Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. - Scotch Flake pipe tobacco reviews

Review

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Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
Showing reviews 1 through 17 of 17 reviews of this tobacco
PipesterJim	07/07/2012	Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium	Tolerable
Another venture into the world of GH&Co and this time I wanted to try one of their milder, 'straight' VA tobaccos. Taking my cue from the reviews of Mr DK (below) I thought this one was most likely to please, and I am glad I followed his judgement. I have little to add. Yes, the chocolate notes are there in the aroma. Yes, it is a sweet, bready VA. Yes, it smokes impeccably as is typical of GH&Co tobaccos. Benefits from a bit of drying time, but I don't let it get as crispy as I do most VA flakes. The only important thing I have to say is that my sample has quite a noticable level of Lakeland soap, apparently more so than experienced by other reviewers. No floral flavours with it, but definite soap. I could have been experiencing some ghosting, as the pipe I have been using for this tobacco was previously host to Bosun Cut Plug, although it has had an alcohol clean since. Anyway, it wasn't a problem for me, but the usual warnings apply for those who are not keen on the soapy stuff. I can understand that VA purists might prefer a more fullsome, flue-cured number over this (edit: okay this is flue-cured, but you know what I mean). Yes, it ain't the most complex VA flake in the world, but it is a darned good smoke with plenty of flavour. Sometimes that's enough. Will buy more, in larger quantities...I suspect it might cellar wonderfully.
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DK	11/02/2011	Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
Another bulk sample and beautiful presentation of flakes. This one is darker in color than Bright CR Flake and is infinitely more interesting to me. Very slight bakers chocolate aroma and flavor but it's way in the background. Not noticed with each puff but occasionally rears its head, however slightly. It melds with the virginia and provides a nice, spicy, semi-sweet smoke. While Bright CR was in the grassy realm, this is more of a baked bread flavor. Somewhat more robust in stength and quite a bit more flavorful. Very faint Lakeland aroma but I can't be sure I tasted any. I'd call this an unscented flake. This is more prone to bite if pushed but a normal puffing cadence will show this one to be quite the lamb. Complexity is there but is somewhat subdued. This is the one I'd most recommend for those who want to try a Lakeland flake but don't want the heavy floral flavors and scents. Strong 3 recommendation - probably closer to 3.5. I doubt I'll buy more, as there are other VA flakes I prefer, but this one is definitely worth sampling.
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SteelCowboy	09/23/2011	Mild to Medium	Very Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
Another nice flake from GH. There is a very light chocolate scent that reminds me of Bob's Chocolate by the same blender although the chocolate is much farther in the background. I smoke a lot of GH tobaccos and unlike many of them I don't find much of the floral (often described as soapy) taste in this flake. Some reviewers have described it as having a strong soap taste, but unlike many other GH flakes, I don't get that much of it with SF. Scotch Flake burns cleanly and as a puffer I still find no tongue bite, although it can get hot if not careful. I enjoy it best when fully dried. The sweetness is slight at the beginning but grows as the bowl is smoked. I plan of storing some of this as I think time will serve it well. Recommended.
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Yogimu	09/21/2011	Mild	None detected	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
A very nice, simple flake. Smokes well, burns cool, sweetens as you get down the bowl and a good choice for a chilled, mid-afternoon smoke. I have not managed to detect the floral bouquet that people keep eluding to in their reviews. After reading similar comments for other tobaccos and finding no floral/soapy aromas there either I have a sneaking suspicion that there are some among us who either don't store their tobaccos correctly, or buy from a tobacconist who doesn't store their tobaccos properly. A very pleasant tobacco I'd recommend to anyone who is looking to start up smoking virginia tobaccos. Personally I enjoy it when I'm after a relaxing smoke without beating my tongue up with heavier flavours.
