear of Perique.

8)

(ps...I don't hate Perique, dammit... :lol: )

 

[glpease]

I was just teasing ya, Greg, 'cuz ya called me a Cajun Hater at one point. Gotta live up to my witch-with-water fear of Perique.

I did? Damn. That was a pretty good one.

Just smoke it, dammit, and let Blackpoint's voodoo do to you you what it do do so well.

That TARDIS thing, suffice to say, you're a year older, and a year more experienced, AND the 06 tobacco is two years older than the 07 you smoked a year ago. It'll be a whole new ballgame. I will be interested in reading your impressions.

 

[Briar Boy]

I have tried the old The Balkan Sobranie Original Smoking Mixture with 40+ years of aging and the New, the old seem to have more sweetness (possible due to it's age) I found them quite different although both were very good, I have not had the pleasure of trying 759, as for the american "clones" all are good but different than each other and the original. Germain's offerings are instantly recognizable, the cut for one and possible due to the aging that they do before it is ever tinned, top notch stuff at any rate IMO.

 

[Kyle Weiss]

I will be interested in reading your impressions.

I usually suggest heavy drinking slightly before and during. :lol:

I get it, I get it. I'll open up the stupid Blackpoint and put it in a stupid pipe and smoke it. Hopefully, not stupidly.

8)

 

[Anonymous]

"Peer Pressure" can work even with people aware that it's being used on them. :twisted:

That said, people's minds are like batteries. When they're wired in series (instead of in parallel, which is the configuration the Klingons try to keep us in), the current loop they're elements in rises to a level far above what any individual battery could produce. In people terms, they're now operating in a way they couldn't reach left to themselves.

People don't so much know this as suspect it, subconsciously. So you never see it pointed-out in so many words (or at least I don't) as a principle, but you see them adopting & swinging with stuff they wouldn't have otherwise when that stuff is significant in somebody else in their Bund's trip. Same way married people morph into an Us when they're doing it right. It's about maintaining an important connexion.

It's easy to see the ass end of this in people deforming themselves in order to stay congruent with others. Any principle can be misused.

But above and beyond that, it is of considerable significance that the high points in art have, time and again, been attained by people working in Schools. Cremonese and Venetian violinmaking come to mind here, as does sculpture in Periclesian Athens, drama in Elizabethan England, Classical music in Germany, painting and architecture in the Italian Renaissence, and so on. These were the results of people who either knew each other personally and bounced ideas (and creations) off each other, or knew of each other and were familiar with each others' creations within a small, and closed circle -- a feedback loop that was, at the same time, a matter of human batteries wired in sequence.

Closer to home, English, Danish and Italian pipemaking.

That just seemed worth noting, since we touched on it.

:face:

 

[Anonymous]

Maybe worth noting also is that the more people who are interested in what you have to say, the greater inducement there is to say it.

If "importance" is determined situationally, there's importance right there ! Kyle's take on Blackpoint keys keen expectation.

It's a practical example of social electricity in a nutshell.

:face:

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Peer pressure can be fun. It's oldschool human acknowledgement. :lol: I also keenly remember the days that led up to when "we" became "Us" with Z and myself, on a side note. Been thinking contently about that a lot actually.

Geez, Yak you always turn the spigot on full blast when I least expect it. Now my brain's spinning with connections to randomness after I calmed down for two seconds. :lol:

Though I have to admit, one of my problems is I shelf people all on the same level. I've been known to treat homeless guys with the same regard as millionaires, grocery checkouts the same as movie stars. I've been around a smattering of all of these at one point or another. It's not a philosophy, I just don't have a classification of people beyond "I like you/I don't like you." I'm almost incapable of seeing people's beyond-the-mind-and-skin, and it's gotten me in a lot of trouble, and made me some amazing friends. Blackpoint will be smoked because I trust you, Yak, and yeah, maybe Greg, too...not sure about him yet though... :lol: :mrgreen:

You're not the kids that dare another to eat dog sh*t because they've convinced him it tastes like brownies. Nothing bad will happen here--both peer pressure, different motivation.

8)

 

[Anonymous]

The higher the potential energy charge is (the multiplication of expectant friends wired in series), the more nearly irresistible the impulse to complete the circuit. 8)

:face:

 

[Kyle Weiss]

The higher the potential energy charge is (the multiplication of expectant friends wired in series), the more nearly irresistible the impulse to complete the circuit. 8)

:face:

Effin A. That appeals to the shade-tree electrical engineer side. Though it's more bridging the gap, if the charge is great enough...still, what a "boom" it can make. :twisted:

 

[brando71]

I have smoked different production years of the 759 by the Sobranie House and, may be due to my deviate palate, I found some similarities with GLP Charing Cross rather than Blackpoint, even if Greg blended it instead Charing Cross with the 759 in mind. I noted that the charring light of the Charing Cross remembered me those smoked Latakia kick that I received when I was smoking the 759... Every palate is a world, I guess.

 

[jefe1037]

"Peer Pressure" can work even with people aware that it's being used on them. :twisted:

That said, people's minds are like batteries. When they're wired in series (instead of in parallel, which is the configuration the Klingons try to keep us in), the current loop they're elements in rises to a level far above what any individual battery could produce. In people terms, they're now operating in a way they couldn't reach left to themselves.

People don't so much know this as suspect it, subconsciously. So you never see it pointed-out in so many words (or at least I don't) as a principle, but you see them adopting & swinging with stuff they wouldn't have otherwise when that stuff is significant in somebody else in their Bund's trip. Same way married people morph into an Us when they're doing it right. It's about maintaining an important connexion.

It's easy to see the ass end of this in people deforming themselves in order to stay congruent with others. Any principle can be misused.

But above and beyond that, it is of considerable significance that the high points in art have, time and again, been attained by people working in Schools. Cremonese and Venetian violinmaking come to mind here, as does sculpture in Periclesian Athens, drama in Elizabethan England, Classical music in Germany, painting and architecture in the Italian Renaissence, and so on. These were the results of people who either knew each other personally and bounced ideas (and creations) off each other, or knew of each other and were familiar with each others' creations within a small, and closed circle -- a feedback loop that was, at the same time, a matter of human batteries wired in sequence.

Closer to home, English, Danish and Italian pipemaking.

That just seemed worth noting, since we touched on it.

:face:

yak, as a student of history, I really like what you are going with this thought. Just a really cool way to look at things, but at the same time it makes me sad that I wasn't there for some of these periods of creation when multiple great minds were "in series" I will say you forgot music in san fran in the 60s. On the other hand I am glad I wasn't there for the masters of War throughout history. Those guys get together a little too often. (that's enough hippie talk for the night)

 

[derlict311]

I've enjoyed reading this thread immensely. Yak got all Klingon on us. GLP chiming in on some of the particulars of Blackpoint and Abington will make the occasion I crack that ten year old tin of Blackpoint open that much more special. That stuff is gold.

What was the topic again?

 

[Anonymous]

:scratch:

:face:

 

[scottbtdmb]

Sobranie 759 = Peretti's Royal Blend :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:

If that's what 759 actually was like, I'm glad I missed it. Wasn't a fan of RB. At all. Very mediocre on all counts, which I hate more than something being truly bad (a challenge) or truly good (obviousness). YMMV. :lol:

8)

Seriously? You may want to give it another go because I am convinced they sent you the wrong tobacco. Never ever heard of any English smoker not loving Royal Blend. Someone please send this man some RB!