English / Balkan blends

[theginguy]

As most of you know by now, I'm just getting into pipe smoking and really loving it. It took me a couple of weeks to "phase" out of my cigar palate and develop a pipe palate. At first, it was like I was puffing on air. But slowly my mind and mouth adjusted to the more subtle pipe smoking experience and now I'm hooked. It's been a blast trying out different blends and learning about them.

So, I'm sure I have a long road ahead of me and that I'll most likely be changing my mind about certain blends often as my palate develops and matures. But I have been slowly gravitating over to the English/Balkan blends. Now with saying this, I only currently have two of these style blends. Dunhill 965 and Balkan Sosieni. I like them both, but I find that the Dunhill is the better tobacco out of the two. So, I've been puffing away at these two blends almost exclusively now for a couple of days, forsaking my other styles over these.

So here are some questions.

1. When I first started smoking the Dunhill and Sosieni, my mind kept thinking of the color of an aqua or marine green or rebel blue and I couldn't figure out why. After a few days, I kept thinking to myself, "yep there is something familiar about this taste." But I still couldn't put my finger on it. Then last night as I was finished with a bowl of Dunhill and I had that cool after taste in my mouth it hit me. Mint and Menthol. I used to smoke menthol cigarettes a long time ago and I remember that they always had an aqua or marine type of color to their wrappers. That's what my mind was associating with I guess. Anyhoo..... NOW WAIT! Before you automatically hit the "Reply Tab" and jump on me, let me just say that I don't believe that there is any type of Mint or Menthol type of casing on these tobacco's. It's probably just the sweetness of the Virginia's combined with the Latakia and Oriental's. But It's interesting when I'm slowly sipping, especially on the Dunhill 965, how sweet it is. It's almost as if someone is spraying the inside of my mouth with a fine mist of sugar water. Like I can taste the sugar crystals. That combined with the overall flavor of the tobacco's just reminds me of menthol, only not in the nasty cigarette way, but in a very light cool fragrant way... menthol and mint.

So anyway, has anyone else made this connection? Or am I just weird?

2. So, my Dunhill 965 will be gone before too long and I want to find something better then Balkan Sosieni. I've ordered Squadron Leader and it should be getting to me any day now.

Now, let me just add something here. I have figured out something that I'm very certain about. I don't like mild to medium blends. Especially mild, they are way too light for me. Even the Dunhill is a little on the light side. I like a good nic kick and I like a lot of flavor, I like complexity and boldness. So with saying that, what other good English/Balkan blends would everyone here suggest?

3. I'm still not sure what the difference is between English and Balkan.

4. Some other blends I've been looking at are Larry's Blend, Westminster, Strike Force, P.S. Balkan Supreme and Compton's of Galashiels Balkan or Macedonian Mixture, Penzance, Yale mix... etc... although, some of these, especially the penzance look to be a little too mild. Any comments on any of these?

Thanks all.

 

[LilBastage]

1. You may very well be weird :laugh: , but we all taste things differently. I don't get any kind of mint or menthol flavor from 965, but I never smoked menthol cigarettes.

2. Right now, I point to Westminster as the epitome of English blends. It is very flavorful and has decent strength. Squadron Leader is very good, but you may not find it to be strong enough. It's pretty middle of the road. Pease's Odyssey is about the strongest English blend I've enjoyed. I also enjoy Northwoods from Boswell as one of my stronger blends. I tend to stay away from the REALLY strong stuff, so someone else will have a better suggestion.

3. In most circles an English blend is a Virginia base mixed with Orientals. So is a Balkan blend. Confusing? Yeah. Most people associate English blends with Latakia and Blakan blends with other Orientals. There's a website out there with some very knowledgeable discussion on the topic, but it's down right now. I think we may even have a thread here in the Pipe Room with some previous discussion.

My main goal is to not get bogged down in what type of tobacco I'm smoking and concentrate instead on whether I enjoy it. Based on the ingredients, I can find similar blends. Classification is handy, but not the be all end all for me.

4. Larry's Blend, Westminster, Strike Force, P.S. Balkan Supreme, and Penzance are all good in my opinion. Westminster and Penzance are my favorites of those, with Larry's Blend up there. I've not smoked the others.

If you're going to order some Larry's Blend anyway, give the folks at the shop a call and talk to them. If you explain what you're looking for, they can be a great help. They know their stuff.

Best of luck. There's a lot out there to try. The only way to know if you'll like something is to try it. We all taste the tobacco differently and the strength is also somewhat subjective.

 

[theginguy]

Thanks Alan,

After just having another pipe of 965, I don't think there's any real menthal or mint taste, it's just the way the way the blend tastes and the way lt's sweet, cool and smooth, just kind of reminds me of menthal, peppermint or mint. Kind of like what fresh mint does in a mojito or mint julip. Lol.

Anyway, I'll give Westminster a try next. It'll remind me of the time I've spent in London. Plus, of course, it's a great name for an English blend.

 

[jstrat]

Seems like your questions have been answered, so I won't address them again However, if you are looking for a good English blend, let me recommend G.L. Pease Maltese Falcon. I'm a big fan of Westminster as well, but Maltese Falcon gets more time in my pipes. YMMV, but it is definitely worth a try. I also recommend Pease's Blackpoint. He makes some great blends.