Sobranie of London The Balkan Sobranie

Man oh man oh man! I first discovered this stuff in the early 90's, and was immediately hooked. It's a classic balkan blend with very little virginia and lots of latakia and turkish yenidje. It is incredibly smooth and creamy, with a mild sweetness and a dry, salty smokiness that reminds me more of Syrian Latakia than Cyprian (I don't know for sure which one is present). It lights well, and burns fairly slowly as is typical for latakia/oriental blends. It remains extremely consistent throughout the bowl and I frequently smoke it to the bottom without realizing it at all. It leaves a fine grey ash, and cakes poorly, so I tend to break my pipes in with something else.

Really good stuff... excellent flavor & I'm not a big Latakia fan but it facilitates this blend's sweet, creamy, smoky flavor. This was sampled from a fairly fresh eight year old, 50g Gallaher's pouch back in 2010; This BSOM makes you reach for that elusive, sweetness with each draw. After a few puffs, the tobacco flavors begin to meld & it just keeps getting better until the very end. The perfect pipe tobacco in every respect... It has a slight, salty flavor in the Orientals from the ocean breeze blowing onto the leaf & has an enticing aroma.

Very tasty and I feel this blend is one most any pipe smoker would find...pleasurable. While I'm smoking this, my mindset is... This is what a pipe tobacco is supposed to be! I simply loved the flavor. This stuff tasted so good in fact, it makes me ponder; How does a tobacco blend that tastes this good, be made without a topping or a flavor additive?

I surmise that tobacco grown in the Balkan region has some affect on the flavor. Maybe the preparation or selection of red & brown Virginias topped off with tasty Yenidje? Perhaps all of the above. If all this good smoke is coming from the tobaccos alone, that's incredible...almost magical! Whatever or however the process, this is the Holy Grail of pipe tobacco. I've always been curious about which type of Latakia was used... maybe both?

I see why this blend commands a premium. If I had plenty of money, I'd have more Balkan Sobranie Original Mixture. It works for me. A crowning achievement in the tobacco procurement & blending craft without question. I never thought a blend containing Latakia could be enjoyed so much until I smoked The BSOM. During the pursuit of perfection, excellence was achieved. Easily qualifies as a four star blend... off the chart IMHO, of course!!!

Really good stuff & I'm not a big Latakia fan but it facilitates this blend's sweet, creamy, smoky flavor. Sampled from a fairly fresh 50g pouch which would be almost twenty years old by now. This BSOM makes you reach for that elusive flavor with each draw. After a few puffs, the tobacco flavors begin to meld & it just keeps getting better until the very end. The perfect pipe tobacco in every respect... It has a sweet & salty flavor with an enticing aroma.

It is very tasty and I feel this blend is one most any pipe smoker would find...pleasurable. While I'm smoking this, my mindset is... This is what a pipe tobacco is supposed to be! I simply loved the flavor. This stuff tasted so good in fact, it makes me ponder; How does a tobacco blend that tastes this good, be made without a topping or flavor additive? Maybe tobacco grown in the Balkan region has some affect on the flavor. Maybe the preparation or selection of red & brown Virginias topped off with tasty Yenidje, possibly a Coumarin infusion? Perhaps all of the above. If all this good smoke is coming from the tobaccos alone, that's incredible... almost magical! Whatever or however the process, this is the Holy Grail of pipe tobacco.

I see why this blend commands a premium. If I had plenty of money, I'd have piles of Balkan Sobranie Original Mixture in the cellar. It's a crowning achievement in the tobacco procurement & blending craft without question. I never thought a blend containing Latakia could be enjoyed so much until I smoked The BSOM. During the pursuit of perfection, excellence was achieved. Easily qualifies as a "five" star blend... IMHO, of course!!

I think that I've had a bit of this once in a while. Something about the mystique of the name made me click the "favorite" button but, oddly, I never reviewed it. So I'm writing what I think I recall here.

This is by far the best English Balkan blend ever made including the suppose Gallagher version. Sweet, soft, creamy, leathery, a perfect balance between its components.

Anyone who disliked Germain's Balkan Sobraine can send their tins to me. I don't see how one could find fault in this fine blend. The smell alone is divine. I feel like a snobby tobacco smoker when this is in my pipe. Highly, highly recommended.

This is a review about the 2011 made by Germain Balkan Sobranie Original Smoking Mixture:

Sometimes a product that is no longer available becomes legendary. This was the case with the Balkan Sobranie Original Smoking Mixture. Yes, WAS. In the first years of the new millennium only a pouch version was available. A weak version of the original from the 70's, 60's and before that. Personally I've never smoked that real old version and I think there was not so much wrong with the pouch version. On the contrary! But despite the large demand the tobacco became less and less available and the production finally stopped. In the years that followed Balkan Sobranie Original Smoking Mixture became a legend. Together with Balkan Sobranie Mixture 759 and Balkan Sobranie Virginia no. 10 it became kind of the Holy Grail of the pipe tobaccos. On ebay, astronomical amounts were (and still are) asked and paid for these tobaccos. It only was a matter of time when someone would want to bring out again the legend. The pipe smoking market appears to be becoming larger thus the time was right for a new version, a new "vintage" of Balkan Sobranie Original Smoking Mixture. Because it is with this tobacco as with wine. The year tells you how good it is. 1971, oh tremendous!!! 1981, transition year to the Gallaher production, good but really just not it. 1999, pretty nice but nothing compared by the old original. 2011........ Arango Cigar Co. became the one that acquired the rights of Balkan Sobranie Original Smoking Mixture. But having the rights is 1 thing, bringing out the tobacco on the market is something veeeery different. So they have found J.F. Germain & Son willing to make the tobacco. In my honest opinion the best choice that they could have made! This because J.F. Germain & Son is the maker of some other legendary tobacco, Penzance. But also of the Smoker's Heaven tobaccos that for years counted as THE replacement for the original Balkan Sobranie tobaccos. Nice detail, previously the House Sobranie made the Smoker's Heaven tobaccos.. So J.F. Germain & Son have experience in "imitating" the House Sobranie products. Also they have men in service that formerly worked for the House Sobranie. Interesting..

