Marc Chevalier
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- Los Feliz, Los Angeles, California
If you have time, patience and money, search (and search) for vintage tins of Balkan Sobranie Original Mixture, and 759, now-legendary pipe tobacco mixtures that haven't been made since 1995. By many accounts, the best that one could ever hope for. Unfortunately, each tin now costs ... don't even ask.
Read about it here: http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/blend_detail.cfm?ALPHA=O&TID=1525
And here: http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/blend_detail.cfm?ALPHA=7&TID=1069
And here's a version of the story:
"For the better part of the 20th Century, this blend was made by Sobranie House under the aegis of the Redstone family. This was a complex blend of virginias, latakia, and many exotic leaves from the Turkey/Macedonia area with names like Syrna, Izmir, Xanthi, Yenidje, etc. On July 1, 1968, Gallaher Tobacco acquired the blend and the trademarked name. The blend was found to be too costly to manufacture and so it was simplified, being produced by Gallaher through the 1970's, 80's and then finally ceasing in 1995, with the last tins reaching eager pipesters in 1996.
Isadore Redstone sensed this void in 1995 and negotiated with the Lane Company to manufacture the old blend under a new name "Balkan Saseini." Unfortunately, by now the cigarette industry had turned its unblinking eye upon turkish tobacco, consuming all there was. Oriental tobacco was standardized and sold uniformly, no more to be readily had as the local varietals with exotic names. Hence the new blends simply could never be the same. Finally, even the Saseini was taken over by Orlik a few years ago, closing the chapter on the book of Sobranie with finality."
.
Read about it here: http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/blend_detail.cfm?ALPHA=O&TID=1525
And here: http://www.tobaccoreviews.com/blend_detail.cfm?ALPHA=7&TID=1069
And here's a version of the story:
"For the better part of the 20th Century, this blend was made by Sobranie House under the aegis of the Redstone family. This was a complex blend of virginias, latakia, and many exotic leaves from the Turkey/Macedonia area with names like Syrna, Izmir, Xanthi, Yenidje, etc. On July 1, 1968, Gallaher Tobacco acquired the blend and the trademarked name. The blend was found to be too costly to manufacture and so it was simplified, being produced by Gallaher through the 1970's, 80's and then finally ceasing in 1995, with the last tins reaching eager pipesters in 1996.
Isadore Redstone sensed this void in 1995 and negotiated with the Lane Company to manufacture the old blend under a new name "Balkan Saseini." Unfortunately, by now the cigarette industry had turned its unblinking eye upon turkish tobacco, consuming all there was. Oriental tobacco was standardized and sold uniformly, no more to be readily had as the local varietals with exotic names. Hence the new blends simply could never be the same. Finally, even the Saseini was taken over by Orlik a few years ago, closing the chapter on the book of Sobranie with finality."
.