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Ehrling	10/04/2010	Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
Overall this is more than merely satisfactory tobacco. It is not great and wonderful, but it is a very good, solid flake. It's presentation is as a medium-brown mottled flake a bit under an inch wide and 5-6 inches long. The pouch aroma is mild tobacco and something akin to cocoa or mocha. Although there's no mention of a cocoa or mocha in the description, I definitely taste it and smell it in the smoke. The chcolate is certainly not overpowering, but it is unmistakably there. There's quite a bit of natural tobacco sweetness; in fact, sweetness is the dominant theme. The flavor is not monochromatic, but it is hardly complex. This flake is undoubtedly mild enough for the beginning smoker while displaying sufficient strength for the more seasoned smokers as well. As with most of the G&H tobaccos, there is little to no bite--a BIG plus in my book. There is most certainly enough here to provide some interest, but at the same time, I'm not overly drawn to it. This is a tobacco that I will enjoy occasionally, typically early to mid-morning. But I sometimes find that it is just not quite sufficiently robust to satisfy my tastes. NOTE: To each his own, but I don't detect anything in this particular flake that tastes unnatural. To suggest that "soap" overpowers this tobacco is a surprise to me as I detect nothing even remotely suggestive of florals or soap. My experience with the more heavily scented varieties of tobacco (including Latakia) is that the essences contained in these tobaccos have more than sufficient strength to permeate the walls of plastic bags. Even double-bagging can prove to be inefficient over time. As an example, place the closed plastic bag containing your tobacco in a heavy-duty plastic storage container and seal the lid. After a while, open the lid on the storage container and you will smell any essences in the tobacco contained in the plastic bag. Tobacco essences, depending on their strength, can and will migrate freely from one plastic bag into another. This is a possible explanation for the presence of an essence where there shouldn't be one.
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Pseudo Nim	02/11/2010	Mild to Medium	Mild	Medium	Tolerable
I bought this after being advised it was G&H s answer to Sam Gawiths Golden Glow / Medium Virginia Flake. Well if this is their answer, they got the question horribly wrong. Sorry G&H, but when I lit up, all I got was a rush of soap, had I not been driving at the time, I would have put the pipe out immeadiately for fear of ghosting the pipe. Once the soap had burned off, there was a reasonable virginia present. Such a shame to to treat a good virginia with such flavourings. A fine tobacco for the lovers of perfumed / soap additives. But sadly not for the more purists. Once again, after a single pipefull, never again. I'm so glad I only bought 25g
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BostonPipe	10/29/2009	Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Pleasant
Just a really nice sweet smoke. The sweetness does not intensify as one progresses down the length of the bowl. It stays consistently steady, with an ever so slight floral presence wafting in and out of the smoking experience. Definitely one of the 'milder' flavored blends by this company. The steaming and pressing also adds to the smoothness.
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Redneck	03/25/2006	Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Pleasant
Sweet, sweet, sweet. This is the sweetest tobac I have ever smoked. It is smooth, one dimentional, smokes well, and a nice break from heavy Latakia blends. Very nice tasting & DGT's well.
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CaptnDan	08/15/2004	Very Mild	Mild to Medium	Mild	Pleasant
After the initial soap treatment, there was a bit of harshness. This was resolved by simply letting it go out then re-lighting. From then on, it was a smooth cool smoke. It is smokable, but I prefer a bit more body to my smoke. This one a tad bit too mild for me. I must disagree with Pipestud, this is not flavored with Chanel No.5 ? I think it is Dawn dish soap.
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NEWMAN	12/05/2003	Very Mild	Very Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
This blend could be considered the Ivory Snow of the G&H line. My bulk flakes were nicely prepared and as usual, I just packed the long strands without any rubout. A cool, even smoke resulted. Although it subsided some during the smoke, the soapy taste was still present and lingered strongly in the aftertaste. I'm not sure if its the tobacco, processing, or additives. However, I couldn't take a steady diet of this blend due to the taste and overall lack of strength.
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WxGuy	11/19/2003	Mild to Medium	None detected	Medium	Tolerable
By golly, by gum, I just do not taste any floral notes here in Scotch Flake as noted by other reviewers. Seems like a straight up steamed/pressed Va to me. All things considered, I prefer the G&H scented flakes and also the black McClelland and Rattray flakes to SF and its close brethren Bright CR Flake. However the last two(G&H flakes) burn cooler and have a different, more carmelish sweetness. It is still possible to get bitten by over-puffing, mind you, but you have to try pretty hard. SF seems to me a little dryer than other G&H flakes (though those are smokable as is). It crumbles, rather than shreds, and it is easy to get too fine a consistency, as I have just done now. Usually I just "stuff 'n puff, but I thought I might try a finer texture for a change. With this thin a flake, you end up with a fine shag consistency which can be overtamped. My current sample has only about 5 mo. of aging and I am sure it will just improve with age. I already notice a sronger, sweeter low end. Given its lack of complexity, I just smoke this on occasion, but always enjoy it when I do.
