From the first light the smell and taste of patchouli overwhelms you until the very end. There´s no tobacco taste to detect. I´ve smoked Cannon Plug from a clay pipe(thank god) as I´d bet it would create an awful crossover to my briars.

Sorry, but I can´t say anything good about this tobacco. Samuel Gawith produces a lot of wonderful mixtures and flakes, but Cannon Plug is not among these.

0 out of 10 in my personal rating

I tried this early in my smoking career and couldn't take the intense incense flavor. Since then, however, I have grown to enjoy some of the scented Lakeland flakes, in particular GH Glengarry (which IS honeydew, and absolutely delicious), GH #7 Broken Flake (pretty good), and SG Special #7 Flake (which is Cheviot, and very good). So I decided to give this another try.

Many aromatics smell like vanilla or cherry or whatever, but don't taste like those things. Nor do they taste like tobacco, since the underlying leaf is weak and chosen only for its ability to soak up casings. Cannon Plug does not have either flaw. The patchouli-plus casing comes through at full force, and is supported by a full-strength tobacco.

I tried a bowl of this in a corn cob pipe (wise move), just slightly breaking up the cube. It was very difficult to keep lit, but it kept my interest. Next up, I loaded a smallish cube but filled and topped the bowl with some end-of-the-tin Reiner Golden Flake, hoping to use it as tinder. It worked, but the Reiner was undetectable. This tobac is a love-or-hate thing, because the casings are really distinctive. There is nothing else. Even the strong tobaccos are powerless to assert flavors, and add only an "oomph" and a slight edge. Unfortunately, I fall into the "hate" category. No amount of aging could change this one.

This is one of the oldest pipe tobacco blends in existence today. It is not "Honeydew" however, it is Cheviot. There were a few civil war soldiers who smoked this blend, and it really is a fine tobacco that has stood the test of time.

You WILL taste the casing with this tobacco, and for me, it is pleasant. For others who are looking for a rich tobacco taste, you won't find a rich tobacco taste here, but you will find a nice pipe tobacco.

Be warned that this will permeate your pipe, probably permanently. I've smoked this in one of my favorite VA pipes, and I taste this a little bit with every smoke. Twenty smokes later, and I can still taste this. I don't mind it, but there are a few who might REALLY be put off by it. If you try it, I heartily suggest that you dedicate a pipe, or at least try it in a cheap-o, or corncob to be darned sure that you'll want to smoke it in one of your prized pipes.

My sample came ready to smoke moisture-wise, again more like Cob Plug than RB, which is WAY moist. While it is fun to gently pull the leaves off, I prefer my plugs sliced "cross-cut", with very thin sliced cut w/ a single-edged razor-blade. I prefer Cannon Plug in slightly thicker slices than the afore-mentioned other two, since it tends to burn hotter, quite a bit hotter as a matter of fact.

The flavor is similar to RB, but more floral. Both are more on the fruity side that the more floral SG and GH scented flakes. These are strongly flavored tobaccos, so be warned! The flavor lasts throughout the bowl, not deepening as does RB Plug.

While it is prettier by far, easier to prepare and smoke than RB, I prefer RB- less bite than Cannon. Still, as an aficianado of scented flakes and such, I smoke them both on occasion. They are both worth a try if you are into such things.

Oh, yeah, and what is "Cheviot"? My dictionary says that Cheviot is a 1) "British breed of sheep" and 2) "a coarse twill wool fabric , used in making coats...". Huh? I must be missing something here, or else this explains that unusual taste...

The Cannon was my first experience with a plug; curiosity conquered trepidation. My first two bowls of this blend lead me to put this aside as a lost cause. The reasons being that it was too difficult to prepare, and so staggeringly aromatic that I was in shock. There is little to prepare one for the intense honeydew flavour that this product exudes.

And yet.

It is a jealous tobacco. Having smoked one bowl in a nice Stanwell apple, I found that the Cannon plug had left a scent that would never go away: fair warning! So I gave it another go. Having tried the tobacco again, I would say that it has very much won me over. The flavouring has me hooked, and as strong as the honeydew oils are, the tobacco keeps pace to provide a very singular smoking experience.

It is absolutely not an all-day, every-day smoke, but if pipe smoking could ever be described as adventurous, it would be because of Cannon Plug! I won't be without it.

By-the-by, I triple-checked against the above "tin description": Cannon is indeed the honeydew plug, the RB plug is the one listed as treated with Cheviot essence.