34 replies to this topic

[Leon]

For anyone who has wanted to taste something like the Morland Special - Turkish and Balkan blend cigarettes here is my recipe to re-create them almost exactly. I will try to make this as thorough as possible. First a little back-story.

It's an exciting time for lovers of ye olde Oriental tobaccos like me as D&R in the US have now released a new Balkan blend called Ramback Balkan along with their Ramback Turkish and Ramback Gold blends which use the real deal in aromatic Turkish tobaccos such as the revered Yenidje and Izmir leaf.

There is also another new company doing the same hard work to revive these fine tobaccos which are still close to extinction due to the British and American Tobacco industries monopoly on the industry who pretty much use more chemical preservatives, casings and flavourings in their cigarettes than actual tobacco. Anyone who remembers the old Balkan Sobranie or the oval shaped Turkish Specials (featured in FRWL) will remember the taste of good Turkish tobaccos. More can be read here:

http://www.andromeda...balkanprospect/


Anyway, back to the Morlands. Having researched this subject quite thoroughly over the past few years I have discovered that these custom blended cigarettes were a variation on the generally popular custom blended "Egyptian" cigarette from around the 1950's era. Essentially the classic Egyptian cigarette blend was a very flavourful mix of:

- Fragrant Turkish tobaccos which are renowned for having no feel at all when inhaled but a rich, toasty-sweet flavour on exhale.

- Other fragrant Balkan tobaccos along with Balkan grown, sun-cured Virginia leaf which burns a little hotter and releases the flavours of the other tobaccos better.

- A small touch of fire-cured halfzware which is a very strong, full flavoured and dark tobacco.


How do you re-create this today? This is the sweetest part, until recently it was impossible but now it's possible.

There is no exact blend to follow, as even people who have smoked the real Morland Specials have said how greatly they often varied, but here is a rough guide.


D&R Tobacco's

15% Ramback Turkish
40% Ramback Gold
40% Ramback Balkan

5% Gauloises handrolling tobacco



http://ryorevolution...r-tobaccos.html

Gauloises is the best Halfzware to use IMO. I have read first-hand descriptions of the Morlands as having chocolatey nuances on the flavour. Gauloises definately has this when mixed with Turkish, as opposed to Drum which has a smokey and also less refined/pleasant (IMO) flavour. Peter Stokkebye Amsterdam Shag can also be used, but as I have not yet tried that tobacco I can't speak for it. I am very happy with Gauloises however, and you can find it in many places across Europe including here http://www.cgarsltd....322_83_167.html with international shipping.

You can play with the amount of the Halfzware for personal taste, along with the other components of course. The Ramback Gold is a fine blend of Turkish with some flue-cured Virinia leaf which fires it up and also helps the burn. Proper Turkish tobacco burns very slowly and poorly, often going out, so the virginia helps this as well as releasing the Turkish flavour more. I like to add a touch more pure Turkish to the overall blend however. I should be recieving my large stash of Ramback tobaccos in a few weeks time via a friend in the States.

Now as for what to smoke your final blend in there is an ever growing range of professional, high-quality paper cigarette tubes on the market now which you fill with a stuffing machine. Forget rolling papers.

Athey unfiltered tubes with two gold bands and "Athey" in fine gold print are the closest look to the Morland Special you can get. A little practice with stuffing these is needed to make them well as it's tricky without the filter element. There is a real knack to stuffing cigarettes yourself anyway and you need to learn how to tap them down etc. Many people will not know this and be dissapointed at a loosely filled cigarette - if you do try this for the first time trust me it is perfectly possible to make a perfect cigarette yourself. The best part is you aren't getting a pre-made thing loaded with chemicals and inferior quality tobacco at a ridiculously extortionate price.

Vera Cruz Elegante tubes are my favourite filtered tube with a tripple red and gold banding on the tip. They use a high-density filter element which has a very easy draw and superior quality paper. They are a little fatter than manufactured cigarettes.




