Balkan, english whats the diff.

[Quick_nick]

I have been trying to nail down exactly what the difference is between a Balkan blend and an English blend. I know balkans are mostly dark virginias+latakia+orientals; at least I think.

Tell me what you know

[JAX]

I've been told there is alot of debate over what makes a blend an "English" and what makes it a "Balkan". From what I've been able to gather trough my own research is the addition of orientals is what makes a blend Balkan.

Ofcourse, there will always be an exception.

[Alyks]

No one seems to be 100% certain on the differences, but Greg Pease seems to know what he's talking about.

Originally Posted by GL Pease

To my mind, an English blend has a significant portion of Virginia backing up the Latakia, and orientals serve as a spice.

Originally Posted by GL Pease

A Balkan, on the other hand, is predominately based on oriental tobaccos and Latakia, and just enough Virginia is used to provide structure and balance.

[Mad Hatter]

Originally Posted by JAX

I've been told there is alot of debate over what makes a blend an "English" and what makes it a "Balkan". From what I've been able to gather trough my own research is the addition of orientals is what makes a blend Balkan.

Ofcourse, there will always be an exception.

My opinion too. Orientals from the balkan regions added to an otherwise english blend = a balkan blend

[Quick_nick]

I was on tobacco reviews last night and was just reading tobacco descriptions trying to find discrepencies and a place where english and balkan divide. The orientals in my opinion make an english a balkan.

What about blend with va., lat., and turkish. Blends like embarcadero

[wharfrathoss]

i could be wrong but here's my take on it:
english = VA + latakia, some oriental included but lightly
balkan = english but heavier on the orientals than latakia
oriental = VA + heavy orientals, no latakia

sometimes perique or cavendish gets thrown in the mix too-i haven't had embarcadero but it doesn't have any lat listed-VA/oriental blends fall into 2 catagories for me-blends like red raparee & guilford courthouse are orientals, see above-blends like McC's VA #24 is a VA spiced w/orientals, like adding salt to food-it's not the flavor of the salt you eat the food for, it just adds nicely to it

[Blaylock]

If you'd like to do some reading, here's a great site for learning about pipe tobacco. It includes several people discussing their definitions of different types of tobaccos:

http://agingfaq.nocturne.org/categorization.php#q3

Here are a few quotes:

On English...

"I submit that most people who use the term 'English' blend could not explain what they meant by that term in under 90 seconds, making it, to me, a useless term. If we could hammer out a term that WE agreed on, I would be willing to accept it for the sake of the discussion, but probably not any further."

"A classic English ('Scottish' means the same thing) mixture is a blend of ribbon-cut tobaccos on a base of bright virginia: the condiment tobaccos are Turkish/Oriental (formerly individual tobaccos, now a melange called 'Basma'), Latakia, and Perique (usually only present in the 'full' mixtures.)..."

"English means that the tobacco is primarily VA or Burley, with small amounts of other tobaccos such as perique, latakia, orientals intended primarily to make the smoking experience more complex by highlighting/complementing certain aspects of the main tobacco."


On Balkin...

"I would say that when the Latakia and Orientals take the driver's seat, supported by the Virginias, then it is a "Balkan"."

"To my thinking (and I think to most pipesmokers), Balkans can be considered a subset of English blends since they contain Virginias, Latakia, and Orientals. What sets them apart, however, is that they are at least 50% Latakia and/or Orientals. "


You'll also find statements by GL Pease (already mentioned) in there as well.

[tzilt]

So how do Scottish blends fit in there?

The only one I am familiar with is Murdock's Pipe which is very good.

[Mad Hatter]

Originally Posted by tzilt

So how do Scottish blends fit in there?

The only one I am familiar with is Murdock's Pipe which is very good.

I might be wrong but I think a lack of latakia has alot to do with it. There's lots of different opinions on blending but if you just keep it simple and accept that there are gray areas then.......... you know. Afterall it is pretty much whatever the company making it chooses to call it.