Samuel Gawith Cob Flake

(2.89)
Dark fired leaf hot pressed and cut into a 6" flake before adding a dressing of tonquin flavor. A full strength, full flavored tobacco.
Notes: Marketed in the USA under the name "1792 Flake".

Details

Brand Samuel Gawith
Blended By Samuel Gawith
Manufactured By Samuel Gawith
Blend Type Virginia/Burley
Contents Kentucky, Virginia
Flavoring Tonquin Bean, Whisky
Cut Flake
Packaging Bulk
Country United Kingdom
Production Currently available

Profile

Strength
Strong
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild -> Overwhelming
Flavoring
Medium to Strong
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
None Detected -> Extra Strong
Room Note
Very Pleasant
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unnoticeable -> Overwhelming
Taste
Full
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extremely Mild (Flat) -> Overwhelming

Average Rating

2.89 / 4
3

3

2

1

Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jun 30, 2014 Strong Strong Very Full Very Pleasant
The tonquin bean is strong and buries the whisky (if it is there), but it won't matter to you if you like tonquin. As strong as this tobacco is, there is a light mellowness in the flavor that one may find rather pleasing, which is well contrasted by the varietals. Heavily topped, but I can still taste some nutty, woody, mildly floral, dry, earthy, herbal, spicy dark fired Kentucky burley, though the grassy, earthy, tart and tangy citrusy, floral, woody and fermented tangy dark fruity Virginias are mostly subdued. The strength is strong (sorry, that reads badly) with a very full taste. Has a strong nicotine hit to satisfy anybody's craving. Won't bite, but has a few rough edges. You may prefer to dry it a little as it is very moist. It burns very slow, clean and cool with a fairly smooth, very consistent, mildly sweet, more savory, richly deep flavor from start to finish. It does require some relights. Leaves a little moisture in the bowl, but not enough to spoil the experience. Has a very pleasantly, long lingering after taste and room note. Made for the veteran smoker, it's more of a love/hate product than your average flake, and is not an all day smoke. Will ghost a briar, and a meerschaum, too.

-JimInks
7 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Sep 25, 2005 Extremely Strong Mild Very Full Pleasant to Tolerable
I received a tin of Cobb Flake from an overseas friend who claimed this to be 1792 Flake. I think he's right because the appearance of the leaf, the shape of the tin, and particularly the face meets floor effect after smoking half a bowl convinced me.

My doctor says the facial lacerations should heal right up.
6 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
May 07, 2011 Strong Strong Very Full Tolerable
This is a Virginia flake, highly pressed and generously cased with Tonquin bean oil, very strong in nicotine and requires small bowl in order to fully enjoy this kind of smoke for which you need an attentive and contemplative smoking style. small puffs and slow RPM with many pauses, on/off, lite/re-lite etc....

if it is smoked that way, it is delicious.
2 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Sep 27, 2015 Very Strong Medium to Strong Full Pleasant
Sam Gawith-Cob Flake. If you don't like a full flavoured nicotine laden blend I can't see you finding this appealing!

Even though it's sold in loose pouches it still has the feature that's idiosyncratic to Sam G', it's too moist! Not as bad as their sealed tins but it's still too damp.

The nose from the pouch has quite a potent touch of whisky, like the smoke this is the strongest added flavour.

This one is pretty easy to ignite, just give it a slight charring light, take a few steady puffs, then re-introduce the flame for the final light.

As I said at the start, the smoke is full flavoured. The two tobaccos work perfectly together, a brilliant brightness from the Virginia with the taste being rounded off by a nuttiness from the Kentucky.

Again, like the aroma, of the two additives it's the whisky that comes through the strongest. The tonquin doesn't go unnoticed, it gives a very subtle vanilla type of taste only it's nowhere near as potent as the whisky.

The other thing I highlighted at the beginning was the fact I find it strong with nicotine. I don't inhale my pipe smoke so it doesn't really affect me but if I do inhale it my head begins to spin a bit!

This is a stout full smoke, yes there are a few issues but I will still recommend it!

Pipe Used: Davorin Denovic Morta
Age When Smoked: New
1 person found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jun 14, 2010 Medium to Strong Very Strong Full Overwhelming
In Britain and (I'm led to believe) in much of Europe 1792 comes in tins. When sold loose it is done so under the name of cob flake. I have no idea why.

However, the nomenclature is not the strangest thing about this blend. I bought some of this stuff from a nice tobacconist in Otley, West Yorkshire, and stuffed my nose into the pouch with eager anticipation as soon as I was alone. I'd heard so much about this strange beast that I was expecting to be side swiped by the most unimaginable and exotic sensual assault. I was disappointed but also pleasantly surprised. The aroma of the unburnt tobacco reminded me of a sweet which I buy whenever I get to the Chinese supermarket. It's made of a sweetened mung bean paste and is quite delicious. There was also a faint hint of menthol to the smell which I found pleasing, subtle and intriguing. So far so good but hardly the wild ride I had been promised by those who had stumped up for a ticket before me.

When I got up for my apres dinner smoke I packed a brand new corn cob with a good couple of pinches of the flake which I had rubbed out and left to dehumidify whilst I ate. Samuel Gawith's products always seem a bit damp for immediate smoking, at least they do to my sensibilities.

It lit with an average level of difficulty, not putting up as stiff a resistance as some but certainly a little hesitant as if slightly embarrassed. I can quite understand it's sheepishness. If I tasted this way then I wouldn't want to be smoked either. The experience was not unlike being locked in a tiny, unventilated, room with a flatulent vegetarian. It was not the strength of flavour which offended me so but the structure. It started out as swampy, decaying vegetable matter and proceded to burnt leather via rained on ashtrays. I occasionally got a faint whiff of the "sweetened mung bean and menthol" I had been promised by the pouch aroma but brief, fleeting and in a sick distorted parody of the unburnt fragrance.

