Latakia (tobacco)

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Latakia tobacco (Arabic: تبغ اللاذقية) is a sun-dried and smoke-cured tobacco product. It originated in Syria and is named after its major port city of Latakia, though large production has permanently moved to Cyprus due to varying and compounding sociopolitical issues within Syrian borders. It is in the family of fire-cured tobaccos in which the leaves are dried(cured) over burning hard wood. What sets Latakia apart from other fire-cured tobaccos is the use of heavy volumes of smoke from both dried and live material from aromatic woods.

Latakia was potentially discovered by accident when a bumper crop resulted in surplus tobacco; the farmers stored the excess tobacco in the rafters of their home, which at the time was an effective way of preservation as the smoke from the open wood fires used for heat and light would slowly dry and cure food over time. This process of moderate temperature smoke curing is one of the defining factors of its complex aroma.^[1]

When Latakia is burned, it has a characteristic wood smoke aroma accompanied by floral sweet undertones. Latakia is traditionally found within pipe tobacco blends, although some avant-garde cigar and cigarette producers use it as well. The majority of pipe blends use Latakia as a condiment, a tobacco that does not represent the majority of the blend but is instead used to add complexity and to control its burn rate.^{[citation needed]}