J. F. Germain & Son Balkan Sobranie

Fellow pipe smokers, it is with some trepidation I write this review, knowing all-the-while hundreds if not thousands flock to this site to see if another pipe smoking colleague has posted his/her comments on the new Sobranie.

Without further ado here's mine for it is worth, knowing very well tastes vary, and in many cases significantly from each other . Germain's Sobranie is a mixture of bright, tan, dark and black leaves in a somewhat shag over ribbon cut. When I leveraged open the cover I stuck my nose very near the lid in an attempt to get a woof of the fragrance however, surprisingly, I didn't get much of anything in the way of an aroma. The tobacco once exposed completely was damp to the touch and when pinched together did not unfold so drying time was needed. I plucked out a couple of grams and placed it in a tin bowl for fifteen minutes. I did the pinch test again and it seemed good to go. I always use my Lorenzetti bent billard to test drive a new tobacco as it has a track record for getting the very best out of a blend. False light, not much of any taste. Tamp and second light gets the pipe going. I'm getting the unmistakable Germain Virginia taste, a little Latakia, some oriental and a faint but distinguished casing of some sort. First half of the bowl, very flat and unexciting. Second half same with a slightly stronger oriental presence. The finish was rather hot and soggy.

Okay, without writing a short story here, I'll sum up the four days that followed my maiden voyage with Sobranie by telling you I sampled it in several different pipes, dgt'ed it for 30 minutes, one hour, two hours and finally four hours. I aired it for 30 minute intervals up to three hours as well. I also sipped different beverages with the smoke including water, dark beer, bourbon and coffee. The results were the same no matter what I did to this mixture to make it work for me.

Conclusion: Germain's Sobranie, for me, is a very flat, uneventful, mild to medium nicotine strength tobacco. If this is the original Sobranie of yesteryear and the best of the best during that time I think we should count ourselves extremely fortunate to have great master blenders as; Pease, Tarler, Oulette, Peritti etc in the 21st century.

I have to tell you though, I believe there is a blend today that is the smitten image of the Sobranie of two, three decades ago. I am referring to Gawith & Hoggarth's Balkan Mixture. I validate this opinion from reading the reviews of BM here on this site and in other locations as well. G&H, upon the disappearance of Sobranie responded with BM and many a British pipester as well as American pipemen swear BM is an exceedingly close approximation to the famous Sobranie long since gone. I have been smoking Balkan Mixture for about two months now and it is an absolutely amazing old world heavy weight Balkan tobacco.