All of the above save for the Halfzwares can be found at D&R here:

http://www.cigarettetobacco.com/


The above post is intended for responsible adults. I hope some people may find it useful, and others at least interesting. If you come up with anything interesting on the subject above yourself such as blends or further information on the Morland cigarettes please post.

Edited by Leon, 28 March 2008 - 06:53 PM.

[Mr. Blofeld]

Interesting, but I don't want to die of emphysema.

[Scrambled Eggs]

I quit four years ago, and never smoked anything near this refined, but dammit you almost tempted me to take up the habit again, just for a day.
Very interesting piece of writing there, and very refreshing to read something about tobacco that doesn't automatically assume that it's the work of satan.

[MarcAngeDraco]

Not much on smoking cigarettes myself, but it was an interesting read. Thanks, Leon!

[Leon]

Interesting, but I don't want to die of emphysema.

I don't particularly want to die at all, but it happens, at all ages, to even the fittest of us nomatter what you do. Non-smokers die young and in pain every day too, I just wish they'd stop reminding everyone else who enjoys a cigarette of the same fate as if they are superior beings.

Not much on smoking cigarettes myself, but it was an interesting read. Thanks, Leon!

Cheers, you're welcome.

Edited by Leon, 28 March 2008 - 11:20 AM.

[MkB]

Well, if I were a smoker, I'd happily give your recipe a try... Thanks for sharing, anyway!

[Rogue_00]

Good thread. Rather provocative may be but I like it. It's a part of Bond after all, like Martini and women !

[MkB]

Yes, but to me it's not more provocative than giving a recipe for a stiff Bond drink. Some people drink, some people smoke, some people do both

[Rogue_00]

Right ! And I forgot the weapons and the licence to kill!

[Skudor]

Nice thread. I haven't smoked for years, and was never really a smoker but I wouldn't mind trying this, if it's close to Bond's cigs. Just for the flavour and effect - to give some texture to reading the books.

[dee-bee-five]

I prefer a joint, but this certainly seems worth trying...

[Leon]

I prefer a joint, but this certainly seems worth trying...

There's no reason you can't customise the blend with your own additions, it's been done already and is definitely worth it. A Turkish J is something very special, particularly brown over green - especially any Moroccan purchased in various nice coffeeshops in Amsterdam.

Yes, but to me it's not more provocative than giving a recipe for a stiff Bond drink. Some people drink, some people smoke, some people do both

But Vargas does neither. Yes I'd rather this thread didn't end up as a debate on smoking. I make my own decisions in my life and am responsible and respectful of others. To anyone thinking of starting a row that's the end of it, this thread is to stay on topic please.

Edited by Leon, 28 March 2008 - 04:56 PM.

[darkpath]

But Vargas does neither. Yes I'd rather this thread didn't end up as a debate on smoking. I make my own decisions in my life and am responsible and respectful of others. To anyone thinking of starting a row that's the end of it, this thread is to stay on topic please.

Actually I found it a fascinating read, even though I don't personally smoke. I'm rather grateful for your article and even passed it along to a colleague who was quite appreciative.

Cheers!

[dee-bee-five]

I prefer a joint, but this certainly seems worth trying...

There's no reason you can't customise the blend with your own additions, it's been done already and is definitely worth it. A Turkish J is something very special, particularly brown over green - especially any Moroccan purchased in various nice coffeeshops in Amsterdam.

Yes, but to me it's not more provocative than giving a recipe for a stiff Bond drink. Some people drink, some people smoke, some people do both

But Vargas does neither. Yes I'd rather this thread didn't end up as a debate on smoking. I make my own decisions in my life and am responsible and respectful of others. To anyone thinking of starting a row that's the end of it, this thread is to stay on topic please.

Alas, we live in a world dominated by the new Puritans. I fear if you start a thread which merely touches on smoking, drinking, sex or any of the other pleasures that make life worthwhile you'll attract the attention of the health fascists... I'm just as bad, of course, by goading them with flippant remarks about preferring a joint

Mind you, that does raise an interesting point: given Bond's near addiction to other vices, do we think he'd ever smoke a joint...? After all, Sherlock Holmes had a penchant for cocaine...

