Samuel Gawith English Summer Flake

(3.00)
This flake is made from Virginia tobacco selection of Old and New World. Thanks to a long aging in the press, different parts of tobacco leaves are uniting into one harmonious blend. You can fully enjoy the summer outdoor smoking with this magnificent blend.
Notes: This flake is part of a limited Four Season series in a wild collaboration of Samuel Gawith, Stanislaw and DTM. These flakes are: Irish Spring Time Flake, English Summer Flake, Scottish Autumn Flake, and Winter Time Flake.

Details

Brand Samuel Gawith
Series Four Seasons
Blended By Stanislaw & Samuel Gawith
Manufactured By DTM
Blend Type Straight Virginia
Contents Virginia
Flavoring
Cut Flake
Packaging 50 grams tin
Country United Kingdom
Production Currently available

Profile

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

Average Rating

3.00 / 4
8

12

4

2

Reviews

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Displaying 1 - 10 of 26 Reviews
Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Aug 26, 2014 Medium to Strong Very Mild Medium to Full Tolerable
I was pleasantly surprised by this one. It is a delightful tasting Virginia and the name is perfect as the light citrus like topping offers the perfect refreshment for a summer's day. I was given a decent sample of this one and went through it pretty quickly.

I will say that I enjoyed it more than I did Full Virginia Flake, but it is a very different flake from that one. I found it closer related to Dunhill Flake with its citrus tones and not all too dissimilar to Peter Stokkebye's Luxury Twist Flake, but much better to my tastes.

There is a light floral touch to this one that may offend the soap haters, but I found it barely detectable. I highly recommend this to the Virginia lovers out there.
19 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jan 05, 2014 Medium Extremely Mild Full Very Pleasant
A perfectly simple Virginia flake. A little too damp, but hey-ho! Once dried and smoking it gives a steadfast Virginia flavour. The flavour's consistent throughout, and it doesn't bite at all. The nicotine's above medium, and the room-note's nice.

A must for Virginia folks!
Pipe Used: Peterson
PurchasedFrom: Smoke King
Age When Smoked: New
16 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jan 31, 2014 Mild Strong Full Pleasant to Tolerable
Hmm. According to the blurb at the top of the page: "...made from natural leaves." Really? As opposed to what, artificial leaves? And where pray do these leaves come from? Tea; the front lawn...? Because I have been left seriously underwhelmed by this concoction.

But let us rewind a bit. We are presented with a slightly chunky and moist mid-brown flake, so far so very Samuel Gawith. But then strange things start happening when you first take a sniff, what is that in there? None of the typical aromas of the purported Virginia, instead a rather sickly sweet essence of rose hip.

Things don't improve on lighting, where there is not much more than the sensation of warm air enveloped by a strong sense of Juicy Fruit chewing gum. Something has clearly been added to the "leaves" and it has just made the blend too sweet and cloying for my tastes.

I really don't know what to make of this, I am working from a small sample so maybe there has been a quality issue here. But I can only base this review on what is in front of me. Very disappointing indeed.
10 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Dec 11, 2016 Mild to Medium Very Mild Mild to Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
The dark and bright Virginias provide some dark fruit and citrus, a little more earth than grass, a hint of sugar and spice, some wood, and a very mild touch of vegetative floralness. The slightly tangy, tart citrus from the lighter Virginia is a little more obvious than the dark fruit and citrus from the dark Virginia. There is a light citrus topping that reminds me of orange, and tinge of lemon that underscores the sweetness. It does have a bit in common with Dunhill Flake as others have noted, though DF lacks the floral and spice, and has a little less dark fruit, and is a little sweeter than this particular manufacture. The nic-hit is just past the mild threshold. The strength is in the center of mild to medium, while the taste is a couple of steps past that level. However, this flake gets a little closer to medium in the last third of the experience. Won’t bite, or get harsh, but there is a minor rough edge present. Burns a little slow as a flake will with a cool, clean, consistent flavor from start to finish. Leaves little dampness in the bowl, and requires some relights. Can burn to ash. Has a pleasant after taste, and can be an all day smoke for a veteran smoker. Three and a half stars.

