Named for Syria’s ancient seaport, latakia tobacco derives its flavour from weeks over smoky wood fires. Local deforestation supposedly slowed or stopped production in the 1980s, and Western pipe-tobacco blenders are using up their dwindling stores warehoused since the 1970s. The Syrian civil war makes its return even less likely, while Cypriot latakia is sweet and more floral, a poor substitute for the Syrian product that has been a beloved ingredient in English-style tobacco back into the 19th Century and maybe earlier. Is/was Syrian latakia ever used in snuff? Would our snuffology professors please comment?

My father told me old men from my village in Syria used snuff, and carried it in metallic snuff boxes. Not sure what kind of tobacco their snuff was made of, but if I was to guess, it would have been Syrian tobacco.

I Think we should pass this suggestion to @johnny who knows how to handle this.

I think Old Mill’s Old English Toast is made with that type of tobacco. I’m not sure. But, I had a tin of Wilsons Cyprus snuff, it was very old, no warnings on it, looked to be from the 1960s or 70s, and it was for sure Cyprian latakia. It was very smokey and unique. The OM snuff I mentioned has the same scent. So, I would assume they are the same. You may want to contact Chef Daniel and ask him about it. He’s very good with explaining the types of tobacco he uses in his snuffs.

As we started Prof. Phillips Griffith R.I.P sampled our Latakia Ao. 1860. He replied it resembled the Latakia of Samuel Gawith. The only other mention of Latakia as snuff tobacco I found was in the publication All About SNUFF And Snuff Taking published by The Society of Snuff Grinders, Blenders and Puveyors. They mentioned two producers Smith the Snuff Blender Ltd, their Latakia was characterised as a medium type Dark Brown with a fine texture and smokey Latakia flavour. The other one was Wilsons & Co. (Sharrow) their Latakia was a Slightly moist type of Dark colour with a coarse texture and a plain flavour. No mention however of the origin of the tobacco. I also got some samples of the Cypriotic Latakia. Black, nearly scorced with such a heavy smokey flavour, that most of visitors I presented it disliked it. Jaap Bes.

@mrmanos The Latakia I use is Cyprian crop year 1997. I haven’t seen Syrian Latakia since Craig Tarler (Cornell and Diehl) had a warehouse fire several years ago. Greg Pease had to discontinue several pipe blends after that. Latakia can be a beast. What makes it wonderful burning in a briar is what makes it nasty in a snuff…the drip is horrid. Toasting it gently is the only way I’ve found to tame that situation, making sure there are enough Virginia varieties in there to lend their natural sweetness. Any more than 5% Latakia in the tobacco bill is pushing it. I think the difference between Latakia and other fire cured leaf is the choice of woods. Latakia uses softer woods with more sap…hence the bitter character. Other dark fired uses hardwoods like oak, hickory, pecan, etc. and are lower in that tar like scent.

We have got some really knowledgeable folks here. I learn something worth knowing almost every time I log on. @snuffmiller and @chefdaniel -thanks for sharing your knowledge with us!

I have a Paul Gotard Latakia, but I really don’t know if there is cyprian or syrian latakia in it. Or nothing latakia at all…

I have a Paul Gotard Latakia

angelo82 - bless your cotton socks! you found one! please tell us what it’s like! the blurb on Mr Snuff says smoky, and there’s your Latakia, but please do a review for us and them. I’ll órder some and try it in six weeks when i return from travels. my guess is it’s cypriot because so few companies seem to have access to the even smokier and more highly praised syrian. but hey, the Poles can work magic! they might have tunneled into some forgotten Latakia mine deep beneath Aleppo.

Ah! De Kralingse have a Latakia as well! Reviewers on Mr Snuff keep mentioning scotch whiskey, wood fires, all the right words. I gather that few if any are pipe-smokers, so i shall have to try some pronto.

There are other fire cured tobaccos “out there” that are a far cry from Latakia. Caveat Emptor. I’ve had fire cured from Africa, Brazil, Tennessee, Kentucky and Indonesia. Smoky? Yes. Latakia? NO! These others lack a certain resinous scent that seems to come only from smoke curing Oriental/Turkish leaf over softer wood smoke. Rumor had/has it that one of the secrets to Syrian Latakia was that the base of the fires was dried camel dung. I can’t verify that rumor. I do know that the early pioneers in North America used buffalo chips (dried buffalo shit) as fuel as well as an ingredient in adobe as a building material; brings a whole new meaning to the term “shit house”, eh?

