Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. Brown Flake Aromatic

TIN AROMA: A beautiful rich aroma. But although it contains vanilla and fig topping, the smell actually is a perfect facsimile of Fry's Turkish Delight; basically rose flavoured Turkish delight and chocolate.

ROOM NOTE: The confectionary smell is less obvious here but still has a sweet, fruity, chocolate aroma; it's just mixed with a classic sweet virginia note. Perhaps a touch of English soapiness is there, too.

PACKING: Once rubbed out it's actually quite a fine cut and fairly leathery to the touch. In this respect it's similar to ST. Bruno. A joy to pack the bowl with.

LIGHTING: Again, a pure joy. Produces tons of delicious white smoke as soon as the flame hits the weed. A couple of matches and one tamper is all you need.

APPEARANCE: A mixture of dark and bright virginia that produces quite a dark brown but flecked appearance. If fully rubbed out it resembles cigarette tobacco as the strands are very fine. Moisture content is perfect and has a slightly leathery texture.

SMOKING: This is one of my favourites. It burns very evenly and not too quickly for a virginia; I believe this is down to a little added burley which is not listed above. However, as with all virginias, care has to be taken with the smoking if you don't want to end up with a mouth full of blisters. Having said that, it burns a lot cooler than your average virginia. The flavour is the perfect balance between quality virginias and a 'not-too-intrusive' delicious topping. The main flavour I detect is chocolate with an underlying fruitiness, topped off by the floral edge typical of North West England blends. In fact the taste is quite esoteric and singular; it remains constant to the bottom of the bowl and never becomes harsh. I believe this makes it a very different and interesting aromatic. The result is a very tasty, multi-dimensional, complex flavour that is never dull. It burns to a very fine grey ash that doesn't stick to the walls of the bowl. Although it sounds odd, if you mix this particular blend with latakia or latakia/Turkish with a 50/50 ratio the result is pure heaven; a sort of 'sweet and sour' that burns cool. The point is, it has a very versatile flavour that shines through without spoiling any natural tobacco flavour. Nicotine-wise, I find this blend mild, but the smoke is fairly full-bodied in the mouth with a good, rich flavour. I give this blend five out of five stars; I can thoroughly recommend it.

PROS: Wonderful, complex flavour, packs, lights and burns well and cleanly. Very versatile. An excellent quality virginia that is never boring.

CONS: None really, other than the usual biting problems if you forget it's a virginia. Also, you may not like it if you don't care for that calassic floral taste; personally, I love it!

Ok, I bought this one based on my idea of it being a cross between Brown Flake unscented and Ennerdale, both of which I enjoy very much. It actually does fit that bill but the result was a bit less than I envisioned.

This is obviously Brown Flake with added flavoring/scent. The unscented Brown Flake has an earthy, robust quality that remains in this blend. The flavorings (fig? I guess I haven't tasted fig in awhile) offer a nice blanket over the tobacco and the result is a sweet and flowery tasting batch of masculine tobacco that is not overbearing. This stuff refused to bite no matter how much I provoked it, but it could turn bitter. Smoked in a normal relaxed manner, it was a naturally sweet smoke with burley richness and fullness of body. The rose/geranium flavoring seemed a bit more over the top than Kendal Flake but not quite as much so as Ennerdale. Somehow this combination worked but it worked less well than I had hoped. I can't put my finger on its shortcomings, and I think some further experimentation is in order.

G&H Flakes, with the exception of Rum Flake, have really been impressing me lately. This one not so much but I can still recommend it to folks who enjoy both the Brown Flake unscented and Ennerdale Flake. This should have been a 4 star blend for me and I'm not sure why it isn't. Give it a try and see for yourself.

I regretfully ordered a couple of ounces of this tobacco a few weeks ago. One bowl was all it took for me to determine I had made a mistake.

This rascal bit like a bulldog and adding insult to injury, left a floral taste in my mouth and pipe that is just now starting to subside.

Yuck!

I never had the intention of buying this blend. It was never on my radar, but it dropped into my lap. I was trying to order some Dark Flake Unscented which is one of my favorites, when I ended up with two pounds of this blend in the end. To say the least I've been able to give this a fair shake.

I can't say much for packaging, buying in bulk gets you a generic green box. When I opened the box I was met with a well pressed, beautiful block of tobacco. The flakes are quite long, but very easily rubbed out. The smell is heavenly. Rose, Vanilla, Fig, delicate sweetness, some breadiness; basically it smells like a sweet shop that sits right next door to a bakery. I rub my flakes out and stuff them and usually leave them out for an hour or so. It takes a little while to light, and requires more than your average relights throughout your bowl.

This blend is more subtle than you think it would be by smell alone. Firmly in the British tradition, you can actually taste the tobacco through the toppings. The Burley is chocolatey, nutty and smooth, and the Virginias are nice and bready similar to Capstan Blue. The toppings are floral, but also smooth and delicate. You don't lose any of your base tobacco taste. The slower you puff the more you will taste.

