Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. Dark Virgina Cavendish Chocolate

WHEW! After reading the above, I'm not sure whether Willy boy wrote a book or a tobacco review. Hope I still have time to add my two cents worth!

My two cents worth on DVC Chocolate is this; don't buy it unless you are an aromatic fan. And if you are an aromatic fan, this will be a very large step up from "drug store" goo!

I found the virginia leaf to be of top quality, both in feel and taste, but the casing (chocolate?) did put me off a bit. The smell in the tin did remind me of chocolate, but frankly, the taste at the match was something else entirely. The blend is very cool, similar to Captain Black, etc. The steaming certainly causes this, but, as is often the case with stewed leaf, the flavor went bye-bye. If you like bland and sweet, well, here you go!

The Goop de Ville of the tobacco world, I think DVC stands for Dreadfully Vile Crap.

It was a free sample, so I did get value for my money.

Avoid.

I was plessantly suprised with this. This is not an obnoxious chocolate black cavendish from Lane or elsewhere. A somewhat but not too dry broken cake of dark brownish black stoved tobaccos. I would not even liken it's qualities to being flavored at all with chocolate. In doing so they flavored it just right, subtlely, just enough to round out and enhance. I like the fact that all viginia leaf is used instead of burley, giving more fullness and body. There is also a tinge of that "smoky", spicy cinnimon quality presumingly coming from a small proportion of dark fired viginia added. Taste was a little too light for my preferrence but very pleasant with a "dark" and slight but dry sweetness, if you know what I mean. This would make a good mixer for other blends, virginias especially, aromatics and I would say even some latakia blends if one wanted to dilute that respective element in a blend. Also a superior choice for the black cav. crowd. Tinder Box Skilling smokers should try this one.

Recommended

Willy covered most of my impressions, but I want to emphasize his comments regarding a zesty Virginia character. I love GH Virginias, but the steam processing generally removes the citrusy high notes that are so delicious in McClelland, C&D and GLP blends. So I certainly didn't expect to find them in a steamed Virginia Cavendish blend. Yet there they are, at least for the first half of the bowl.

As for the chocolate topping, this is nothing like an American-style aromatic. I doubt most people would identify chocolate if they sniffed a baggie of this blind, and the chocolate comes through more as a smoothness than as a flavor in the smoke. Picture the aftertaste of a sip of bittersweet hot cocoa, and you come close. Viewed comparatively, this has about the same amount of chocolate flavoring as Bob's Chocolate Flake, which I think is quite subdued.

An interesting note to me: most Virginia-containing blends taste different when smoked normally vs. air-smoked, i.e. puffing while allowing air in around the stem. This smoked exactly the same either way. While this isn't a complex blend, the interplay of zest, smoothness, and sweet pastry flavors keeps it interesting.

But wait: a two-hour DGT at 1/2 bowl changes things. Instead of smoothness, a fire-cured flavor asserts itself, with all of the back-of-throat edge, lip-numbing, head-spinning characteristics. Is this the same tobacco? Yes. It retains some sweetness, and the overall effect is still good, but it is a different animal. This calms down over the remainder of the smoke, but never returns to its original self.

I like this blend. Give it a try.

I normally smoke VA flakes but thought a steamed VA Cavendish might prove interesting. This jet black tobacco is evenly rubbed out and has an ideal moisture content for packing, lighting and a mild, continuous burn. I sensed the chocolate as only a slight undertone in pouch and room aroma and taste but still view this as an mild or semi-aromatic. I've also received greater complements on the room aroma with some true aromatics. It's a matter of personal taste, but I feel that the casing is fighting the natural, quality tobacco flavors and the best of neither is found. This might be a step up from the drug store blends for an aromatic fan. Although I have some other steamed VAs to try, looks like I'll remain a flake man.

Gawith Hoggarth - DVC Chocolate.

The chocolate seems to have been added quite sparingly, the nose from the pouch suggests an added sweetness albeit not necessarily chocolate. The chocolate comes through a little stronger in the smoke. It's not as easy to identify as in say Bobs Chocolate but it's not as tricky to label it as chocolate as I find with the aroma. Once I have filled my pipe it can take a few goes to get it lit but once it's going it gives a reasonably even burn. I notice that the latter half of the pipe has a stronger chocolate taste to it than the initial first few puffs, still not 'aromatic' yet the chocolate is identifiable with more ease. Nicotine? I find it very mild, a beginners smoke maybe? If not a beginners smoke I think it would make a good evening smoke to relax with due to the weak nicotine content, sweet taste and lack of bite. Although it doesn't bite me I find that if I draw with too much vigour the temperature of the smoke becomes too warm, for this reason I sip it slower.

