Thanks for the Gift, WLT! - Looking for pipe tobacco clones

[JOE1977]

Got my order from WLT and am excited to get blending. Thanks to @FmGrowit the lil' extra gift of the tray, notepad, pen etc.. great quality leaf and gift!.

I am gonna try one of Bob's blends and then try a Peretti clone of Tashkent.

Does anyone have any "clone" recipes they would like to share? 965 is one of my faves from the big boys.

 

[tullius]

I took a stab at Dunhill MM 965 in this thread, under Vespers.

Like the original Dunhill blend, I'm not completely happy with it: to my taste, EMP and BB1938 are better blends. All the literature lists latakia, macedonia bright (whatever that is), and brown cavendish as components. Surely, there must be some virginias, and perhaps a little burley? All this has not stopped me from smoking many many bowls of 965.

Regretfully never tried any of the Peretti blends, would like to get my hands on some of their Yenidje. Wonder where they're getting it from

 

[deluxestogie]

The Balkan White was the closest I've come to Balkan Sobranie (White) Smoking Mixture. Smyrna Bright is a shot at Early Morning Pipe.

Bob

 

[JOE1977]

I took a stab at Dunhill MM 965 in this thread, under Vespers.

Like the original Dunhill blend, I'm not completely happy with it: to my taste, EMP and BB1938 are better blends. All the literature lists latakia, macedonia bright (whatever that is), and brown cavendish as components. Surely, there must be some virginias, and perhaps a little burley? All this has not stopped me from smoking many many bowls of 965.

Regretfully never tried any of the Peretti blends, would like to get my hands on some of their Yenidje. Wonder where they're getting it from

You should definitely try LJ Peretti. Tashkent list only Lat and Izmir. So, if that is true, I will just have to find the right portions.
Pride of Loch Lomond and 500 are two more awesome English blends of theirs.

If you fancy Burley, you really need to try 333 and BPC. Everything of thiers is incredible really.

 

[JOE1977]

Ill try giving those two a shot tomorrow after Mass. I have a few tins of Sobranie to compare. For some reason I have never tied EMP.

 

[tullius]

Apparently, we have similar pipe tobacco tastes. You gotta try EMP, it's one of my favorites. Haven't had the Peterson version yet to see if it's the same

The Balkan White was the closest I've come to Balkan Sobranie (White) Smoking Mixture. Smyrna Bright is a shot at Early Morning Pipe.

Bob, did you ever take a shot at formulating Balkan Sobranie 759? That was my absolute favorite commercial pipe tobacco, but sadly long gone due to the demise of the Yenidje supply

 

[deluxestogie]

Balkan Sobranie 759

I have a Balkan Sobranie 759 tin filled with neglected, banjo finger picks. I think the last time I smoked it was about 30 years ago, so I don't even recall the least bit about it. When I formulated the blending matrix (above), I was simply aiming at a series of English blends of progressively higher Latakia contribution. I was surprised, during my lengthy blend/test cycles that many of them reminded me of various blends of old. Burley Baby brought back memories of Baby's Bottom, which I haven't found since the 1970s. It still amuses me that the tiny progressive tweaks in the matrix could distinctively hit identifiable, recognizable memories of specific, commercial blends from 30 and 40 years ago.

I generally strive for a blend with zero tongue bite, whatever the ingredients. And I'm really inept at intentionally cloning a commercial blend. I just stumble into them sometimes.

Bob