This is a fairly heavily scented blend, but less so than Ennerdale. The scent is different, and more akin to Kendal Flake with the rose and geranium. But where KF was softer, this one is bolder in overall flavor and nicotine. Shares more of a burley presence with Brown Flake but is better behaved and not as robust or youthful in taste. Much more flavor and body (and mouthfeel) than Glengarry or Bright CR but also with more scenting. Nicotine level is fairly high, as with most G&H flakes.

The most telling thing I can say is that while there are remarkable similarities across many of G&H flakes, they are all different. I have most of them in my rotation and I smoke them at different times for different reasons and with different outcomes in mind. If you like Kendal Flake and Ennerdale, meet their middle brother. If you like Brown Flake and Best Brown #2, ditto, but it's their more flamboyant middle brother with the scenting. This blend has hit my rotation. As with most of these types of blends, it is excellent... even if I can't really pinpoint what makes it so. Thanks, SouthBound, for the opportunity.

The smell of the flake is a bit odd, too rosy I felt. But from the first puff, the Virginias and Burleys blend superbly with the rosy/geraniumy taste.

Honestly, who needs black cavendish aromatics when you have GH and SG offering the best Lakeland tobaccos.

On receiving the packet, the smell of bergamot and rosewater leaked out providing fond memories of Turkish Delight and Earl Grey tea, even when sealed. Upon opening though, this whiff became a little unsettlingly strong, if still nice. Packing and lighting were no particular problem, even for a flake. The initial smoke however, was spoiled by those flavours mentioned above, just way too strong and not really interacting with the tobacco underneath. Once these faded away, all flavour pretty much disappeared with nothing coming through from the tobacco itself. Sadly, this continued through the packet, it's not bad, it's just not that good. Me thinks dull is the word.

The kinsmen of this stuff and the initial whiff provide a bit of promise that is sadly unfulfilled, the pungeant aroma starts off too strong and then fades into the power-sappingly mundane. It's like going on a blind date to find your companion plastered in make up, you can't tell what she looks like under all that slap and she might be a perfectly charming lass, but you lose interest in her because there's absolutely no need for it. Sadly, this is a tobacco that should never have been turned up to eleven.

In the packet I encountered a very strong rose scent, despite several days in transit to me in non-airtight conditions. This rose essence was not so strong in the smoking but would probably still be considered powerful by folks who are coming to this style of weed for the first time. I found it to be both sweet and soapy, and it allowed me to identify the rose constituent of more complexly flavoured lakelands. A quarter of the way down the geranium becomes more prominent, and gradually that too recedes to create a gently floral miasma of flavours that mixes nicely with the tobaco.

A bit more burley than I usually like but not so much that I don't want to smoke it. In fact, it works very well with the particular floral flavours of this tobacco. Mostly, this is a very honest blend, in that it delivers pretty much exactly what you would expect given its description and the well known character of GH&Co flakes. However, there is also the occassional pleasant diversion into greater complexity, where for a few moments the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

Reading the Turkish Delight comparisons I wasn't sure I was going to like this one (I can't stand Turkish Delight), but I have enjoyed working through my sample. For me, it doesn't quite match the appeal of Kendal Flake or Coniston Cut Plug but I am sure there is more than one lakeland lover out there for whom this will be 'the one'. Recommended.

Grasmere is also very much an acquired taste and if you are the slightest bit put off by the Lakeland floral ambrosia (the subtle soapiness that comes through in Bob's Chocolate Flake, or Rum Flake), leave this one the hell alone.

Grasmere is very well behaved, slightly honey-sweet, & very floral. All of this is accomplished by Gawith & Hoggarth in the most organic, natural tasting way possible. In other words what you are tasting is not some curious chemical additive. Like the oil of clove applied to Bosun Cut Plug, Grasmere's topping is oil of rose and geranium, and it's applied liberally. The tobacco flavors & added essence taste seamless. The rose geranium scent is soft and supple, rounding out the burley edges and providing balance to some fairly strong tobacco. The flakes are beautiful and they do smell somewhat like Turkish Delight. I like to smoke this in the afternoon in a Country Gentleman cob pipe that I have reserved for scented Lakelands.

Grasmere Flake is very hard to find in the US. I was sent some to try by a fellow reviewer.

If you admire scented Lakelands (and obviously I do), this is one to pursue.

The added flavouring (which can be tasted as well as smelled) is, to me, like a good Turkish Delight (the rose essence). I do mean a good one though; the stuff you get dusted with icing sugar from a proper confectioners, not the cheap, chocolate coated stuff you get at a newsagent/petrol station/supermarket.

Other than that, it's just what you'd expect from this blender; high quality, flavoursome & reasonably strong