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BriarLaw	11/18/2003	Mild to Medium	None detected	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
I just keep coming back to this great tobacco because I love it. It is a pure steamed/pressed VA flake that has a great natural tobacco taste with a bit of natural sweetness. Not like McClelland VAs, which are great too, but much more tangy. There is something about how Gawith steams and presses the tobacco that makes it so approachable. It is just so easy to smoke. You don't have to be in the "mood" for it like you do many other tobaccos. None of that perfume stuff that taints (in my opinion) alot of the other Gawith flakes. Just good, mellow yet rich, tobacco. The only thing I don't like is the hassle of the flakes. While thin, they are very long (6" or so long), and must be broken up to smoke readily. But heck, I will deal with that. If you like good old-fashioned tobaccos with no frills, give this a try.
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Inquisitor	07/19/2003	Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Pleasant
I can't tell if this is scented. My gut is that it isn't, that it displays a pouch aroma created by steam-pressing and leaf selection. (Remind anyone of that never-ending silly rumor of vinegar being added to McClellands?) If it DOES have a top-note, it is applied more lightly than Glengarry Flake, and that is almost completely unnoticeable in the flavor. Anyway, this is sweet (I believe naturally), friendly, easy-smoking. A good choice when you want a tasty blend that you don't have to concentrate on while doing something else. This would be a good choice if recommending a tobacco to a new pipe smoker or an aromatic-only smoker. As usual with GH steamed Virginias, you aren't going to get a McClelland or Esoterica-type of complexity, but you won't have to walk that fine line of overpuffing either. The African Virginias are rounder, with a dark brown sugar mellowness to them. Highly recommended.
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Darwin	05/29/2003	Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Tolerable
Another winner from Gawith Hoggarth. This flake looks very much like Bright CR Flake, which is becoming a daily smoke for me. In the past few months I've been exploring the GH flakes and so far I've enjoyed them all. Whatever they do during the pressing and steaming process, produces a flake that tastes like it has been aged for years. The flakes came with exactly the right amount of moisture for my tastes, which is to say, a little on the dry side. I fold the flakes and pack them vertically in the bowl. The lights are easy. I would say that Scotch Flake has just a touch of that floral aroma that I am beginning to love, but it disappears slowly and yeilds a pure, sweet Virginia flavor. (If you are searching for a GH flake with no floral aroma, try Bright CR Flake.) Mid-bowl, the flavor is supurb. It has everything that I am searching for in a VA flake. It may be slightly less complex than Bright CR Flake, but maybe not. I don't find GH flakes to be as complex as McClelland flakes or Rattray's Marlin Flake, but they give me a more consistant excellence from bowl to bowl. I am currently smoking my second bowl in a row of Scotch Flake and I rarely do that with other flakes. The end of the bowl always comes too soon. I find myself longing for more free time to sit and enjoy this wonderful flake tobacco. Gawith Hoggarth are producing some of the best blends currently available and I hope this will continue for a long time. Highly recommended.
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Pipestud	05/24/2003	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
I know the description says no added flavoring, but dadgumit, the G&H perfume is in this one too. Maybe the crop dusting machines for G&H Virginia tobaccos spray Chanel #5 as they protect the leaf from bugs. This one burns cool and dry with little or no bite. But, I find that Scottish Flake leaves some roughness in the back of my throat and a perfumy taste on my palate. Like BriarNorth said, the tobacco is sweet and of good flavor, but just too much perfume to make this one a regular.
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BriarNorth	05/13/2003	Medium	Extremely Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
I agree with tomobedlam that this is fine smoke. I didn't find the bitterness he did, but I did find the wonderful sweetness that very much intensifies as you go, as well as a very mild hit of the G&H bouquet only upon lighting--it does seem to be lightly scented, but not nearly as much as Kendal or Ennerdale. The tobacco behaved well in all technical respects. My only beef with this particular blend is that it is pretty doggone sweet! Virginias are sweet already, and this is at the high end of the spectrum as far as that goes. Makes for a nice treat, but not an all-day smoke for me.
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tomobedlam	03/12/2002	Mild to Medium	None detected	Medium	Pleasant
These 6" flakes are dark brown in color, mottled with a lighter creamy flecks. The tobacco rubs out nicely into long strands that pack well and burn cool and even. The immediate flavor is the oft-mentioned floral/ 'soapy' taste which I find pleasant. This dissipates into a pure sweet taste that deepens the hotter you smoke it. At times it has a somewhat sour note that is nevertheless enjoyable. I find this to be an even, enjoyable smoke from beginning to end.
Showing reviews 1 through 17 of 17 reviews of this tobacco