J. F. Germain & Son King Charles Smoking Mixture

I get the Orientals in the lead with mostly wood and a lesser occasional note of butter. Has a mild spice as well. The Virginias offer a very mild sweetness with a hint of hay. The Lat is far in the background offering little more than a very mild smoky note. Not a bad smoke, but decidedly average. Nothing for me to get excited about.

Mild to medium in body and taste. No added flavorings. Burns very well.

Yeah, bought this tin, because I wanted to try some Germain tobaccos. I was pretty excited to get it, as it was my first Germain's blend (Not counting the Penzance and Stonehaven that others have allowed me to try, which are blended by Germain's) and I had really liked some of the Esoterica blends I have tried. Spoiler alert: It was awfully boring.

Don't get me wrong, I do like Englishes, but i don't smoke them every day. This was very light in the Latakia department. I like light Englishes, too (Dunhill Standard Mixture, Presbyterian Mixture, GLP's Piccadilly); this one just seemed really bland to me. It's definitely not bad, just far from great...

Well, maybe it just wasn't what I was expecting. Maybe it's someone's "Nirvana smoke." I was just kind of ambivalent towards it. Good Virginias are used, but maybe Germain's could use them in a more interesting mixture.

Mostly blonde in color and so ribbony in cut that it's almost a shag. Easy to load, stayed lit well. Nice balanced aroma in the tin, the latakia being the most pungent, obviously.

With this long out of stock blend, I was hoping for another jewel in the rough as I got with Germain's 1820. Not to be. The 1820 leaned on the orientals and this one was more generic tasting. It was fairly complex in the sense that each of the components led the proceedings at different times. When the oriental led at the beginning of the bowl, I got a nice sweet nut flavor, full of nuances. Unfortunately, the oriental receded way too quickly and the "balance" of this one was kind of a mush where nothing really asserted itself and the blend fell into murky territory. Each component was noticeable, yet the whole was lesser than the sum of its parts. I see references to EMP, but I think H&H Daybreak is a lot closer. This would be a light-medium English, I suppose. Some interesting subtleties but not enough spine to keep me interested. There are many latakia blends that I prefer. Worth a try, though, as many smokers seem to love it. I'll stick with the 1820.

Preface: I have been smoking Dunhill Standard Mixture Medium (SMM) for near-on 30 years, believing that it has no equal anywhere on earth. But it is gone now, and so I begin a quest for my Holy Grail: A substitute to replace the standard on which all English tobaccos are based:

King Charles is not SMM. But it's good in a different way.

Pipestud said of SMM: "If you want a smokey flavor lingering in your mouth for hours after you finish a bowl, grab a tin of this stuff."

Which is very accurate, and it is a taste in my mouth that I dearly love. But because of this, 3 times a day (after every meal, just like brushing...), (4 times with the rare Happy Hour celebration) is all my mouth can handle. But every once in a blue moon a situation will arise in life (usually stressful) where one has a sudden urge for a smoke (outside of meal times) as a calming & contemplative agent. But the thought of an in-between bowl of SMM always seemed a little overwhelming. So for a great many years I often dreamed of a clean crisp tobacco (but still interesting) to use on these rare occasions (probably with high nicotine content?).

Well, King Charles might be the answer. It is not in the least bit overwhelming. In fact, I couldn't even tell you why I like it. But I do. I find it delightful. Not boring, nor complex, not strong, nor mild. I suppose one could say it is a supremely unpretentious tobacco. And a good one. Perfectly moist, and burns quite well.

I smoked this for the first time two summers ago and the tin lasted until recently. It was an enjoyable English blend, but didn't warrant entrance to my regular rotation (that's why the tin lasted so long). There are better English blends available. I guess I was sucked in by the artwork on the tin (and I've enjoyed Penzance from the same brand, Esoterica Tobacciana) in a small tobacco shop in upstate NY on a beautiful summer day. Oh, I wasn't unhappy with my purchase; I've smoked better. Try it for yourselves. YOU might really like it.

I wish I'd have known about this blend in my earlier days of tobacco experience. It's not that I don't like it but instead find myself with other blends of similar composition with more character. To me it's not that the tobaccos clash or fail to support one another, but instead, as a blend are flat and unappealing to me. I've been working on a tin for some time now and most likely the mold will get to it before I finish. There are just too many other blends that use the same type tobaccos with far more to offer, for me to waste further time with this disappointment. Maybe with some additional latakia and turkish leaf....... I give it one and one half stars.

Meerschaum Man Smoking a bent textured Meerschaum

I know this blend has its fans, but I am not among them... In the tin it was quite moist (as often are Germain's products), and it had a smell which reminded of Dunhill Standard Mixture Mild but weaker, less pungent.

The taste is dull, grey, terribly unexciting, too. It burns very regular and with little flavor development: the Latakia doesn't make its presence very evident, and all the flavors are "drowned".

Try it, by all means, as some of my friends were more than happy to snatch the remaining tins at the local tobacconist and enjoyed them, but I have much better stuff to smoke...

2011 Update: After several years, I decided to give it another try. This time, it was not as moist as the previous two tins I had smoked some years ago: actually, it was almost perfect in humidity level for smoking right away. My impressions about the smoking experience are overall better, too: this time it has more taste and body, though I still feel that it's quite an unimpressive mixture. The Virginias have good quality, and it's not a wimpy smoke: especially in large bowls, their sweetness s comes out in the second half. Latakia still is very subdued, and alas I think it's a monochromatic (though pleasant) smoke. Once in a while, in some pipes, it seems to shine, but it's not so frequent. I think that Samuel Gawith has a much better (more complex, more pleasant, more fascinating) product than this one in the same style (EM light): Skiff Mixture.

While King Charles is not bad, with Skiff Mixture around I have not many reasons to buy it again.

I know this blend has its fans, but I am not among them... In the tin it was quite moist (as often are Germain's products), and it had a smell which reminded of Dunhill Standard Mixture Mild but weaker, less pungent.

The taste is dull, grey, terribly unexciting, too. It burns very regular and with little flavor development: the Latakia doesn't make its presence very evident, and all the flavors are "drowned".

Try it, by all means, as some of my friends were more than happy to snatch the remaining tins at the local tobacconist and enjoyed them, but I have much better stuff to smoke...

2011 Update: After several years, I decided to give it another try. This time, it was not as moist as the previous two tins I had smoked some years ago: actually, it was almost perfect in humidity level for smoking right away. My impressions about the smoking experience are overall better, too: this time it has more taste and body, though I still feel that it's quite an unimpressive mixture. The Virginias have good quality, and it's not a wimpy smoke: especially in large bowls, their sweetness s comes out in the second half. Latakia still is very subdued, and alas I think it's a monochromatic (though pleasant) smoke. Once in a while, in some pipes, it seems to shine, but it's not so frequent. I think that Samuel Gawith has a much better (more complex, more pleasant, more fascinating) product than this one in the same style (EM light): Skiff Mixture.

While King Charles is not bad, with Skiff Mixture around I have not many reasons to buy it again.

Germains- King Charles Smoking Mixture - it has been quite some time since I smoked a light English blend . Not sure why . The Virginias and Turkish lead the way . The Smokey Latakia always in the background. It offers a mild sweetness and grass and fruit ,then the Turkish comes in with woody earthy nut spice and savory tart . Buttery like good Smyrna leaf . Creamy mellow smoke that is quite smooth and tasty . I like the Oriental- Turkish in this blend . No detected flavoring but good honest tobacco . Well rounded . 3 1/2 since I can’t decide.