Latakia question

Amos Umwhat

A couple years back I ordered a tin of Sutliff Balkan Luxury. I'd read the description, and had an idea of what I expected. It wasn't. There was an exotic smokiness about it that I was unprepared for at the time. Next tin, same thing. Made me think of leather and oil, spices hanging in tiny shops at the casbah. Reminded me very much of 1975, when I hitch-hiked down through Spain into northern Morocco.

A couple weeks ago, I bought another tin. Very different. Much more like what I had expected in the first place. Not bad at all, but not the exotic smoke I'd experienced previously. My question is; Is this possibly Cyprian rather that Syrian Latakia? Could they have changed the formula due to the political situation? Or, just one of those things? Maybe the others were "mistakes" somehow?

Any thoughts?

slamb@cigar.com

They might have just screwed up the proportions. Sutliff is decent stuff, but I noticed that the consistency is sometimes off. The tobacco in there that gives the blend its unique perfume like quality to me at least, is the Orientals. If you like that, H&H White Knight is an amazing Balkan style blend also Frog Morton; Frog on the Town uses a good amount of Macedonian Basma to give it a really unique and pleasant aroma.

J.S.

The proportion idea is possible. I doubt that it was Syrian as it is much more of a delicate flavor then the campfire woodsiness the Cyprian has. What you are describing sounds like two or maybe three types of tobacco. For example, Xanthia has a light sweetness about it but when added to Lat. it develops into an incense type of fragrance and Lat. has a leatheriness about it anyway . This is often combated by blenders by adding a top note to change the aroma for whatever reason. So it could be the proportions are off or it could be that now you have the right top note and before they were running low on it but completed the run they had anyway.

A lot of top notes are hard to detect and do not affect the flavor profile in major ways. The spice could also be from the perique if it was blended with a lower amount in English blends it is almost undetectable at smaller amounts but adds depth and sweetness. So that could be an issue too.

Amos Umwhat

Y'all are thinking about the same asme, I think thr proportions is the answer. I like the frogmortons and all, and what I have now is similar. Good, but not what was expected. Maybe it was the black? Those earlier tins had big flakes of black tobacco.

J.S.

Well if the black was the black Cavendish that might be the issue. Often blenders will say that it is unsweetened but the reality is that most black cav. has to have some sugar added. My guess is that since lat. is used they would toast the cav. as a true black does not work with with lat. That said, toasted needs sugar which will caramelize when toasted and it leaves a brown sugar like taste and sweetness. It would provide a soft round sweetness but if it is used in too high of proportions it can get bitter. So based on what you were indicating above it might not be the only issue but it very well might be a contributing factor too.