Package: A 50 gram tin with a somewhat cheap version of the old stately artwork. Once open the tobacco rests in a paper as is often customary with on top of that a thin round insert with nothing on it. I myself reproduced the old artwork (tin and insert-card) and e-mailed that to Arango and Germain. I hope that I hear something of it..

Composition: The composition is that of the pouch version and the '80's Gallaher version. A fine cut mix of dark and light Virginia's, Macedonian tobacco and Cyprian latakia. Originally there was Syrian latakia in it but for yeeaaars that was no longer the case.. Anyway, there is more latakia then in the pouch version. The tobaccos is a ribbon-cut but something coarser than the pouch version. Resembling the tobacco in my 1981 tin.

Smell from the tin: Yummie! What's in there, you smell! Together with Penzance some of the best tin-smells ever.

Taste: Regarding taste the tobacco is a good mix of the pouch version and my 1981 tin version. What I was missing in the 1981 version were the oriental tobaccos that halfway the bowl began to sing the dominant part. Something that was better in the pouch version. Just lit you almost taste the pure latakia. Something like an espresso without sugar. And the same beginning as with Mixture 759. Here you can really notice that there is more of the dark smoked leaf in the 2011 version. After a few puffs the sweetness comes forth, the Virginia's. And yesss, halfway the bowl the oriental tobaccos (I think Kavalla) are coming to the front. The last part of the bowl is the best as all the different tobaccos harmoniously sing together. And not unimportant, the topping is also spot on! I already once said before that I can instantly recognize latakia holding Dunhill tobaccos when I smoke them. They all have a little bit of the same taste, something typical Dunhill. This is also the case with Balkan Sobranie Original Smoking Mixture. The same topping as the 1981 and pouch version. Absolutely wonderfully done by J. F. Germain & Son who prove their well earned reputation!

Roomnote: The old Balkan Sobranie Original Smoking Mixture was (in)famous for it's for most people baaaad roomnote. If you smoke yourself you will not notice that but people around you will utter their displeasure. As with my girlfriend hehehe.. I had never smoked a version of the tobacco in her presence but when I was puffing away a "Jeeeezzz.. What are YOU smoking?? This is really your most fowl smelling tobacco! Gross!" escaped her lips. Despite that I was allowed to finish the bowl, the darling 🙂 So here also: points for authenticity!

Combustibility: As with every version I know, excellent. You do not need to tamp it a lot and it burns down nicely to a grey ash. Although, you may want to let the tobacco dry a bit before smoking. It comes pretty wet out of the tin.

Varia: Regarding lady nicotine you can notice that you are dealing with an "elder" tobacco. Ok, I'm a bit of a nicotine wuss so I do not smoke it on an empty stomach.

Price: At 4noggins a tin of this new version costs $10.19. And it is worth every dollar cent! IF you can obtain it. Because this is the weak spot of J.F. Germain & Son. All tobacco is made the old fashioned way. Really great because you can taste the love and craftsmanship. But producing vast quantities, no, they cannot do that. If you want to obtain a tin you have to keep an eye out on international fora and tobacco sites and just be VERY lucky because when it is available, *poefff* it's already gone..

Conclusion: Applause! In my honest opinion J.F. Germain & Son has succeeded in producing a worthy version of the legendary Balkan Sobranie Original Smoking Mixture! Is it as good as the 70's, 60's and before version? Noooo idea, I've never smoked that one like I said before. Also there was yenidje in that one but that has become very scarce.. Is the tobacco as good as the beginning of the 80's version? Better! Is the tobacco as good as the '90's and beginning of 2000 version? Better! In short, Balkan Sobranie Original Smoking Mixture is back! And for now it seems it's here to stay. Now I really hope that Arango and Germain also will bring out Mixture 759 and Virginia no. 10 again One can only hope and pray..

The first cigarette I ever smoked was a Sobranie Black Russian, one of the great looking black ones with a gold tip. That was at the age of 15 behind the cycle sheds at Grammar school. A year later in 1966, I graduated to a curved Briar pipe and the Sobranie Original Mixture. Perhaps it was the tin that attracted me, the white one with the two women on the front. But when I first tasted and smelled that wonderful exotic smoke I was hooked. Not everyone appreciated the room aroma. it was distinctive enough to evoke comment and to me had a more than discernible hint of leaves being burned on a damp Autumn day in England. I loved it. I rarely smoke now. Perhaps a Sobranie cocktail cigarette once every few months. It has been almost 50 years since I last smoked the Sobranie Original Mixture in a pipe and yet I can remember it's taste and aroma as clearly as if it were yesterday. A few years ago I became curious about it and was of course shocked to find that original unopened tins were commanding over $100 on ebay. I'm glad that I was able to enjoy this rarity at a time when it was perhaps at it's best, and wish I had stashed a few tins away to be happily re- discovered.

Packs a punch! Very nice once-a-day smoke. Strong blend that, while very pleasing, rubs you raw after too many bowls. Luscious but actually capable of giving you a hangover if you smoke it all day.