Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. Brown Flake Scented

The dark stoved Virginias offer a bit of earth, a little grass, wood and spice, and plenty of fermented dark fruit. In a support role, the burleys are earthy, very nutty with molasses, and a touch of cocoa. The tonquin bean has some strength, and complements the rich licorice and the maple, the latter being the less obvious of the three toppings, though you will always notice it. The topping do sublimate the tobaccos to some extent, but not enough to make them cry “uncle”. You’ll taste all the aspects of the tobaccos all the way through, and in the last quarter, just a tad more as well. The nic-hit is close to medium. No chance of bite, and it has no dull or harsh notes. Burns at a reasonable rate, cool and clean with a rather smooth, consistent flavor. Requires a few relights, and leaves very little dampness in the bowl. The after taste and room note will linger a little. Not an all day smoke, but one that is certainly repeatable.

-JimInks

Brown Flake Scented is actually a favorite of mine in the G&H line although I don't smoke it often as its hard to find. I do have a Mason Jar with a little left from an order several years ago and smoked a few bowls over the last few nights. It is a strong tasting tobacco and I really don't detect the singular additives. The flake is sweet and rather toasty from all the processing. At first light, those who have smoked G&H blends will certainly know they are smoking another. The Lakeland style is ever present. I'm very nicotine tolerant, but did get the hiccups as I hid the last third of a recent bowl.

Pipestud

Of the many GH scented/aromatic tobaccos, Brown Flake Scented is among my favorites. The pouch scent is tonquin, slightly floral and a little astringent. The tobacco, like most all GH tobaccos, is of high quality. The flakes need to be dried and I prefer to smoke this in a narrow cob. In the pipe, the Virginia tobaccos lead the way along with the added flavoring. The Burley wafts in and out and offers up the fullness and a touch of earthiness to the blend. While fairly heavily scented, it’s somewhere in the middle compared with blends like SG’s Grousemoor and GH’s Ennerdale which I think are much more aromatic. I would place medium to strong in nicotine and outright strong if not respected. With the exception of a very few GH scented blends, I no longer attempt to pull out the maple or some of the other flavors. As a reference point, I can say that I taste a lot of tonquin here, but not as much as found in 1792. There is a slight chocolate note although I would be hard pressed to say if there is any actually in there. Like many aromatics, there isn’t a lot of complexity, only a deepening of flavor as each bowl progresses. Unlike most American style aromatics, one of the things that I love about these blends is that they really benefit from cellaring. I had a chance to smoke some five year old BFS earlier this morning and the Virginia component really added some additional sweetness to the blend. The tonquin mellows with age too. New or aged, there isn’t a possibility of this biting, but the aged version does seem to be a little less strong. A head scratcher for sure, as I doubt the Burley lost any strength. Like all these unique Lakeland scented blends, either you enjoy the added flavoring of you don’t and this one is one of my favorites.

It's really nice to find another aromatic that I actually want to smoke. I put this on the shelf with my Old Crooner, GH Twists, 1792, etc. Those black plasticised creations that smell like cough syrup can sit in the fridge or perhaps become car fresheners. Scented Flake is truly unique and high quality tobacco. I found it very easy to roll and stuff into my pipe. Easy to smoke and very long lasting with no bite and no mess in the pipe. And this is 100 percent smokable tobacco right to the bottom of the bowl. The flavor reminds me of spice gum drops and becomes more intense during the last half of the bowl. Medium strength with a very nice predictable build up of N. I keep mine double bagged as the scented can easily fill a room, but you'd have to say pleasant bag note, room note, and beard note. Excellent before bed as one can spend the night not smelling like a camp fire. I've smoked this with peppermint tea and chamomile tea and it was quite nice.

I'm a fan of just about all the tobaccos I've tried from GH. As always, I love their flake presentation and love thier tobaccos. I've ordered Brown Flake, Scented more than once and have enjoyed it every time that I have smoked it. The Lakeland treatment is not overdone, it's quality tobacco, and there's not a whole lot of other tobaccos that i like better. If you're put off by all Lakeland essence tobacco, then don't try it. But, if you're curious about Lakelands, this would be a very good one to start with, along with #7 Broken Flake. It's not over the top, like Ennerdale, but it's a really good flake tobacco with a little flavor that you probably aren't used to. I have a few pipes dedicated to Lakelands and I advise others to do the same, if you plan on smoking them. Anyway, love it or hate it it, it is what it is.

A few months ago I'd grown tired of constantly smoking English blends, so I decided to buy a variety of flakes in bulk, put them in jars, and spend some time deciding which of them I like the best. I intentionally didn't remember all of their names, brown this-or-that, best scented number whatever. All I know is that eventually I came to associate my fondness for this blend with its name, and toward the end of the jar I remembered to mark it with several red stars to remind me to buy more when it finally ran out.

