J. F. Germain & Son Germain's Special Latakia Flake
(3.40)
Classically processed Latakia flake with Orientals and Virginia.
Notes: This bold latakia blend comes in coarse flakes made from top quality air and fire cured dark tobaccos. Germain's Special Latakia Flake is a delicious choice for a change of pace.
Details
| Brand | J. F. Germain & Son |
| Blended By | J.F. Germain & Son |
| Manufactured By | J.F. Germain & Son |
| Blend Type | English |
| Contents | Latakia, Oriental/Turkish, Virginia |
| Flavoring | |
| Cut | Flake |
| Packaging | 50 grams tin |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Production | Currently available |
Profile
Strength
Medium
Extremely Mild -> Overwhelming
Flavoring
None Detected
None Detected -> Extra Strong
Room Note
Tolerable
Unnoticeable -> Overwhelming
Taste
Medium
Extremely Mild (Flat) -> Overwhelming
Average Rating
|
3.40 / 4
|
Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 26 Reviews
| Reviewed By | Date | Rating | Strength | Flavoring | Taste | Room Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| Jun 04, 2012 | Medium | None Detected | Medium | Strong |
2 year old tin. The paper appeared to have soaked up most of the extraneous moisture but this was not too dry. I actually dried it out a bit further. The tin nose was overwhelmingly of latakia and the color was bizarre... striped flakes? A single flake contained many top-to-bottom black strips and a few blonde colored ones as well, along with some darker brown. Truly unusual appearance.
Odd in the pipe as well. I could not fold-n-stuff this in flake form as the flakes stuck together like glue. However, it was very easy to simply peel off sections for loading as a fully rubbed out mixture. I got the most success when I made sure to use a full flake or two, depending on pipe size, rather than take a chunk off one flake and a chunk off another. As mentioned, it's like they laid a strip of latakia next to a strip of virginia next to a strip of oriental rather than blending the three together and pressing. To get the flavor the blender was likely going for required some care in loading.
At its best it was a salty, smoky and barely sweet blend with a fair amount of depth. At its worst it was a bitter conglomeration with no "vision". The trouble was that I never knew which I was getting until I lit up. One tin just wasn't enough to figure this one out. The latakia was never overpowering and I couldn't get this blend to bite no matter how I intentionally provoked it. The orientals and virginia did a little bob and weave routine and were often MIA. But sometimes this mix just turned on me. Reminded me of GLP's Cumberland in that respect, another blend I have yet to figure out. This is for the most part a worthy blend, although nothing special as its name would indicate. I find this one good but ordinary - nothing to see here.
Odd in the pipe as well. I could not fold-n-stuff this in flake form as the flakes stuck together like glue. However, it was very easy to simply peel off sections for loading as a fully rubbed out mixture. I got the most success when I made sure to use a full flake or two, depending on pipe size, rather than take a chunk off one flake and a chunk off another. As mentioned, it's like they laid a strip of latakia next to a strip of virginia next to a strip of oriental rather than blending the three together and pressing. To get the flavor the blender was likely going for required some care in loading.
At its best it was a salty, smoky and barely sweet blend with a fair amount of depth. At its worst it was a bitter conglomeration with no "vision". The trouble was that I never knew which I was getting until I lit up. One tin just wasn't enough to figure this one out. The latakia was never overpowering and I couldn't get this blend to bite no matter how I intentionally provoked it. The orientals and virginia did a little bob and weave routine and were often MIA. But sometimes this mix just turned on me. Reminded me of GLP's Cumberland in that respect, another blend I have yet to figure out. This is for the most part a worthy blend, although nothing special as its name would indicate. I find this one good but ordinary - nothing to see here.
| Reviewed By | Date | Rating | Strength | Flavoring | Taste | Room Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 09, 2017 | Mild to Medium | Extremely Mild | Medium | Tolerable |
A nice mixture from Germains. Easy to lit, smoke, few relights needed. As it is " Special Latakia flake" I want more Latakia in it. In my tin 70 % of bright and only 30% of dark flakes, and I'm missing smokiness that I'm getting from Balkan blends. Overall is good tobacco. Recommend.
