Samuel Gawith - Navy Flake pipe tobacco reviews

Review

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Reviewed By:	Date:	Strength:	Flavoring:	Taste:	Room Note:	Recommendation:
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Croaker	03/22/2009	Medium	Medium	Mild to Medium	Tolerable to Strong
Navy Flake is a medium bodied flavored flake tobacco that can bite when smoked too quickly. Navy Flake needs to be dried out from the tin. And, after quite a bit of experimenting I fully rub-out SG's flakes and I can't remember if I tried the fold-and-stuff approach with this flake. Navy Flake has some burning difficulties: it requires multiple re-lights and seldom burns to a fine ash. I get a somewhat vague Virginia and Latakia tobacco taste with a mild yet pungent rum flavoring. Between the burning difficulties and the (surprisingly) mild flavor I frequently smoked too fast and managed tongue bite. This tobacco requires too much attention for my frequent use. When I did get a meditative smoking cadence I found the flavor a bit underwhelming. It does, regrettably, stink up a room. I am a big fan of SG and Navy Flake is certainly not a bad tobacco; nevertheless, I don't think I'll buy more tins.
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Pipe-arazzo	03/05/2009	Mild to Medium	Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
Lakeland Tour stop 18 This was pretty good. It's in the same vein as Balkan Flake and Chocolate flake--virginias much like Best Brown or Full Virginia with some latakia and a discrete topping. Like Balkan but unlike Chocolate flake, the latakia in Navy is noticeable enough to merit smoking this in latakia-dedicated pipes. Chocolate Flake seemed at home in virginia dedicated pipes and clashed with latakia pipes. Of those three, Navy is, to me, the most immediately enjoyable, though perhaps not as interesting as Chocolate. The rum flavoring is discrete, and adds only a nice sweetness. This flake dried out very fast and had to be significantly re-hydrated at one point. Otherwise, not too distinctive but always enjoyable.
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Pipe4ever	11/27/2008	Medium	Mild	Mild to Medium	Tolerable
Navy Flake is a sweet tobacco with rum casing and some top flavoring, Latakia isn?t strong, it?s here just for support, the smoke is sweet, honey like, nicely flavored with some perfume, mild tasty and enjoyable as dessert smoke. Good quality Navy blends for sweet and top flavored tobacco lovers.
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p4p4	11/04/2008	Medium to Strong	Medium	Medium	Tolerable to Strong
This one is good, sure....is good ! Nice blend.
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Matty	10/28/2008	Mild	Very Mild	Mild	Pleasant
This is another homerun for me . I pack this semi rubbed out in my ashton x pebblegrain billiard and smoke it slowly contemplating childhood memory's . This blend is not super powerfull but that does not mean it lacks taste. Sweet, and musty the perfect duo. Lots of white smoke make this a goto smoke on a cool night or a warm summer morning, pair it up with some fine columbian supremo and wala. That reminds me to order another pound or five. I found this smokes sweeter aged. Dribs and drabs of light cherrys, or plums as patty mentioned wait until you can see some white in the almost black flakes you won't be dissapointed.
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jankoez	08/05/2008	Medium	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
This is correct tobacco - maybe to correct since in taste it lacks expected fullness of taste. Who knows, maybe it needs more latakia... However, it is good blend especially if you are in company with others in a room.
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Xeneize	06/22/2008	Medium	Very Mild	Medium	Tolerable
A very solid mixture of Virginias and Syrian Latakia with a mild rum-like topping. Although Navy Flake will satisfy your Latakia needs, its lack of complexity makes it more suitable for casual than comtemplative smoking. Being myself mostly a comtemplative smoker, I can't give it more than 3/4.
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WillardFan	06/19/2008	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
I love most Latakia blends, so of course I had to try this one. I'm a big fan of Gawith Tobaccos, so I was hoping this would be a good choice. I'm on the fence with this one. I like both Commonwealth Mixture and Squadron Leader, more than this offering from Gawith. My biggest con on this tobacco, was that I couldn't keep it lit. I must have relit this stuff 8 times, and even as I type this message out, I have to relight my pipe again. On the plus side, it has a nice flavor, though I'd like a bit more of the Virginia's to come through. This is a rough cut flake, and took a bit of doing to get it broken up, in the way I like to load tobacco into my pipes. There were also quite a few pieces of stems and twiggy stuff mixed in as well. Maybe I got the floor sweepings on this tin? The bowl I'm smoking, was loaded and left out over-night, before firing it up this morning, and it still doesn't want to burn. I'll finish this tin, but I don't think I'll be buying anymore of this one...
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Django	06/15/2008	Medium	Mild to Medium	Full	Tolerable
What a pleasure to smoke this ! I'm now having a great time with this tobacco ! In my opinion, this is the best flake I ever tasted. Although, it's a bit strong, the little dark chocolate aroma is excellent. It's a very well balanced tobacco. Very pleasant to smoke, I'm sure flake's amateurs will be delighted ! It shows well Samuel Gawith's experience in tobaccos.
