Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. Dark Kentucky

Dark Kentucky might just be one of the top five tobaccos (new) that I tried in 2016). Thanks to a friend of mine overseas who swaps with me all the time, I was able to get a couple of ounces and promptly commenced to smoking. A very heady Burley in a shag cut form. It is very similar in strength and looks to Five Brothers, but the comparison ends there. The Five Bro's offers little taste while Dark Kentucky, by benefiting from the G&H Lakeland style processing, will leave its odor and taste in your pipe for quite some time. So, this one is not a mixer for most tobaccos but can sure beef up other G&H Lakeland style blends. If you don't enjoy vitamin N in heavy doses, you may want to bypass this one.

Gawith Hoggarth - Dark Kentucky.

I lit this today as my morning smoke and it ticks every box I would think most pipers require for their first smoke of the day!

It's a fairly dark, shag cut, and the build makes for easy and quick packing whilst struggling to concentrate due to still waking up! Because it's well hydrated that means it doesn't hold the smoker up trying to get it lit, so that's handy in the mornings. And then on to the smoke: this has a very full taste, and a large dose of nicotine; those, I guess, would score more points in the morning, for most folks! The burn's brilliant, this means there's no procrastination with the smoke; it just goes steady. The flavour's mainly Kentucky: fiery, nutty, slightly caustic, but there's also a little Lakeland too.

It's a little headstrong for me in the nicotine department but still worth four stars:

Highly recommended.

somehow hard to find, one of the best Kentucky I tried, strong, tasty as a Kentucky tobacco should be, very nice amount of nicotine, sometimes it provides an always welcome Lakeland note (I said Lakeland, not soapy).the cut is very easy to pack and to keep lit, humidity is perfect, no need to dry. it's like the cultured, smart and rich cousin of the Kendal Kentucky.

This is a pure Kentucky tobacco, cut in what passes for a shag cut under European tax and duty laws these days - which is to say a very narrow ribbon cut. Sold loose in the UK, where we don’t seen able to get Kendal Kentucky for some reason.

It’s a straightforward tobacco, with constant flavour through the bowl. No toppings to speak of, or if there is they’re so mild as to be not worth wondering about. It lacks the floral/herby tang of many of G@Hs dark fire cured blends (Malawi dark-fired tobacco is kind of the African equivalent of latakia, using a similar curing process of heating over a fire).

It’s strong, but makes for a good all-day kind of smoke in a small bowl. In a large bowl the nicotine would be overwhelming. Well worth trying.