I really don't understand it. My taste buds usually thrive on the strange and (to others) unpleasant flavours of the world. I wanted to like this. I don't know why I can't but I'm certainly not going to waste any more time trying. Maybe if I spent more time with it I could learn to love Cob flake, I just don't see why I should. I love the fact that we all have different tastes and appreciate different things. I'm glad some folk love this and I wont tell them they're wrong for it. I'd just rather they didn't do it around me (is this making me sound like a non-smoker?).

If I was forced to choose between smoking this and contracting dysentery, I'd be stocking up on toilet paper.

UPDATE...

I put on my old work shirt the other day and noticed it had a strange smell to it. In the pocket I found the nearly full and unsealed pouch of Cob Flake - still too moist to smoke straight off after a year! I let some air for a bit and then smoked it.

The aging certainly helped alot as the swamp flavours and smells were much muted and the "sweetened mung bean" was much more prominant as was a good cigar note. If it was like this from fresh I might smoke it but I can't be bothered with buying a tobacco to age for a year before I start on it, nor did I like the trace of swampiness which remained.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Oct 11, 2010 Medium to Strong Medium to Strong Full Tolerable to Strong
This is a very high quality dark flake tobacco, and very well presented – as you would expect from Samuel Gawith; it seems to me to be the same whether you buy it in a tin as 1792 flake or loose, as Cob Flake, though – as is so often true with SG tobaccos, the tinned version is improved by a bit of drying out. For what it is, you can't fault it: cool, slow-burning, won't bite unless you beg it to, not unbearably strong, full of flavour – all the things you look for in a quality flake. Personally, I don't like it, because I don't like either the flavour or the room note; but each to his own: this is certainly worth a try, if only to say that you have. It's an acquired taste. If you like eccentric flavours, you'll get on fine with 1792; if you like straightforward uncased flakes, you won't.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 28, 2010 Medium to Strong Medium Medium to Full Strong
This tobacco came out of the packet just like shredded lorry tyres. I pulled it apart and it sprang back to it's original shape. (I'm sure I heard it laugh at me.) With difficulty I managed to get enough to pull apart to get it to agree to charging my pipe and reaching the "ignition" stage. First impression ...aromatic, followed by very strong aromatic, followed by not really aromatic now at all. This was " mailed fist in velvet glove" surely ?? the Tonka beans were there as a joke, just to put you off balance before Madam N. gave you a right kick in the whatevers.

One can be sure that on the "Tobacco" journey, there will be many false discoveries of Nirvana. But Hey, who cares so long as I can afford the fare (??)

Addendum. Having found my two ideal tobaccos right here on the doorstep (UK)I understand the strange "Soapy" handle that is sometimes appended to reviews of "English tobaccos". I don't think that it is a reference to a physical attribute of the taste at all, merely the fact that these "Dark" brews DON'T give you tongueburn,sore throats,etc., and are a result of discriminating blenders who have really and truly learned their "Art". Although I can't get an authoratative answer other than on the manufacturer's website ( what does he know anyway ?) Cob Flake is the same tobacco as "1792" but Cob is the "Bulk" or "Loose" version of the same animal.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jan 29, 2004 Strong Strong Full Very Pleasant
I was a bit nervous about trying this tobacco which as I understand it is still mase in the same old time way as when it was first produced.

Firstly if you are an ex cigarette smoker (you have seen the light)you will love this tobacco as it has plenty of nicotine delivered in a base which is very tasty and pleasent. The flake is very dark and quite damp as supplied and to my mind has an arome reminiscent of vanilla. However this is no candy shop tobacco.

Due to the dampness I di find this tobacco a bit hard to light and will benefit from a little drying.

The taste is delightful and the smoke thick and creamy and an extremely cool smoke at that despite the dampness. It is evident that this is a high grade of tobacco. There was no bite at all despite the fact that drying would improve the smoking qualities.

Cob Flake must be the ultimate in after dinner tobacco.

In summary if you like a high nicotine tobacco, with a delightful flavour and little or no tongue bite, I think you will love this tobacco.

This is definately one for my cellar.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Sep 17, 2001 Strong Medium to Strong Full Unnoticeable
I don't consider this as overwhelmingly strong tobacco. Taste at the beginning is strong but it gradually settles down to a very smooth and interesting world of flavours. The pouch aroma is at first very unpleasant, but when smoking it a few times you get used to it and in my case I now even enjoy it. This tobacco plug is very moist. It is easy to cut with a sharp knife and rub down. I let it dry for a while before packing it to the bowl. How ever if you let it dry too long, at least in my oppinion it loses some of the taste, but again this is my oppinion. It is a bit difficult to light it, but once you get it running it stays that way and gives you a very pleasant hour of smoking. As I said the taste at the beginning is bit stronger than in the end. Aroma also takes a bit of time before it appears, the aroma to my nose is strong so I recommend to smoke this one outdoors. Once you get the smoking session going the taste is really wonderful. It is so smooth and full of different kind of aromas and tastes that the only way to describe it is excellent. This tobacco, when it is moist, burns really slowly. When I get up from my chair at the end of the bowl it has already gone up in my head... I'm drunk!! This tobacco in this form is really a worth a shot, even if you don't appreciate flavored tobaccos I think this one is one you should try.
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