i'll have to pass on this one.

Yup, reminds me of cotton candy. I like cotton candy, so no problems there.

A quality VA, mildly topped. Can be nippy, but not if you take your time. I enjoyed every last flake.

I would love to find a way to rate this, and other Lakeland scented flakes critically in relation to each other, but I seem to like them all! They all fit my original notion of what I thought an aromatic would taste like. Tobacco, mainly. While I prefer all day weed to be untopped, any of the scented versions make great changes of pace for me...Firedance included. Maybe one day I'll have an epiphany, or grow a discerning palate one. Until that time, I rate Firedance Flake the same as its brethren...

Three tasty stars.

What this means in tobacco talk :

The aroma of this blend is so good . My wife said the other night .. " you can smoke that around the house if ya need to " .. sigh . The tin says " A blend of fine Virginias with the flavor of Blackberries , Brandy and Vanilla . I'll go w/ that . Mind you , this isnt a high Aromatic . The Virginia is always there and the " flavor " as well . It's a medium body smoke that smokes slow with a full mouth . Ya cant get it to bite if it's dried enough ... which is it's only drawback . When I first opened the tin I rubbed it a little and went to town . That didnt work at all . Basicly 50 % smoke and 50 % steam . Bummer . So I rubbed it some and let it sit out 30 mins , an hour , 2 hours etc ... At 2 hours it was pretty good [ rubbed mind you ]. Overnight it was fine .. about 6 hours . I didnt rub the hell out of it .. just to break it up and get more surface area goin on . If one were to not rub it I really dont know how long it would take to get ' right ' . I enjoyed it best in a Kaywoodie # 28 .. a smallish octagon billiard [ group 3 ] . In a group 4 Dunhill Billiard it was as good really . In a big ass pipe it was fine but just not as good is all . My kaywoodie # 28 now has a Firedance ghost .. and I'm glad ! I smoked Edgeworth in it today and got alittle Firedance goin on and I liked it . So it can ghost . Again , this isnt like PS Black Currant cavendish that is a high Aromatic .. It's flavored as they say and it's about the nicest flavor I've ever smoked in a pipe ! At TB I'd give it 4 stars without thinking . I really wish it were like a MB product as far as ' ready to go ' ... if so it would be absolutely perfect ! I thank Wicklow for the trade we did . . . Rarely will I blow money on a " fancy " tin that I'm not sure about . Thanks Brother :) ... This blend gets Ruffinogolds highest recomendation ! Giada De Laurentiis in fishnets !!!!

Aromas of Blackberry, liqeur, fabric softener, sweet-sour candies, floral incense and an underlying high quality Virginia that just keeps you diving into the bowl for more and more and more! :D

The downsides to this tobacco perfection: Absolutely boggy in the tin. You need to dry it out. I broke up the flakes and set them on a paper next to a radiator for three hours before reaching a smokeable consistency. Price... You are going to want to buy many many wonderful tins of this tobacco (spoken with a commndt Lassard-voice) and that is going to cost you a couple of bucks. Take out a second mortgage on your house, sell your kids or burn your wife's credit card... Then you start buying all you can! :D

The flakes in this tin are somewhat moist, and I find them to smoke best if rubbed and let to dry for about 30minutes before actually packing and smoking.

Upon opening the tin, a very fruity scent immediately fills the room. The blackberry is very dominant in smell, with the brandy and vanilla as a noticeable undertone.

After drying for about 30 minutes, this tobacco is easy to pack and light. Being somewhat thicker (because it's a flake tobacco) it burns very slowly and evenly and smokes very cool. It requires little or no relighting in my Big Ben Bruyere De luxe, in which I smoke it the most.

I got no tonguebite at all from this, but it does tend to get a little too wet every now and then, causing the pipe to gurgle. The taste is what you'd expect upon smelling the unlit tobacco: fruity, quite mild yet complex, with a vanilla undertone. The brandy is a bit absent in my opinion.

Perhaps not really recommended for new smokers, this tobacco has become my absolute favorite blend so far!

The tin description says it's "subtly flavored." Subtle like a train wreck, maybe. I kid you not, after storing this in a ceramic canister for a year, hoping it would mellow, the ceramic canister is permanently flavored with blackberry. When I still couldn't smoke it, my wife used it as potpourri for a couple of months. The flakes were still wet and sticky when I threw them away.

The best thing I can say about this blend is that if you like blackberry cobbler (and I do), you'll start salivating the instant you open it up.