I can't comment on what this flake looks like when it's "fresh" since occasionally these Kendal flakes come sopping wet and heavily flavored. This blend, in bulk from mail order, did not. After a few months in the jar it was a perfect dryness, and gleamed with tiny sugar crystals.

The flavorings, after mellowing in intensity, left something of a "spiced cake" aroma that was very pleasant. I greatly dislike intense, sweet flavorings, however I didn't find this to be such. I also don't like most Burleys, however I found my overall impression of this flake likening that of a nice matured Virginia. Perhaps it was toasted Burley? The aroma was oatmeal and raisins, and the flavor sweet (subtle, not cloying) and round. One of those smokes you almost wish you could eat, I found myself constantly wafting it from the bowl toward my nose, and puffing upwind to prolong my exposure to its pleasant warming aroma.

Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. - Brown Flake Scented.

The flakes are dark brown and pretty thick. The thickness makes it a bit of a task to fully rub, which is how I favour them to be smoked. The moisture's good.

Now, the smoke, I wasn't a fan when I had my first bowl but after a while it grew on me. At first the toppings make for a slightly sweet, slightly herby, maybe a touch floral, top-note. The maple takes until halfway to become a definite flavour, rather than any old sweetness. The tonquin's ever-present throughout a bowl. I get the least flavour from the licorice, it seems to have added in a much lesser quantity than the others. The Virginia races ahead of the Burley, the Burley's in much more of a subordinate role. BFS burns steady, generating a cool smoke. It doesn't bite.

Nicotine: quite high. Room-note: not my favourite!

I like this, so three stars it is:

Recommended.

The tragedy is that the older I get the more I suffer virginia bite. And it's tragic because this is one of the best tobaccos ever produced in the history of the world. And it's primarily virginia.

Lovely, simple flavours than keep their distance with a linger of sassafras that leaves you feeling clean and wholesome.

Perhaps scented is for summer and aromatic is for winter.

Russell's reviews of both the scented and aromatic versions of this one piqued my interest so I placed an order. I couldn't find the aromatic, but I did find the scented and unscented versions.

2 ounces of the scented version arrived in a zip lock baggie and although damp to the touch but not wet; very pliable as a flake. The bag aroma was strong on something (which I smelled through the closed baggie) - Russell called it myrrh and he may be right in that. Overall it had a strong presence of forest - pine but not pine - with a faint sweetness. Admittedly, as a scent it was a bit off-putting. I ripped a chunk off an end of two flakes that were stuck together and loaded a slim billiard I use for new blends that I am not sure whether or not I will like. Pre-draw revealed more of the myrrh and I thought, "Oh, no. What have I gotten into here!"

Surprisingly, this was tasty in a way never before experienced by me. It certainly wasn't Lakeland in the traditional sense, meaning it wasn't perfumy nor over-the-top floral. It was more incense-like and quite enjoyable. Very hard to categorize for me in this regard. I, too, could not detect the tonquin. However, it had a persistent sweetness which was from time to time reminiscent of vanilla, but I feel it was more of the maple. I think the licorice in this is what I am calling myrrh since the taste of it while smoking is reminiscent of Sen Sen gum which is licorice-based and has a similar taste. When you have this many flavorings in a tobacco, you have to have an expert blender behind it otherwise it would become intolerable. It smoked cool and considering the casings, there was no moisture buildup in the bowl or goop left over. I can't say at this early stage that BFS would ever become an everyday smoke for me, or a favorite, but it was very good. The room note was excellent and the smoke only got better as it progressed to the where there was no tobacco left to smoke - plus great for DGT! A nice sweetness throughout and never cloying. Nothing remotely ashy about this one. If G&H had a flake named Irish Flake, to me, this would be it. A very high quality offering from G&H that deserves nothing less than a highly recommended with 5 stars!

UPDATE 3-8-13: After only two days, this stuff can grow on you in a way that I wouldn't have thought from my initial reaction to the aroma eminating from the baggie it was contained in. The flavor is so good that you will find yourself at times smoking fast to get more of it, resulting in your being hard pressed to get a tongue nibble let alone bite! As I reconsider this becoming an everyday smoke for me? A resounding YES and another 5 star favorite!!

Brown flake scented is almost every bit as good as brown flake aromatic, but in a different way. All the toppings are noticeable, maple, tonquin and sweet licorice, not anise. It is very smooth, and like aromatic, needs a good air tight jar to prevent drying out amd losing its taste. The toppings are drastically less floral than in aromatic, but remind me more of halloween gingerbread. Really a nice smoke.