The New Latakia?

 

(Firecured) Syrian Latakia is dead, deader than Marley’s Ghost, and if Pipestud is right, Cyprian’s days may be numbered as well. It is unlikely that this situation will change anytime soon. (One can take heart in the fact that Absinthe returned after a 100 year hiatus, cold comfort to those of us who are currently alive.) I love my Latakia blends, and will miss them dearly, but that’s the way it is. Worse still, I doubt the taste of Latakia will ever be replicated. Who’d want to smoke an artificial Lat blend anyway?

However, Latakia became popular for two reasons: flavor and its cooling properties. When I first started smoking a pipe, I naturally gravitated to the Latakia heavy English and Balkan Blends because they didn’t burn my tongue, like many of the other pipe tobaccos did. There was nothing cooler than a bowlful of Frog Morton Across the Pond.

So, how do we make our blends cooler now? Deer Tongue? Bleh. Cigarette Tobacco? Meh. Mint, tea, spirulina, wheat grass, oats, corn silk, or kudzu? I hope not.

I noticed that one company, Cornell & Diehl, has been promoting some new cigar leaf blends lately. Seems like a good way to go. Cigars don’t burn your tongue and most pipe smokers, in my experience, also enjoy a good stogie.

I bought all three of the new blends and tried them out. Do they provide for a cooler pipe smoking experience? Yes, very much so. Are they tasty? Very tasty. Do they taste like Latakia? No they do not. Will you buy more? Yes, I will. (At the moment, I’m trying to decide if I should start cellaring The Haunting or Cloud Hopper in a big way.)

Another good thing about cigar leaf is that there are many varieties of the stuff. There were only two varieties of Latakia. Cigar tobaccos include: Connecticut, Maduro, Criollo, Corojo, Sumatra, Shade, Habano, Ligero, etc. A pipe smoker disliking a Connecticut/Virginia blend may love a Corojo/Virginia mix.

Will they all be great? No. Remember McClelland Dominican Glory? Not so great, though its companion blend, Dominican Glory Maduro was quite popular, 2.3 and 3.3 respectively at Tobaccoreviews.com. The occasional bad blend is a small price to pay for creativity.

What else is there to be said? The king is dead, long live the king.