Brown Leaf Monthly Discussion for May: Latakia!

Oh come on, like I would pick something else for the inaugural discussion!

Latakia. Love it? Hate it? Indifferent? Yet to smoke it and want a recommendation? Post any and all thoughts!

This will be a free-flowing discussion, so feel free to veer off on any tangents you like. Hijacking is permitted, even encouraged. Of course, if you want to stay on topic, that is no problem at all!

Also, I know I had a thread for ideas for these discussions, but feel free to put down what you would like to talk about next month.

I have a couple thoughts

Commander Quan said:

I have a couple thoughts

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Latakia hate is welcome here Although Owen may have a coronary...

I can see how one could not be a fan of latakia. That is definitely not me, however. lol I first encountered it in the Shortcut To Mushrooms blend, which is a latakia based aromatic, which led to Frog Morton, which then caused a total love affair with all things Frog Morton. The only one I have not tried yet is the FM On the Town.

Me being so new have only encountered Latakia in two mixtures one os FM Celler and the other is Billy Budd by C&D. Not sure what I should think as it was a blend, not even sure what I would be looking for, for it to be identified as Latakia. I didn't have a great aversion to the two blends they are both good not smooth like my sweet/semi sweet tobaccos but somthing I could def. grow into.

RatMan said:

Me being so new have only encountered Latakia in two mixtures one os FM Celler and the other is Billy Budd by C&D. Not sure what I should think as it was a blend, not even sure what I would be looking for, for it to be identified as Latakia. I didn't have a great aversion to the two blends they are both good not smooth like my sweet/semi sweet tobaccos but somthing I could def. grow into.

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Ah, ok. So, you know when you give the tobacco a good smell in the pouch/tin, and you can catch that sort of smokey campfire note? That is the latakia. It's smoke cured and aged leaf, and it picks up that BBQ sort of smoke note.

Shave_Rat said:

Ah, ok. So, you know when you give the tobacco a good smell in the pouch/tin, and you can catch that sort of smokey campfire note? That is the latakia. It's smoke cured and aged leaf, and it picks up that BBQ sort of smoke note.

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I love that note. My future brother-in-law, who had only smoked almondine tobacco til now, loves Frog Morton. He refers to it as a "beef jerky type" smell.

Commander Quan said:

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Good, I freaking hate cats!

the_edski said:

Good, I freaking hate cats!

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I hope James doesn't read that, it'll be like a punch to the heart.

Or does he already know that? LOL

The way James' treats his cat I don't think he likes them very much either.

Commander Quan said:

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I am pretty sure you misspelled Perique

the_edski said:

Good, I freaking hate cats!

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ah, come on- pipes and cats go hand in hand

I love Latakia. I find it lends a nice balance to the sweetness of the Virginia leaves. It also smells like I expect pipe tobacco to smell like. My uncle is my reference point, and he was a Latakia lover.

I am a four month old pipe smoker (started on Jan 1st of this year with an MM Legend Corn Cob Pipe, and a pouch of Prince Albert). My first introduction to Latakia was with some Penzance that Toothpick graciously sent me a sample of.

When I first tried it, the bbq flavor was so pungent, I couldn't even finish half of the bowl! YUCK, I thought!

Prior to receiving the Penzance, I had ordered some Dunhill Early Morning Pipe, and picked up some Frog Morton on the Bayou locally. But I hadn't tried either yet. I was totally shocked to find that both had a similar taste to the Penzance!!

I struggled through 2-3 bowls of the Frog Morton really hating it, and gave at least half of the can away.

A few weeks later I opened the Early Morning Pipe, and while it had the Latakia flavor profile, I must have gotten more used to it, as I could actually taste the tobaccos that were in the background, and not just the Latakia.

I have since went back and smoked the rest of the Penzance, and the remainder of the Frog Morton, both of which I enjoyed as I had by then developed a taste for the Latakia.

My currently open tobaccos are Dunhill Early Morning Pipe, Smoker's Pride Cherry Cavendish, Sutliff Alexander Bridge, and a light English blend called Fox and Hound that I picked up locally. So clearly I'll be smoking quite a bit of Latakia blends in the coming weeks!!

Fox and Hound: "A Traditional blend of Red Virginia, Turkish, Burley, Latakia, and Perique. Medium strength. A Perfect introduction to English style pipe smoking."

John, that Fox and Hound blend sounds pretty tasty, little bit of everything in it.

Geez you like a little latakia around here and suddenly the government types are trying to take your cat away


3 oak syrian and frog morton are two notch smokes to me



And Ed you've been put on notice....

Kitten killer !

syngent said:

And Ed you've been put on notice....

Kitten killer !

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Agreed... I can't understand how anyone can not love cats (with the exception of those allergic, I give them a pass for not being cat lovers). lol

I'm very much a newbie to pipe smoking. In fact I've only had about 3 bowls in 2 months. My first experience was Lane 1Q which I found to be a solid smoke, but a bit lacking. My second was Frog Morton, which I can only equate to puffing on the smoke from a BBQ, but in a surprisingly good way. I'm still not sure if I'd call myself a Latakia lover since I have very minimal experience, but I do believe its something I could grow to enjoy quite a bit.

i actually have a few blends outside of FM that have latakia in them. I'll have to double check what they are when i get home. Are english blends and aromatics the only 2 types of pipe tobacco blends out there? or is there anything else i should try?

Boro62 said:

i actually have a few blends outside of FM that have latakia in them. I'll have to double check what they are when i get home. Are english blends and aromatics the only 2 types of pipe tobacco blends out there? or is there anything else i should try?

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Still fairly new myself, but off the top of my head you have Virginia/perique blends, straight up Virginia blends, Burley/Viriginia, and all kinds of variations on those, where they mix different types of those in different proportions.

I've seen others labeled as "Oriental", but I haven't gotten the chance to research that one. I'm sure some of the others can expand on this by a lot.

Rat,
Thanks for that little identifier. When I first smelled Billy Bud I thought it smelled like bacon bits. but I def. get the BBQ scent now.

so we know that latakia adds that smokey flavor and aroma to the smoke. What can you expect from virginia blends and burley?

I may be completely off, but for some reason I always thought oriental was a type of tobbaco used in some english blends?