J. F. Germain & Son Plum Cake Mixture

To my taste this is the ideal "outdoor" blend. I generally smoke this in a small bowl pipe when I'm gardening or kayaking etc. and its ideal for that. Full taste, satisfying with an almost "peppery" note, you can taste the cavendish. Importantly, I found it to be a great burning tobacco as others have noted- stays lit very well and burns right down to fine ash. Its very lightly cased, you don't get a lot of sweetness once out of the tin, although as noted it does have an intriguing "nose" in the tin. If you are looking for a nice outdoor blend look no further

i found this a most unpleasant smoke . it looked like cigarette rolling tobacco ,was very wet and left a wet unpleasant residue at the bottom of the bowl.the taste was unremarkable bordering on the unpleasant . most disappointing .

My experience with this mixture dates back several years and most recently in smoking 100 gr. over the last few weeks.

In reading past reviews it reminds me of how the same tobacco I find pleasing...others find displeasing or not as worthy as I.

However, that being said, I do find this mixture most agreeable, "round" in taste, pleasing aroma and room note, and while I'd prefer it in plug form, it smokes well in almost any pipe. Not a strong tobacco, so morning through afternoon for me.

I have never seen any flakes(broken or otherwise) in this tobacco, rather thin ribbon almost shag cut. For me, I smoke this in a group 5 and larger pipe and have had little issue with lighting and keeping it lit.

Not a go-to for me but one I will keep available in rotation.

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

Just like some of the other reviewers here I find the flavour of Germain's Plum Cake slighty difficult to categorise. Vanilla, fennel and licorace with some sweet damp hay? I don't know, but it's very sparingly applied and actually quite pleasant, to my palette at any rate.

The tobacco is very damp on opening the (wonderful looking) tin and so will bite like a violent psychopath in a straight jacket until given some airing time.

I found that it burns better when given a fairly firm packing into the bowl and you can then sit back and pretty much forget about it. Like Jakob Kiilerich, I found that the taste didn't really work with my usual liquid accompaniments and I've not yet settled on a fitting alternative. If this is the worst thing to say about the taste though, it's obviously not the end of the world.

The smoke is light and creamy but I found myself wanting more; more flavour, more nicotine, just more. So I had another bowl and another and another...

The flavour (of casing and tobacco) is so light that it never gets over bearing and the nicotine is so light that it never gets over powering.

I have to try to remain resolute when tempted to inhale though. Despite it's mild nature there is something about all flavoured tobacco that I find to be very irratating to the much abused haggis casings I use for lungs.

UPDATE...

I found that this worked particularly well in summer as it is a lighter tobacco but one with an unusally interesting flavour which never gets repetative, for me at least.

I found the pleasant looking tin to be the best thing about this blend. It is nothing like Mac Baren's Plumcake (which I enjoy once a year or so)..... This mixture is a little wet out of the tinand took awhile to dry out before loading into my pipe. I liked the fermented fruit type smell coming out of the tin and the rich ripe Virginia flavor, added with the casing, that one tastes immediately at the match.

Germain is a terrific blender and this Plum Cake is another hit.

I thought I'd venture into some of the Germain line after being very impressed with the Smoker's Haven line of English mixtures (similar to Esoterica). I suppose the base leaf here is good quality but the aromatic additive is not to my taste at all. Actually, I was immediately repulsed by the flavor. Something like anise and rotten fruit combined, which is, oddly, kind of interesting in the tin but not under the match.

I can't reccomend this but of course taste is subjective. Not a thing like the MB blend of the same name, though the tin aroma may be vaguely similar.

This is another hit in the Germain line, but a lightly aromatic one( I normally don't like many aromatics except for some lightly scented flakes or some old Edwards blends, etc.), but this is nice. Not hot or wet or anything like that.

Now it has a viriginia base so it should be packed in layers (with the top most firm), tamped occasionally during smoking, and puffed slowly, or it could bite some. We don't want that. But with proper packing and puffing technique, it is fairly cool and a delightful light virginia aromatic. I've smoked it indoors and outside in a large Bjarne bulldog. It's not really wet at all for an aromatic with a pressed cake for its formation. It's really quite dry smoking for a sweet blend.

I would call this a light Three Star Blue or a one-half or less CAO Blue Note in flavor. I can't tell what's in it, but is seems like a light grape or wine essence to me. I haven't tried MacBarens blend of the same name, but from the write-ups in these reviews, this blend must be cooler and lighter than MACs.

Now G's Plum Cake has not a lot of flavor, and it is lighter but sweeter with their Royal Jersey Perique for instance. (It's lighter and sweeter than Edward's cool Brandywine blend too.) I'd recommend this Germain blend for a light aromatic change of pace for natural smokers or as a mild dessert blend. It is probably not rich enough for a true aromatic smoker, but even for them it could be a change of pace into something a little more to the natural side yet sweet.

A very nice aro that's a little unique. As far as natural flavors, the Virginias take the initial lead and then give way to the Black Cav and the "nor cavendish". I can't describe the "nor cavendish" flavor as I've never tasted anything quite like it. It's very mild in flavor, but what I can taste of it I like. The topping is pretty much the star here and I get mostly plum and licorice. The combo is very pleasant. Overall a nice tasting blend that smokes smooth and burns fairly cool.

Medium in body. Mild to medium in taste and flavoring. Burns very well.

Been looking forward to trying this blend for some time and then finally it came up in my rotation.

Perhaps reading the reviews BEFORE buying it didn't help, as it gave this tin much to live up to.

Well, the first thing is it isn't plum and it's not a cake either. Tin opening gave me a very pleasant aroma. The tobacco is in a 'cake' yes, I suppose, but then to get at it you have to dig in. When you do the tobacco kind of unravels, into very soft tendrils, very slightly moist, somewhat reminiscent of Robert Lewis' blends so the immediate reaction is to break it up a little more and pack very lightly.

It went dry very very quickly as I left it in the tin on the side to dry out a bit, but this was almost too dry, so it had to be smoked everyday. And sure, it would make a good all day smoke, but alas, I couldn't detect any taste at all.

I could find nothing even hinting at taste and I wondered if it had dried out somehow too much before opening or I had a bad batch. It certainly didn't seem to match any of the descriptions or reviews I've read.

It's not narsty and it's not awful. It doesn't ghost your pipes and is an easy smoke with few relights (probably because it's was so dry) smoking down to a fine cigarette-like ash.

I have now gone right through the entire 50g tin and to honest I am disappointed. My ability to taste tobacco is at fault, I am aware of that, but this had no taste at all. The note left behind indicated some git had been smoking tobacco, but it could have been anything, so generic was the smell.

Weirdly, this hasn't poisoned me against any other Germain's blends. Indeed the only other one of their mixtures I had tried was Uncle Tom's. And guess what. That was tasteless too.

I've given this one 'somewhat recommended' because taking my tasting impotence into account doesn't mean to say other smokers might get something out of it that I couldn't. Besides which it's Sunday Mrs RW is cooking a fine roast dinner and Spurs scored 6 at home in the cup, so I'm a good mood.