By the way, lest I be typecast, I freely admit I enjoy a good aromatic. I'm puffing on Mac Baren's Vanilla Cream Flake right now, and I'll probably enjoy some Erinmore Flake before bed. But this "Fire" Flake gives aromatics a bad name! Not Recommended for anyone without an asbestos tongue.

The flakes in my bulk sample look like the contents of the bags the dog owners in our gated community carry. Wet, sticky and not visually appealing. If you are used to the perfect flakes in a tin of Orlik Golden Slices, these are going to be a real let down.

Perhaps if I were "Two Years Before the Mast" (by RH Dana), and had the smoking lamp lit once each month, this blend might be enjoyable. To those of us with the finest tobacco in the world available, this is a curiosity only.

I might enjoy the underlying best brown flake, but this topping is terrible. It starts out very sweet and becomes cloying quickly. The blackberry smell is like a cooked Pop Tart. Try it outdoors first, in a cob, then if you don't like it you can trash the pipe and the memories. If you exhale through your nose it will stay with you for at least a day. It does not leave the pipe.

Worst of all, the flakes need drying out. However the smell is so strong it stinks up the whole area. I tried putting some flakes out in the garage but they attracted cock roaches. I am going to send my 4 ounces to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for Christmas, that place is full of cock roaches and thieves, so they should enjoy it.

Smoking Firedance is at times, reminiscent of catching the 'occasional' whiff of someone baking a blackcurrant crumble (cobbler to the yanks) as one stroll's along a country lane in England during the height of summers eve.

Still not as nice as the real thing though, and this could have been better..

The tobacco is first rate. The VA flavor is mellow and medium-bodied, and it is complemented by vanilla throughout, though mildly. I find a bit of a tart aftertaste from the blackberry on relighting, though this seems to fade quickly,

Firedance is unusual and enjoyable, It might not be the ideal smoke for the natural tobacco aficionado, or for the aromatic lover, but it is solid and pleasurable.

As with most SG tobaccos, this will come a tad moist out of the tin. You could pack it and fire it up straight away, but it will really benefit from some drying. I find that half an hour is enough to get the most flavor from the flakes, and to handle them comfortably.

This tobacco for me means balance. Just the right amount of flavoring, and natural tobacco flavor. The berries aren't over powering, and truthfully, it smells delicious. I could smoke this all day long as the nicotine level is just right (medium), the smell is fantastic, and it tastes wonderful. Burns to a nice fine ash and doesn't require any relights for me.

Quite possibly my favorite aromatic ever. Thank you SG.

The tin note is strong, with a very intense and pleasant scent of berries. As has been noted before, the flakes are unevenly cut, but I find a certain "rustic" charm to that. They are quite moist, so I elected to rub them out, fill my pipe, and let it sit for several hours.

The berry flavor definitely takes the lead for the first two-thirds of the bowl, with the brandy providing a smooth back note. The tobacco burned very well and required no re-lights (and this was in a cheap, unsmoked Czech-made "basket pipe" I had lying around). I puffed deliberately, and found it to very cool smoking with absolutely no tongue bite. Towards the end of the bowl the vanilla finally made its presence known, and ultimately overtook the berry flavor. The Virginia leaf was also evident through the entire smoke. The tobacco left a very clean and mellow aftertaste.

Although this isn't something I could smoke every day, I will keep a few tins around for an occasional change of pace. All in all, another high quality product from Samuel Gawith.

Gawith, in my view, makes the best flakes on the planet, and this one is no exception. Silky smooth and well-behaved, it's fun to smoke and will never bite or burn. Give it a whirl, but don't load up your bowl to the brim with it. Yes, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

A simply delightful scent assails you out of the tin. Smells like one of my late mother's fruit pies. The tobacco is soft and pliable and packing the old pipe couldn't be easier, even for a rook like me, with whatever method suits you. I used the sort-of-stuff-and-ram method !

The smoke is flavoursome as has been reported by other posters. Blackberry-ish. Could even pass as Blackcurrant or perhaps Blueberry. Couldn't detect anything else. Vanilla ? Nope. Brandy ? Nope !

That's ok with me, I'm an aromatics fan and to this rather dulled palate it's a far cry from the neutrality of Peterson's mixtures.

Needs quite a bit of relighting, but of course bear in mind that this is my first experience with a flake. I'm hopeless at assessing room note, but I've had no comments either way so far.

This blend is certainly going to feature prominently in my rotation along with the excellent Celtic Talisman and ideal for your first aromatic flake. I'm really enjoying SG's blends and look forward to opening a tin of their Grousemoor !