Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) Balkan Sasieni

Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STD) - Balkan Sasieni.

When I lit my first bowl this morning, it took me only a few puffs to realise this is the best ready rubbed Balkan I've had.

The nose from the tin isn't alarming: a simple Balkan one! The appearance of the blend is a 50/50 split between dark and medium browns.

The Latakia and Orientals account for a lot more of the flavour compared to the Virginia. These two are very well balanced, and give a smooth Balkan taste as opposed to a heavy, over-smoky one. The Virginia's a background player; it gives a slight sweetness, but not really anything more. Balkan S' burns even, but it can leave a little dottle at the end of a bowl.

The room-note's ok, but it is quite full, and the nicotine's medium.

Aside from the dottle and heavy room-note, I love this!

Highly recommended.

No need to compare Balkan Sasieni to other existing or past balkans. This tobacco is just great. I happened to have finished a 2 oz tin so quickly that I had to rush (too late) to order some more. This tobacco is not too mild, really well balanced. The smoky taste is just OK for me. It is in my top five (which is currently, with no order: Spilman, 965, Sasieni, Penzance, Escudo). I would like to find a better balkan, but.... I really envy those lucky guys who still have some Sobranie on hand !

UPDATE (Apr2010): One of the best tobacco I ever smoked (with GL Pease Odyssey)

I only recently tried Balkan Sasieni because I am not a big fan of Balkan blends and so it wasn't on my immediate "must try" list.

It compares to some extent with Dunhill's Aperitif and 965 in that you will taste the lighter Orientals more than the Latakia. While not as sweet as Aperitif due to a bit more Latakia being in the blend, it is certainly sweeter than 965.

I was able to smoke back to back bowls of Sasieni, which is not usual for me and "English" type blends -- if this is an English. And I thought it burned rather hot if puffed too rapidly.

If you like Oriental, Turkish, Latakia types, here you go. I've certainly had worse.

I remember smoking the noted Sobranie in the late 1970's. I always found it a little bloated. The Turkish would sit a bit inertly on the latakia, like grey dust on a black cushion.

Sasieni is far brisker; Turkish and latakia interact with much more zest. Nuttiness and smokiness build to a delicious height in the last third of the bowl. This is a more sec experience than Sobranie, and twice as enlivening.

Balkan Sasieni is the best tobacco news I've had in years!

Balkan Sasieni. I am blown away. It has no bite. It is actually mild enough for short inhale, which for me adds to the smoking experience and above all, the flavor. The room note is sweet and delicious. The addition of Macedonian Oriental and Latakia to Virgina is pure heaven. No drying time. It packs effortlessly; burns SLOWLY, if on the warm side, so I tend to treat it with care. I detect excellent fresh-cut Honduras mahogany, rose and a lot of the same flavor characteristics of a good Mondesino maduro cigar. An absolute masterpiece of the tobacconist arts. Another huge plus for me is the fact that I can smoke this to the bottom of the bowl, and it's the first blend I've ever been able to that with and say I loved it to the end.

The tins are downright cheep at pipesandcigars.com. An added plus is that it doesn't leave my pipe smelling like tar the way the Dunhill's do. I'm sold. This is my favorite blend. An instant favorite. 4 stars. 5 if I could give it. I will be buying several tins at a time for cellaring, as this MUST age to some kind of heavenly thing. I really don't see how it could get better with time, but only time will tell.

Update 7/28/2012: I've discovered that another great aspect of this blend is that as many times as you let the pipe go out; once you fire it back up, the flavor and aroma of Balkan Sasieni remains the same as your second light...perfect. No change whatsoever. So many other blends that I enjoy taste completely different when I go back later for a relight. So bad sometimes, that I wind up tossing it in the dirt. Regardless: This is without a doubt, my favorite blend. An absolute must for lovers of Balkan blends.

Update 9/12/12: I have discovered the joys of blending. I have a close second to my favorite here. In fact, I may be a little partial. Folks, if you haven't taken the dive yourself, read up. Learn. Spend a little money any before you know it, you'll be blending things you might not have thought possible. Always buy quality...

First off, it is important to remember that this is a BALKAN type tobacco, not a traditional english. The emphasis is on the oriental tobaccos, not the virginia or the mindblowing latakia. (I know, I know, Latakia IS a type of oriental leaf). The original Balkan Sobranie had the (Macedonian?) Yenidje leaf as it's oriental component. I have an Albanian friend who instructed his wife to bring me a kilo of some form or another of albanian mountain tobacco on her initial trip to the US (They were rural Tosk from a tobacco producing area), unfortunately she was assessed a tax at the airport entering the US and not understanding that I would have gladly reimbursed her, she let the customs agents keep it--one can only dream of what I may have gotten.I've had the fortune of sampling out of a 30 year old tin of the Original Balkan Sobranie that my father has tucked away, and I can honestly say that the Sasieni, in my opinion, carries the spirit of the old stuff with it, if not it's undefinable richness and body. Pretty damn good for a balkan type blend especially for the price. The pouch I'm smoking out of now is one that I've had tucked away unopened for at least four years and it is rife with the leathery yet creamy, nutty flavor that one expects from a balkan. I've been smoking Stokkebyes Balkan supreme here and there for my Balkan fix and I must say that they are similar enough but the Sasieni seems to have a little more nutty oriental note to it where the Balkan supreme relies more on the resinous overtones of the Latakia. All in all, I think I'll be trying to locate more Sasieni in the near future as I'm getting more of a taste for this type of tobacco these days...