Pipe Used:
Various
PurchasedFrom:
Mysmokingshop.co.uk
Age When Smoked:
6 moths
| Reviewed By | Date | Rating | Strength | Flavoring | Taste | Room Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 01, 2016 | Medium | None Detected | Mild to Medium | Pleasant to Tolerable |
Let's for a moment forget the name of this mixture, and treat this review as some sort of blind tasting. I'll explain why shortly.
This is a pleasant, refined tobacco. On opening the tin I see a block of rather loose flake wrapped - rather unusually - in grease-proof paper. The tobacco feels sticky, though not overly-moist. I can see plenty of bright strands, presumably virginias, a few darker patches - presumably latakia - and as other reviewers have noted, the constituent tobaccos seem strangely unblended, though this is not a problem as it simply means you have to rub them together. It takes a light easily, smokes politely without significant bite or relights, maintains a surprising sweetness down to the bottom of the bowl, and probably constitutes a decent all-day smoke.
But......
.....quite why Germain chose to call it "Latakia Flake" is beyond me. Certainly there's some latakia in this blend. But it's hardly enough to confer the title, and certainly anyone buying this mixture expecting a healthy dose of latakia is, like me, likely to be a little disappointed. That said, it's a quality tobacco providing a pleasant smoke. Just ignore the name.
This is a pleasant, refined tobacco. On opening the tin I see a block of rather loose flake wrapped - rather unusually - in grease-proof paper. The tobacco feels sticky, though not overly-moist. I can see plenty of bright strands, presumably virginias, a few darker patches - presumably latakia - and as other reviewers have noted, the constituent tobaccos seem strangely unblended, though this is not a problem as it simply means you have to rub them together. It takes a light easily, smokes politely without significant bite or relights, maintains a surprising sweetness down to the bottom of the bowl, and probably constitutes a decent all-day smoke.
But......
.....quite why Germain chose to call it "Latakia Flake" is beyond me. Certainly there's some latakia in this blend. But it's hardly enough to confer the title, and certainly anyone buying this mixture expecting a healthy dose of latakia is, like me, likely to be a little disappointed. That said, it's a quality tobacco providing a pleasant smoke. Just ignore the name.
Pipe Used:
Various
PurchasedFrom:
GQ Tobaccos
Age When Smoked:
From date of purchase
| Reviewed By | Date | Rating | Strength | Flavoring | Taste | Room Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| Mar 08, 2017 | Medium | None Detected | Medium | Strong |
I guess it's my own fault for expecting a blend similar to Penzance... it's hard not to enter into this tobacco without that expectation. I should say Penzance is my absolute favorite blend, for many reasons, but as we all know, it's hard to obtain.
This was a good blend for what it is, which is a latakia based blend. Orientals and latakia dominate, and it's pleasant for the most part. One think I did not like is that I found this blend bitter at times, and not in a good way. It could have been the pipe I used, but I kept find this blend bitter. It wasn't so bitter to overpower the other smoky/earthy notes, but it was present much of the time. If there were a 2.5 star option, I would give it that, but I'll give the benefit rating it as recommended. Certainly give it a shot if you come across it, but I don't think I'll be buying again (not to say I wouldn't smoke it again). To my taste, there are just too many other great english blends to spend more time on this.
This was a good blend for what it is, which is a latakia based blend. Orientals and latakia dominate, and it's pleasant for the most part. One think I did not like is that I found this blend bitter at times, and not in a good way. It could have been the pipe I used, but I kept find this blend bitter. It wasn't so bitter to overpower the other smoky/earthy notes, but it was present much of the time. If there were a 2.5 star option, I would give it that, but I'll give the benefit rating it as recommended. Certainly give it a shot if you come across it, but I don't think I'll be buying again (not to say I wouldn't smoke it again). To my taste, there are just too many other great english blends to spend more time on this.
| Reviewed By | Date | Rating | Strength | Flavoring | Taste | Room Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| Mar 21, 2012 | Medium | None Detected | Full | Pleasant to Tolerable |
As mentioned in previous reviews, the presentation of this flake is peculiar; the different tobaccos are visible as stripes through the flake. Because of this, in order to make a fair review I spent a couple of days smoking this by cutting across the width of the flakes into thirds and loading them into my pipe to get a good representation of the taste of the entire blend.
