Casbah

Casbah is a Balkan-style blend combining red and light Virginia leaves with plenty of small-leaf oriental tobacco and Cyprus latakia. The mixture is pressed into a block and cut into pieces, giving the smoker the option to rub out or slice the leaf before packing the pipe. On the taste line, Virginia's tart sweetness, the orientals' creamy, round texture, and latakia's woody smoke coming from behind all sit side by side.

The blend is part of a line reorganized from Drucquer & Sons' old recipes; per records, the line's current form is produced at Cornell & Diehl through Gregory Pease's work. The brand's origin traces to a tobacconist tradition founded in 1841, with production now taking place in the United States. It suits smokers used to preparing block tobacco who want a latakia- and oriental-forward mixture with above-medium fullness in nicotine.