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Recently discussed in a couple of threads here, such as what actually qualifies as an aromatic or Balkan, etc., as I have often said I find the lack of standardized nomenclature can be a bit frustrating when discussing blends.
I read this earlier and I thought I would post it, because it does address this issue. While there is, I believe, a lot left purposely obfuscated in it, obviously it was generated by a company for its customers, but still covers enough to be a good read. I would love to see more discussion on these topics, especially for the benefit of newer smokers who often have a more difficult than necessary time understanding tobacco’s and what to expect than necessary because of confusion about what all of the terminology thrown around means.
Very interesting.
Right or wrong, in every day terms, I think of it like this:
Aromatic - a blend with notable non tobacco smell and taste. This includes scented flakes all the way to goopy PG heavy blends. It doesn't include most casing done during curing or very slightly enhanced blends like the cited PS Luxury Navy Flake.
English - A blend containing Latikia and VA as it's primary components.
Balkan : An English bend that prominently features orientals.
American English : An English blend that contains Burley perhaps in place of VA.
American : Burley, VA, and Oriental.
Scottish : I have no freaking clue.
And even as I write this I can cite contradictions to my classifications. But in general this is how I use the terms.
I'd love to hear different ideas or debates.
Here's a question.... What the hell is MacBaren Scottish mixture? 😂
I think you hit the nail on the head when you say...."it's primary components". Not only that but I think it should be viewed in terms of primary FLAVOUR components.
The vapers have more virginia but I think for most people it's the perique that dominates the experience so you have to give a nod to that in the definition.
In terms of the English, if it has a predominance of latakia then call it an english. If it's just a sprinkling of latakia you don't include it in the definition because something else has taken that role.
Traditionally, the person who invents or creates something is the one who names it and if it’s not copyrighted, it often gets adopted and applied to other things to capitalize on someone else’s marketing budget.
I have yet to see any authoritative references to when these terms were first used, probably lost to time in many cases. At some point, an “English” tobacco meant tobacco from England (arguably it still does) but at some point it became a specific blend. I’ve read the oft repeated stories that Latakia was adopted in England due to the purity laws which limited flavorings that could be used, but there seems to be holes in that story. But at some point, someone made a blend and called it an “English Blend”. Was it even an Englishman who did that I wonder 🙂.
It's also funny to me that the purity laws allowed things like rose and geranium because they are "natural". Don't get me wrong, I'm glad they did. But it seems almost contradictory.
Aromatic-
I have read, and have ads for tobacco during the 19th Century. I have seen many examples where the tobacco producers called their tobacco “Aromatic” based on the dictionary definition-
Having an aroma; fragrant or sweet-smelling. "aromatic herbs."
As a way of saying that their tobacco was high quality, had nothing to do with added flavors. Good tobacco was “aromatic”, it was fragrant, junk tobacco was no different than today, smells/tasted like cardboard.
This one morphed into the most vague of these terms used. I don’t really use the term “aromatic” without a following qualifier, like “an American style aromatic burley”, etc.
Nice topic, the article is great too!!
Interesting article. And cool title.
For what it's worth, I don't bother too much with classifications and "mentally combine" things like "Balkan" and "English" in my head to pretty much mean the same thing. I'm not saying that's right. It's just what I do.
In my mind, I separate them something like this:
English Blends - If you open the tin and get hit by the smell of a campfire, it's English.
VAPers - Everything that contains Virginias and Perique and only Virginias and Perique.
Virginias - Everything that contains only Virginias
Burleys - Everything that contains only Burley
Aromatics - Anything that smells/tastes like it's had something added to it that is not tobacco
Undefined/"it's own thing" - Everything that doesn't fit into any of the above categories or is a combination of them
Balkan, Scottish, Kentucky, American. I don't bother even trying to understand what these mean.
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