Straight out of the tin this tobacco is slightly too moist to smoke immediately, but it doesn't require a lot of drying time and I find filling a bowl before dinner and smoking it afterwards to be sufficient.
The latakia gives this tobacco a full bodied, savoury taste, but at no point did I find it overpowering. If prepared in the way I did, the virginia sweetness is present all the way down the bowl and makes this good for a slow, contemplative smoke. The orientals are noticeable but not enough for me to consider them a defining point of the blend.
If you hold back and wait a few minutes or so for a relight the sweet aspect really shines through, but sipped in a slow rhythm I get a balanced taste of coffee cake with meatiness in the background. It's fairly well behaved and can withstand some absent minded heavy puffing for some time without giving tongue bit, but obviously you'll get the best out of it when you take it slow.
Overall, SLF isn't a mind blowing tobacco but I can't fault it either, three stars.
Straight out of the tin this tobacco is slightly too moist to smoke immediately, but it doesn't require a lot of drying time and I find filling a bowl before dinner and smoking it afterwards to be sufficient.
The latakia gives this tobacco a full bodied, savoury taste, but at no point did I find it overpowering. If prepared in the way I did, the virginia sweetness is present all the way down the bowl and makes this good for a slow, contemplative smoke. The orientals are noticeable but not enough for me to consider them a defining point of the blend.
If you hold back and wait a few minutes or so for a relight the sweet aspect really shines through, but sipped in a slow rhythm I get a balanced taste of coffee cake with meatiness in the background. It's fairly well behaved and can withstand some absent minded heavy puffing for some time without giving tongue bit, but obviously you'll get the best out of it when you take it slow.
Overall, SLF isn't a mind blowing tobacco but I can't fault it either, three stars.
| Reviewed By | Date | Rating | Strength | Flavoring | Taste | Room Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| May 06, 2009 | Medium | None Detected | Medium to Full | Pleasant to Tolerable |
from the name you'd expect this to be a balkan but out of the tin the orientals & turk tell you it's an english. the Latakia just sits along side offering a constant cool flavour. this is a very cool smoke but more to the point creamy, i hear this word used regarding the aesthetics of a smoke but this one is an english milkshake to saver. contemplative and very tasty. I suggested folding length-ways then fold in half, a few twists to screw it into a neat ball and gently ease it in your bowl, a perfect air-pocket method smoke. Slightly off topic this is a good tobacco to cycle with.
| Reviewed By | Date | Rating | Strength | Flavoring | Taste | Room Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 03, 2007 | Medium | None Detected | Medium | Pleasant |
Very good flake. Although very moist in the tin, it dries quickly and rubs easily. The initial smell is somewhat unpleasant, but the smoke is a different story: rich, tasty, complex although latakia dominated, especially towards the end of the bowl. If you, like me, are not a fan of overmoist flakes which take forever to dry to a smokable level, try this out: it will be a nice surprise!
| Reviewed By | Date | Rating | Strength | Flavoring | Taste | Room Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| May 16, 2019 | Mild to Medium | None Detected | Mild to Medium | Pleasant |
This should be the sort of mixture that really floats my boat - latakia, flake, 'special'... unfortunately is falls a little flat for me. Although a Germain tobacco of clear quality, a blending house that I love, I can't fall in love with this one. Having been captivated by Original Latakia Mixture, I expected a blast of the fair, dark weed. Problem is, it felt almost absent - almost indiscernible, in fact. Good quality virginias, but a special latakia flake? I couldn't see it or taste it in any sort of quantity. I really wanted to like this, but my disappointment at the lack of balance of ingredients compared to the name was palpable.
