Latakia

[frumplestiltskin]

Okay, bear with me. This isn't one of those "Which type (Syrian/Cyprian) is better?" or "What blends have Latakia?" or "Will I hallucinate if I smoke straight Latakia?" posts. This is a different conceptual direction. Let us philosophize with these mind-melters:

"Why does Latakia come from Syria or Cyprus?"

BOOM. Is your head still attached? Yes? Then let's try this one:

"Could one make Latakia (or a Latakia alternative) in the U.S.? Or in Malawi?"

DOUBLE BOOM. These are serious questions that I've been pondering.
Is Latakia a specific strain of tobacco (like Burley or Virginia) or is it just in the way it's cured? If it is a different strain altogether, why can't U.S. farmers procure some seed?
Is the climate/soil in Syria and Cyprus so different from other growing regions?
Is it the curing process itself? Is it a super-secret combination of herb and wood species that, when smoldered in barns, produces the signature Latakia spice? If so, might other farmers/producers not deduce a similar blend of non-toxic combustibles which would lend a comparable flavor when cured the same way?
What barriers might exist to a U.S. grower attempting a Latakia crop?

Forgive me for the bombardment of (perhaps inane) questions. These are the important issues that often circle my brain when smoking a fine English or Balkan, and I would love your insight. I don't see any reason why Latakia must come from Cyprus or Syria, when there are so many other fine growing regions on the globe. I'll anticipate those who'll say "Burgundy wine can only come from the Burgundy growing region of France" and grant them that yes, the name "Latakia" itself may be tied inextricably to its traditional growing region, but can't wine grapes grown outside of the Burgundy valley produce similar wine? Can't a fine brandy compete with a Cognac? In the same vein, is there a "Green River Burley" (Perique substitute) equivalent of Latakia?

I apologize if your head has exploded. Let the philosophizing commence.

 

[Anonymous]

Latakia is an oriental leaf that's cured by being smoked over fires of evergreen shrubs that impart their particular taste and aroma.

:face:

 

[glpease]

To start with, oriental tobaccos are VERY sensitive to their growing conditions. Soil and climate play a very prominent role in their development, just as terroir is essential to the grapes used in wine making. A Pinot Noir from Aloxe-Corton is a very different thing than the same grape from Mendocino. As similar as they may be, they're more different. Hell, even wines from the same vines from two different slopes on the same hill can result in surprisingly different wines.

Tobaccos are no different. Virginias and burleys are not quite as sensitive. They're more like Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. They still respond to the environment, but not nearly as dramatically as oriental tobaccos, which have the same sort of sensitivity as Pinot Noir.

Move the oriental tobaccos out of their growing regions, and they become something quite different. In fact, arguably, it's the micro-climates and the soil that make most of them what they are in the first place.

In Malawi, the tobacco would end up unrecognizable. Even if you could find another spot with similar climate, you'd have to also replicate the mineral and drainage characteristics of the soil. It's not such an easy thing.

Further, the production of latakia is very costly, so doing it in the US, even if we could grow (or procure) the right leaf, would be absolutely prohibitive, especially since the environmental impact would be significant. I'm not even sure it would be possible to get the right permits to do it. And, yes, the mixture of shrubs and evergreens that is burned makes a dramatic difference to the final product. Huge.

So, good questions. But, if there was money to be made here, it would have happened. If Syrian could have been replicated, it would have happened the first time they stopped producing it in the early 1960s.

-glp

 

[Trout Bum]

Great thread, Frump. Certainly, not inane...

And you elicited a reply from the Dark Lord, himself!


Interesting, educational, and cool.

 

[Skip48]

So interesting this tobacco stuff is and I have been smoking cigs/cigars and pipes for a very long time. However I see the pipe tobacco knowledge of mine is way behind what it needs to be.

I really appreciate it when we get all thins great info that helps understand more and more even just a little at a time.

So thanks for the thread and post and GLP you just have all this wonderful knowledge that you share and help us with. I guess it's like guys that just start fishing I and I spend lots of time on the phone and helping with colors and methods in their waters, but with things like fine wine and cigars and pipe tobacco is so good to know.

Skip

 

[Harlock999]

Good stuff!

 

[ZeroContent]

I'm actually planning on growing some tobacco this coming year. Ill be growing a strain that is used for latakia. The seeds are coming from a guy local to me so by this point i'm sure the strain has had some mutations but i'm growing it anyways. Im going to smoke it with oak and pine. We'll see what i get in a year.

 

[frumplestiltskin]

Greg, thank you for a marvelously lucid reply! There are apparently many considerations that affect tobacco's characteristics that I did not realize would so drastically contribute to the final product. It's great to get a blender's perspective, as I (and I presume most of us on these boards) merely partake in smoking the stuff; this type of insight is typically left out of the conversation. I was lumping tobacco in with other crops, assuming that since a red delicious apple grown in Washington and an red delicious apple grown in New Zealand are still red delicious apples, the same principle would apply.
I am still left with a lingering curiosity, of course. Now I only need land in five or six climate zones, and seeds from all sorts of tobacco strains, and all sorts of barns and stoves and evergreen species, and two or three hundred farmers willing to work for the sheer joy of it to sate that curiosity! ZeroContent, I applaud your project and am very interested to hear about its results.

 

[yvesmary]

Growing tobacco is easy. It's what happens after that takes skill, experience and time.

I had about 70 plants I grew last year, virginias and burleys, that survived the wind, hail and downpours. I hung the leaves in a garage to cure. The ones that were ripe turned nice brown but the others just dried green. It was too dry in there and it needed some kind of humidity.

That was the simple part. The next step would have been to build a kiln with a heat source to keep it at about 120 degrees and a humidifier to keep it at 70% for the 4-6 weeks needed. A lot of money and time involved.

After all that you have to store it and let it mature, the longer the better.

Is the final product going to compare with the stuff the experts sell for $30 a pound.

I said the hell with it and have been buying it online while it's still cheap. I threw the leaves in the compost pile.