Balkan Sobranie - What's the Story

[I Schier]

I just visited my favorite tobacconist here in Moscow for my biweekly
fix, and sure enough, I noticed some fresh-looking packages of Balkan
Sobranie Original, made by Sobranie in London. I thought it was
discontinued! Is this just relatively fresh old stock, or is it
available again.

Ian

PS: If anyone wants some, I can arrange to send it out from here -
E-mail me in private - I personally do not smoke Balkan Sobranie and
wouldn't mind helping someone who does.

--
___________________________________________________
Ian Schier, President
Integral Coupon Services and Research
Specialized Marketing and Research Solutions
Moscow, Russia (7-095)531-71-32 ic...@cityline.ru
____________________________________________________

[Tapio Pentikäinen]

The Balkan Sobranie Original is _not_ discontinued (yet?) but the 759
Luxury Blend definetely has bitten the dust last year.
But I'm going to stock up the Original, anyway...

Pipe-friendly
Tapio

I Schier wrote in message <36B20067...@cityline.ru>...

[Greg Whyte]

Part of the story anyway. What I don't get is why someone with an
established winner wouldn't continue to ride it, or sell it to someone else
who would.

Perhaps Dr. Redstone will reveal the recipe in his will...

gw

David Chute wrote in message <36b2bf0c...@nntp.loop.com>...
>From "PipeSmoke" magazine, Summer 98
> Volume II
> Issue 1
>
> Balkan Sasieni
>
>In the last two decades of the 19th century, there was a quantum shift
>in the taste of pipe tobacco blended for English gentlemen. Mixtures
>of "Oriental," meaning Turkish, Macedonian, Greek, and Syrian
>tobaccos, along with Virginia and Carolina tobaccos, became the rage
>among upper-class pipesmokers. Rich and smoky, redolent with the
>exotic aromas of the tobaccos smoked in the Middle East, Balkan
>Sobranie Smoking Mixture was developed for the officer and diplomatic
>class concentrated in the St. James district's clubs. Balkan referred
>to the growing regions of the flavorful leaf, and suggested intrigue
>to the English gentleman. Remember where WW I started, and look at
>Eric Ambler's spy novels of the 1930's.
>
>Several generations of the Redstone family blended this tobacco from a
>secret formula, renowned worldwide. Then, in the early 1980's, Dr.
>Isadore Redstone (an M.D. - "an indiscretion of my youth," he once
>told TBTM) sold the trademarks to Gallaher, one of the English
>conglomerates, which made it, albeit with a modified formula, for
>three decades. When Gallaher ceased exporting Balkan
>Sobranie to the U.S. in 1995, Dr. Redstone got another company to
>produce the original formula for export. While "Balkan Sobranie" is a
>trademark - the term refers to the upper house of the bicameral
>legislature, or "Bulgarian Senate" (sorry to kill the romance) - the
>regional term Balkan is not copyrightable. To remedy this obstacle,
>Redstone partnered with Dan Blumenthal, of James B. Russell, Inc., who
>owns the Sasieni trademark, to revive the great old standby
>under the slightly altered "Balkan Sasieni," in a package suggestive
>of the earlier iterations.
>
>So what is there to Balkan Sasieni besides a name? The blend itself,
>which is full of deep, dark, rich, complex, and suggestive flavor, is
>beautifully finished and smooth, like a great cigar. Balkan Sasieni
>manages to keep the sweetly tarry overtones of the Latakia in a
>perfect balance with the dryly pungent Turkish and Macedonian leaf,
>punctuated by the natural sweetness of the American tobaccos. This is
>an extraordinarily satisfying mixture, at its best indoors where none
>of the aroma is dissipated. Great for pipe dreams in a large
>curved pipe.
>
>
>
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[richard bies]

Great explanation.

Except that vendors tend to use the name "Sasieni Balkan".

r.m.bies

[Stephen P. Smith]

Thus spake ch...@loop.com (David Chute):

>Several generations of the Redstone family blended this tobacco from a
>secret formula, renowned worldwide. Then, in the early 1980's, Dr.
>Isadore Redstone (an M.D. - "an indiscretion of my youth," he once
>told TBTM) sold the trademarks to Gallaher, one of the English
>conglomerates, which made it, albeit with a modified formula, for
>three decades.

How could they make it for three decades if they didn't buy it until
the early 1980's? Just wondering. Great post otherwise. ;>)

Steve Smith

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-A portrait of the pipe smoker as a young man-

"taking up a glowing cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the
long cherry-wood pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was
in a disputatious rather than a meditative mood" -- Dr. John H. Watson

[Stephen P. Smith]