Balkan Sasieni, currently manufactured by Peter Stokkebye which is now a part of the Scandinavian Tobacco Group conglomerate, was intended as a near clone replacement of the legendary Balkan Sobranie, which at that time was no longer in production. Balkan Sobranie was a mixture in which the oriental/latakia component dominated, with the oriental playing first fiddle. In fact, Sobranie coined the term "Balkan" for this type of mixture. Balkan Sasieni was birthed by members of the original family that produced Balkan Sobranie, but they did not have legal right to use the Sobranie name.

Sobranie was noted for its exclusive use of Yenidje for the oriental part of the blend, Yenidje having a slightly astringent note added to the more typical olive/flowery/herbal oriental flavor. Before production ended, Balkan Sobranie suffered from a dumbed down recipe and its quality plummeted. More recently Balkan Sobranie has reappeared, produced by S. F. Germain for persons having the legal right to the Sobranie name. It is quite close to the original Sobranie, although like Balkan Sasieni it uses generic oriental rather than Yenidje. It is a very fine tobacco. In my opinion, however, Balkan Sasieni is even better. And it sells for a significantly lower price.

Open a can of Sasieni ((if memory serves me correctly it was originally in a pouch) and you will find a very fine ribbon cut tobacco about three fourths of which is dark brown. The rest is slivers of medium brown, yellow, and green. I personally find the moisture level correct for quick lighting without having to give it drying time. Sniff it, and you will find nothing extraordinary. It just smells like tobacco which has a noticeable latakia content. The ribbon cut takes the match easily, and the smoke seldom needs a relight.

The strength is medium, and the taste is predominated by the oriental, although the latakia is certainly noticeable. Halfway down the bowl, the latakia portion seems to me a bit stronger than at the beginning of the smoke. The Virginia plays third fiddle, but it adds a needed bit of sweetening. The Virginia seems to be of a very high grade. Only careless puffers will encounter tongue bite. The nicotine level barely touches the medium range, rather low for a tobacco with this pungent an aroma.

Room Note? Non smokers will probably complain that it smells like burning robber or a drowned campfire, Latakia lovers will obliviously puff away in the copious clouds of smoke. It all burns down to a darkish grey ash with only a trace of moisture in the heel of the pipe.

If you smoke this, hopefully you will have a pipe collection large enough to have pipes dedicated to blends with distinct latakia content. For me, Balkan Sasieni is one of the relatively few tobaccos where I note a clearly distinct improvement when smoked in my more expensive pipes.

Those who enjoy latakia will most likely find this to their liking. The oriental forward Balkan blends may not be quite the preference of those who lean toward smokes that are latakia bombs. Those who do not care for latakia need not bother to try Balkan Sasieni.

My experience and notes about this tobacco dates to my days in which I was having emotions when smelling the latakias. Nowadays this blend still catches my attention.

The latakia content of this blend is very well balanced. It is not hiding the high quality virginia and oriental addition. Beside the nice flavors of virginia and orientals you are having the irresistable taste and deep coolness of the latakia.

If you are a fan of balkan blends this will be a unforgetable experience for you. If you are not, well, it worths to have it in your "tasted tobaccos" list. A real Balkan..

Despite the longing we have for many blends of the past, I contend we are living in a golden age of pipe tobacco. Never before have so many blends from so many sources with such high quality been available to Joe Pipe Smoker. When our nannies in Washington ban internet tobacco purchasing and/or shipping--which they will eventually, mark my words--we will all look back longingly on these days as we cough our way through pipefuls of Captain Black and Borkum Riff.

I've never tried Balkan Sobranie, but I've heard the hype. Balken Sasieni is supposed to be yet another attempt at recreating it. I'm sure Balkan Sobranie was a fine blend, top-notch, perhaps even amazing, but really was it all the hype cracked it up to be? I mean, we're still just talking about a pipe tobacco, right?

I can only somewhat recommend Balkan Sasieni because it just doesn't stand out in a crowded field to me. It's lat-heavy, full, flavorful, and fragrant--but so are dozens of other blends, many of which are more affordable. It's made with quality ingredients, but so are dozens other blends, many of which are more affordable.

To my palate, it's too smooth, too easy-going. It lacks complexity, something to hold my interest. But it's certainly a fine smoke and YMMV. Perhaps there's something in your soul it will speak to, but as for me, I won't be replacing it when my stash runs out. Life is too short and there are just too many other blends out there I can try. Well, for now anyway...