soli Deo gloria

Recommended +

Best Brown changed my smoking preference from mainly EM's to mainly natural Va(Pers). Best Brown however is irreplacable and I keep craving it untill my next order has come by mail.

Recommended to every pipesmoker as a reference tobacco!

Update march 2011 As fast as I smoked my way through a pouch of this, so slow I work my way through a tin. Did I get a bad tin? Lighter of colour, almost tasteless and difficult to keep lit. To be continued...

Over the years, I've found that virginia sweetness is somewhat overrated to my tastebuds. I prefer the tanginess of darker VA's. They are generally stronger but I find them more complex, with a depth of flavor that their lighter cousins can't match. This was no exception. The milder smoke made it more possible for me to discern the complex nature of virginia tobacco, and it's lack of citrus sweetness was gratifying. It was a lightly sweet tobacco, with plenty of tang and body, but mild to the tongue. This is without a doubt one of the 5 finest straight virginias I've ever smoked. Naturally there's a current shortage!

If FVF is too heavy for you, or Blackwoods Flake too earthy or Opening Night too sweet, try this if you can find it. This one is just right for me... not that I'm giving up the others I just mentioned! But this one seems to go with anything and in any situation. Very highly recommended!

My tin was dated 12/04 and I was delighted that my first foray with this tobacco was from a fairly well-aged tin. The clump of unevenly arranged flakes were quite moist considering the age of the tin and came apart quite readily for smoking. I like the uneven style of packing flakes that Sam Gawith employs over the more uniform presentation as found with other blenders. The flakes in my sample were VERY dark brown in appearance without any sugar crystals present. There was absolutely NO Lakeland floral or soapy aroma. It had no cased/top dressed aroma at all. It smelled very earthy - similar to damp soil - and a tad sweet. In spite of its seeming freshness (not what I expected in a 6 year old tin), it packed and lit quite readily, only requiring the initial 2 lights and one re-light by mid bowl (Group 3 bent billiard). It produced a small bit of moisture, but nothing to be off-putting. After many further tins, I find BBF a very different tasting VA and very delicious with one of the best, natural, "old-time pipey" roomnotes ever. Much better than their FVF in my opinion.

UPDATE 4-7-12: Due to availability issues with SG, I've been saving what I had left of BBF but now that it is available again, I delved into my stash from a tin nearly 2 years old and I promptly ordered 2 more tins. I had maybe 3 flakes or so left and they were dry to the bone. They also exhibited sugar bloom as well. I broke some slivers along the length of a flake and literally crunched them into my Peterson's 2012 St. Patrick's Day bent billiard and lit up. Dry to the bone, but what a smoke! I was thoroughly impressed just as I first was. It smoked like a charm and without heat or bite. Subtle in flavor and very tasty, it left a nice lingering tobacco presence in my beard and mustache.

UPDATE 4-12-12: My 2 tins arrived the other day. I cracked one open and was greeted with a nice, sweet smelling, honeydew like aroma. Even though it was very moist in the way SG is noted for, it smoked like a charm. My favorite Virginia hands down!

Mine came a little dry, but rehydrating it produced the most wonderful smelling tobacco ever. Plums and citrus. Picked apart the flakes and stuffed it in a medium kirsten, lit up pretty well.

The flavor is good, if monochromatic. Earthy with little hints of sweetness here and there. Definitely less bright than a yellow VA, as would be expected from something described as 'brown'. Sweet sidestream, but ashy room note.

I'm still up in the air on this one. I really looked forward to trying it (perhaps I'll get a tin straight from SG and see), but it didn't live up to my admittedly high expectations. It's not bad at all—far from it—but it doesn't tickle my fancy the way others do. When I'm done with my little stockpile, I just might grab some more to keep around.

It comes in a rather plain uninteresting rectangular tin, and upon opening it, I am greated with a sweet rather twangy haylike aroma. The flakes are pretty uniform but coming aprt a little and are mostly a medium brown color with flecks of a lighter brown. I dried it overnight and it crumbled into a nice bit of thin ribbon cut pieces and loaded easily into my pipe. My pipe I used first is a new Jan P and then I used several different VA dedicated pipes. It is very easy to light and it stays lit well. The first taste upon lighting is a semi sweet haylike flavor with a little tartness in it. The smoke is nice and creamy and very pleasant. As it burns down, it does pick up more strenth and really picks up on the sweetness factor. It smokes down all the way to a mottled grey ash with no moisture in the bottom of the pipe. Smoked nice and slow, it never bites and is very gentle on the pallet. If you really get her going though, it can bite a little but you have to try to do this as it smokes pretty slow and easy with regular smoking. The room note of the smoke is pleasant to me, not over powering, i had a non smoking neighbor tell me it was very good smelling and not overwhelming. This is one of the VA blends that really satisfies my taste buds, I always want to refill and lite another bowl of it. A really good VA flake that I will keep around. I highly suggest geiving this one a try if you are a straight VA lover. It is a top notch smoke.

I have to say that this is a very pleasant smoke. Like other Sam Gawith flakes, it has a lovely moisture content and feels great to rub out or fold. It seems to burn well enough without needing to dry it out. The note from the tin is of raisins and nuts, like fruit cake. In fact an aromatic smoker friend of mine felt that it was the most pleasant non-aromatic he'd smelt.

It packs and lights well, and although it doesn't have an overpowering aroma or flavour, this goes in its favour because one never tires of it. A good every day smoke I think. I found FVF too high in nicotine to make it a regular. It took me back to smoking Luckies, although I would rate it highly too.

The bowl of my Big Ben billiard smells great afterwards too.

All in all, I am very impressed with this and will probably make it a staple. Truly a Best Brown Flake.

R.W.