The taste is a medium with a very pleasant aftertaste. The strength is a medium. A very nice all day smoke. The room note is also very pleasant and I've gotten a lot of remarks about it. I'm glad I recieved this by mistake since I would have never ordered it before, but I shall prefer more in the future.

Gawith Hoggarth - Brown Flake Aromatic.

Thick flakes that need time to air! The aroma coming from the flakes doesn't really have that much of an aromatic side to it, I have heard it may resemble Turkish delight but the only smell I get is a very gentle floral one. Once it has had a few hours in the open it has an O.K moistness to break and rub. Despite the fact the water has diminished due to the thickness of these flake slices it still requires a firm rub, probably some more airing would decrease the 'stickiness' of the flakes.

Putting aside the slight dampness of my tobacco it still lights simply, in fact the burn scores more points as it's incredibly steady, a proper 'sit back, relax and don't worry about constantly re-lighting' tobacco. The smokes temperature is superbly cool with no tongue bite, so this will be good for the more enthusiastic puffers among us! Moving on to taste now, having read how this contains vanilla, citrus, tonquin and fruit I feel a little nonplussed as the only added taste I can pick out is a slight floral one. That said though, even though there isn't much added taste the flavour I get is a total joy! The tobacco flavour is prominently Virginia, there is a slight cool caramel taste from the Burley albeit it's not easily recognizable. As this one burns down I find the flavour really stable, it holds the same taste throughout without becoming acrid or fluctuating any. Due to the moistness of this one I find a fair amount of dottle in my bowl at the end, due to this I like to smoke just three quarters of a bowl to avoid any sourness that may incur from this.

Nicotine: medium. Room-note: pleasant.

For taste alone I would score this four stars but the few slight negatives abate this to three:

Recommended.

You know, I 'm not sure I am smoking the same blend as the others reviewers either. I have sampled a 25g loose pack.

I must confess at the outset, firstly I am an aromatics fan and secondly I bought this in an attempt to relieve my favourite Savinelli pipe of the Talisman ghost.

That said, this is supposed to be an aromatic. It isn't. Admittedly Mrs RH made no comment when I was puffing away in the lounge this afternoon but this has no smell little room note and doesn't taste of anything much.

Vanilla and fig ? Yer having a giraffe !

It's rubs out easily and actually burns quite well, with few relights. Boils up really hot and harsh after about 10 minutes of relatively mild puffing.

Seems this poor old tobacco hasn't got much going for it as far as I am concerned then but hey it smells nice in the tin.

G&H Brown Flake Aromatic-The same Virginias and Malawi Burleys as the unscented . I like them both a lot . Tonquin seems obvious and the Fig extract adds a nice touch . The Vanilla is very subtle. The Toasty bread Virginias and the Hearty nutty tart Burleys and still coming through the light toppings . I get no stickiness on my fingers preparing the Tobacco. I stocked up on both and cellaring 24 oz total . Very Impressed with Gawith Hoggarth flakes so far . I think I avoided them for so long because I thought anything topped or untopped would be flowerey like roses . Not so . Looking forward to sampling a few more ! 4 stars

Strong note on the tobaccos in the bag, with hints of the flavorings (I didn't get any of the fig or vanilla in the bag or smoke, but that's likely just me). The flake wouldn't roll or fold, so I went with a very rough rub-out. It packed lightly but lit well on all tries on one match after a pre-light and light tamp.

Not a lot of smoke but a lot of flavor. The florals & other flavors were certainly present in the aftertaste of the smoke, but added to the experience. It burned without a hint of bite. Not a tobacco I would recommend for beginners.

Overall a good place to start for this type of floral flake. It appears to be in the middle in several ways to include: strength of tobacco, floral flavor, tobacco flavor, room note, and actual appearance (mottled brown or medium brown). Which is why I only give it two stars there are just other flakes I like quite abit better then this particular flake. I like these flakes less strong, and with more floral flavor. It did seem to have more of a tobacco flavor and was abit stronger but not over the top by far. All and all ok but prefer other offerings.

I received this from pipesandcigars.com, a very good store to deal with by the way. I've been working my way through some of the Gawith's blends. Basically I'm an aromatic smoker so I chose the scented version of Brown Flake to try. The flake is very nice with a pleasant aroma. Rubs out easily and lights quickly. At first it was a hot virginia with the traditional british burst of flower/incense aroma. There's an intense virginia flavor that can be quite spicy if puffed to hard. As a good smoke it begins to settle down and the flavors start to separate into a more manageable experience. It's sweet and complex and burns cooler than some other VA's I've tried.

As it got into the last third of the bowl magic happened. There's were flavors I had never experienced with pipe tobacco before. I knew then this is why we smoke a pipe. Indescribeable flavors and depth of sweetness. When the tobacco ran out I was mad! How could such a joyride come to such an abrupt end? I knew this was something I'm going to spend many hours exploring in the future. Highly Recommended!

5/30/06 Another blend that improves with aging. All the Gawaith blends really come into their own with a year of aging. Helps to bring the flavors together, sweetens the virgina's and cools the smoke.