I find DVC an 'O.K' smoke but it lacks any special qualities, for this reason I score it two stars.

This was another sample I received in my trial pack of G & H tobaccos. They are, IMHO, akin to the Esoterica tobaccos in that many of each one appear alike in looks, smoking characteristics, tastes and rate of burn. I really like the Esoterica blends, and the G & H blends are equally pleasing to me. DVC Chocolate is a dark, nearly black blend with lighter brown bits mixed in. It's mostly broken, but there are some larger flakes that will need to be shredded for better packing. The aroma upon opening the bag is most assuredly sweet, but in a subtle way, and is like a semi-sweet or dark chocolate flavor. Remember, we're not talking Hershey bars here. I don't feel they were too heavy-handed with the flavoring, because it certainly isn't in the category of the "goopy" aromatics, but the flavor will be noticed. Packing was typical but with a little less pressure because of the moisture content. Since I fill by the three step method, I just backed off a little at the top. I found on subsequent bowls that about half to one hour air time made a big difference in the moisture and packing. I'll just put some on a paper plate and go on about my business for a while. Come back later and ,hey, good to go. The initial light took an additional match or two, but I've noticed this with other darker tobaccos so to me it was no big deal. BUT, once lit and going....man what a good smoke! I have two Weiner pipes dedicated to this tobacco only. One is the brown bent sandblast featured in the article P&T did on Steve a while back, and that pipe and this tobacco seem to go together like hand-in-glove. I feel that any size bowl would accomodate this tobacco very nicely, but a very deep "chimney" could make for some bitterness near the end of the smoke. The sweetness is present but in a discreet and subtle way. It's a very light dark chocolate taste that in no way overrides the familiar VA taste. There is also that spicy VA tang that we all know and love, and a slight, slight tartness that balances the flavor nicely. Being a steamed cavendish does make for a pleasant, easy smoke with an edge that keeps things interesting, but there's no sharpness to bite the tongue. The blend keeps on burning, and burning, and burning and the sweetness does diminish (but lingers slightly) and the flavor changes to a rich, smoky tobaccoey taste which is in no way unpleasant. I found no problem with wet burning except for one swab with a pipe cleaner about halfway down. The rich VA flavors and the subtle chocolate flavor do, IMHO, complement each other very nicely and make for a great anytime smoke, but maybe something a bit heavier would be more suitable in the evening. I would recommend this tobacco to others who like the VA taste but would like a bit more sweetness in the flavor without ruining that natural tobacco taste. Like many of you, I don't want to smoke casings and flavorings, I want to taste the nuances of the tobacco I'm putting in my pipe bowl. DVC Chocolate provides the best of both worlds and leans to the natural tobacco flavor more than the artificial flavor. The tobacco burns to a dry, white ash (i.e Esotericas) and leaves the pipe clean and dry with maybe a hint of dottle. Puffing a little extra hard as a test did not produce that HOT sensation we don't like to taste, although if you huff it like a freight train pulling a heavy load uphill I suppose things could heat up considerably (what tobacco wouldn't?) As an aside LSW says "Hey, that has a nice smell honey. Which one is that?" We have a winner folks. If you want a tobacco that very successfully bridges the "aromatic" and "natural" gap you may want to give this a try. I'm glad I did.

This was a surprise. It mentioned chocolate in the description which can put some of us off. It actually has a bit of character and doesn't fall flat on the flavor. It makes a great all day smoke and I would mix it with some other stuff that we just try to save sometimes. Try it. It works.

I agree with what everything Darth69 said. I picked this up mainly because I liked the smell. I really like this blend as an all day smoke. The chocolate isn't as pronounced as Bob's Chocolate Flake but it is definitely in there.

DVC isn't bad by itself. As a condiment tobacco, I believe its character shines a brighter light. Alone this tobacco is better than any other cavendish out there, I like the fact that its not deeply marinated in a stew of pg. Very dry on the pallet. Dark stoving yeilds a very mild smoke, with minimal sweetness. In fact I would veiw this as unsweetened. this smoke does possess some some mildly aromatic qualities, as do many of the other G&H tobaccos. As stated above there is a fire cured essence to this smoke. I find it to be exceptional when blended with 50% fire cured kentucky and 25% perique. It also compliments G&H syrian latakia as well. This tobacco is dry right out of the pouch and, ready to burn. The ash is clean and powdery grey. Not bad but, nothing to write home about.