Germain Rich Dark Flake vs. Esoterica Stonehaven

Franz

Franz

At the latest Heukelum meeting I talked to fellow PRF-member Franz. Besides a fondness for old English made pipes (except Dunhill) he also very much likes the tobaccos made by the well known J.F. Germain & Son company from the British Channel Islands. Throughout the time I know Franz I was able to smoke quite a few Germain-made samples provided by him. Now he also did not disappoint me because from England he had ordered a vast amount of Germain Rich Dark Flake! I always wanted to try that one because according to a lot of stories it is similar to the famous Esoterica Tobacciana Stonehaven. I asked Franz if I could fill up a decent sized sample bag so I could compare it to Stonehaven at home. With a smile he said: go ahead!

jf_germain_sonBackground information:
Rich Dark Flake: Unfortunately I have very little background information about Rich Dark Flake. It is only available in the UK and is sold solely in bulk and not in tins. According to Mr Germain some of their blends maintained their recipe for 60 years. If that is the case with Rich Dark Flake, nooo idea.. I would love to hear from some elderly English pipe-smokers how long they are buying the blend.
Stonehaven: The origins of Esoterica Stonehaven are easier to trace. The range of Esoterica tobaccos was founded by Steve Richman, the owner of the Piedmont Tobacconist in Oakland, somewhere halfway the 1980’s. He was looking for someone who could produce his blends. J.F. Germain & Son heard about his interest and made contact through the British embassy. They must have been what Steve Richman was looking for because they started doing business together immediately. For the evaluation of the created blends Steve Richman founded a panel in which GL Pease also took place. Stonehaven is the only blend in the Esoterica range which includes Burley.

Package/tin description:
Rich Dark Flake:
“A great medium to strong dark flake made using a combination of Virginia and Burley tobaccos. Very similar to the popular Germains Stonehaven blend.” Rich Dark Flake comes in standard plastic pouches of a variety of gram weights with a lot of health warnings and in the same gold-coloured sealed bag as Stonehaven. It is always hit or miss if it comes all broken up or in thin juicy flakes.
Stonehaven: “A marriage of air-cured leaf and Burley with selected dark Virginia. Hard pressed and aged to produce brown flakes with dark undertones. A traditional English flake favoured by experienced pipe smokers.” Stonehaven comes in a gold-coloured sealed bag of 8 ounce with on it a simple but elegant label. As far as I know it never was available in tins.

Contents/cut:
Rich Dark Flake:
Burley and Virginia. The flake looks dark, long and thin but just not as thin as Stonehaven. On the picture the flake looks a bit broken up but this comes or from the journey to Franz, him dividing it in smaller portions and finally me putting it in a sample bag, or it was a batch which was a bit broken up.
Stonehaven: The same as Rich Dark Flake: Burley and Virginia. Apart from the slightly thinner cut both flakes look the same. According to Mr Germain Stonehaven is made with 22 cuts an inch. To me this is the thinnest flake I know of.

noseSmell from the pouch/bag:
Rich Dark Flake: When I hold the tobacco under my nose I smell milk chocolate, liquorice, treacle, leather, hay, raisins and some “earthiness”.
Stonehaven: Upon opening the mason jar in which I keep the tobacco I am greeted by a whiff of dark chocolate and some kind of liquor (cognac?) which reminds me of certain Belgian bonbons. Close to my sniffing organ the chocolate still dominates with a faint odour of hay and treacle. Obviously Stonehaven has a “darker” smell than Rich Dark Flake.

011Taste:
Rich Dark Flake: Already after the first few puffs you know you are on to something good. It has an “ancient”, traditional typical tobacco flavour to which only British manufacturers hold the secret. The first part of the bowl is utterly delicious and the creamy, rich flavours I encounter remind me of the typical Dutch “kerststol“: yeast, butter, (brown) sugar and almond. I did even taste some hints of dried fruit (plum?) and raisins. In the second part of the bowl the burley rears its head, the flavours deepen and the tobacco becomes more “manly”. A certain leathery earthiness develops and the sweetness sometimes gives way a bit to a pleasant bitterness. The flakes harmoniously burn down to a fine grey ash with no gooey stuff left behind.
Stonehaven: Dark chocolate hits my taste buds upon lighting and with the first couple of puffs. Pretty fast a dark sugary flavour comes in which diminishes the chocolate tones. There is not as much going on as with Rich Dark Flake in my opinion but the overall taste is excellent and harmonious. Here also a rich and creamy smoke but with a darker edge. Halfway the bowl you can really notice the burley (kept in check with a dark treacle sweetness) and the smoke becomes even deeper, fuller, with hints of nuttiness. Stonehaven clearly has a higher amount of burley than Rich Dark Flake. I detected nothing in the smoke itself of the liquor I smelled before on the bare flakes. Stonehaven also burns down to a fine grey ash.

