Nothing special (and not enough Perique for my taste) but it doesn't wholly disappoint either.

While I enjoy Perique in more substantial quantities than most...too much can be "heady" and loose appeal quickly. The quality of the Virginia must also be considered. This tobacco has both high quality tobaccos and is blended nicely.

Taste and aroma throughout the bowl are superior and consistency appears to be well above average.

Enjoyed in a group 5-6 size pipe and could well serve as an all-day smoke...

...a pipe is to be savored...

As mentioned in other reviews, more of a ribbon than broken flake.

Edit: this really improves a lot as it 'opens up' in the tin. Highly recommended for a mild smoke

What I mean is that the perique is present in the right proportion: you taste it well but it doesn't take over the VAs. The perique and VAs alternate and bring a nice, spicy smoking experience.

It is well worth the try.

This blend had the usual shag difficulty in loading and I had to be careful not to over-or-underload. Once ignited, it burned with ease and produced no tongue maligning steam. The flavor, however, was dumbed down to the point that it never elevated itself beyond "OK". The perique was barely noticeable in the taste and the virginias seemed vapid and ill-conceived, although not unpleasant. Weird description, I know. This is a smooth, congenial blend with a very light sweetness, but is simply too light in flavor. Down the bowl, the mild perique spice simply becomes lost in a sea non-descript warm air. This blend exhibits no major flaws but there is little to recommend it unless the smoker happens to enjoy a very mellow, unobtrusive taste that calls no attention to itself.

I broke the seal as soon as the tin was in my hand and drank deeply from a delicious tin aroma of sour fruit, fresh earth and damp hay. I had heard that it was best to let this blend mature before smoking and so I waited about 2 weeks before setting a match to any, but I returned to take deep and satisfying pulls of the tin aroma almost hourly.

I selected a new clay pipe for first tasting, so as to give me a clear picture of what I was sure was to be the smoke of my dreams. Almost trembling with excitement and salivating with a hunger to experience the wonders which lay before me, I pulled a small wad from the tightly packed tin and filled my bowl. It packed well but was still perhaps a tad damp and so, like a practitioner of the tantric arts, I made myself wait until the time was right. After being aired for about an hour the blend, which by now I was abolutely certain was gifted directly to me by my divine and loving creator, had reached optimum humidity. I put the pipe in my mouth and stepped outside to experience the unmitigated beauty of the snow topped English countryside and, finally, I lit my first bowlful of Germain's Royal Jersey Perique Mixture. Ten minutes later I was emptying the pipe before tramping back inside to sit sullenly in my chair for the rest of the night.

If you're still reading this now, firstly, well done, but I imagine you will be wondering "what could possibly have happened to spoil such a promisingly passionate love affair" (or words to that effect). Well, it's not that it was bad tobacco, it's just that all the nuance and character of the tin aroma was absent from the smoke. Replaced by an experience that was undeniably like smoking a cigarette. A very good quality, smooth cigarette but a cigarette, none the less. This was vastly disapointing.

And now you are wandering why, if I was so underwhelmed by it, did I give it a "recommended"? Well,a couple of weeks later I decided to give it another chance. It had hurt me, sure. But that tin aroma would still excite and entice me and I desperately wanted it to be the tobacco I had built it up to be.

I realise, of course, that I have totally lost all sense of perspective in this narrative and that this is just a tobacco, not a lover or mankind's last, best hope for the future.

The second sampling was a great improvement over the first. The cigarette flavour had all but gone, giving way to a crisp dryness and pepper held together with a very light sweetness that never got cloying or wearing. An excellent tobacco. Although possibly not best suited to wintery weather. I look forward to sitting under a tree on a bright spring, hazy summer or colourful early autumn day and contentedly puffing this in a corn cob. If that sounds like your thing then I recommend you give it a go, with the proviso that you open the tin about a month before you smoke any. You'll have fun teasing your senses with the heavenly tin fragrance.

As a slight aside, I have experimented by mixing it with a pinch of Samuel Gawith's Black Cherry and found them to compliment each other very well the latter bringing out some of the sour fruit notes of the perique blend and giving more depth to the sweetness.

My rate: 3.0

From the tin, it has a heavier aroma but also has a "fruitiness" to it. This fruit component is one aspect that initially turned me off but is lost once lit in the bowl. As it aged, it lost most of the fruity aroma and picked up the "tea" aroma I've noticed in other blends.

I found this to be a fairly robust blend in the pipe and appears to be fairly bland. I didn't find much else coming through other than just a heavy, peppery smoke. I would also say it's not an all day blend. For me, it left me a bit light-headed due to the nicotine content.

This, like Roayl Jersey Latakia, is borderline two or three rating but gains a two because I just can't really find anything that intrigues me or would cause me to purchase it again. Like RJL, I feel this is a good quality tobacco, as I believe all of the Germain offerings are, but it's just not for me.

