Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. Brown Twist Sliced

Dark, a little bit sweet and full of strength. This one will water your eyes and give you a tingly feeling all over. It looked quite foreboding, but rubbed out into an almost shag like cut helps the burn. Despite the moisture content (a little on the high tide side), it burned cool and easily stayed lit.

G&H makes a lot of fine Virginia dominant tobaccos but this one may be the best of a great bunch. Thoroughly enjoyablel and I will certainly order more.

This rope turned to coin cut has a few cigar notes, but it doesn't overwhelm the rest of the flavors. The citrus and dark fruity sweetness of the Virginia is somewhat present, but is sublimated by the strength of the tobacco. Its earthiness is more obvious. Won't bite, but has a mild rough edge. It burns decently if you dry it a little, but expect some relights, and a little moisture in the bowl. Not very complex, but has a bare hint of spice at various points, and almost has a "roast" taste to it. It gives a strong nic-hit to your senses which is filling more than overpowering. The after taste lingers a bit as does the room note. I doubt you'd want this for a regular smoke unless you like your tobacco strong. You may want a nice hot tea or coffee to round out the experience.

-JimInks

I have been busy with a yearend cleaning out of my pipe room and coming across a lot of blends that needed a revisit. Brown Twist Sliced is one of those blends. This powerhouse tobacco won’t be for everyone and it isn’t an everyday smoke for me. With that said, BTS is a mixture of pure tobacco taste with some mild Lakeland style topping. It has a bit of a medicinal taste but it is offset by an underlying sweetness that outweighs the essence for me. I am not sure if it is a topping or the addition of the dark Indian leaf that gives BTS its unique flavor. I don’t find very much complexity with BTS, but just a full flavored strong blend. I think that most people with a tolerance for “Lady N” and a love for strong, smooth, cool burning tobaccos will be attracted to BTS. If you’re not, then you may want to pass on this one.

This reminds me of really good natural chewing tobacco. The flavor is a pure, unadulterated tobacco flavor. The primordial ancient essence of tobacco is right here. There are plenty of occasions when I want a sweet natural Virginia like SG Medium Virginia Flake, or smokey goodness of Squadron Leader, or the polished elegance of Cornell & Diehl Opening Night. Sometimes, though, I am looking for a direct encounter with the leaf, booming with nicotine and filling my mouth with tobacco flavor. I keep this stuff around for those times.

As I am writing this I am slowly working my way through a bowl in freezing winter cold on my balcony. It works well in this weather, especially when I have rum in my English tea. The well-seasoned bowl of my Peterson 303 rustic is just about perfect for this rope.

The nicotine level is stout, but don't let that scare you away. That just means that I can read a chapter of a book while slowly sipping the rich smoke. A small bowl can last quite a while when sipped, so I don't have to stop reading to load another pipe. By the time the bowl contains only a pinch of fine ash I am satisfied and relaxed.

Update: March 14, 2016 Sometimes my perception of a blend changes over time. This is not one of those times. Right now I am sitting on the beach smoking Brown Twist Sliced in a Peterson 303 smooth. The wind is very strong, but this stuff is staying lit without getting hot. In my previous review I had allowed the tobacco to dry. Since then I have been smoking it right out of the pouch. For some reason it never steams my tongue even when with a fresh bag. This is one of those blends that I could be happy with, even if it was the only tobacco I could get. My guess is that about 80% of pipe smokers would not enjoy this stuff, because it is so strong and so primitive. For me, though, it is close to perfection.

Gawith Hoggarth - Sliced Brown Twist.

The first thing I think upon opening this is "wow, what a strong smell"! Granted it's not a false aromatic smell, only a VERY strong Virginia smell, an area where this ones score abates a little is that it is a touch damp so some airing time would avail this one well, but being impetuous (as ever), I decide to just employ a little extra hard work with the flame and to be impartial it lights relatively well.

Once lit I find the burn to be not at all intemperate in speed, pretty steady. The ash left by this one is pure white, possibly the whitest I have seen. Now, the smoke ... the temperature of it's a good one, it doesn't really bite me and it is of a thick construction. I don't get any underlying flavours of any kind, all I get is a very pure Virginia taste, which to be fair becomes a little tedious after a while, but that is more subjective! Room note, again it is pure Virginia but not particularly heavy as you would expect. To be succinct, if you like Virginia then why in hell haven't you tried this?!

Four stars.

