What’s Your Favorite Esoterica/Germain’s Blend?

[filmguerilla]

Realizing that even acquiring this tobacco brand is extremely difficult for some, I’m curious what everyone here likes most from this brand.

I admit that I’ve been super lucky in that my local Tinder Box gets most drops from Germain’s, so I’ve tried most everything and have a decent cellar of the stuff. That said…

I think the big two—Penzance and Stonehaven—are overhyped. Penzance is so close to Star of the East that I will never chase it again. Stonehaven is great, but I’d take the Gawith dark flakes over it any day (my fave being 1792). My actual favorites are three of the most getable blends: Dorchester, Pembroke, and Margate.

Dorchester, to me, is a better Elizabethan mixture. Love the apricot topping, the dark tobacco, and perique is just perfect. Margate is an awesome, traditional English blend—super rich and flavorful—with Pembroke improving on the formula with that cognac topping. Runners up: Dunbar (VaPer), Woodbridge, and Scarborough.

And before someone jumps in with “they don’t make them like the used to,” or some such sentiment, I’ve been smoking these blends since the early aughts. So, what are your favorites?

 

[sablebrush52]

Dunbar, Dorchester, Tilbury, Rich Dark Flake, Brighton, and Cardiff immediately come to mind. I never cared for Penzance, but I'm not much of an English smoker anyways. Almost all of my stash dates to between 2013 and 2018.
The base tobacco blend changed around 2020, and for me, not in a good way, so I haven't bought any in years.

 

[VDL_Piper]

Germains Perique Mixture and Plum Cake for me.

 

[lukasstrifeson]

Germains Perique Mixture and Plum Cake for me.

+1 Germains Plum Cake

 

[username]

Peacehaven is my favorite of the ones ive had but its been a long time since i have it.

 

[filmguerilla]

+1 Germains Plum Cake

Hmm...I'm realizing it's been a while since I visited this one again. Have to break out a tin.

 

[smudgersmissingleg]

Brown Flake and Medium Flake are easily my two favourite Germain's blends. I used to really like RDF but kinda went off it.

 

[khiddy]

Margate and Dorchester have been standouts for me, but I really want to try Blackpool at some point.

 

[OzPiper]

Germains Perique Mixture.

+ 1 Germain's Royal Jersey Perique Mixture

Unlike the OP, I like Stonehaven very much.
I bought mine in 2019, but have no idea of the date of manufacture
I have smoked Rich Dark Flake and Stonehaven in tandem on numerous occasions.
Both very good smokes, but my untrained palate prefers Stonehaven

 

[WerewolfOfLondon]

Medium Flake, at the moment at least, is my fav. Up there with the very best straights.

Uncle Tom gets a dishonourable mention for being one of the worst baccis on the market.

 

[BingBong]

I would enjoy Medium Flake, if I could ever get hold of some. As it is, sometimes I get lucky and get some Gold Leaf R/R, which is very good indeed. Brown Flake is marginally more available and is my favorite of that genre. Special Latakia Flake is also more readily available and is often my go-to when I fancy some English.

Much of the rest doesn't do much for me, 1820, King Charles, Royal Perique (is that the name?) etc., give no buoyancy to my vessel.

 

[greeneyes]

Dunbar, Dorchester, Tilbury, Rich Dark Flake, Brighton, and Cardiff immediately come to mind. I never cared for Penzance, but I'm not much of an English smoker anyways. Almost all of my stash dates to between 2013 and 2018.
The base tobacco blend changed around 2020, and for me, not in a good way, so I haven't bought any in years.

I have to agree with sable in the sense that, and I'm not sure when it happened exactly, there was a change, and not one I'd say was for the better. I've got several tins open from, I'd say as late as '20 and the current stuff, including a bag of Blackpool (one of my favorites), and the cut, color, flavor and aroma are all different. Having smoked Esoterica from various years, I'd say the scale of this change is rather outside the realm of expectation for what one would suppose is due to batch or seasonal variation. I have a few tins of my old favorites to fall back on, however, namely Brown Flake and Bridge Old Brown Flake.

 

[craig61a]

I’ve got some Penzance and ASTB from around 2018. I don’t smoke it all that often.

I had a good stash of Esoterica till prices went absolutely insane. And while I enjoyed the tobacco, I figured I’d take advantage of the situation and cash in on the insanity.

I used the money to buy other tobaccos and build up an inventory of stuff to age for years to come…

 

[pappymac]

Ten years ago I would have said Penzance but that was before I discovered SPC Plum Pudding.
I had to think about it but I've really have only smoked Germain's 1820 Flake and Plum Cake. The 1820 Flake was good but I wasn't impressed with the Plum Cake.

 

[Peter Turbo]

Dunbar, Dorchester, Margate
Special Latakia Flake gets an honorable mention.

I have Penzance as well but like other posters have mentioned I too feel like its nothing special.

 

[SBC]

I'm happy for those who find SOTE a good replacement for Penzance. I don't -- there's a softness and an oily creaminess to Penzance that I've never found elsewhere.

My favorite readily available balkan is Peretti Royal Blend, and I'd be perfectly content with it, never having Penzance again. But, it's not a replacement for Penzance, which is unique, and I'm richer for having a bowl of Penzance every once in a blue moon, besides the Royal Blend.

I also like Pembroke a lot, although it's not as utterly unique as Penzance.

Stonehaven didn't do anything for me. At all.

Tillbury I positively disliked and gave away.

 

[Terry Lennox]

Penzance, especially with a bit of age, is unique. I always suspected a small topping of anise is used. It may look like SOTE Flake but they are different. Penzance has less Latakia and more Va and oriental, for one thing.

I would love to try Dorchester. Have never had the chance in all my years.

But my favorite Germain-produced blend is from Smoker's Haven called In-B-Tween Mixture. It is a medium Balkan. I have 25 tins.

 

[litup]

Stonehaven is the only one that would inspire me to pay above retail prices for.

 

[Brad H]

+1 Pembroke

 

[SBC]

But my favorite Germain-produced blend is from Smoker's Haven called In-B-Tween Mixture

I tried a small sample of Our Best Blend, and thought that it was at least as good as Penzance, if not better. I've been hoping to try Exotique and In-B-Tween as well.