Edited by dee-bee-five, 28 March 2008 - 06:13 PM.

[Jim]

Mind you, that does raise an interesting point: given Bond's near addiction to other vices, do we think he'd ever smoke a joint...? After all, Sherlock Holmes had a penchant for cocaine...

He goes to Jamaica a lot* and has been known to drive an invisible car. Fact.

*I'm from Jamaica - this is an observation, not a slur.

[dee-bee-five]

Mind you, that does raise an interesting point: given Bond's near addiction to other vices, do we think he'd ever smoke a joint...? After all, Sherlock Holmes had a penchant for cocaine...

He goes to Jamaica a lot* and has been known to drive an invisible car. Fact.

*I'm from Jamaica - this is an observation, not a slur.

And he's tried to fly in mid-air without a parachute. And he's been known to see giant men with steel teeth on several occasions.

* Don't worry - some of my best friends have been to Jamaica.

[Jim]

Mind you, that does raise an interesting point: given Bond's near addiction to other vices, do we think he'd ever smoke a joint...? After all, Sherlock Holmes had a penchant for cocaine...

He goes to Jamaica a lot* and has been known to drive an invisible car. Fact.

*I'm from Jamaica - this is an observation, not a slur.

And he's tried to fly in mid-air without a parachute. And he's been known to see giant men with steel teeth on several occasions.

* Don't worry - some of my best friends have been to Jamaica.

Basically, he's off his noodle on manky crack.

[Leon]

I'm rather grateful for your article and even passed it along to a colleague who was quite appreciative.

Cheers!

That's nice to know , glad my investigating has been of use to someone else.

Also this multimedia section of RYO Magazine has some superb video tutorials on blending and making your own cigarettes for anyone who is interested.

http://www.ryomagazine.com/multimedia/

Edited by Leon, 28 March 2008 - 06:56 PM.

[Byron]

I'm rather grateful for your article and even passed it along to a colleague who was quite appreciative.

Cheers!

That's nice to know , glad my investigating has been of use to someone else.

Also this multimedia section of RYO Magazine has some superb video tutorials on blending and making your own cigarettes for anyone who is interested.

http://www.ryomagazine.com/multimedia/

Excellent research Leon. I'm not a smoker but if given the opportunity i would certainly try your Morlands blend at least once.

[MarcAngeDraco]

Leon,

Short of going through the expense & trouble of attempting to re-create your blend ourselves, are there any high-quality pre-made cigarettes currently available that would be in the ballpark?


Edit:

I would like to try one faithful to the blend you suggest just to see what it would be like, but it doesn't really intrigue me enough to justify the time, effort, or expense of mastering the art of making my own. Which led me to wondering if there was anything ready-to-smoke that would be close...

[Leon]

Leon,

Short of going through the expense & trouble of attempting to re-create your blend ourselves, are there any high-quality pre-made cigarettes currently available that would be in the ballpark?

I'm afraid not MarcAnge, that's the problem with the way the tobacco industry has gone. The closest manufactured cigarettes to this kind of blend were the old Balkan Sobranie and various Turkish cigarettes which were disscontinued many years ago now since the monopolisation on the tobacco market by British and American tobacco companies who cater for the now uneducated tastes of their mass market with highly inferior tobacco laced with chemical casings and flavourings to soften the tobacco instead of using the more expensive and quality tobacco strains to reach this objective. It's cheaper for them, yet they can still put their retail prices sky high and people will pay...as it's all there is!

It's actually far cheaper to make your own, especialy with these tobaccos from D&R, than to buy pre-made cigarettes. That's if you smoke regularly - in any sense, even one a day.

The Camel cigarettes of old used real good Turkish tobaccos in their blend and anyone here who used to smoke those will realise the big difference to what they are now. Generic, chemical tasting muck. I am not old enough to have known those cigarettes but I have heard this from many good sources such as a very nice chap called Doug Kennedy from RYO Magazine in the US. He is one of the experts on tobacco who helped me discover these old blends and he can re-create many of the classic blends of old with R/MYO (roll/make your own) tobaccos from Marlboro and Chesterfield to the old custom Egyptian and Turkish blends.

