Sutliff Tobacco Company Match Balkan Sobranie

I never had the original and the new release seems impossible to buy as it's always out of stock. Do I care? No. We are in a fortunate time when so many blends are available. This is a wonderful blend with the Orientals taking the main stage. The latakia and Virginias interplay nicely. I bought 4 ounces and jarred 2 as was recommended by some reviewers that I follow regularly. Came with the right moisture level, lights easy and smokes to a dark gray ash with no dottle. Can easily be an all day smoke and the wife loves the room note. What can I say, I got me a good women! If your a Balkan fan I highly recommend this as a lighter fair, but a wonderful smoke.

Lager

I love trying new blends, and generally smoke a pretty diverse bunch of tobaccos. But there are a few blends that make up the bulk of my everyday smoking. Blends like Presbyterian, Essenza Cipriota, Early Morning Pipe, and Sutliff's Match Balkan Sobranie, are in my pipe nearly everyday.

First few puffs... a good amount sweetness and lots of the sour, musty incense of the Orientals. I've never met a Macedonian leaf I didn't like... they always seem to add a nice floral/musty complexity. And they're the main player here. There's a perfect amount of Latakia in this blend, too. It's strong enough to be a satisfying Balkan, but not overpowering or bitter. The Virginias are back there providing a lot of sweetness, some light grassy notes, and some zing. This is a very flavorful, satisfying smoke. No bite, and it burns smoothly from start to finish.

Bottom line: A smooth, really tasty (and really cheap!) Balkan blend. One of the best bangs for your buck in all of pipe tobaccoland. But even if Sutliff's Match Balkan Sobranie were an expensive tinned blend instead of an inexpensive bulk blend, it'd still be one of my favorites.

This is a great light latakia blend. Period. I'll let the other reviewers speak to the nuances of the blend. If you want a Balkan blend, then this is sure to please. While Balkan blends differ from each other in their nuances and constituent tobaccos, this one is just as satisfying as others, but completely different from something like Tastykake or Plum Pudding.

You can smoke this all day if you are an English/Balkan fan. I bought a pound based solely on reviews and I'm not disappointed. I stuffed it into two large wide mouth mason jars.

Mine came somewhat dry, which I guess isn't a bad thing. It shouldn't get any drier in the jars, so it's basically ready to smoke with no drying time needed. Some reviewers said that theirs was moist, so I guess this varies. I actually rehydrated a bit by adding a folded up damp paper towel to one of the large mason jars that I am using to keep these in, and this brought back some moisture nicely. That's a great thing about pipe tobacco that you can do this easily.

If you are a fan of the genre, then at these prices you can't go wrong to buy a whole lot and jar it up. You never know when our crazy Uncle Sam or your state or locale goes ape crap and decides to regulate so that you can't get it anymore.

Think of this as a Balkan "bread & butter" blend that you always want on hand.

I plan to buy more in the future (obviously have to fit it in with other planned cellar bound purchases) but for now I have my two large mason jars to smoke from.

Sutliff Match Balkan Sobranie, this one is very interesting. Last year I picked up an oz to sample but decided that I needed more before doing a proper review. That I smoked new, this has been jarred for 6 months and the time in the jar has made all the difference. The jar note is deeply smokey, sweet, and slightly buttermilk sour. The smoke is very campfire smokey, leather, woody, earthy, herbal, and sweet. There are some notes in the background that are citrus with some bread notes and some dark fruits, it is lightly spicy and has that great buttermilk sourness that counters the creamy sweetness. The finish is medium with smokey, sweet, and sour playing off each other. The overall strength and nic just touch the med mark as does the taste. The room note is fine for me but others found it strong. I have just finished smoking this back to back with WhiteKnight and I have to say they are remarkably similar. I did not get the unflavored soda note in this one but that is a very minor nuance in WhiteKnight, so the Yenidje may not be here or just lacking in the bulk 4 oz that I have on hand. That said, this is a major winner in my book, it may improve more with age too. At $33.00 a pound vs $14.00 a tin the differences are so minor for me I see no reason to buy more tins but I will be ordering a couple of pounds of this one in my next order.

So Balkans…

From 1976 to 1995 I smoked BS759 almost exclusively. I only tried the OSM when my local B&M was out of 759. Always liked it a lot, just liked 759 better.

This match OSM is excellent. Very similar to my memories. With every puff I seem to taste something different. One puff says latakia and the next says oriental. I smoked this fresh from the blender. Should be even better with some age, so I ordered 2 pounds more for my Mason jars.

