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

This stuff ages very well! It was a bit moist when I first opened it two years ago so I stuck it in a mason jar and boy I am glad I did! Man what a difference. This may very well be better than any other Latakia flake in the aging department. So refined and smooth with the presence of smoky latakia but the Virginias and oriental are lush and harmonious like "Miles Davis Birth of the cool" Just cant get enough of this. It just climbed my opinion chart considerably!

Germain's Special Latakia flake. This is a typical full balkan style blend. It lacks some of the more spiciness i have grown accustom to. The latakia, orientals, and turkish are very prevalent;however I am having trouble finding the virginias. It is rather ho-hum in my opinion but as I said before it does lack some of the spiciness that im am used to. the tin was vacumed seal with a strong smell of latakia and very moist. letting dry a bit will definatley improve its smoking quality as well its ablilty to stay lit. At first lite it is very smokey and rich and tends dull down mid-bowl. I picked this blend up from a local store that didn't have my regular blend, so I tried it out on a recomendation. It will do until I can find my regular blends which are Bill Baileys Balken Blend and Frog Morton on the bayou which both have the addition of perique. I will finish this tin but I probably wont try it again. if you are wanting to try some balkan blends this a good one to start with as it is fairly tame.I give 2 out of 4 stars.

J. F. Germain and Son's Special Latakia Flake is smoky heaven, this is worth every penny, and here in Canada I gotta pay $25 clams for a 50g tin. The tin aroma is slightly off-putting at first but after a few lovely bowls of this wonderful flake you will inhale it deeply and smile in anticipation. The tobacco is dark brown with flakes of tan and a few sugar crystals here and there. Very wet when fresh requiring at least twenty minutes dry time but better after fourty, it rubs out easily and leaves a smoky smell on the fingers. After the false light and a gentle tamping the first quarter bowl is mild Latakia and slightly sweet Virginia, tightening up with Turkish/Oriental by mid bowl with the Latakia, which is always present throughout the bowl, taking a gentle bow at the finish. The flavour gets more and more complex as you wind your way through the blend, take it slow (it can bite) and take it in a big pipe. I have a beautiful Wombaroo free hand which I reserve for Latakia blends I call her Old Smoky and when I got my paw on her and she's loaded with Germain's Special Latakia Flake, all is right with the world.

Update August 2011: sadly I lost my glorious Wombaroo pipe but happily this wonderful tobacco has comforted me over the years. I prefer Frog Morton but it's hella pricey here in Toronto and, while cheaper, Germain's is of exceptional quality and I find it's often less monotonous than F.M. Also after two years of smoking this blend fairly regular I've come to find the tin aroma is really wonderful. Always in my rotation as it should be in yours.

Special Latakia is truly well named. This blend is all about a delightfully well cured Latakia Leaf that delivers a smooth smoky flavor without a bit of harshness.

Tin pops to a highly fermented aroma that might make one wonder if prunes had gone bad. A bit moist, yet straight out of the tin it crumbles nicely and packed lightly smokes like a dream.

The Turkish/Orientals lie quietly in the background yet add an essence that I have only encountered in a Turkish Kabob Restaurant. While the aged Virgina's add a bit of nicotine and sugar without jumping to the forefront. The roomnote is perhaps among the most acceptable of any Lat blend I have smoked.

This is superb Latakia! Rich, rounded, creamy... The true pleasure for pipe-lover. However, it is interesting, this blend is very picky so you will have to choose your pipe carefully.

like all the other germain's blends i've tried, this is first class tobacco.

there's plenty of sweet virginias here, a nice dose of latakia which seems to me to be very smoky, and a little orientals. this is an uncomplicated smoke, with sweetnes and a slightly ash-like flavour (in a pleasant way, though) that i ascribe to the very smoky latakia. perhaps it's a bit monocromatic due to the low content of orientals. apart from the fact that it's very difficult to loosen a whole flake - you seem to end up with a broken flake, or even a loose cut bowlfull - i can reccommend it heartily, even though there are a few other englishes i prefer over this one. it's certainly got a character of its own.

This is a medium colored tobacco with a light pleasant tin aroma. It's a cake that pulls apart stringy but is fairly easy to work with. Nothing overwhelming or particularly special here. Just a good straight forward mild smoke. A very good choice for someone who wants to experiment with latakia but not take a big plunge!

My tobacconist, who is likely damned for all time by on a wholly unrelated matter, suggested this as they didn?t have the Penzance in stock. Now I?ve never tired the Penzance but most every review I?ve read was gushing and on an aesthetic level I liked the idea of a flake with latakia mix as heretofore I?ve only had VA, VAPERS and VABurley flakes. The tobacconist, surely a damned soul but in a completely different way, talked Germains up going so far as to suggest, albeit in hushed tones, that he preferred it over PenZance and Old Ironsides. The Guy speaks with a Brogue and has Mickey Dolenz Sideburns; saying no to him would be like asking Bobby Burns to knock it off with that Bonnie Brae stuff.

Penzance must be made out of Gold; we?re talking 24 ct not the black hills stuff, for it to be better and richer than this stuff.

First off the aesthetic of the tin presentation was all I had hoped, looking a bit like a torte with hazelnut on the outside and a rich black chocolate in the middle. The smell was like a campfire in autumn.

Now I?m not a huge Latakia fan, I like the stuff, but I like it like I like A1 sauce, if it?s a cheap cut of meat I put more on, if it?s an aged filet mignon get that stuff off my table. The Virginians and Orientals in this blend are excellent but the Latakia blends in so well I may have to start adding a bit of A1 to my filets.

Overall very tasty from char to the last sad sip.

Downside? My Tobacconist, that rat bastard on a completely related level, recommends based on price tag I?m thinking. The price per gram on this stuff is closer to the wacky tobaccy range of Green Bud prices than the mortal range of a legal weed.

The only reason I'm giving it three stars instead of four is in attempts to instill a facade of credulity, everything I like that I review here I give four stars.

This is a solid Latakia flake from Germain. Upon opening the tin I found a well aged tobacco littered with crystallized sugar from the aging process. This is not a tobacco loaded with nuances but is instead a solid high quality Latakia blend. I was very pleased with the smoothness of the smoke and a nice smokey and slighty sweet flavor. Over all this is a nice tobacco, but it is rather mild and not what I am looking for in a Latakia Flake.