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

Opening the tin I find soft feeling brown broken flakes that smell sweet and fruity, just what I love in a virginia flake and so typical of this outstanding blending house. The various virginia's provide tons dark fruit , citrus, a little spice, bread and has some nicotine, which I love. I prefer a fresher tin to an aged one as I find over time these virginia's mellow out and become so delicate and smooth that I can't feel the smoke at all and I lose that slight spice hit I crave. Some may love this but I like to feel my smoke. However, the taste, sweetness and wonderful room note retain all of their pleasurable characteristics. I don't know why this one doesn't get great reviews but you would never know it by how difficult these tins are to aquire these days. Love this stuff, four stars!!!!

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.

Although this blend's got some similarities with Brown Flake, it lacks the depth provided by the mature Virginias in the latter. It also has some fig topping that is very nice to smell in the tin but not that pleasant to my palate.

With so many great Virginias out there, there is no reason to recommend this one.

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.

This is a very fine tobacco, somewhat after the fashion of Samuel Gawith's Best Brown Flake. It smokes consistently all the way down the bowl, and burns cleanly and slowly, leaving behind no unpleasant dottle. Fold and stuff, with a little rubbed out for kindling at the top of the bowl is best, I think. It needs a bit of drying time - it's not a bad idea to fill your pipe and leave it overnight before smoking - but, having been dried a bit, it's a well behaved smoke that does not need constantly relighting. It rewards a slow and leisurely pace. Excellent.

The drawback - as with Germain's tobacco's generally - (at least in the UK) is that you can hardly ever get it; that's why I don't give it four stars.

I've had a few bowls of this from a friend - enough to know I like it, but not enough to really get to know it. Germains tobaccos being rare as rocking horse dung, it may be a while before I get a tin of my own, so I thought I'd jot down my first impressions.

The tobacco is pure Virginia, pressed and cut into a very thin flake with ragged edges, and provided very moist in the tin. The flakes are all stuck together because of the moisture, and tricky to separate. Germains tobaccos always seem to come sopping wet, I smoked this as it came but it probably would benefit from a little drying out.

The aroma in the tin really captured my attention - an old school fruity, apricot and citrus topping, reminiscent of Dunhill Light Flake as it was from Murrays, or Dobies Four Square Silver - both favourites of mine when I took to the pipe in the noughties.

Despite the high moisture content it lit without trouble and gave a nice flavour - bread, citrus and fruit. It didn't need too many relights and didn't leave much dottle. Lovely stuff, I hope to find more!

I asked my local tobacconist to get me a list of rare tobacco blends. He focuses 70% on cigars, and only 30% pipe. Most of his collection was C&D, and Dan's Tobacco. He finally began receiving Esoterica. He is now well stocked on Esoterica. He has 7 of the blends including Penzance. I recently asked him to try to acquire the Germain's 1820 flake, and the Balkan sobranie. I'm waiting to hear from him. He also received 2 tins of Germain's medium flake which I purchased from him at $20 a tin. I love this guy. He has the best tobacco business I've seen in a 200 mile radius. I finally opened one of the Germain's Medium Flake 45 minutes ago. It is silky smooth strands of golden and dark golden Virginias.

Smells like hay. Really, and nothing but hay.

It tastes like hay more than any other blends of VA, or Vaper. It is so delicious that I think I'm going to ask him to get me few more. It has subtle sweetness with no artificial flavor detectable.

It is semi moist in tin, but ready to smoke in 10 min. It lights up surprisingly fast and burns evenly due to its strand-like form. It stays lit with little effort. This allows you to puff very gently and enjoy it without constantly worrying about relight.

It burns moderately hot. No worse than typical Virginia. It tastes the same from beginning to the end. Very consistent and well behaved. What a gem is this. I hate to say it, but after trying all the Esoterica line, and now this medium flake from Germain's, now I definitely agree with the hype. This company is unique. All their tobacco blends taste aged. To give you an example, the Esoterica Penzance that is sitting in my local tobacconist shelf is covered by this fine sugar powder Crystals.

And so, this tobacco also feels very grounded. Even though it is all Virginia, it is very mature, and stable. Get in contact with your tobacconist. That's the only way.