It wouldn't be fair to criticise the tobacco itself, as this is clearly not some 'thrown together' mess, a poor blend, or a bad bowl - for me, it just isn't a special latakia flake. It aims to be something gentle and light, something focused on those who prefer a milder latakia experience, but for those who enjoy a more robust adventure with this fragrant tobacco, it doesn't hit the mark I don't think. Enjoy it if you swing toward a light touch or even a whispered latakia component, but don't expect a bedfellow to the Original Latakia.
Burns easily, takes a flame well with few relights, and leaves a dry residue. No bite. Virginia forward, orientals behind, latakia almost left behind. Wasn't really a flake either. I recommend this, despite my misgivings - it just doesn't live up to its name.
It wouldn't be fair to criticise the tobacco itself, as this is clearly not some 'thrown together' mess, a poor blend, or a bad bowl - for me, it just isn't a special latakia flake. It aims to be something gentle and light, something focused on those who prefer a milder latakia experience, but for those who enjoy a more robust adventure with this fragrant tobacco, it doesn't hit the mark I don't think. Enjoy it if you swing toward a light touch or even a whispered latakia component, but don't expect a bedfellow to the Original Latakia.
Burns easily, takes a flame well with few relights, and leaves a dry residue. No bite. Virginia forward, orientals behind, latakia almost left behind. Wasn't really a flake either. I recommend this, despite my misgivings - it just doesn't live up to its name.
Pipe Used:
Several
PurchasedFrom:
Turmeau and GQ tobaccos
Age When Smoked:
New
| Reviewed By | Date | Rating | Strength | Flavoring | Taste | Room Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| Feb 04, 2015 | Mild to Medium | None Detected | Medium | Pleasant to Tolerable |
This is a really good Latakia flake. I really enjoy the small rectangular format and the wax paper wrapper that holds the tobacco. I have read that the Latakia percentage varies from one tin to the other. In the tin I opened yesterday, it was present enough to make me happy. Good smoky taste well combined with the VAs and the ORs which bring some sweetness and spiciness. Despite the tin being "fresh" the tobacco is not really moist; and, despite that, it still bites but it may be my fault: I should have waited at least aother week or so, after opening, before smoking it. But I was impatient to find out what SLF is all about. I like it. I have 3 other tins and will rebuy more because it's a really good LA mixture. However, I will not chase it, surf the Net to no end, or pay crazy prices to get some. It's just not that good, for me. I would happily invest the extra money it would require on Gaslight, Sextant and MB Latakia Flake instead. But I will, without a doubt, be happy if I can get my hands on more tins. Recommended if you like LA.
Pipe Used:
Luciano
Age When Smoked:
Fresh
| Reviewed By | Date | Rating | Strength | Flavoring | Taste | Room Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 07, 2014 | Medium | None Detected | Medium to Full | Pleasant to Tolerable |
I am smoking through a generous sample of this sent me by a friend. I have been rubbing it out and smoking it in a Savinelli bent pot.
At the risk of disagreeing with other reviewers, I think I pick up more orientals than they do. There is a sweet foundation that is more than just the Virginia. The orientals are part of this sweet as well and provide a spicy nose tickle. The latakia is a little more than a condiment and it is not the primary flavor in the profile for me. The latrakia contributes to a creamy, thick smoke, and it provides some bass notes.
This is very good but does not rise to a "must try" 4 star tobacco in my book. If you like Virginias and orientals, and you don't need a latakia powerhouse to be satisfied, you will like this flake.
At the risk of disagreeing with other reviewers, I think I pick up more orientals than they do. There is a sweet foundation that is more than just the Virginia. The orientals are part of this sweet as well and provide a spicy nose tickle. The latakia is a little more than a condiment and it is not the primary flavor in the profile for me. The latrakia contributes to a creamy, thick smoke, and it provides some bass notes.
This is very good but does not rise to a "must try" 4 star tobacco in my book. If you like Virginias and orientals, and you don't need a latakia powerhouse to be satisfied, you will like this flake.
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