Both tobaccos and the pipe I smoked them in: a Rattray's Old Perth

Both tobaccos and the pipe I smoked them in: a Rattray’s Old Perth

Miscellaneous:
Rich Dark Flake / Stonehaven: I don’t know how they do it but I seldom have tongue-bite with British made tobaccos. Rich Dark Flake and Stonehaven are no exceptions, even though they contain burley which has a tendency to cause pain on my tongue. They both smoke deliciously cool. Because of the thinner flakes the combustibility is good although they benefit from a bit of drying time. Nicotine-wise Stonehaven packs a bit more punch in my opinion and it is advisable to smoke both tobaccos after a good meal.

thumbs2Room-note:
Rich Dark Flake / Stonehaven: Both tobaccos I could actually smoke in the vicinity of my girlfriend Ellen. Not that she liked the odour of the smoke but it was bearable. Especially with Stonehaven I detected a faint cigarette like smell in the morning when I came downstairs but nothing too bad.

moneyPrice:
Rich Dark Flake: At MySmokingShop you pay £11.65 (± $18.24 /± €14.62) for a 50 gr. pouch and it seems the stuff is readily available. But beware, the shop does not ship to the USA..
Stonehaven: At 4noggins you pay $29.95 (± €24,-) for an 8 ounce bag. IF you can get it. Like so many offerings from Germain Stonehaven sells out almost the minute it hits the shop.. Oh, you can often get it on ebay but then an 8 ounce bag will set you back at over $ 100..

IMG_2428Conclusion:
In my opinion Rich Dark Flake and Stonehaven are not the same. Like Mr Germain said, they are similar. But not too similar. In Rich Dark Flake Virginia is the main component and in Stonehaven burley plays the leading role. For me in Rich Dark Flake there is more going on, more flavours, more sophistication. One of the few magnificent traditional British tobaccos. My mouth waters at the thought of some well-aged Rich Dark Flake.. Yummieyummieyummie! Stonehaven is more “Americanized”, an occasional treat and no all-day smoke but nonetheless superb. Very broadly speaking I think of Rich Dark Flake as milk chocolate and of Stonehaven as dark chocolate. The first I can eat all day long but the second is only tasty now and then. But then again, if you are a lover of dark chocolate… I would like to end with a thank you to Franz for making this blogpost possible!

Voluptuous Virginia

John Rolfe and Pocahontas

John Rolfe and Pocahontas

One of the most versatile tobacco leafs is Virgina, also known as the “bright leaf”. It is used for example in latakia blends and aromatics, gets mixed with Perique but can also stand perfectly on its own.

This tobacco goes back a loooooong time. It was Sir Walter Raleigh who took the first Virginia tobacco to Europe in 1578. He referred to it as tobah.
Then, In 1609, John Rolfe set foot in Jamestown, Virginia. He is credited as the first settler to have successfully grown tobacco for commercial use. But most people know him as the husband of Pocahontas. Yes, from the Disney movie. Go and tell THAT to your kids.
The tobacco grown in Virginia at that time, Nicotiana rustica, was used by the Chesapeake Indians in their religious ceremonies. The English settlers tried to sell some of this tobacco in England, but they were unsuccessful. That Virginia had a strong odour and flavour and the English consumers preferred a milder variety. They got just that when in 1614 John Rolfe planted this sweeter tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) in Virginia. It came from seeds which he brought from Bermuda or Trinidad. He grew enough to ship four barrels of tobacco to England. Rolfe’s tobacco sold for a high price and tobacco quickly became the main source of cash for Virginia. In fact, tobacco was used as currency by the Virginia settlers for years and Rolfe was able to make his fortune in farming it for export.