-JimInks
9 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 29, 2016 Very Mild Very Mild Mild Pleasant
I would describe this flake as nice.

This is an even-keeled flake. I've never had Dunhill Flake, but I've heard others describe this as similar, so I guess if you like Dunhill Flake, you'll probably like this too!

This is a very bright smelling flake, out of the tin. I agree with others saying it's sort of orange like, but I get some lemony notes too. It does have some Lakeland Essence of some kind on it, but it works really, really well with the brightness of these Virginias. This is also much dryer out of the tin than some of the other Samuel Gawith tobaccos and I didn't feel the need to let it dry out. This is a fairly delicate flake and I believe drying this out too much will make it taste cigarettish. The flakes are very long!, so I don't fold and stuff, rather I rub this out. This packs very well and lights easily for SG. This is very, very cool smoking and I was smoking it out of a Nosewarmer.

I don't get a bunch of petrol and auto shop notes that I tend to get with other brights, rather I get an even, nice, pleasant, faintly citrus profile from the get go. Mid bowl, it sugars up some, but not too much. I noticed that this stayed lit very well indeed for an SG flake! During mid bowl, I got some lovely garden shed notes, sort of wet and dusty, with some greenness and the faint, faint smell that you get from the lawnmower and various other garden implements being parked in it, sort of green and faintly oily. C'mon you know what I mean!

As with some other SG tobaccos, this left a great aftertaste in my mouth!
7 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jan 24, 2017 Medium None Detected Medium Pleasant
Earthy with no real sweetness to the leaf (Bright and Dark Virginia). A little extra strength and Lemony tang such as you will find with the old Murray's version of Dunhill Light Flake. A nice smoke for the summer... or, anytime really.
5 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jul 21, 2015 Mild Extremely Mild Mild to Medium Pleasant
Very SG-like long flakes that are not too hard to fold. Takes a little patience with the length if you're a folder and stuffer but very do-able. Mostly light in color, with a tin aroma of basic lemon Virginia. Makes sense for a blend named for the warmest season. I don't know who the Stanislaw tobacco folks are so I don't know where they fit into this tobacco... looks like it's their recipe and SG's tobaccos.

This gave me much more than I expected. I was thinking along the lines of Dunhill Flake and it wasn't that far off, but the citrus character wasn't as overt. I actually got more of an orange Virginia flavor, which when done well is probably my favorite. The sweetness is there but there is no sense of the leaf being marinated in orange peel. The tanginess is there but it's more mellow and less attention-grabbing. Orange is, of course, in the middle. I noticed a faint spice as well, perhaps a topping of some kind but it wasn't so blatant that I could name it. This was a well-made blend, nowhere near as tiresome over time to smoke as most straight lemon VA's. I'd classify this as a 3.5 star blend but I'm rounding it up due to its genial nature on top of a bit of sassiness. I probably won't buy it again but it's still an excellent flake and highly recommended to Virginia lovers.
5 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Feb 01, 2016 Very Mild Mild to Medium Medium Pleasant
A bright Virginia flake flake with gold and light through to mid brown leaf. The cut is about the 1mm mark, fine and easy to rub up to a fluffy ball. The pouch smell is mainly topping and has a rosehip scent to my nose.

Lighting up is a quick process and the topping is instantly transferred to your tongue. Its sweet very sweet and light to smoke and has all the floral traits of a Lakeland style all be it a very mild one. Then at about mid pipe I get an orange flavour which is solid and quite strong and refreshing, a little soapy however it is very fruity. The taste of the tobacco ever present and pleasant but mild as you would expect for such a flake.

I like Lakeland leaf, not every day but like a lot get cravings for the floral. I find this tobacco to be super light in every aspect of the smoking bar the taste which is very tasty. The mouthfeel is light and I find I pull on the pipe a lot to get large clouds of smoke, it makes me greedy for more.