Rumor had/has it that one of the secrets to Syrian Latakia was that the base of the fires was dried camel dung. I can’t verify that rumor.

Aha! That must be the awful taste I get in my mouth when I smoke latakia.

@smasty: I don’t know if I can make a review. English isn’t my first language and I’m not so good to write a long post like a good review must be. Anyway the Paul Gotard Latakia is woody and smoky for sure Yes, De Kralinsge has a Latakia (which I prefer) that is also smoky, woody and complex snuff but is not a latakia, is virginia and kentucky!

angelo82, even the strongest latakia pipe tobacco is mostly virginia! chef daniel - yes, just as hundreds of millions in south asia burn dried cowpats for the smokeless, odorless fire. this is partly why cows are sacred there. and (maybe) when the US settlers were short of fuel they’d stand behind a beast and sing “Buffalo chips, won’t you come out tonight…” Synjeco’s in Switzerland sells the highest percentage latakia pipe tobacco (a whopping 50 per cent), under the name ‘Elephant Dung’ (not camel). They must have an odd marketing manager.

even the strongest latakia pipe tobacco is mostly virginia!

Are you sure? I’ve always known that Latakia is a type of Oriental. If you mean that even the strongest latakia pipe mixture is mostly virginia I’m ok with you. But in De Kralinsge there isn’t latakia at all!

@angelo82 - You’re correct that Latakia is broadly described as ‘Oriental’ tobacco, but that’s a bit of an umbrella term for several different small leaf tobacco strains from that geographical area (i.e. Balkan, Latakia and Turkish are all ‘Oriental’ leaves). The flavour/scent is almost entirely down to the processing of the leaves; and what fuel is used locally for the fire that generates the smoke used. As @chefdaniel comments in the thread there are lots of fire cured tobaccos that have that characteristic ‘smoky’ flavour/scent, but these are not termed as Latakia due to there different geographical origin. I personally am completely happy with the Cypriot Latakia sweet and floral smokiness is good for me!

even the strongest latakia pipe tobacco is mostly virginia!

But in De Kralinsge there isn’t latakia at all!

Sir, go to the Mr Snuff website, click on De Kranlingse, and there is a whole section entitled Latakia.

even the strongest latakia pipe tobacco is mostly virginia!

But in De Kralinsge there isn’t latakia at all!

Sir, go to the Mr Snuff website, click on De Kranlingse, and there is a whole section entitled Latakia.

I thought so myself, but Jaap confirmed that they do not contain actual latakia.

Some of this confusion might be a “brand identity” issue. All colas are not “Coke”. All tissues aren’t “Kleenex” and all photocopiers aren’t “Xerox”. But those terms, along with Band Aid, etc have found their way into the common vocabulary. Perhaps at some point in the long forgotten past all smoky tobaccos picked up the label/identity of “Latakia”? Or, I could be full of crap.

@chefdaniel - You might be onto something there you know, maybe rather than a specific term, is it generally taken to mean just that; smoky…

I think Old Mill’s Old English Toast is made with that type of tobacco. I’m not sure. But, I had a tin of Wilsons Cyprus snuff, it was very old, no warnings on it, looked to be from the 1960s or 70s, and it was for sure Cyprian latakia. It was very smokey and unique. The OM snuff I mentioned has the same scent. So, I would assume they are the same. You may want to contact Chef Daniel and ask him about it. He’s very good with explaining the types of tobacco he uses in his snuffs.

Your tin of Cyprus must be very old. It was introduced by Sharrow’s Mark Chaytor as one of the Grand Sharrow range in celebration of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977 – and was considerably more expensive than standard. Like their Grimstone’s Eye Snuff it hasn’t been available for a very long time.

@smasty I can’t be sure, but SG Scotch Black has a scent that strongly resembles the Latakia present in a few of the better English (pipe) blends I’ve smoked. Also, as @chefdaniel mentioned, the backdrip is unpleasant. So much so, on fact, that I’m weighing adding it to the trade/sell list I have up in the Bazaar.

