A Few Emails I Have Received From George Per Jesen

On the last forum I posted on a few other and I had some questions as to what the successor/replacement of HH Vintage Syrian was. Through research on the internet, we learned about HH Vintage Latakia. It was believed that this was to be the replacement. The HH Balkan Blends came up for sale on Smoking Pipes. That got us more confused. After much intense thought as to what the deal was with HH Balkan Blend and Vintage Latakia, I had the bright idea to just email Mac Baren for clarification. He told me to post them online for visibility, but the last forum I posted on wasn't indexed in any search engine so I thought it would be best to post it here also. What follows are the two emails I received.


"Dear REDACTED,



Thank you for asking directly, I appreciate your question. I know the is a lot of hear say on the different foras

concerning the HH Balkan Blend and HH Vintage Latakia and I am very happy that you give me the chance

to explain what is going on.



HH Balkan Blend and HH Vintage Latakia is one and the same blend. The reason for 2 different names is that

we had problems with the name HH Vintage Latakia in the US, so we changed the name to HH Balkan Blend.

So, the same tobacco you find under 2 different names. HH Balkan Blend is for the USA and for the rest of the

world it is called HH Balkan Blend. No magic there, just good old plain practical reasons. By the way we do the

same with the Mac Baren Golden Extra. This name is used only in the US, in the rest of the world it is called by

the name it was given in 1950ties - Golden Blend.



Concerning your question about if HH Balkan Blend is a replacement for HH Vintage Syrian the answer is a

load NO. It is not possible to create a blend close to the HH Vintage Syrian with no Latakia from Syrian. So,

HH Balkan Blend is a tobacco of its own, still a blend with Latakia tobacco (from Cyprus), but not close to

the HH Vintage Syrian. HH Balkan Blend is much more in the direction of a traditional english blend, something

HH Vintage Syrian was not.



When I developed HH Balkan Blend it was not my intention to create a replacement, I was my hope that the

blend would be smoked and judged by its own merits.



If it is not to much to ask I would prefer if you will publish this new information on the internet.



I hope this was answer to your questions.



Happy smoke

Per

"Hi REDACTED,



You asked for the composition of the HH Vintage Latakia. It is Virginia, Burley, Latakia (from Cyprus), a little Orient and Dark Fired

Kentucky made as a Cavendish.



Happy smoke

Per