Sutliff Tobacco Company TS19 Turkish

Bag note Spicy ( eastern spice) a touch sweet. Very mild spice flavor. I believe it is topped with a sugar spray very lite. This is a blending tobacco. It is extremely mild overall. Burns fast nic hit is almost non existent. will give some sweetness and spice notes to a blend. Burns hot if puffed hard.

AKA "Blending Smyrna" in some places. Jar note of woody, salty spices (agree with previous review stating "eastern spices"), and mild musty. Tobacco is mostly a brown ribbon cut with a little dark brown and tan mixed in. Tobacco is on the dry side, so no prep needed. Burns slow with a few extra relights. The strength is mild to medium, starting off mild, but ramps up as you smoke. Nic is mild. No flavoring detected. Taste is mild to medium and mostly consistent, with notes of mildly tangy spice stewed dark fruit, wood, rich earth, spicy, dry, mildly tart, mildly floral, musty herbal, a soured citrusy background note, and a peppery retro. Room note is pleasant to tolerable, and aftertaste is great.

I have twelve Turkish varietals in my blending cupboard, most of which I’ve processed and cased myself, so it is nice to have a properly processed commercial blending tobacco to make life easier. If you were to have just two commercial blending Turkish tobaccos on hand I would suggest this TS-19 Smyrna and C&D Izmir. Both make for an easy tweak of blends where you just want a little extra character that the Turkish varietals add. Keep in mind, my enthusiastic rating is based on its application as a blending ingredient; as a solo smoke it is decent, but not a four-star experience.

I actually like the chopped cut of TS-19, but if you are dealing mostly with ribbon cut blends you may have to chop finer to integrate with your existing blend. In any case, I don’t really recommend using the ribbon cut TS-24 mix, which seems interesting in concept but has its issues (separate review).

TS-19 looks and feels and tastes like it was sun-cured while still on the stalk (these are usually pulled off before the main harvest). Very pleasant mid-palate appeal, straw, sunflower seed, hint of honey and milk (creaminess a common characteristic as the compounds break down naturally on the plant). Very deep nosing reveals some deep wintergreen herbaceous nuance, but this is hardly apparent in the taste. I don’t get a whole lot of spice or peppery retrohale as others have mentioned, which could simply be variation in harvest conditions. I have one vintage of Basma that was so naturally sweet that I use it in small quantities completely uncased. I also find the floral aspect much less effusive than something like Macedonian leaf. The TS-19 that I have is for me more about mellow nuttiness and texture, without the obvious sweetness that Basma might have. It is also very adaptable as a mixer, unlike Izmir which requires more care. TS-19 is also not as ‘pungent’ or penetrating on the palate as Izmir. I find it easier to work into a variety of blends than Stokkebye Turkish Export (mostly Samsun), and it seems to help a lot with Virginias that may be a bit too forward in acidity.

I probably use my own processed Basma more than any other Turkish or Ottoman varietal, but among commercially available blenders this is a good when to have on hand.