At any rate, this doesn't look like your garden variety VA when you open the tin. The tobacco almost has a resemblance to Drum cigarette tobacco, a notch or two brighter in appearance.

A whiff of the tobacco (after opening the tin) is indeed grassy and a bit sour.

I took a pinch of tobacco, cut it up with scissors into manageable pieces and let the tobacco dry out on a plate for 15 minutes until the tobacco no longer clumps together when pinched.

Was I surprised by the smoke? Very balanced, matured VA flavor with the perique in the background; not the peppery presence but a muted sourness, quite masterfully blended I must say. The VA in this blend is high quality, aged leaf. No doubt about it, very smooth on the edges.

If you're looking for PUNCH then this is a middlin' strength blend but the flavor is rather unique in the VA/PER line. A replacement for Elizibethan? No, not enough OOMPH but definitely a keeper in the V/P arena and quite unique in flavor. Again, the Perique isn't up front and really dances in the background.

Finishes well, dry pipe and very little dottle. Cool with no bite when dried and packed correctly. Highly recommended.

06.03.2007. first, a warning: i give it my highest reccomendation, NOT based on my finding it immediatly appealing, but on the fact that it's first class tobacco.

second, i'm almost certain that rjp contains cigar leaf or something very similar to it. this does not come through in the tin aroma which is very perique'ish in its sour-pungent notes, but once you taste the smoke it's evident. the same goes for the room note. my wife normally likes the room note of most of my tobaccos, but this one had her protesting against the cigar smell!

"flue cured", the above description says, but there's certainly something air cured in it, and almost no taste of flue cured virginia. a very slight sweetness akin to orientals, and the sourish perique (though without the plum notes), combined with the mustiness of the "cigar leaf" makes for a tobacco that is indeed very far from the archetypical va-per, escudo.

not a tobacco that i find very usefull on a daily basis, but as a palate cleanser it may work very well for me. nothing at all wrong with the quality.

Good mouthfeel, good burn, great sensory satisfaction. I really liked this one- progresses very well through the bowl. I could smoke this all the time but my tastes are too diverse to stick with it. I would certainly keep a tin of this in the cellar for the future...

In Pease?s tin notes for ?Stratford? he describes the blend as a mixture of ?sugar and spice,? yet after smoking a 1.5 oz sample, I found the Perique imperceptible. His description fits RJP far more aptly. The Perique is again about 5%, clearly discernible, and the Virginias are sweet, with a commanding yet not intense full-body, such as are found in Wessex Dark Flake. This blend tastes has the signature Virginia/Perique flavor profile of sweetness and spice. The Virginias are of such superior quality that I feel I could smoke them quite enjoyably without the Perique; with it they find their perfect compliment.

LF is the clear winner of the two blends, the flavor, although monochromatic, more savory. Still RJP is a winner in its own right, one of the best Viriginia/Periques I?ve ever smoked.

As an aside, both tobaccos are what I would term ?traditional Virginia/Periques,? although LF less so than RJP; i.e. both have clear taste demarcations between the Virginias and Perique. In comparison Escudo and Three Nuns Version, second version, I would term ?non-traditional? Virginia/Periques in that the Perique is so well melded to the Virginias in the blend that separating one from the other is more difficult.

It's a bit wet in the tin: this, together with the long strings of the cut (it's NOT a Broken Flake!), might lead to overpacking and airhole clogging, so either dry it a bit or pack loosely.

The taste is smooth, sourish, grassy, but also fruity sweet. Delicate and tasty at the same time.

It burns quite fast due to the fine cut, leaving a clear ash.

Perhaps not memorable, but one of the best balanced Va/Perique tobaccos out there.

My main beef with this blend is the cut. It may say "broken flake" in the notes above, but it is really a fine ribbon cut with some long ribbons. This makes for a messy loading experience in situations, like driving, where full attention cannot be given to the task at hand. The smoke is worth the hassle however.

RJP burns cool for a virginia blend, especially one so finely cut. I have yet to be bitten by it, and find that it could be a fine all-day smoke, if one was into smoking the same blend all day long. (Similar to Two Friends Redwoood that way, only RJP is fruitier.) Even the finish is relatively mild unlike many Va/Ps that get pretty "periqueish" at the end. RJP also does well with DGT, and I often come back to a partially smoked bowl to resume just where I left off.

I still prefer a well-aged 2015 for its strength, but RJP on my short list of Va/P blends, and I often turn to it for a change of pace.

The Virginia is bright, light and airy. The Perique remains quietly in the background and the Cavendish produces a unique, aromatic taste that compliments the Virginia & Perique without being overbearing.

This one will never make my starting line-up, but should get some playing time on very rare occasions.