For me this, Odyssey, Abingdon and Balkan Supreme are the best balkans out there and I have a generous supply of each. OSM match is also quite reasonably priced if that is part of your consideration. Smokers Haven Exotique would have been on the list, but I recently opened a 200 gram can from 2005 that was still sealed properly, but somehow had lost something through the years. Never had that before.

Tried the 759 match and still drawing a conclusion on that. Quite good, but probably needs some aging. Will let it age and then try it again.

Also tried the Crown Achievement match. This may make the Balkan cut at a later date, but that one most definitely needs aging. The orientals need time to make friends with the VAs and latakia. Almost all oriental now.

Oh buddy. I love this stuff.

For the price point alone, get this. If you’re a Balkan fan or even think you might be this is worth a shot. You have nothing to lose (well less than $3 an ounce) so what are you waiting for!

Pencil shavings, smoke, and herbs is what this tastes like. Sounds so bizarre but it’s true and it’s absolutely delicious. Easy burning, due to the fact that it comes somewhat dry but can be rehydrated to your tastes and apparently betters with just a few months age. I’m ready to order pounds of this stuff. Just complex enough that you can sit back and get lost in the reverie but not so deep and thought provoking to have to sit back and think about if you don’t want to. Cheap enough and readily available to be a reliable all day smoke that won’t break the bank. What more could I say? I’m a huge fan. It’s great.

Just buy some. This is one tobacco I would encourage absolutely everyone to buy. Between the price and the quality, it’s a must buy, whether you smoke it fresh or put it away in the cellar for a couple years.

Opening the jar I‘ve had it stored in for a year now, I get hit with a tangy, smoky, sweet aroma. It’s barbecue-y. There is a smokiness, but it smells almost like barbecue sauce more than a campfire. The intermingling of the latakia, orientals, and Virginias is mesmerizing.

Upon first light, you get a buttery, herbal, woody, incensy, slightly tangy/sour, and smoky flavor unlike anything else. It’s creamy and fragrantly sweet. The orientals have almost no spice, just an herbal and fragrant woody note. It’s a very mellow and smooth balkan. The finish is mostly Virginia grassiness and dark fruit, with incense from the orientals. That flavor continues quite consistently through the first half of the bowl. Getting into the second half of the bowl, an earthy, leathery characteristic becomes the star, but still with the bursts of butter, wood, smoke, and incense. A floral quality also becomes apparent near the end. All the flavors are amazingly balanced in this. I always recommend retrohaling with any blend, but this one, especially, should be retrohaled to get the full appreciation of flavors. It’s very fragrant, and should pass through the sinuses to get all the flavor. It’s smooth enough that you can retrohale every puff without stinging the sinuses. Definitely not a strong English blend like, say, Nightcap, but it is perfectly balanced and full flavored.

I don’t know what the original Balkan Sobranie was like, but if it was anything like this, I can see why it has such a legendary status. It’s just so perfectly balanced. The fragrant sweetness (not artificial sweetness) is out of this world. It conjures images of walking into some damp, dark, musty temple with incense whirling all around. No bite, no harsh qualities, and a ton of flavor. I fell in love with this blend from the very first smoke I had when it arrived fresh. I actually smoked it so much that I kinda got sick of it. I ordered another pound and just put it away, letting all the tobacco meld together. Coming back to it, I have a renewed appreciation for it. It’s perfect (at least when I’m in the mood for latakia). Between this and Arango Balkan Supreme, there’s really no need for me to buy tinned balkans anymore. Speaking of Balkan Supreme, I’ll give a quick compare and contrast of these two blends, which are quite different even though they’re trying to replicate the same legendary blend. Whereas Balkan Supreme is herbal, spicy, and woody with a bit of latakia smoky creaminess, the BSOSM match is dominated by the buttery creaminess, sweet/smoky qualities, and incense. Basically, Balkan Supreme is more oriental forward while the BSOSM Match is more Latakia forward. I love both depending on what mood I’m in, though I’d give the slight upper hand to the BSOSM Match. I’m amazed that this blend only costs roughly $2.25/ounce when bought in bulk. I would gladly pay $15 for a 2oz tin of this (which I guess I can since this and WhiteKnight supposedly use the same proportions of tobacco). The only knock I have against this blend is that it came quite dry. I ended up slightly rehydrating it a few months ago because it had gotten too dry. There’s really no reason to not at least try this blend, considering the price. Highly, highly recommended.