I am hoping that with the addition of the Balkan Prospect company into the mix of trying to re-envigorate the quality tobaccos from the Balkans that we will see a new pre-made Turkish cigarette (or a few), preferably with no chemical additives. There has been a surge of various no-chemical pre-made cigarettes such as American Spirit etc, which prove there is no need for the muck that cigarettes are drenched in now. I have quit smoking manfactured smokes for now because of this.

Here is a quote from Doug Kennedy's RYOMag website:

"Even the American Cancer Society concedes that lung cancer was relatively rare before the birth of manufactured cigarettes. They attributed this solely to the fact that manufactured cigarettes made it easier for people to smoke. Nonetheless, it should be clear that even before the first manufactured cigarette was produced, a lot of people used tobacco."

http://www.ryomagazine.com/

I also believe that the massive growth in traffic pollution which was around the same time has a big effect also. But I am not saying smoking no-chemical tobaccos isn't detrimental to health at all, just that the masive amounts of chemicals added to them is probably the main culprit. I have been smoking Havana cigars for a few years now also, as well as getting into good wines and food, so I can now actually taste the chemicals in a manufactured cigarette and it's foul.

The piece on Global Warming is provocative, but if anyone reads it remember that it qualifies it's other sided argument with the fact that evidence isn't concrete and that the truth could be either way. It's not a one-sided argument at all, just thought provoking on not taking what Governments say as fact...which we all know is quite obvious in fact!

A very interesting read to any open-minded person.

Another good extract from his website explains just how big the problem is on the Turkish tobacco front. Even D&R's Ramback, which is a deliciously mild and superb blend of fine leaf including Izmir, isn't up to the standard of the finest Turkish leaf which used to be used in some old cigarettes.



"Now we have discussed Turkish tobacco to no end in this magazine and most of you by now realize that MOST Turkish leaf is not that special. There are only a couple of provinces in the World that grow the really aromatic and wonderfully mild stuff that made brands like Balkan-Sobranie, Turkish Special, Ramses, etc., the classics they were. It boils down to this. The two locations where this incredible delicacy comes from are the Izmir Province of Turkey and the Yenidje Province of Greece (Macedonia). They are geographically separated by the Aegean Sea but lie at precisely the same latitude. Soil conditions, climate, humidity, whatever aside, the tobacco that comes from these two regions is unmatched in character. Every bit as good as any estate bottled 30 year old cabernet. This tobacco is, I guess, simply too expensive for most companies to use in their blends and as there are no "authentic" Turkish cigarettes left in the world, this tobacco has been sitting in storage for as much as 12 years. Even the oldest batch from 1993 was superb. There are three grades of tobacco of this sort, AG, BG, and KP in order of quality, AG being the best. Of course there are hundreds of strains of Turkish, some with names like Samsun, Basra etc., but none of them come close to this flavor. Anyway in the ten pound box was an assortment of the 3 grades, mostly AG as they wanted to impress us. At nearly $3 per pound in containers totaling 60,000 metric tons (that's a hell of a lot of tobacco - a metric ton being 2200 pounds) the deal was just too big for even the largest of potential buyers. We still are interested and are trying to get some entrepreneur to come up with the dough for at least part of the shipment in order to create a new and authentic Turkish cigarette. It does not look promising and unfortunately we can't just buy a few hundred pounds of this tobacco. They want to sell it all at once. Point is, I have my ten pounds and I will sip it like a fine wine for a number of years. We still hope to cause a deal to happen between a potential US manufacturer and this Turkish entity but the point of all this drooling for dollars is to show you what a small portion of this treasure looks like. Remember, what you are seeing is as rare as tobacco gets and as fine as anything ever produced. I hope you suffer along with me until this deal can come about. A Turkish cigarette made form this leaf would be an instant hit. Low nicotine content, very mild and an aroma that is indescribable. Here's the picture - Now you can drool. Also note that this true Turkish has very small leaves, only about 4 inches long. Magic!"



http://www.ryomagazine.com/tobacco.htm

Edited by Leon, 30 March 2008 - 02:41 AM.

