May ToM: Samuel Gawith Best Brown Flake

[croatan]

Place your reviews here for the May Tobacco of the Month.

[Sawyer]

Samuel Gawith - Best Brown Flake

Hand stripped Flue-cured Zimbabwe leaf steamed and pressed to medium brown. Made in England.


After having smoked about half a tin, here are my impressions:

Tin aroma is of dried fruit and very earthy. Tin contents consist of nice thinly sliced, medium brown, fairly moist flakes. The flakes dry out to proper moisture pretty fast once they are out of the tin. I have smoked bowls of folded and stuffed flakes and completely rubbed them out. There doesn't seem to be much difference in flavor or smoke quality between the two. It is a bit easier to get lit if it is rubbed out but both ways keep the bowl going to the bottom.

This is a mild smoke. Flavors are fairly straightforward but they are still very mild. I get hints of nuts, grass and hay, but not much sweetness or tang. I got a mild menthol flavor from time to time which was a bit of a surprise. It showed up along with a slight tingliness on the tongue.

I had a little trouble with tongue bite on the first few bowls I smoked of BBF. I tried to coax out more flavor than this blend was willing to give and ended up smoking it hot and moist. I have since realized that this is a light blend meant for sipping. It can be a very relaxing blend if smoked correctly.

Over all, this is a quality mild Virginia. It won't be in a my regular rotation, but I will probably keep some handy for a change of pace every now and again.

[Slow Triathlete]

I just tried this for the first time a few weeks ago. I like it!! I'll post my review in the next few days.

[Mad Hatter]

Good stuff. Like St James Flake w/o the perique. Not much at all like FVF or Bracken Flake. Mild flavor and not much of a nic hit. I've been smoking it for a few months and just about any way you want to smoke it works fine, but it can be a pain in the arse if the flake is thick and dry before rubbing out. No problem with tongue bite and burns clean as anything else I've smoked.

[Alyks]

I was hoping to pop the cherry on this virginia, but you snooze you lose.


Place & Date: My Garage
Tobacco: Samuel Gawith's Best Brown Flake
Tobacco Cut: Flake
Cut Width:
Cut Length:
Ingredients: Virginia

Evaluated Aspects scale of 0-6 (by twos - 0-2-4-6):
Appearance (tobacco): 6 - great looking brown flakes
Condition (humidity level): 4 - a bit on the moist side, but nothing a little drying can't take care of
Smell: 6 - mild, fruity
Packing (easy to difficult): 6- after rubbing out packing was easy
Lighting (easy to difficult): 4 - got through about 3-4 matches on average, on most blends I use 2
Taste: 6 - mild, tangy, sweet, almondy taste
Room Note/Aroma: 6 - the wife didn't seem to mind
Consistency of taste: 6 - same all down the way down the bowl
Combustion: 6 - a relight or two which is to be expected
Humidity during smoke: 4 - a bit of gurgling, but that might be due to my overzealous puffing
Tongue irritations: 6 none
Throat irritation: 6 none
Satisfaction of smoke: 6
After-taste/Finish: 6 - very consistent and straight forward
quality-price rapport: 6

Impressionistic Evaluation (choose one):
_X_this is one of the best of this genre.... (10 pts)
___I wouldn't mind paying for it... (7 pts)
___only if someone gave me a tin, etc (5 pts)
___I don't like it, but can understand other may (3 pts)
___one of the worst tobaccos I've ever smoked (0 pts)

TOTAL SCORE OUT OF 100: 90

Freeform Thoughts/Impressions:

I had a hard time placing the taste at first, but I was eating a bowl of cereal with almonds when I realized what it was. One of the best virginias I've put in my pipe. I will surely buy more.

[Slow Triathlete]

I have been smoking this off and on now for a bit so I thought that I would have enough to go on to post a review. Here goes:

I bought a tin of this to try and smoked the whole thing and then bought 4 ounces of bulk from smokingpipes just to see if there is a difference between the tinned version and the bulk version. To my rookie tastes I didn't notice a difference.

This blend comes in a large flake form. Both the tinned and bulk version came pretty damp so I rubbed it out as much as I could, let it dry, and then rubbed it out some more and then let it dry some more. I followed this routine just about everytime that I smoked this and I didn't have any issue with tongue bite.

Right off the bat I can tell you that I love this blend. I have found that I like it more in a bent pipe than in a straight pipe. The flavors seem more pronounced to me in a bent. Not sure if there is any validity to this or just my preference. I got a lot of dark virginia tastes and even a hint of chocolate in this blend. Overall I would say that it's a medium strength blend and very, very enjoyable.

On a side note, I can't remember where I read it but I think that I saw that this is pretty much the same as FVF, just the preperation is different.

PS....I have a bit of this left so if you would like a sample to review just shoot me a PM.

[RJpuffs]

I've only had a few bowls of BBF from a sampler trade, but here goes. It looks and feels just like SG FVF. Wet thick slabs of flake. With some drying it rubs out fine, just like FVF. However, when you light that puppy it doesn't taste the same as FVF. I found it too light and subtle, frankly I didn't like the "flue" curing taste (or maybe its the leaf itself, since its different from traditional VAs). Burnt perfectly, as all SG blends go, down to a fine white ash. But it didn't satisfy, and I do not think I will be adding this one to my meager rotation.

[hagen]

it is interesting to compare bbf to its kohlhase& kopp counterparts: all the rattray's, macconnell's and fribourg & treyer's virginia flakes.

first, it's not as sweet as those. it seems to be all natural tasting, and i can't detect any additives at all.

second, it has to be dried out to smoke properly.

third, it's got a lot more natural aromas/flavours in it than the k&k virginias. its got a richness and depth rivalled only, perhaps, by full virginia flake. like drinking a fine cognac, where the k&k's are more like cheap spanish or italian brandy...

fourth, it's stronger than most of the k&k's. about medium strong, and thus one of the strongest pure virginias i know.

i absolutely adore it!