After seeing all the colourful Bgraamiens puzzle shared on the sub, I knew I had to try one eventually. eBay came to my rescue and after much deliberation Autumn in My Heart and Mille Crepe Cake landed in my virtual cart.
My search for any bit of information about this brand was not successful. The trademark is registered to Cao Ting and this blog entry from Puzzle Hobby refers to her puzzle being printed by Panley Paper with the head office in Hong Kong and a factory in China (Shen Zhen).
The puzzle box does not provide any other useful information, apart from their Hotmail address, barcode and safety warnings. Square and sturdy, it measures 23.5 x 23.5 x 5 cm. The bag appears to be non-recyclable and the generous poster (31 x 33 cm when unfolded) is a helpful addition.
The puzzle pieces are just about 2 mm, so the standard thickness and the print quality is excellent, with gorgeous, bright colours. The puzzles are on the glossy side, so the experience will be impacted if you are mostly puzzling under artificial light. The backing is 'lettered' (from A to G) and will help sort the puzzle into sections.
The pieces are in all shapes and forms, a fantastic variety for a 750 pieces puzzle. They don't have the Heye, Schmidt or Ravensburger 'cardboard' feel I personally prefer, but didn't feel as 'plasticky' as Galison which I don't like. It could have been due to the fact the pieces were much smaller than the 500 pieces Galison I completed a while back. Some held well together, others needed some support when moved around, but it is at least partially due to fact not all them were interlocking.
I pictured the few imperfections of the top layer and all the attached pieces, one pair was not fully cut through. The non-separated pieces are not an issue, the bent and damaged pieces did not impact the appearance and puzzling experience overall, so I'd agree with the comments from Puzzle Hobby. I do expect a new puzzle to come without any damage though.
The was no puzzle dust, only one tiny bit of top layer pictured among the imperfect pieces.
Overall impressions: it was a challenging puzzle and I have clearly overestimated my abilities and patience. I started without looking at the image and managed to assemble the most distinctive leaves and then... was stuck. I ended up placing the pieces 'face down' and separating them by 'letters'. Once I did that, I was able to complete the puzzle in 3 evening sessions. I referred to the image once I had large batches assembled to work out where they were going. This puzzle was more frustrating than it was enjoyable and I felt somehow defeated by the fact I used the letters at the back (silly, I know!). I have one more Bgraamiens left to do, but I am in no rush and unlikely to buy one again.