So a summer smoke it is for sure due to the light nature. A straight vg it is not as claimed at the top of the page. Nicotine is in very short supply and right now at half past midnight of a cold morning it fails to satisfy my cravings. I am sure some summer heat will have this about spot on for mid day smoking around company. So a light fresh smoke with welcome room smells for the crowd. Changing little throughout the smoke bar an orange flavour about mid way through.
Pipe Used: stefano exclusive briar
PurchasedFrom: g q
3 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Jun 20, 2021 Mild to Medium Very Mild Medium Pleasant to Tolerable
It's summer, the time of year where Virginias come into their full enjoyment. And it can be a no brainer when you see on offer something from the masters of Virginia, SG.

Upon opening the tin, I was struck by two surprises. First, the cut is not a flake, but rather a mixture between a broken flake and a ready rubbed; there wasn't a single full flake in the entire tin. I'm not sure if that's the case with my particular tin, or something regular with this blend.

The second surprise was that, quite atypical for an SG blend, this came at the perfect moisture content, maybe a hair on the dry side. Therefore, it was smokeable right out of the tin and jarred from day one.

The tin note is very grassy and very citrusy, with some hints of honey and spice. Sometimes, I even get a hint of something that reminds me of freshly grounded coffee. Despite the fact that this is supposedly aged in the press, it still smells very fresh.

Mechanically, you know what to expect if you've smoked SG blends before. Even though it wasn't wet, it still required a bit of preparation before packing. Apart from that, it lights pretty easily, smokes pretty dry, mostly cool and doesn't bite or get harsh. However, it does require a lot of relights, even by SG standards.

Now for the flavor. The main word I can use to describe the blend is "sharp". This is by far the sharpest Virginia I've smoked so far. It's very tangy in the mouth and pretty spicy, like a well-condimented meal. There is also a very zesty, citrusy feel to it, quite unusual for a Virginia blend, which leads me to believe that there is some sort of lemony/limey topping applied to this. But that can give a pretty refreshing feel to it, which works well during summer. The nicotine level is mild to medium.

However, that sharpness is what turns me off with this one. Usually, I prefer smoother blends and, even though this clearly works best during summer due to that citrusy, zesty feel, it's a little too sharp and too spicy for me. It's almost as if someone squeezed a lemon over the tobacco prior to packaging. Apart from that, even though there are high quality Virginias in this one, the taste is not remarkable, especially when compared to other Virginias from SG's catalogue. If it wasn't for that sharpness and that citrusy feel, I imagine that this one, for me at least, would be quite boring.

So that, coupled with the high number of relights, prevents me from really enjoying this blend. Maybe it's this particular tin and others may offer a different experience. But it behaved the same in multiple pipes, so I don't think I'm willing to try it again.
Pipe Used: Various
PurchasedFrom: Mohilla store (Vienna)
Age When Smoked: Fresh
2 people found this review helpful.
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Reviewed By Date Rating Strength Flavoring Taste Room Note
Aug 15, 2017 Medium Extremely Mild Medium Pleasant
This was my second blend out of the four limited blends and i can say i feel very lucky!once i cracked the tin a very familiar smell came out.it reminded me of Dunhill's virginia blends.the flakes have a citruscy/lemony topping accompanied with some dark fruits and bread notes.the brown and bright flakes have almost proper moisture,are manageable and have an aging procces appearance.lights almost easy and needs some relights.while smoking it's only pleasure without complexity.the main flavour is citrus/lemon till the end wich combines perfect with dark fruits,bread taste and grass notes.also in every puff you feel this blend is really aged and unprossesed.burns slow and cool without moisture and dumbness.no tongue bite detected.the room note is fruity and pleasant to my wife.the nicotine level is medium.in my opinion this blend is ideal to burn a new pipe.an all day blend for sure and trust me a must try one for every virginia lover!
Age When Smoked: Rubbed and left to dry for 1/2 hour
2 people found this review helpful.
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