The bright leaf that became the favourite of European markets was not discovered until 1839. In that year a slave, Stephen Slade (owned by farmer Abisha Slade from Caswell County NC), accidentally discovered a new flue curing method that turned the leaf a bright yellow. He fell asleep one night while keeping an eye on the wood fires used for curing the barns of tobacco. Whether it was the stormy night, instinct or just what woke him, no one will ever know. But he awoke realizing that the fires in the tobacco curing barn had almost gone out. Rather than throw wet wood into the dying fire, he rushed to the charcoal pit near the forge. He grabbed several charred log parts and threw them on the embers. The application of the sudden, drying heat, derived from the charred logs, produced an amazing effect on the green tobacco. The result was 600 pounds of the brightest yellow tobacco ever seen. By the mid-1850’s, Abisha Slade had emerged as one of the leading educators in the use of charcoal in the curing of bright leaf tobacco. He made many public appearances to share the bright leaf process with other farmers.

Virginia field

Virginia tobacco field

In the United States Virginia is grown in the following “belts”, comprised of six states:
Old Belt: Virginia and North Carolina
Middle Belt: North Carolina
Eastern Belt: North Carolina
Border Belt: South Carolina and North Carolina
Georgia Belt: Georgia, Florida and Alabama

But the bright leaf is also grown all over the world in countries like Canada, China, Zambia, Tanzania, India, Argentina, Brazil and The Philippines. Because it grows pretty well in poorer soil it is one of the easier plants to cultivate. Beware, the flavour will vary depending upon where it is produced. For example, American Virginia tobacco is quite a lot sweeter than African.

Talking about sweetness, Virginia tobacco has a natural high sugar content. It is not abnormal to find sugar levels of 20% to 25% in the bright leaf. If the tobaccos are cased (like in aromatics) it can be even higher. Because of that higher sugar content Virginia can burn a bit hot. So if you don’t smoke slow you might wind up with a leather tongue.. And exactly that  is one of the reasons that Virginia flakes are popular. They slow down the burn rate because the tobacco is tightly packed together. Virginia-Perique blends are also very loved. This because the combination tastes good and the slow and cool burning Perique tames the Virginia heat pretty well.

Red Virginia

Red Virginia

There are several types of Virginia, each with unique characteristics:
Yellow Virginia: The most sweet of them all. Lemon to banana yellow in colour. The taste has a citrus-like, acidic sweetness.
Orange Virginia: A bit less sweet then the yellow with a kind of hay-like quality.
Bright Virginia: (A collective term) Most of the times a mixture of yellow and orange with perhaps a bit of red.
Red Virginia: A bread or yeast-like toastiness with a lot less sugar.
Brown Virginia: Heat, pressure and ageing are used to deepen the flavour and increase the nicotine content of the leaf. Regarding taste it has a mildly sweet earthiness.
Black Virginia: Yellow Virginia gets roasted on a metal surface until it turns black. This way the sugars are caramelized and you get a bit of a sweet, fruity taste.

When creating new blends, Virginia is VERY important. It forms the backbone of a mixture. Very often several types of Virginia are used within 1 blend, also in different cuts. For example, HH Mature Virginia from MacBaren contains 15 different types of the bright leaf. So if you make a new mixture, be sure that the Virginia part of it tastes good. Then when you are satisfied you can add other tobaccos like latakia, orientals etc.

There are a LOT of Virginia blends, I am not going to name them all. Well known straight (or almost straight) Virginia mixtures and flakes are:
Ashton Gold Rush
– Capstan: Medium Navy Cut, Gold Navy Cut
Cornell & Diehl Opening Night
– Dan Tobacco: Hamburger Veermaster, Skipper’s Flake
Dunhill Flake*
– Esoterica Tobacciana: Blackpool, Kingsbridge
GL Pease Union Square
HU Tobacco Sunset
– MacBaren: Virginia No.1*, Virginia Flake, HH Mature Virginia
– McClelland: No. 5100 Red Cake, No. 2010 Classic Virginia, Blackwoods Flake, Dark Star, Christmas Cheer
Rattray Marlin Flake*
– Samuel Gawith: Full Virginia Flake, Golden Glow, Best Brown Flake

* Available in The Netherlands