I eventually decided to wrap the tin in foil and bung it in the oven for a couple of hours at 90c. The flakes darkened considerably and turned from waxy to stiff. The tin note became even nicer. Although still very moist, it smoked beautifully without constant relighting and I could actually taste the topping to the bottom of the bowl. In this state, it was perhaps the best aromatic I have ever smoked. Toasty brown flake married perfectly with blackberry pie. Unfortunately this did not last long (one bowl) and it reverted back to its original self i.e. tasteless, once cooled.

Even when sipped, which can only be done after baking, after the true light, it tastes like a medium quality brown flake with plain white sugar casing.

If SG cased this tobacco with the blackberry instead of a light topping (why do blenders do that?) and removed the unnecessary humectant, it would be 4 stars material.

Please SG and other blenders, stop trying to please non-aromatic smokers who only smoke aromatics to draw attention to themselves or please non-smokers, and who dont actually like the taste of aromatics.

MUCH better results. It still took a few tries to light, and required several re-lights. The taste and smell were pleasant, and I didn't taste too much chemical nastiness.

Wife says room note was pretty "meh", and "Tolerable" was a good rating.

Overall it was OK, but not something I'd be in any hurry to purchase more of.

This was a nicely flavored flake, with the berry taste lasting throughout the smoke. Nothing earth-shattering, but certainly steady. Unfortunately, the depth and "color" that each bowl of BBF provides me was completely missing in action, as this was as nuanced as a brick wall. And once again, SG's flavored tobaccos seem to me to fall well short of their namesake G&H. It's hard to explain but while both are consistent with the flavoring down the bowl, the G&H flavorings seem to not only meld with the tobacco but they enhance it. SG's flavored blends seem to cover up the tobacco taste. Instead of the "merger" that the G&H blends accomplish, SG's flavored blends seem like just short of a hostile takeover. The berry flavor in this one was nice but it blanketed the tobacco flavor instead of melding with it. This is one I may smoke on rare occasions and anyone interested in a dry-smoking virginia aromatic with a low nicotine content and flavoring that doesn't go kaput from mid-bowl down should give this a try. It just doesn't measure up to the Lakeland process that is so masterfully accomplished by G&H, St Bruno and others.

The sweet blackberry aroma from the tin on first opening was, despite being a little artificial, a pleasant greeting to my erstwhile nose. It wasn't overly strong though, so i wasn't overly surprised when very little of it made it into the smoke, which turned a little more oaky and leafy, with hints of chocolate and stake, all with just a little sweetness. Packing and lighting are reasonable given that it's a flake, though the odd relight is necessary. The room note doesn't really stand out but is certainly not unpleasant. Now, I know my previous reviews that I whinge and whine about pipe tobaccos with flavouring in the tin aroma not delivering in the smoke, but in this case, it doesn't matter, the flavour in the smoke amply makes up for it.

On the whole the, a very nice, pleasant smoke. It doesn't really stand out amongst SG's fantastic tobaccos but is equal in quality. A lot of flakes, I find are very strong and, thus, probably only really enjoyable smoked once a day at most. This, however, can be smoked all day every day. It reminds me of those midfielders you rarely find in football these days, like David Mcreary or David Batty, someone who doesn't have a lot of flair but more than makes up for it in work rate. You won't realise they're there, but they end up playing a pivotal roll in the match.

So there you go, Firedance is the David Mcreary of the pipe tobacco world. It won't dazzle you, but it will pull out all the stops to give you a good smoke.

This one is an exception, in that it has none of the typical Lakeland flowery flavoring and it has a nicotine content which is quite low and tolerable (unlike Bracken Flake, 1792 and other by the same brand). Yes, it's much more of a classic "American style" aromatic in flavoring, although the blackberry reminds me of Dunhill Three Year Matured Virginia. The difference is that the Dunhill is stomach turning (in taste and nicotine intensity), while this one is quite pleasant.

Ok, you have to like the sweet flavoring: if you don't, steer well clear. But it must be said that in the smoke it translates much less intrusively than in the tin aroma. Actually, call me crazy, it complements the tobacco quite well. And the tobacco is a very fine (though initially rather moist) Virginia flake, juicy and with a nice body, with no harshess and no excessive heaviness. The flavoring comes out in the first half, but just as a top note, never drowning the pure Virginia taste. In the second half, the tobacco is all is left.

If you take care to dry it out a little bit, and especially to rub it out a lot before packing the bowl (usually I like whole flakes, but this particular tobacco absolutely benefits from rubbing out), you will experience a creamy, rich, smooth, cool and easy smoke pleasantly alternating between sweet and sour. No tonguebite AT ALL.

I am not always in the mood for such a flavoring, but I must also say that whenever I "force" myself to pick this tobacco I rarely have a disappointing smoke. Sure, there are FAR better flakes around, but Firedance certainly is not disgusting... on the contrary, it can range from OK to quite pleasant depending on mood, moisture/rubbing out and pipe.

Almost tempted to give it a "Recommended" rating, which is certainly a great accomplishment from S&G since I am not an aromatics fan. If you are, but also care for a nice tobacco underneath the topping, by all means give it a try.

First of all, I have smoked a lot of Best Brown in my day, and what came of out the tin for this was not Best Brown. Best Brown is BROWN. This came out of the tin a light reddish tan. It looked, smelled, and smoked a lot more like Golden Sliced than any SG flake I have ever tried. Second, it had almost no odor at all out of the tin. I was expecting something aromatic, with a berry smell, per the description. None of that was found. I made a buddy stick it under his nose to see if I was crazy, and he agreed that there was little to no odor, other than the tobacco. WTF?

I had ordered a second tin, so I cracked that one open to see if somehow I had gotten some strange defective product, but the second tin was exactly like the first. This sounds crazy, but I really thought that maybe someone had switched the tobacco with something else, or was selling fake SG tins, given the lack of availability recently. I am going to buy another tin in the future from a different source to see if I get something different.

As noted, this, at least from my tin, was moist flakes of a very light golden tan color, with no real aromatic casing odor. Perhaps they use the BB flake mixture, but do not steam press it like their other wonderful flakes. If so, than that steam pressing really works wonders, because this tobacco has little to no flavor, no aromatic flavor, and burns much hotter than a typical SG flake. It is hard to even find something to review, because it was just bland, bland, bland.

This is the worst SG tobacco I have ever smoked, and I have smoked Grousemoor, which tastes like you are smoking a prom corsage! If I got a ringer, and my tins are somehow not representative, then I will do a new review, with apologies to SG. If this is what they are claiming is a cased BB flake, than shame on them, because this is light years away from the venerable and wonderful BB, and besmirches its good name.

After drying out it becomes just about smokeable. Yes, the flakes smell of blackberrys (well, blackberry flavoured sweets anyway), but it still tastes vaguely how I'd imagine belladonna to taste.

I don't know which "lady smoker" developed this, but I bet she wears too much perfume.

Pairs well with a ruby port.

For filling the pipe, I use the rubbing method and the just stuffing in method depending on the flake measure. Easy to light, easy to smoke: it's Samuel Gawith!

Very good flavoring and a good nicotine taste, just like Best Brown Flake but with the blackberry and vanilla added.

Recommended if you want a non overwhelming aromatic.

One of my best smoking aromatic blends.

The bramble aroma really comes across in the taste and tastes of real brambles; rich, sweet and tart.

Do not apply if you want an unadorned tobacco flavour or a simple candy sweet aro, but if you want a more interesting aro with some quality tobacco strength and a taste which really relates to the fragrance this could be just the thing you are looking for.