J. F. Germain & Son Germain's Brown Flake

This is a great flake. My favorite Virginia flake in this category is Samuel Gawith's Best Brown Flake, however, being difficult to find, Germain's is a suitable replacement. (Unfortunately Germain's Brown Flake is difficult to find as well.) Not as moist as Sam Gawith's flakes, GBF burns quite nicely with just a little dry time. Sweet, spicy, with some cigarish qualities, this is a delicious tobacco to go with my evening coffee.

Soli Deo gloria.

This is an excellent unobtrusive tobacco. It comes in a small tin that is perfect to fit in your pocket. This is an unflavored tobacco that smokes well. I did not have to dry it out at all. I rubbed out 2 flakes out and filled my pipe. It burned dry and and cool. I did not need to relight my pipe. It burned very well. There was a mild malt/salty flavour. It leaves a very light grey ash. This is a good uncomplicated smoke. I highly recommend it.

Don't look for sweet toppings, flowers or fruits with this baccy. This is all good "Mans" smoke. The Burley is out front , strong and satisfying. I found it very similar to GL Pease's "JackKnife Plug", but it's a broken flake and it burns better than JKP. Sip this slow and you get a nice sweet high note of "bread flavor" with a strong base. I found you have to let it rest for a few months and PUT A BOWLS WORTH IN THE MICROWAVE FOR ABOUT 6 SECONDS TO DRY IT BEFORE LOADING THE PIPE. I'll keep this in stock. Oh, and in comes in a nice little pocket tin.

Updated 1/30/12 I found one problem with this blend,it has a strong ammonia scent wafting off the bowl as you smoke. I have noticed this with a number of tobaccos but most to a lesser degree.This is quite strong, it doesn't transfer to the taste but you don't want the wind to pass this to your nose , it's like getting hit with smelling salts! downgraded one star.

Updated 6/19/12- I sealed and cellared this tin for about 6 months and just unsealed it. All traces of ammonia scent are gone ? I believe this was a mold problem. This tobacco burns on the hot side due too the fine cut and gets "ashy", I have other choices in "Brown flakes that I would rather buy. This has a slight hint of snuff tobacco in it, makes it high in "N" but slightly harsh.

DK nailed it below when saying:

"The light sweetness did much to counterbalance the dark notes and added just the right touch to keep this one from being all bass - nice slight additional treble to the ensemble"

Someone called this "Stonehaven Light". I can get behind that. Very similar experience for me. The same "feel" as Stonehaven. A creaminess. Same ballpark in terms of flavor. But lighter. Not lighter in strength but lighter as in brighter in taste. The flue cured gives it that brighter high note DK pointed out.

I have been smoking this now for several months and it has become a centerpiece in my rotation of 5-6 blends and frequent wild cards.

If you like Stonehaven, some of the Dark and Brown flakes from the Gawiths or even something like good old Prince Albert, I'd highly recommend you give this one a shot. A premium flake that is readily available at a reasonable cost.

I received this as a gift and was a little apprehensive about smoking a flake. I had switched from cigars to pipes about a year ago, and have been smoking mostly house blends from Peretti and more recently 4noggins. After smoking this now three or four times in a churchwarden, I find it to be one of my treat smokes, usually when I want to relax and read a bit. It seems to have a nice, natural flavor that burns easily without bite or harshness and requires few re-lights. Compared to the burleys and english blends I have smoked, this feels like a more natural way to enjoy smoking.

This is a good everyday smoke if you like to smoke virginia flake tobaccos at first. It makes you an artist in fingertipping because it takes time to get a good amount of tobacco out of the tin to fill a good bowl. The strips fall apart once you try to get them out. I dislike to rub flakes out so I try to be patient 😉 Once lit properly there is no great effort to keep it going. I don´t use small or xlarge bowls for this tobacco. To me this tobacco is excellent in the middlesized pipes because it changes from a pleasant smoke into a heavy bouncer within the second half of the bowl. I think it is a good tobacco to start smoking flake tobaccos because Germain offers a tobacco of excellent quality of leaf and BF is pure va tobacco as well. I rate it one step below Full Virginia Flake and the Rattray line tobaccos. There is more body and taste in my benchmark tobaccos.

Tin aroma: Sweet aromatic Flue Cured Virginia and nothing else. Color: Chocolate brown with flecks of gold and a few sugar crystals.

Wet, well-packed flakes separate easily and rub out instantly. After a twenty minute dry, packing a pipe loosely is best. A couple of charring lights to build a good head of ash and then settle in for a long, cool, bight free, and flavorful smoke of the highest quality possible. J. F. Germain and Son?s Brown Flake, is another wonderful blend by this exceptional house. Buy some.

UPDATE: it seems from discussions on smokersforums.com, that the "air cured" tobacco could be the belgian "semois" variant. END UPDATE

really, this is no ordinary virginia blend. the tin aroma is rather musty, with almost cigarish notes along with the more typical sweet, stoved virginias. the blend is described as " air and flue cured". wonder if the "air cured" is really cigar?

it is darkish brown. the flakes tend to fall apart, but still reasonably easy to load. two matches, and i'm off.

cigar indeed. or if not cigar, then perhaps over-cured or over-ripe virginia? air cured virginia? burley? anyway, it's a very dry taste, slightly bitter, and almost no sweetness. it is rather hard on the throat (even though i don't inhale), and medium to medium-strong. dgt'ing is not reccommended, as it becomes quite harsh.

this is not the first germain's i've experienced having this strange and very uncommon taste. it's in their royal jersey perique, too. i find this taste rather mystifying - but as long as one doesn't dgt, it's got a lot of fine cigarish nuances. no bad tobacco, this. still, it's not one i'll be getting more of anytime soon.

This is a fine choice. I found it by accident in a basket of unsold tobacco at a ridiculously low price at my pipe shop I frequent. I was suprised by a very sweet, musty- but not really cigar like (as others say) I find it much smoother and pleasant than any cigar I have had. I think people unfamiliar with cigars are mislead by the musty nature. Earthy, sweetness, very natural, I am not sure if there is any casing at all.