Yenice Tobacco (Yenidje)

Yenice tobacco is an Oriental leaf named after the town known in Ottoman times as Karasu Yenicesi. In Western languages it is written "Yenidje" or "Yenidze." The town survives today in Greece's Xanthi region under the name Genisea. The name's transfer to the leaf has more to do with where it was marketed than where it was grown: leaf gathered from surrounding villages changed hands at the Yenice market before being shipped to Europe.

Geography and Character

Yenice is not a botanical variety in its own right but a leaf type produced by a particular basin. In commercial classification it falls under the Basma branch of the Oriental tobacco family; the Xanthi leaf is generally regarded as a grade of Basma. Basma is a small-leaved, fine-textured group low in nicotine; after picking it is strung and sun-cured. In trade classification the Yenice name is tied to the small, fine-veined, oily leaves coming from the Yaka and Cebel branches of Xanthi. The nature of the soil, summer heat, and the leaf's small size are among the factors cited as giving Oriental leaves their characteristic aroma.

What built Yenice's reputation was that it added a sweet, resinous layer alongside the herbal, spicy note common to the family. Blenders' descriptions also attribute a creamy softness to the leaf; these descriptions rest on tasting language rather than a measurable standard. The epithet "queen of tobaccos," used in tobacco trade circles for the leaf, is also passed down as an old phrase; where it was first said is unknown.