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

This flake comes packed tightly in the tin, and pulls off easily in long strips. Rubbing it out yields a nice blonde/straw colored shag that packs without effort. Some drying time is definitely required. The tin scent is of rich lemon cake. The lemon topping comes through in the taste for the char light, and for the first 1/3 of the bowl. The VA gives nice gentle notes of earth and dried hay. The last third of every bowl I smoked gave a peppery tingle on the tongue and palate. The smell is light tobacco, and this one got no complaints from bystanders. This blend is mild-medium in body and will bite if not sipped judiciously. I wont be buying this particular blend again.

smokeable out of the tin, granted you can decipher the single flakes... it's all one big wad of flakes that are hard to take apart without breaking each. that's not too bad though. it's very soft, not too moist, not too dry. perfect.

the tin aroma is delicious - it smells of figs and raisins and hay, like most virginia flakes I know (so far).

and that's pretty much the taste as well. kinf of citrusy, kind of hay-like, kind of sweet, but not overwhelmingly so.

it's easy to fold and stuff and then light with two matches. it stays lit the whole way down. it smokes sort of quickly for a flake, because the strands you manage to get out are long and thin. almost like a fine or shag cut.

it's nothing special, but I still enjoy it very much when I do smoke it.

great on a really hot summer day. not 3 stars because it's not that special. good, not bad, not supergood.

My preferences lean towards the lighter Va flakes (eg. Reiners, Orliks Golden, Escudo) and some of the medium sweeter flakes or Va's (FVF, BBF, Stonehaven, Union Square, Laurel Heights). A touchstone for a light, towards citrus and balanced va flake would be Dunhill's Light Flake ... so I am always looking for something comparable and available since it was discontinued. Fribourg & Treyer's Vintage probably comes as close as any blend I have tried as a substitute. But I digress.

Not a big fan of heavy casing and the McClelland-type blends with their vinegar/catsup or caramel/brown sugar toppings. On the other hand the McClelland's red virginia bulk 2015 I have found an excellent blender with a true red virginia flavour profile without the catsup notes.

So looking for a virginia with a light touch and clean quality - balanced and nuanced rather than boldly flavoured or heavily sweetened.

Germain's Medium Flake, as other reviewers have noted, comes packed as a block of what turns out on separation and gentle rubbing to be finely ribbon-cut virginia, putting one in mind of a fine, almost cigarette cut that reminded me of Astley's No.55 Elizabethan. Unlike the thicker pressings and cuts typical of most quality flakes, this tobacco has been shredded quite fine before pressing.

There was a tin aroma that had a slight botanical note towards soapiness such as lavender, lilac or bergamot. It also gave up some typical virginia raisin notes and slight citrus, as another reviewer noted, towards orange not lemon, perhaps tangerine.

I was hoping the medicinal/soapy notes would not express themselves in the smoke. I don't think they did.

The tobacco was a suitable moisture level straight from the can, it might have stood a bit more drying, although it didn't bite from moisture IMO. It was difficult to pack loosely and get an even burn in the bowl on first light.

Insipid. Ashy. Medium strength in nicotine flavour, but an odd, characterless single note smoking experience that had a grassy and unappealing flavor for my palate. No discernible transition down through the bowl. Probably the most cigarette-like experience in smoking a pipe I have ever had - a nicotine delivery system, going through the motions of smoking, although it is a trying cut to smoke in a pipe bowl for me, but no subtlty. Like eating oatmeal or brown rice without sugar or spice. Just very little to commend itself, and a bit of a trial to finish a few bowls. Now that may well be a "pure" experience in the sense that the tobacco delivers an unadulterated virginia experience, but there was none of the organic underlying, untopped sweetness of the leaf, almost as if it was insufficently cured, or slightly green and raw.

I'll probably give away the last half of my tin and won't buy it again. Can't scold it for being unpleasant, but in a life with only so many bowls ahead of me and so many more tasty and finely balanced virginias to smoke ... I'll pass on this. 2 Stars, somebody must like it, there is nothing per se wrong with it, not my cuppa.

