Current Latakia Production

[verporchting]

Does anyone have any information on current production? I read awhile back that there basically wasn’t any but recently ran across a reference to a Turkish version.

Just curious if anyone has any insight into this. Is Cypress still exporting or is there another alternative for Latakia?

Not critical to my pipe smoking situation but it is a matter of some curiosity. I would be interested in trying any new varieties just for the sake of knowing.

Cheers gentlemen!

 

[Mrs. Pickles]

I don't know anything about the state of production in Cyprus, but more information about Turkish Latakia and the company and process behind it can be found in this article: Nurturing a Niche - https://tobaccoreporter.com/2021/04/01/nurturing-a-niche/

Credit to @macaroni for previously sharing it to the forum.

 

[Lumbridge]

Now you can put smoked Turkey Turkish in your pipe. What a time to be alive.
While there's hearsay that Turkish latakia is already showing up in blends, I'd bet that blenders still have a significant amount of Cyprian on hand.
Perhaps in a few years, there will be people shelling out the big bucks for anything with Cyprian as it will have ascended to mythological unobtanium status akin to Syrian.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Unrelated, since the article doesn't say whether the tobaccos is going through the smoke curing process, but as of July 2023, tobacco is still being grown & harvested in Latakia Syria.Latakia: State tobacco employees impose royalties despite farmers suffering - Enab Baladi - https://english.enabbaladi.net/archives/2023/08/latakia-state-tobacco-employees-impose-royalties-despite-farmers-suffering/

 

[hoipolloiglasgow]

They are still making Cyprian latakia. C&D uses the Turkish in certain blends, but not for the most part. There was a thread a while back about this.

 

[verporchting]

I don't know anything about the state of production in Cyprus, but more information about Turkish Latakia and the company and process behind it can be found in this article: Nurturing a Niche - https://tobaccoreporter.com/2021/04/01/nurturing-a-niche/

Credit to @macaroni for previously sharing it to the forum.

That’s where I read it, thank you!! Couldn’t remember where it came from but that’s the very article that got me wondering.

 

[verporchting]

Unrelated, since the article doesn't say whether the tobaccos is going through the smoke curing process, but as of July 2023, tobacco is still being grown & harvested in Latakia Syria.Latakia: State tobacco employees impose royalties despite farmers suffering - Enab Baladi - https://english.enabbaladi.net/archives/2023/08/latakia-state-tobacco-employees-impose-royalties-despite-farmers-suffering/

Interesting! Thank you for linking the article.

I’m not hugely invested in Latakia but I do like it and find the subject matter interesting.

 

[ThermionicScott]

Nerd alert: When watching Per Jensen's video series for Mac Baren a few years ago, I happened to spot that they have a bunch of Cyprian Latakia from 2004:



With how uneven the supply of Latakia has tended to be, I imagine that every blending house buys all they can afford to store, when they can. So, if Cyprian production were to stop tonight (or 10 years ago), we consumers might not actually find out for a while.

I'm looking forward to trying the new Turkish Latakia. Better supply chain, more sustainable production, tastes good (reportedly), what's not to like? Maybe C&D will offer it as a blender once they get more on hand.

 

[mingc]

They are still making Cyprian latakia. C&D uses the Turkish in certain blends, but not for the most part. There was a thread a while back about this.

I exchanged PMs with C&D head honcho Jeremy Reeves last September. Jeremy told me that, "We have been using Latakia produced in Turkey for about 1 year, and any product that we make that contains Latakia is made using that version."

 

[hoipolloiglasgow]

Nerd alert: When watching Per Jensen's video series for Mac Baren a few years ago, I happened to spot that they have a bunch of Cyprian Latakia from 2004:

View attachment 304356

With how uneven the supply of Latakia has tended to be, I imagine that every blending house buys all they can afford to store, when they can. So, if Cyprian production were to stop tonight (or 10 years ago), we consumers might not actually find out for a while.

I'm looking forward to trying the new Turkish Latakia. Better supply chain, more sustainable production, tastes good (reportedly), what's not to like? Maybe C&D will offer it as a blender once they get more on hand.

Try it. It's more subtle and mellow than Cyprian, but you can still tell it's quality lat.

 

[ThermionicScott]

While there's hearsay that Turkish latakia is already showing up in blends, I'd bet that blenders still have a significant amount of Cyprian on hand.
Perhaps in a few years, there will be people shelling out the big bucks for anything with Cyprian as it will have ascended to mythological unobtanium status akin to Syrian.

I wonder how this will affect blends like Gaslight! People are wont to use words like “creosote” and “kerosene” when professing their love for it.

 

[hoipolloiglasgow]

I wonder how this will affect blends like Gaslight! People are wont to use words like “creosote” and “kerosene” when professing their love for it.

The entire Pease line up as well as the Drucquer stuff I ordered recently specifically says Cyprian in the description. I can't see blends known for it like Quiet Nights, Gaslight, etc without it. That new Drucquer blend, I forgot what it's called, it specifically has Turkish and was released with it.

 

[ThermionicScott]

The entire Pease line up as well as the Drucquer stuff I ordered recently specifically says Cyprian in the description. I can't see blends known for it like Quiet Nights, Gaslight, etc without it. That new Drucquer blend, I forgot what it's called, it specifically has Turkish and was released with it.

Yeah, product descriptions have a way of not always keeping up with the product, though.

I'm not accusing anyone of covering anything up, though -- it's just that maintaining documentation is a dull, endless, and thankless task, so it's easy for it to fall through the cracks. Source: is an engineer.

 

[hoipolloiglasgow]

Yeah, product descriptions have a way of not always keeping up with the product, though.

I'm not accusing anyone of covering anything up, though -- it's just that maintaining documentation is a dull, endless, and thankless task, so it's easy for it to fall through the cracks. Source: is an engineer.

Yeah I know. The thing is that they already changed a blend that had Cyprian to Turkish- Two Friends English Chocolate. I just don't understand why they'd only do that for that one blend and state it. And I wonder about the Pease and Drucquer stuff if that even counts as "their" lineup. I can't see Pease going for that.

 

[ThermionicScott]

Yeah I know. The thing is that they already changed a blend that had Cyprian to Turkish- Two Friends English Chocolate. I just don't understand why they'd only so that for that one blend. And I wonder about the Pease and Drucquer stuff if that even counts as "their" lineup. I can't see Pease going for that.

If it weren't for @mingc 's post, I would have assumed it would be a phased rollout situation: get people excited about the new Latakia with a couple of special blends, wait a little for people to respond positively (or at least adjust), and then start working it into all of the legacy blends as "upgrades" as the stocks of Cyprian Latakia run out. G L Pease hasn't updated any of his site to mention Turkish Latakia yet, to the best of my knowledge.

 

[karam]

Last thing I'd read was that essentially there's no Latakia tobacco produced in Cyprus for many years. What's done, apparently, is the tobacco is grown in Cyprus, then shipped to Turkey to get turned into Latakia, then shipped back to Cyprus to be packaged and exported as Cyprus Latakia.

One Greek ex-pipe tobacco company (Wolfway) was using Egyptian Latakia, not sure what that is, but their blends were very good. It was certainly less intense than the usual Cypriot Latakia, but a great smoke nonetheless.