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

A very light tobacco. When you open the tin a realy nice virginia note comes out. The tobacco is a little bit wet. You should dry him a little bit. The flake has a nice cut. It burns very soft and slow. There are no tounge bites at all. This was my first flake and I have to say that this will be not the last one. Next week I will get a delivery with W.O. Larsen No. 32 and Mac Baren HH Pure Virginia. I hope these two flakes will be as good as the Germains Medium Flake. For all smokers who love pure virginia taste without any flavouring this is a very very good one.

This is a lovely bright broken flake in appearance. The tin note is sweet lemon and honey. I cannot detect casing outside of this.

Takes the flame well and is a single light, low maintenance smoke.

Produces a nice, clean, fresh Virginia aroma and is particularly sweet to the tongue. Would make a pleasant all day smoke for straight Va fans.

Medium Flake lives up to its name. It begins mild to medium in flavor and deepens to a solid medium level of aroma, flavor and strength. It can be quite yummy.

At its best, it produces a pure Virginia flavor profile, with high notes of burnt caramel and musty essences. There is a touch of spiciness when I exhale through my nose. Natural sweetness is present in taste, but mostly in the waft.

There does not appear to be any casing or flavoring. It can be provoked to nip the tongue mildly if puffed absentmindedly. Opening the tin and letting it relax (dehumidify) for a few weeks in proper storage seems to benefit its burning properties and flavor.

I find it very easy to pack by folding its long flakes over in half and in half again, usually placing a pinch of rubbed out flake at the very bottom and on the very top of the bowl. I suggest that one not be too quick to simply rub this out. It really works as a flake.

One good charring light and two initial lights get me most of the way through the bowl. One additional relight about mid-way seems a regular phenomenon with Medium Flake.

It seems to burn well in the medium and large size bowls I use. It loses something essential outdoors and is perfectly suitable to indoor enjoyment in the close confines of my car.

While I will not likely cellar this in significant quantities, it will be kept on hand for the times when I crave its refined character.

Medium Flake and its cousin, Brown Flake, have very little, if anything common. They are differing offerings for different desires. Both are worthy.

Another quality Germain product.

Upon opening the lid of this small tin I detected very little to no aroma of the brownish colored tobacco with slivers of golden Virginias pressed into this small container.

As I rubbed out this Medium Flake to my liking I detected it was fresh and a little moist. I had no problem in packing this medium flake in a 1963 Group 2 Dunhill Prince, it lights easily and as long as you have a tamper there is not too much problem in keeping it lit.

I did not notice any tongue bite, but.....this tobacco will get a bowl hot real fast. IMO this is a mild tasting Medium Flake, but improves to a medium tasting tobacco as you smoke this towards the bottom of the bowl.

Keep Your Pipe Cool, Smoke it Slow, Enjoy it Longer

I find some of the Germain's VA's VERY similar: Medium Flake, Goldleaf R/R, and then Esoterica's Peacehaven and Brighton, all seek to overlap very closely, one might guess that the Esoterica's are copies of the ones sold under the blenders name.With that said, a rose by any other name is still a rose. Medium flake is a flake in name only. It is so fine it immediately breaks apart when touched, the tobacco reminds me of semois in it's presentation, incredibly fine orange and brown strands. The tin note is sweet and fruity from what ever topping is used. I cannot quite nail it down but it seems to be apricot with orange and perhaps fig, not much tobacco aroma comes through but it is very pleasant. The top note either sublimates well with the tobacco's or the aroma is not as present in the flavor. The bright Virginia's are sweet and citrusy and the aftertaste is very nice. Flavor is fairly consistent down the bowl and the cut makes this burn to the bottom with almost one light if you are attentive. Great morning and summer smoke.

I picked up a tin without ever hearing of it in the past. I was expecting a "Flake" when I opened the tin, but got a broken flake almost a shag instead.

The cut makes it really easy to pack and light up. The flavor I got was "hay" with a fruit topping which I took to be maybe Apricot at the light. It burned easily with no fuss without any tongue bite.

I've found myself reaching for the tin quite often since I've opened it and I'll definitely purchase more in the future.

Perhaps you are hoping to find something like the medium and darker VAs used in Germain’s fabled, elusive ET blends. Well, their Medium Flake is not that. Rather, it’s mostly moist (not wet), yellow and golden, flue cured, broken flakes in the tin, fermented and smelling very faintly of apricots and oranges, and more so of wet hay, grasses and leather. It can be plucked, loosely stuffed and smoked straight from a newly opened tin, and it will burn like this with constant attention; but it smokes better if it’s left to rest for a while then dried some. Lit, the smells and tastes parallel the tin note, hay and grasses, Seville oranges, and maybe just a suggestion of tonquin, very faint. It’s slightly tannic, also buttery, and it warns me that it will bite if it’s pushed. There is a vaguely musky, earthy quality to the grasses, earthier than F&T’s Golden Mixture, but it’s hardly an “earthy” blend, if you know what I mean. Strength is more mild than medium, and tastes can be tweaked to get them close to medium. Room note is pleasant. Aftertaste is a tapering off of the best of the smoke, provided no re-lights at the end of the bowl.

GMF has not been an easy smoke for me. I think I’ve spent more time so far evaluating it than I have smoked it for pure enjoyment, coaxing it and trying to decide how to describe and rate it. I’ve gotten to where it’s always great off the match. However, I’ve only had full, 4 star smokes from it a few times, always outdoors in a light breeze (?). It tends to get a little sour/acrid on me as I smoke it down, and I don’t mean by this that it’s “astringent” in a good way, like a nice Chenin Blanc. Still, I can’t shake the feeling that there’s more to it than I’ve been able to get to date. Perhaps aging will take care of it. For the nonce, in the interest of moving on, I’ll give it a 3, but I can’t give it 4, if only because the competition’s too tough in this Brave New World of Pipe Tobacco.

A smoke very similar to Samuel Gawith's Best Brown Flake except a little sweeter.. There's a hint of grassy hay-like overtones and is sharper in flavor than Germain's Brown Flake. A enjoyable pure Virgina smoke.