@PhillipS: I bought the little tin from a man in England, on eBay, about 4 years ago. It was unopened and in need of hydration. After placing a bit of carrot in it, it was a very, very nice snuff. I had never had Latakia before, and used it sparingly to enjoy it for a longer time. When I sampled the Old Mill Old English Toast, I instantly recognized the scent of Latakia. And as Chef D. pointed out, that is what he used in making his snuff. The Wilson’s was great however, and I’m glad I had the chance to try it. Thanks for the historical note.

I wonder more. The pipe tobacco experts say that Syrian Latakia (apparently quite different in taste than Cypriot Latakia which uses a different wood, since Latakia defines the smoking process) was last produced more than a generation ago, 1970s by most accounts. De Kralingse’s website says they use Kentucky and Virginias instead, presumably smoked by them or someone else. It works for me, viz my beloved, mildly smoky de Kralingse Chococreme snuff. An Italian friend, expert in antique tobaccos, is finding me evidence of what he says is a little-known Indonesian Latakia which many pipe tobacco makers suppposedly use instead. Mr Pease writes that he stopped using proper Latakias some years back and will not, presumably until Syrian Latakia’s return.

Mac Barens’, the world’s biggest pipe tobacco firm, has been family-owned since the late 19th C in Denmark, and supposedly has the largest stock of Syrian Latakia left. But its strong-selling HH Syrian Latakia contains 45% Syrian Latakia. How much could they possibly still have in stock? They seem like typically responsible and honest Scandinavians, so I doubt there is fiddling with definitions, but shifting what sounds like a lot of Syrian Latakia over decades sounds implausible - even though in the 1970s I once smoked a pre-Castro Havana cigar so it all stores well. It may be that some, like de Kralingse, are transparent about their tasty replica, while others are bending the truth a little. I will also initiate a few enquiries in northwestern Syria although they seem preoccupied with a war there. Meanwhile, all insights are welcome.

@Smasty - Interesting point, I did actually buy a tin of the Mac Barens Vintage Syrian Latakia blend off the back of this thread; I’ve never seen it posted in the ‘What’s in your pipe’ thread here though   :-/ I haven’t opened my tin of this yet, and I know that @perique also has some of this in the cellar that he hasn’t tried yet.

I think maybe something to consider here is that Latakia, although used in the formation of some blends, is not uniformly loved by pipe smokers, there are plenty of folks that don’t have a fondness for it and avoid blends with it in; To my mind lovers of Latakia  seem to be a small minority, and those with a preference for a particular type of Latakia [surely?] even more so.  It seems unlikely that Mac Baren’s would continue to sell there Latakia blend as Syrian if it wasn’t (though I guess you never know - Orlik Golden Sliced and the perique &/or burley question still rages doesn’t it?). I doubt that the conflicts in this region have completely eradicated tobacco production there [though I have no firm knowledge of that; merely speculation] But war and occupation in Afghanistan didn’t stop them growing their beloved poppies did it?       

MisterPaul, thank you. I worked on Afghan anti-narcotic projects off and on for 25 years, so yes, enterprise tends to persist. The problem with Syrian Latakia as I understand it was (a) deforestation and (b) government attempts to curb it starting under Hafiz Assad and continuing under his son Bashir. While the Latakia region is nominally under government control, they probably have more pressing concerns than the illegal processing of tobacco. So we are alike in this regard and if the opportunity arises I’ll make enquiries. If it is still processed it won’t be much! Secondly, people with palates more advanced than mine say that Syrian and Cypriot Latakias are very different in taste, for the Cypriots burn different wood. So I suspect a substitute for Syrian rather than Cypriot, just as de Kranlingse admits to using. Gosh, we speak of wood-smoked tobacco, hardly as difficult to replicate as, say, a brain transplant! If it is/was some kind of pinewood that the Syrians use, probably many species would substitute adequately.

@smasty - I’m sure that you’ve probably seen this article but thought I’d post the link for completeness and further reference of other members.

Dutch Pipe Smoker article on Syrian Latakia or https://dutchpipesmoker.wordpress.com/2013/02/07/syrian-latakia/

@MisterPaul Thanks for an interesting article. That seems to answer the question about the MacBaren stock. I may have to get a few tins of the HH Vintage Syrian in the relatively near future!

@Chris - I’ve brought a few!!! McLintocks also do a Syrian blend too; though I’m not sure how good it is; I’ve heard that its cased, which kinda puts me off a little if I’m honest. Credit to @smasty to be fair, he started the ball rolling.