[Byron]

Leon,

Short of going through the expense & trouble of attempting to re-create your blend ourselves, are there any high-quality pre-made cigarettes currently available that would be in the ballpark?

I'm afraid not MarcAnge, that's the problem with the way the tobacco industry has gone. The closest manufactured cigarettes to this kind of blend were the old Balkan Sobranie and various Turkish cigarettes which were disscontinued many years ago now since the monopolisation on the tobacco market by British and American tobacco companies who cater for the now uneducated tastes of their mass market with highly inferior tobacco laced with chemical casings and flavourings to soften the tobacco instead of using the more expensive and quality tobacco strains to reach this objective. It's cheaper for them, yet they can still put their retail prices sky high and people will pay...as it's all there is!

It's actually far cheaper to make your own, especialy with these tobaccos from D&R, than to buy pre-made cigarettes. That's if you smoke regularly - in any sense, even one a day.

The Camel cigarettes of old used real good Turkish tobaccos in their blend and anyone here who used to smoke those will realise the big difference to what they are now. Generic, chemical tasting muck. I am not old enough to have known those cigarettes but I have heard this from many good sources such as a very nice chap called Doug Kennedy from RYO Magazine in the US. He is one of the experts on tobacco who helped me discover these old blends and he can re-create many of the classic blends of old with R/MYO (roll/make your own) tobaccos from Marlboro and Chesterfield to the old custom Egyptian and Turkish blends.

I am hoping that with the addition of the Balkan Prospect company into the mix of trying to re-envigorate the quality tobaccos from the Balkans that we will see a new pre-made Turkish cigarette (or a few), preferably with no chemical additives. There has been a surge of various no-chemical pre-made cigarettes such as American Spirit etc, which prove there is no need for the muck that cigarettes are drenched in now. I have quit smoking manfactured smokes for now because of this.

Here is a quote from Doug Kennedy's RYOMag website:

"Even the American Cancer Society concedes that lung cancer was relatively rare before the birth of manufactured cigarettes. They attributed this solely to the fact that manufactured cigarettes made it easier for people to smoke."

http://www.ryomagazine.com/

I also believe that the massive growth in traffic pollution which was around the same time has a big effect also. But I am not saying smoking no-chemical tobaccos isn't detrimental to health at all, just that the masive amounts of chemicals added to them is probably the main culprit. I have been smoking Havana cigars for a few years now also, as well as getting into good wines and food, so I can now actually taste the chemicals in a manufactured cigarette and it's foul.

The piece on Global Warming is provocative, but if anyone reads it remember that it qualifies it's other sided argument with the fact that evidence isn't concrete and that the truth could be either way. It's not a one-sided argument at all, just thought provoking on not taking what Governments say as fact...which we all know is quite obvious in fact!

A very interesting read to any open-minded person.

Another good extract from his website explains just how big the problem is on the Turkish tobacco front. Even D&R's Ramback, which is a deliciously mild and superb blend of fine leaf including Izmir, isn't up to the standard of the finest Turkish leaf which used to be used in some old cigarettes.



