J. F. Germain & Son Germain's Special Latakia Flake

Germain’s Special Latakia Flake - The flakes look like C&D “flakes” , broken apart like half flakes and broken flake . Some flakes look all black and some light brown . Like the tobacco’s weren’t mixed much before pressing. I just rubbed the whole tin out and mixed all the tobaccos together. Funky barnyard and hay , musty and fermented smell from the tin . Smells delicious. Very well balanced in the smoke . Soft smokey cedar wood and buttery earthy floral spicy incense with a sweet malty fruity citrus tang . The Turkish Orientals are exceptional . This is a Special Latakia Flake! Germain’s does it again . Some say these Germain’s blends are only raved about because of their rarity ? I think it is because they are so damn good ! I am a fan . Take into account this tin is 8 yrs old . 4

I have to say that I absolutely adore this flake! Amazing when fresh and Stellar when aged! It develops a sheen of crystals that glistens when aged. For a Latakia Flake, it is anything but a Lat bomb! The latakia here is sweet and smokey. The Virginia's used must be aged for not only do they have the typical grass and citrus they also provide an earthy-sweet stewed fruitiness. The incense, spice, and perfume of the Oriental's tie it all together. It can be prepared in any method, but do yourself a favor and cube cut it! It will smoke cooler and slower with more flavor than you could ever imagine!

I am a faithful man. I like to try different options in life, but when I find something I love, I stick to that. However, today I came back home from the Motzek tobacco store with my beloved Solani English mixture and a tin of Germain's SLF. I never tried Germain's tobaccos before, so, after reading the components of this tobacco, I opened the tin. The Flakes where loosely compacted and mildly wet, like grass at 10 AM, so I left the tin open while I was brewing some green tea without honey. Virginia tobaccos are often sweet, and I am already sweet enough.

I loosely packed the tobacco in my Peterson Christmas 2017 XL11 because the Latakias in it, and then I lighted my pipe.... What a pleasure. Smooth, delicate Latakia flavors arose since the beginning, without overwhelming my palate, and the sweetness of Virginias developed nicely along the smoking experience. Orientals where seasoning the mixture, giving it an exotic character ...Damn, I'm in love.

I'm lighting my second bowl. My wife is right, I'm smoking too much.

I am rather surprised by the amount of gold leaf these flakes contain, which is tangy and sweet. The addition of Latakia is rather minimal, but they seem to contain a fair amount of Oriental leaf as well. The woodsy and spicy notes of the Latakia are somewhat missing, but they retain some creamy properties that seem to develop against a sour/acrid background. Despite the moist content they don't clog in you pipe and you can get them going with just a few relights. One con is you might need to cellar them for some time to bring up all their full potential. Also, their intrinsic complexity might put some people off or miss the point.

The thin, fragile slices of this mottled flake tobacco are stacked and pressed rather disorderly into the rectangular tin and effuse a rich, earthy, peaty scent with salty notes of seaweed and tar, reminding me of a walk on the waterfront, and hints of apricot jelly. There might be some precipitate of sugar crystals, which must not be confused with mold.

In a fresh tin the sticky flakes are rather moist, which is why I usually leave it open overnight to let the tobacco dry. After that you can carefully take a flake from the stack, maybe with the aid of a sharp knife (the one I use for cutting plugs), and fill your bowl with the fold and stuff method. It's important to pack your pipe neither too tightly nor too loosely. To facilitate lighting I like to put some broken bits and pieces on top, which will always be at hand. A thorough charring light is required, before leveling out the ashes and putting an equally thorough true light to the tobacco. After that it usually burns down evenly from top to bottom.

The cool smoke is not extremely dense, but has a rather full bodied, savory, ballanced taste which mixes hints of incense, leather and spicy peat fire from the Latakia and Orientals with a tangy sweetness from the Virginias and an aftertaste of rye bread. There's no danger of tongue bite, even if you draw more eagerly on your pipe or enjoy it outdoors in a windy environment. It leaves some dry, almost white ash with some dark spots.

The room note is dominated by the smokiness from the Latakia.

What a wonderful blend. I was turned onto this by a friend at my tobacconist who knew I liked Penzance and suggested I give this a try.

The tin & pressed flake is a nice presentation.I like tobac that needs rubbing out as this one does. You don't have to be careful rubbing this out like you do with penzance (which will turn to powder if you overdo it). I found it necessary to air-dry mine for a couple hours.To make things easier I cut up the whole tin in half before putting up in a mason jar.

Filled my briar,lit up,and was greeted with a creamy full rich taste. It was blended with the latakia, virginias and Oriental perfectly blended so one does not overwhelm. Half way through the latakia shows some dominance but not such as to dull the hint of sweetness or smoothness thats ever present in this blend.Burns with a nice white ash with ample clouds of blue smoke.What a pleasure.

I had a lot of trouble with this one because it took a LOT of drying out. I don't think it was because it was so wet, per se, but it seemed to have some humectant. It did no good to pop the tin and leave it; you had to expose it to open air. Before it was dried out enough, this was not a very pleasant smoke at all. Bitter, hot, and just plain nasty. That's the bad news.

But the good news is, when this is dried out well, it delivers a unique and mouth-watering smoke. The best results came from taking a hefty portion out of the tin (say, 1/3 of the whole), rubbing it completely out, letting it dry...and dry some more...and dry some more. Then the smoke was unbelievable. It started like a good standard English tobacco: lots of smoky latakia and sweet virginias (brown-sugar tasting), with a subdued oriental component. But the exra, fire-cured component (Kentucky?) was the centerpiece. Often this component was very much in the background at the beginning of the smoke and built and built until it was quite powerful at the end. It was spicy and strong with the kind of piquant mouth-feel I've come to expect from perique (though, of course, there is no actual perique). Really exquisite.

This is one of the tobacco world's best kept secrets. For my money, Penzance (by the same blender) is not as interesting or tasty. But if you disagree, that's fine. Leaves more of this for me!

I purchased this tin on a whim in my perfect latakia hunt. The tin aroma is a deep leathery musk, with almost a prune like overtone. The tobacco is very moist, and packs great with just a rub between two fingers. It takes a little while to get lit, but once it is going it's great. Large plumes of almost sweet smoke, and the latakia sings harmoniously with the little amount of orientals in the background. The room note is not opressive, and has almost a molasses quality to it. Truly a womderful smoke.

A rich tasting Latakia blend and I would guess that if there is Syrian in this blend it's pretty much in the background.It comes in a cool little tin and the cut is a rougher or more rustic flake that I've seen.A flake cut is my favorite by far, but the smoker has to rub or adjust it to their liking.After opening the tin it gave off a delicious leather like aroma that I love. The tobacco was very moist,actually too moist to smoke without lighting multiple times to get it going and thusly giving a harsh and incomplete smoke. This blend should be rubbed and left to dry on your tray for 30 minutes to an hour. Drying changes this blend from mediocre at best into a smooth, creamy, sweet, non-biting, drool down your chin Latakia experience that is unrivaled. A medium sized meerschaum or large briar bowl enhances the cool sweetness even more. This blend goes to the head of the line over Penzance, Old Ironsides,Odyssey and any other Cyprian Latakia based blends except possibly Kendal's Balkan Mixture by Gawith Hoggarth. It took me a month to learn to get the most out of this blend and that was time well spent.I know that I'm starting to rave so I won't write anymore lest the wrong people read this and make it illegal. This gets my top four star rating.