It was a beautiful, crisp sunny day last Sunday. I was cogitating outside on the patio, ankle-deep in autumn leaves, while watching a particularly skinny squirrel busying itself with Winter preparations when I decided to open an old tin of Balkan Sobranie.
I haven’t smoked much of this alchemical blend for a long, long time. My reacquaintance with it commenced on the aft deck of the Alaskan Song where my friend Richard Friedman offered me as much as I wanted to smoke. As if I weren’t happy enough already. Anyway, it is hard for someone who loves English blends as much as I do to resist Balkan Sobranie. It is bliss-inducing tobacco.
This particular tin came to me last year as a Christmas gift. I was amazed, knowing that this gentleman could have sold this tin for a pretty penny. When I first looked at the tin, I assumed from the angular circular indentation on the bottom of the tin that the tobacco was tinned post Galleher-acquisition.
Once I finally managed to dislodge the top (a coin twist didn’t budge it at all), I discovered that the tin was an old Sobranie House issue. One can’t really know for sure until one gets inside and sees the address on the heavy paper insert.
When, I pulled the insert out of the accordioned paper, I discovered tobacco as dark, oily, and moist as anything I’ve ever seen emerge from a pop-top tin. This tobacco is in perfect condition - still springy, yet the Virginias in the blend had sugar crystals littering the oily, chocolatey ribbons.
Since I’m practicing what I’m preaching in smoking English in wide chamber pipes, I pulled a circa-1921 Shell Briar Prince of Wales off my rack and loaded it. Only matches will do with tobacco like this, so I grabbed an old box of long Swan Vestas and retired to the leaf pipe outside.
After lighting, my initial draws from the tobacco presented the Syrian latakia quite forward on my palate. Though I expected sweetness, I was surprised that I didn’t taste more sugars initially. The tobacco skewed toward dark chocolate, cinnamon, and a hint of cayenne notes. I could also detect undertones of rosemary and toffee in the blend. As I smoked through the bowl, I noticed that the Orientals moved forward. Slight, but perceptible notes of bitters and ginger tickled my palate. The tobacco burned beautifully, leaving a fine, white ash except for a small dottle which poured out and bounced on the ash.
Yesterday, I met another pipe man so that he could experience this Balkan Sobranie. I decided to take one of my unsmoked Comoy Blue Riband billiards with me for my explorations. He loaded a Vollmer and Nielsen military mount billiard that looked, for all the world, exactly like an old Barling version of the same shape.
It was a great experience to sit and chat about our experiences smoking this tobacco. I mentioned that I was surprised how much differently the tobacco smoked in the Comoy billiard as opposed to the Dunhill. The Virginias and Orientals were very prominent in the billiard, creating a taste very much like Sherry or Amontillado. I didn’t pick up any of the herbal flavors I experienced while smoking the old Dunhill and the Syrian’s shyness in stepping forward surprised me.
I found it quite remarkable that my co-pipeman tasted many of the same flavors that I did. Given that we might have responded very differently to the tobacco for any number of reasons, it was interesting that we had the same observations about the blend.
While smoking an historically prominent and prized tobacco like Balkan Sobranie is a blessing - indeed a memorable experience - let me hasten to add that I have smoked a number of recently released tobaccos that I like as much. They are certainly different, perhaps not as layered in flavors - but the are nonetheless wonderful smokes – that may, in their time, surpass Balkan Sobranie in complexity and texture. McClelland’s current release of Old Dog and Wilderness come to mind as blends that I think will surprise and delight the English blend lover in the same way.
Neill Archer Roan