"Now we have discussed Turkish tobacco to no end in this magazine and most of you by now realize that MOST Turkish leaf is not that special. There are only a couple of provinces in the World that grow the really aromatic and wonderfully mild stuff that made brands like Balkan-Sobranie, Turkish Special, Ramses, etc., the classics they were. It boils down to this. The two locations where this incredible delicacy comes from are the Izmir Province of Turkey and the Yenidje Province of Greece (Macedonia). They are geographically separated by the Aegean Sea but lie at precisely the same latitude. Soil conditions, climate, humidity, whatever aside, the tobacco that comes from these two regions is unmatched in character. Every bit as good as any estate bottled 30 year old cabernet. This tobacco is, I guess, simply too expensive for most companies to use in their blends and as there are no "authentic" Turkish cigarettes left in the world, this tobacco has been sitting in storage for as much as 12 years. Even the oldest batch from 1993 was superb. There are three grades of tobacco of this sort, AG, BG, and KP in order of quality, AG being the best. Of course there are hundreds of strains of Turkish, some with names like Samsun, Basra etc., but none of them come close to this flavor. Anyway in the ten pound box was an assortment of the 3 grades, mostly AG as they wanted to impress us. At nearly $3 per pound in containers totaling 60,000 metric tons (that's a hell of a lot of tobacco - a metric ton being 2200 pounds) the deal was just too big for even the largest of potential buyers. We still are interested and are trying to get some entrepreneur to come up with the dough for at least part of the shipment in order to create a new and authentic Turkish cigarette. It does not look promising and unfortunately we can't just buy a few hundred pounds of this tobacco. They want to sell it all at once. Point is, I have my ten pounds and I will sip it like a fine wine for a number of years. We still hope to cause a deal to happen between a potential US manufacturer and this Turkish entity but the point of all this drooling for dollars is to show you what a small portion of this treasure looks like. Remember, what you are seeing is as rare as tobacco gets and as fine as anything ever produced. I hope you suffer along with me until this deal can come about. A Turkish cigarette made form this leaf would be an instant hit. Low nicotine content, very mild and an aroma that is indescribable. Here's the picture - Now you can drool. Also note that this true Turkish has very small leaves, only about 4 inches long. Magic!"



http://www.ryomagazine.com/tobacco.htm

Leon, your passion for tobacco is wonderful to see. I really enjoyed reading your post. I'm in total agreement as to how huge multinationals have had such a negative impact on the quality of many things including food, drink, tobacco, textiles etc. Everything has been "pasteurised" and "cheapened" in order to increase profit and screw everyone from growers to consumers.

It's great to see people waking up and demanding better quality produce free from manipulation, artificial additives and plain blandness. The "slow food movement", a resurgence in boutique small scale brewing /winemaking / cheesemaking using traditional methods is great to see. Fresh markets and(usually on the weekend)and stores offering free trade coffee / cocoa are another step in the right direction.

Leon, i think you and I are on the same wavelength.

I also wanted to ask you where exactly in Macedonia, Greece (near which city) is the Yenitje leaf grown? Macedonia is quite a large region, was wondering if you could pinpoint the exact area. And do you think it would be possible to buy some leaf direct from the growers? Kind of like a cellar door sale?

[Leon]

Cheers Byron.

I'm afraid I haven't a clue where precisely you can find the actual growers/plantations. If you're in the region or planning to visit there your best bet would be simply to ask around. I presume the actual area called Yenice (Yenidje) is where they are found, though it's possible there are plantations outside of there.

I also don't know what their policies on selling small amounts would be, but if you manage to find a place you could always just lie to them and say you are interested in bulk buying their product and would first like a sample...

Personally I think that's a hell of a lot of bother to have a good smoke. You're better off buying some of D&R's Ramback and Ramback Balkan for now. Adding a touch of any other hotter burning blend you might enjoy is a good idea to help the burning qualities and release the flavours better. Ramback Gold is a 60:40 blend of Turkish and a very smooth flue-cured Virginia blend. This is good as it's blended in special machines so it's always evenly distributed, but I personally prefer more Turkish. These tobaccos burn so cool that there is no feel at all on inhaling, so if you blend in some hotter burning leaf it releases the Turkish/Balkan tobaccos flavour even more and also helps keep the cigarette burning nice and evenly. The pleasure of making your own, other than the sheer natural flavour, is that you can play around with the blends as much as you like to find your own personal favourite(s).

Also keep an eye on this Balkan Prospect stuff, it looks promising. Hopefully it will be even better than D&R's offering which may spark further competition for quality. Though D&R are already fanatical about quality as it is and their Ramback is delicious.

Edited by Leon, 30 March 2008 - 06:43 PM.

[Leon]

This is the best I could come up with Byron:



http://www.socotab.c...ml/regions.html

[Byron]

This is the best I could come up with Byron:



http://www.socotab.c...ml/regions.html

Thanks Leon. I know there are different laws in every country, but have you ever thought of growing your own tobacco? And then is it a matter of just drying the leaves and smoking them?

