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Germains special latakia flake.

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tarheel1

tarheel1

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 16, 2014
936
2
I really want to try this and compare it to penzance. Problem is i can not find it anywhere in the U.S. or any place that will ship it to the U.S.. Does anyone know where it can be had?

 
misterlowercase

misterlowercase

Lifer
May 31, 2012
4,295
34
If you don't mind paying the shipping, it's usually always in stock at a good portion of the German sellers, along with Brown Flake too,

here it is at one of the bigger and well known shops:
http://www.danpipe.de/de/Germains/9006-67_GERMAINS-Special-Latakia-Flake-50g-Dose_6593
I highly doubt that SLF is just like Penzance though, I've never tried it so I can't verify, but people say Germain's Rich Dark Flake is the exact same thing as Stonehaven and it is not, I have done that comparision, and although very very good, RDF ain't Stoney.
:puffy:
Smokers Haven Krumble Kake is another story though,

http://www.smokershaven.com/smokershavenpipetobaccokrumblekake2oztin.aspx

that stuff hardly ever shows up,

it's probably a closer match to Penz,

or Bengal Slices,

or whatever...

 
misterlowercase

misterlowercase

Lifer
May 31, 2012
4,295
34
I love RDF, but it doesn't seem to have as much burley, so it's lacking that body that makes Stonehaven such a favorite of mine --- RDF tastes very very close though, just a bit thinner and the special sauce isn't an exact match either.

 
JimInks

JimInks

Sultan of Smoke
Aug 31, 2012
61,172
561,668
Germain's SLF is different than Penzance. Less lat, different Virginias. I prefer Penzance which I feel is a little more complex.

 
hiplainsdrifter

hiplainsdrifter

Part of the Furniture Now
Jan 8, 2012
977
14
I just scored a tin of Special Latakia Flake from Iwan Ries last week, but it looks like they are out now. I am betting they got 5 tins in. I was surprised to see it at all, as I have heard that it has been unavailable for over a year because Germain's small tinning machine was broken down. That's why you haven't seen small Penzance tins in forever as well. I love Special Latakia Flake though- it is one of my top 3 favorite English blends. I think it is better then Penzance for sure, at least to my tastes.

 
tarheel1

tarheel1

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 16, 2014
936
2
@flintlockjohn I do have a tin of the HH Latakia flake flake in my cellar, but not tried it as of yet.

 
L

lestrout

Lifer
Jan 28, 2010
1,762
300
Chester County, PA
SLF is less Lat-ridden than Pz and Krumble Kake. For that matter, all of the other putative Latbomb flakes/chunks/cakes mentioned above plus Low Country's Cooper, Lancer's Slices, Bengal Slices, Old Ironsides, Holly's Discovery, the magnificent Pease Gaslight, Sextant, and Quiet Nights; Plum Pudding, the munificent Hermits (pretty much all of them, except for Honor Blend, which isn't a Lat, and maybe the new Reflections, which is uncharacteristically Lat-light); Serad's Serenity (the original, not the II which is not a crumble cake any more), Two Friend's Deacon's Downfall, (even) Ten to Midnight, Pirate Kake (burley rather than VA), and Bow Legged Bear (has both burley and VA) are more potent in the Lat department than SLF. I find SLF far pickier than the rest relative to specific pipes. I had one transcendent bowl, but most of the time my experience has been just good to very good. The other blends tend to overwhelm the individual traits of my various pipes and deliver very good to transcendent, in-the-zone bowls. I've been thinking of demoting SLF off my Top200 Cellar list, since all the other blends mentioned here are comfortably hogging the spots in the rankings.
hp

les

 
misterlowercase

misterlowercase

Lifer
May 31, 2012
4,295
34
Excellent post Les!

:clap:
...to add a bit more,

I think Rusty

(Beelzebub's Rare Tobacco Emporium),

also gave a great answer,

reproduced here:
It's very different than Penzance. It has an interesting fruitiness that complements the Latakia and makes a good smoke. It's not clear whether this is topping or natural but it's good. If there is really Turkish/Oriental tobacco in it then it's very low key compared to Penzance. The usual savory exotic flavours of Oriental leaf are absent. I think it's better than Penzance but that's personal taste. You'll look forward to it. So it's sweeter than Penzance and Bengal Slices etc. This is not a derivative of Bengal Slices/Krumble Kake/Penzance lines. This is quite unique in my experience. Also try their Brown flake which has sec overtones of cigar in it and a bit more power. It's not just another Brown flake with pronounced Virginia like all the others. In some ways its dustiness and sec qualities remind me a little of the old Sobranie Virginian #10 w/ cigar leaf. Much better even than Butera's Kingfisher which goes in the same direction. Good stuff. Good flavour. Both Germains are great tobaccos. Also both do fine with a little age on them. I've enjoyed them out to 5 and 7 yo and they're good. So stock 'dem cellars not so much for aging, which they don't seem to do, but survival and hoarding difficult to find stock. They don't seem to lose anything obviously. The one thing to beware of is that the top of the tins rust at the seal and they may let go and lose seal in the cellar. Both do this and so does Kingfisher. These will open up in the cellar. You have to patrol the tin stock. But when one does let go you get to smoke it. That's the upside. Catch it within a month! No moldy tobacco here though. Whether they apply preservatives or not they're quite stable. I can't keep a tin of either going more than three days. The very worst that happens is that flake becomes a plug again and it's hard to separate flakes sometimes with age. Hardly something to quibble about. :D
Germain's King Charles Latakia mixture is quite nice too. That one isn't for the cellar but worthwhile, esp fresh.
Click to expand...
:puffy:

 
hiplainsdrifter

hiplainsdrifter

Part of the Furniture Now
Jan 8, 2012
977
14
If you want a latakia sledgehammer then SLF is not the answer. It is much more refined then that. However, it isn't like there is only a whiff of latakia there- Basically all I get when I smoke it is latakia flavor- it is just so well integrated into the Virginia backbone that I don't even notice that the Virginias are there. If you like good English tobacco, I definitely think it is a must try. People have mentioned a lot of different latakias in this thread, everything from MacBaren Latakia Flake to Quiet Nights. There are a lot of good latakia blends out there, but I think SLF stands apart in its perfect blend of flavors. Rather then a cacophony of tastes, you just get a smooth delicious harmonic note.

 
misterlowercase

misterlowercase

Lifer
May 31, 2012
4,295
34
One of my favorite Lat flakes is Robt. McConnell Latakia Flake,

mostly because it doesn't taste like latakia LOL

Big body, nice N, trad Brit taste.

Yum.

yummy.png


 
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