I get the best satisfaction out of this tobacco by rubbing out the flakes, letting them air dry for four hours or so, and plugging a small bowl suited for flake tobacco. Similar to the method described in the Mac Baren web site for smoking flake tobacco.

When smoked in this fasion, it is a smooth burning tasty tobacco with some tang to it. It comes off a little bitter at first but the palette adjusts. As others noted, there is a hint of chocolate. The after taste is very pleasant and lingers for hours.

I doubt this will be a go to tobacco for me but it is definitely a keeper. Something to relax with on a cool fall night with a good book.

Lights easily, and stays lit. It has a generous smoke and satisfies my nicotine needs. The chocolate sweetness is a shade which covers the nice flavors of the mixture. This is the only disadvantage of the blend for me. Lots of other pipe smokers can find this unique particularity unbeatable. For me the excellent VA, burley and the latakia touch mixture might have the priority.

Even if it is dried well you may have steam problems. Try to smoke very slow, and keep some pipe cleaners nearby.

None the less the flakes were big and dark and rubbed out well. Have to let it dry out a bit before packing otherwise it clumps up. I packed my pipe loosely and it lit up fine. It smokes smooth and cool and every so often you get a chocolate hit. No bite at all.

I enjoy this blend with a galss of Drambuie on ice. It really accents the tobacco's flavors.

As with Bob's Chocolate Flake, I was off-put by Sam's version of Lakeland florals - way too perfumy for me to taste and appreciate the tobaccos within. Actually, both made me a bit nauseous and it took a while for the aftertaste of both to leave my palate. Not a pleasant experience for me.

Moisture content of both was just about right for a flake, although SGs was the drier of the two and the easiest to pack, light, and keep lit. I did get a bit of a nicotine hit with SGs Chocolate Flake, but nothing noticed with Bob's.

I intend to keep the lids off both of my tins for about a month to see if it minimizes (I hope rids them) of the soapy/perfumy tastes that made smoking these blends so not enjoyable for me. 1 star.

UPDATE 4-20-10: I had a similar experience as with Bob's Chocolate Flake (see 4-20-10 update under that heading). Deciding to re-visit since my original review, time has allowed all but a trace of the Lakeland presence to vanish, leaving a tobacco that was smokeable - and enjoyable - for me. After smoking both chocolate blends, I tend to favor Bob's Chocolate Flake more so than Sam's version due to a more pronounced (yet not over the top) chocolate flavor present throughout the smoke. Can't taste chocolate at all in Sam's version. I can definitely taste the Latakia in this one as it was minimal with Bob's (I'm not a big fan of Latakia so this was just fine). Sam's Latakia adds a subtle background presence and is more dominating than with Bob's. The soapy presence in Sam's was very minimal in the tin aroma, and nil while smoking this time around. Both are high quality tobaccos and I can now appreciate the 3-4 star reviews each has garnered. While perhaps never becoming daily smokes for me, both are definitely worthy of weekly rotation; but if I purchase any new tins, I will need to let the Lakeland presence dissipate off long before I smoke either blend. Sam's dries out quicker which was ok. The flakes were almost crunchy, but ladden with beautiful sugar crystals adding a subtle, non-cloying, sweetnes.

Seems to me that the Burley plays the main role; Latakia and chocolate are applied in very small quantities. It's the whole blend that doesn't inspire me anything and, like the brothers Balkan Flake and Sam's Flake, is dull and flat.

The combination of the elements in CF gives a faintly sweet & salty (even ashy...) smoke which doesn't really mean a thing to me.

As Hagen says just before me, nothing to complain about the leaves, it's just the boring combination.

interesting, perhaps, but not for me. still, as most sam gawith, there's nothing wrong with the leaf.

This is a traditional English style flake (plenty of pipe cleaners at the ready) with interesting flavours and a dense, rich and heave smoke emanating from the smoke. I preferred it fully rubbed-out with a little advanced drying.

A good smoke - highly recommended.

07/27/09 UPDATE: I am revising some of my reviews. I have given out more 4 star ratings than anything else. That practice is probably not helping. So, I am reducing Chocolate Flake to 3 stars, not because I like it less than I did before, but because I am limiting 4 stars to fewer than 25% of all my reviews. One day I may use the 4 star rating to designate my top five.

I'?m sure you can tell where this is going.

A few months later and I'?ve re-ordered BCF and I?'m struggling to finish this little number. The two flakes have a lot in common. They?'re both based on brown Virginia (though Sam's claims Latakia), both are fairly generous of tobacco flavor and nicotine, both are delightfully smoky, and both are pretty subtle as far as aroma is concerned. If I?'d never experienced BCF, I would probably make this flake an occasional houseguest. Where I think BCF bests Sam's flake (at least for me) is in the level of complexity, the layering of flavor. It?'s got more to say, I suppose.

But at least one other reviewer here had precisely the opposite reaction. (I though you should know.)

One of the very best smoking/imbibing combinations I have experienced was SG Chocolate Flake + North Coast Red Seal Ale. Greatly recommended.

I tried this alternating with Bob's Chocolate Flake from Gawith and Hoggarth. I liked this one better overall, principally because it was more interesting to my palate and had no soapy flavor to it.

Some reviewers say this is Best Brown with the addition of latakia and chocolate flavor. For my money, I think Best Brown is better by itself. This was ok, once it had aged enough. At first, though I gave the open tin a month to mellow before smoking it, it was a bit bitter and, for lack of a better word, "muddy" in flavor. This subsided finally, especially after I had to rehydrate it, leaving a nice rich virginia flavor.

I never noticed any latakia or chocolate. That was ok; I probably would not have wanted something that tasted like a chocolate bar. But I do think just a bit more sweetness would have done wonders for this tobacco, bringing out the flavors and taking the edge off. This smelled very sweet in the tin, by the way. Certainly worth a try if you're looking for a nice virginia tobacco. Aromatophiles and latakia junkies will definitely be disappointed.