[Leon]

Thanks Leon. I know there are different laws in every country, but have you ever thought of growing your own tobacco? And then is it a matter of just drying the leaves and smoking them?

No, growing good tobacco needs a lot of time and attention as well as a very specific climate. The reason these special strains of Oriental tobacco are so good is the specific climate they are grown in, including the soil, and the same goes for tobacco grown for cigars in special "vegas finas" in Cuba. People try, especially even in neighbouring islands to Cuba, for example, to grow cigars to match Havanas using Cuban seed etc and it never works. You can get some very nice cigars from the Dominican Rep. and Honduras, for example, but they are never as superb as a good, well aged Havana.

The process for growing, harvesting, curing and maturing the leaves before processing them into whatever kind of cut or roll you want for smoking takes a very long time and a lot of expertise and equipment as well as, again, the perfect conditions. For good cigars this process is even more mind blowingly arduous and specıalısed.

I'll leave it to the professionals in the right countries.

Edited by Leon, 01 April 2008 - 07:13 AM.

[Leon]

REVISED BLEND

I have further altered the blend as I stupidly didn't account for just how much virginia was going into it. Ramback Balkan contains around 40-50% Balkan grown sun-cured virginia leaf along with fine quality Yenidje and Basma tobaccos. I removed the Ramback Gold which is a Turkish/Virginia blend and found the following blend to seem far more accurate from what I have read about the old Morland Specials:

50% Ramback Balkan
40% Ramback Turkish
10% halfzware

For the halfzware component I have discovered better than Gauloises - Charles Fairmorn dark fired shag. It has a rougher cut which works better for stuffing, is a tad smoother and is more readily available in the US.

The Balkan Virginia in the RB blend along with the seasoning of halfzware provide plenty of hotter burning leaf to release the full flavour of the pure high-grade Turkish.

This revised blend is a little more refined and is absolutely superb. This is, of course, only a guideline for what technically should be closest. It can always be tweaked to personal taste.

I can't see getting much closer to the Morlands than this unless an even better pure Turkish tobacco blend is created and put on the market. Balkan Prospect LLC seems to be having trouble getting of the ground, a real shame, and I am hoping it's goin to work out as they are offering the highest grades of Yenidje and Izmir, pure Turkish/Balkan tobaccos.

The Ramback tobaccos are finest quality of course, but I'll always be on the lookout for new additions to the slowly reviving world of proper Turkish tobaccos in the hope of finding ones even more delicious and playing around with blending various forms of pure Turkish and Balkan.

[Kilroy6644]

A fascinating read. I've often thought about rolling my own, but everybody I know who smokes already has their particular brand, and I don't smoke (this is why I never got a hookah), so I'd just have a case of cigarettes that went unsmoked. Not much point to that. But I do love it when afficionados expound on their interests. You can almost taste the enthusiasm, and when done well (as you have done, Leon), my lack of knowledge is completely irrelevant. I was sucked right in.

[Leon]

Cheers. The make your own (MYO) world has been much ovrlooked for a very long time, but is vastly superior to rolling your own which I hate. This 1930's model cigarette stuffing machine is pretty much the same design as you get today:



There are models even older but still the same idea. The new EXP1000 is what I use as it's much smaller than any other crank injector but is amazingly robust and makes the same professional quality cigarettes (often much easier) than the best big crank injectors. The EXP along with some other stuffing machines are reviewed in this link below. The first link is a video of the machine being used for those interested as well as those simply curious as to how it works! It's extremely simple in fact:

http://www.andromeda...es/expshort.wmv

http://www.ryomagazi...m/injectors.htm

[Leon]

I also wanted to ask you where exactly in Macedonia, Greece (near which city) is the Yenitje leaf grown? Macedonia is quite a large region, was wondering if you could pinpoint the exact area.

I've recently found this which should help you.



http://www.pipeshowo...-Orientals.aspx