BTW - it says 50 gramms on the front and 2oz on the back of the tin. A troy ounce is 31 grams more or less ... I thought a standard ounce weight would be about 28 gramms - so what's up with weights and measures in Jersey?

update: going through my reviews here, i find that i'll have to downgrade a good deal of the praise i've given so many blends. 4 stars should, i feel, be reserved for the blends i find truly exceptional. so, this is downgraded a bit. end update.

tin aroma is definitely flavoured. my first association was to player's flakes, or perhaps will's capstan flakes. it's fruity, hay-like, winey. very pleasant imo, and a genre of flavouring i haven't smelled for years.

the flakes are medium brown. a bit difficult to get whole flakes out of the tin, but easy to load and light.

the taste and smell of the smoke is a lot less coloured by the flavour than is the tin aroma. it's first of all a sweet (in a quite different sense than so many continental blends), gentle, pure virginia of medium strength that burns nicely to the bottom of the bowl. there are faint whispers of vanilla and sandalwood, but the predominating taste is of well aged and pressed virginias with their fermented brandyish and berryish notes. very finely tuned blend, and the slight flavouring really complements the tobacco's own flavours.

i think it is delightfull, and i find myself smoking quite a bit of it.

an old fashioned, fine tobacco, which alas also wakens a nostalgia for all the wonderful british virginia blends now long gone (capstan, simmon's, fribourg & treyer's etc)!

Perhaps they should call this 'medium block'. Germain has taken very finely cut yellow VAs and pressed them into a single block ~ 3"x2"x1" that fills their tin. At the start, I had difficulty separating the layers and obtained mostly fine ribbons, even finer than the typical Germain's, that were difficult to pack evenly. This resulted in channeling, an extremely uneven burn, plugging of the air hole and some harsh tastes. However, in the last half of the tin, I was able to obtain some nice clumps and successfully pack them. Perhaps we should blame my packing techniques since a good tobacco taste developed when large bowled pipes were used. Even if this is a great tobacco, I'm not sure that I have the patience to experiment and discover it. There are other true VA flakes that require much less attention to obtain a great smoke.

One of my main sample suppliers, 😊 at the pipe club brought in this one and some others. This was a nice faintly sweet-smelling tobacco out of the tin with lightly reddish-brown flakes really jammed packed in there so as when you went to retrieve a couple you mostly got shredded wheat. If this is flavored it is extremely mild and to me only brings out taste of the tobacco. A really good smoke.

Flake? I'd say shag in lumps. But it doesn't matter a bit. Reminiscent of Samuel Gawith's Golden Glow, although that one is not flavoured. What they both have is some prime bright VA notes, with lots of citrusy deliciousness. In Medium Flake, som of this flavour also comes from the topping. Some say the topping is obvious. I'm not so sure. First time I smoked Medium Flake I used a brand new cob, and the mild corn flavour completely masked the topping. It's not unnoticeable, but it's much more of a supplement to the natural flavours than a flavouring with a taste of it's own. I don't usually prefer aromatic blends, but I certainly don't mind this. It's predominantly feels and behaves like a straight Virginia. Very very delicious.

I waited for a long time to purchase this blend because once they are released they are available for a little time.once the tin breaks a pleasant topping comes out with some grass and earthy notes.the bright and brown virginias are cut in shag way and then pressed into loose and smooth texture flakes wich brake apart very easy or can be folded as they are.the moisture is proper, lights well and very few relights are needed.while smoking the sweet topping wich has for sure apricot is not strong but enough to subtlimate the tobacco flavours wich are more obvious after a while.the virginia flavours are rich offering citruses,grass,earthy and bread notes.generally the flavours are pleasant and natural.burns quicker than the average pipe tobacco and medium hot.no tongue bite present with a nice aftertaste.the nicotine level is medium and the room note tolerable.leaves a lot moisture at the filter.an all day smoke.generally this one is a decent blend.

I am not sure what the casing is for this Medium Flake but I can tell you it is just amazingly good! It is so good that it makes me crave another pipeful everytime I finish one. The flakes, once rubbed out, provide you with a shag cut leaf that is easily packed, lit and burns extremely well. As where it would have been rather bland without the casing, well the casing enhances the tobacco beautifully. Medium Flake is becoming a favorite.