Over time, this has become one of my go-to tobaccos for an all-day smoke. It seems designed to be carried in a pouch, partially rubbed out and stuffed into a pipe, and then to burn for a long time in a cool, smooth delivery of a sweet Virginia flavor with a hint of dark fired spice and the faintest of incense-like combinations of topping. It is very strong in the nicotine department, but if you let it burn naturally, it delivers a constant stream of thin smoke, so the effect is not disastrous but rather sustaining, especially if outside. When you first open the jar, since this is only sold in bulk, the scent of peat and crushed vegetation will reach your nose. Rub out a few of these tiny coins, then mash that mass together in your hands and hold it for a few moments as the extra moisture and ammonia drift away. Then gravity fill the pipe and push down very lightly, extra lightly even, before doing your char-tamp-light. At this point, you want to breath-smoke the bowl, drawing not at all, and letting the natural capillary pressure of your mouth closed around the stem pull the smoke into your mouth, breathing it out when you inhale through your nose about every two breaths, which is roughly seven seconds as is normal for someone concentrating on a task. An average-sized bowl lasts well over an hour, and a large bowl could go for almost two. If you have trouble getting it to light, wait a few moments; you may have seen how old school pipe smokers tend to pack a bowl, then hold the pipe in the hand while looking over whatever task is before them, then light when they know how to make it work. Once you get through the top layer of the bowl, the leaf will start to caramelize, and the flavor becomes sweeter but loses none of its depth. Expect a faint essence of leather, malt and hay. You can smoke this all day in 3-4 bowls and be perfectly content. If you want to give it some body, mix with some dark Burley and a sweet Virginia like you would find in a Va/Per, which really brings out the "voices" of each blend and melds them together into a lovely spectrum of flavors. For leaf quality and preparation, this may be one of the best values on the tobacco market today.

Smoke it slowly, or the nicotine will overwhelm and you will miss out on the flavors, which can be subtle. The flavors are varied, rich, not really sweet, but not bitter or astringent. Very satisfying. And a little goes a long way.

This has joined the ranks of my absolute favorites, ideal for a nightcap with a good red wine. I will always have a large jar of this on the shelf.

Unfortunately, I must deduct a point for the room note and the wife factor. My lovely bride detests the smell of the smoke, and the smell on my breath, after this weed. I dearly love SBT, but only when my wife is not around.

Update, 25 March 2013: I'm raising this to 4 stars. After a couple of years in a jar, BTS has smoothed out. It is less harsh. It tastes a bit sweeter, if you take it slow enough. Time to put some more away into the cellar!

Note: This review was based on a 4 bowl sample rather than the usual 1 oz minimum I usually adhere to. Consequently, my review might be pointless, and I'm not sure why I'm even writing it. 🙂

This tobacco tells me that it's not the effort required with ropes that make them unsmokable to me. The concept of a "rubbed out" rope was intriguing and a friend gave me 4 bowls worth to try. Unfortunately, it affected me as the black ropes have. The tobacco just tasted like dirt to me. No depth or complexity, simply a strong tobacco for the sake of strength.

A lot of folks seem to like this and perhaps it requires some time to get used to. For me, there are too many tobaccos that I find wonderful right off the bat to worry much about those that I have to work my way up to even being able to tolerate safely. Go for it - it's all yours! 🙂

After smoking this tobacco I turned my preference towards Virginia tobaccos again. Very strong, with earthy (turfy) sweet flavour, no problems with it, no tongue bite, etc. From tin it has high moisture content.

This tobacco for me is enligthment. First I liked light tobaccos, tried Burley and Virginia, and found that I liked Burley more because of "nutty solid flavour" and light Virginia tobaccos were like smoking hay for me. But this one is as "solid" and full as any Burley I tried.

Smoked Dark Birds Eye from G&H and didn't like it, so was skeptical towards Brown Twist, but it is my favorite now (second tin is empty, few more on the way).

warning not for newbies!! This blend will kick your azz if you start puffing away like a madman. You will barf your breakfast, lunch and dinner! Yes it has a healthy dose on the nicotine bug. However if you respect this blend sip the pipe don't get in a hurry smoke in a smaller bowl first couple of times you will find a rather delightful cigar type smoke. There is a real mixture of flavors that float through you oral cavity. I get earth, leather, a little wood smoke, burnt raisins and even a hint of musk from time to time. It's a real treat but you do not smoke on an empty stomach and you respect the nicotine level a all times. Some folks tolerate this blend better than others. My friend smoked a half a bowl and promptly threw up and went to bed with a migraine. This is not to scare you but just to let you know to be careful on your first bowl. You start feeling light headed you stop smoking. You can actually just smoke a quarter bowl in the beginning to see your tolerant level. For those of us used to the nicotine hit you will love the thick mellow smoke the outstanding room note the low heat and cool burn and such a nice white ash at the bottom of the bowl. I don't smoke this often, no more then once or twice a week at the most. When I do you can bet I have let it breath for at least a couple of hours. Just a darn good smoke from the true genus tobacconist at G&W.