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Pseudo Nim	05/30/2008	Medium	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
I've gone through several tins of this now over the last few months, and my views have changed, what I felt was a rather strong evening smoke, has now moved into a daytime one. The first time I smoked this, not being used to Latakia, I wondered what I was setting fire too. It seemed a bit strong but very pleasant, with just a hint of rum, so I kept this for an evening smoke with a book. As time and tins progressed, I now find I'm burning this earlier in the day and it seems quite mild and very pleasant. This is one of several Sam Gawiths Flakes I will not be without, and I keep a number of tins on hand. Four Stars.
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Kleophrades	02/02/2008	Mild to Medium	Mild	Medium	Tolerable
The emphasis in this blend is on Virginia, with a relatively mild Latakia adding body but remaining very much in the background. The rum flavoring takes the form of a pleasant added sugariness; it doesn't taste at all rummy, just nicely sweet. It comes from the tin quite moist and can be very nippy -- a tendency that the topping, however mild, can only exacerbate. The flavors get fuller as you go down the bowl and the bite tends to subside. All in all, it's a pleasant tobacco but I don't think the extra sweetness is quite worth the extra bite. I prefer the natural sugars of a good VA flake -- almost as sweet and invariably better balanced.
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htduck	01/14/2008	Medium to Strong	Medium to Strong	Medium to Full	Very Pleasant
This blend of Navy Flake is to puffing as a good grilled sirloin is to eating. Full yet not harsh. I love this smoke in the evenings outside by a fire. I don't understand anyone having a hard time packing and lighting this if they would take the time to visit the website. The instructions take all the guess work out. A fun friendly smoke. Three stars.
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hagen	09/24/2007	Mild to Medium	Very Mild	Medium to Full	Tolerable
tin aroma reveals no rum, imo. only virginia and latakia. i rub the flakes out, as i find they light and burn too slowly i don't. the taste is rather different from the tin aroma. or rather, a lot of notes are added. this is a very spicy and complex tobacco. quite amazing, given it's simple contents. i wonder how the people at samuel gawith achieved this effect, as i don't feel that it's just the addition of rum. anyway, this tobacco is a joy to smoke at any time of the day. bite free and lightweight, it's fine in the morning, and it's still got enough of interest to do fine in the evening. highly recommended.
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puro66	06/07/2007	Mild to Medium	Extremely Mild	Mild to Medium	Pleasant
Many companies offer a Navy Flake and they generally smoke hot with a bite if you're not careful. Not so with SG. This is a smooth smoke with no bite. The rum adds a faint sweetness that is very pleasant with just a hint of latakia. An excellent well balanced flake that can be enjoyed by many.
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thedstinguishdgntlmn	05/15/2007	Medium to Strong	Very Mild	Full	Tolerable to Strong
Another winner from Samuel Gawith. If you let this dry out for a week it will greatly improve your experience with this blend. A European version of C&D's Black Frigate. A little less Latakia and a bit more European in character. This is a good one. 3 stars.
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ChicagoPipe	04/25/2007	Medium	Mild	Medium	Pleasant to Tolerable
Out of the three flakes I tried from SG, the others being Bracken and Balkan, this is my favorite. Navy Flake is very similuar to Balkan Flake, but with less latakia and real rum. The VA's are dark brown and the rum flavor is light and provides a nice sweet background. Don't get me wrong, this does not taste like a aromatic. Burns cool and down to a fine grey ash, with no tounge bite. Fairly moist in the tin, so it needs some air time. My flakes had beautiful sugar crystals on the VA's. Unfortunetlly, since SG does not put any dates on their tins, I don't know how old my tin was. Nice price for Smoking Pipes. I will buy this in bulk on the next order. Highly Recommeded
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Captain Pete	11/29/2006	Medium	Medium	Medium	Tolerable
I'm updating my original review. Initially I found the flavor to be a little flat, and wasn't overly impressed with this flake. I have since found that, in the right pipe, it is quite a wonderful smoke. I have a Peterson tankard and an Irish Seconds zulu with a long stem, and these pipes are just the right size for a smallish, delicately flavored flake like Gawith's Navy flake. The dark brown, leathery flakes rub out to just the right broken consistency, and stuffed in a small pipe just so, light right up and stay lit. The latakia is almost a little overwhelming at first light, but fairly quickly fades into the background, there staying just as a lingering presence. The flavoring is mildly sweet, but not at all spicy like one would expect with a traditionally cased rum or navy flake. The trademark lakeland flavor just barely makes itself known ocassionally, but after one or two bowls is unnoticable. I will definitely be smoking more of this in the winter months to come.
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Talonr1701	11/12/2006	Medium	Mild	Medium to Full	Tolerable
This is a great blend.....This is more of a Navy Flake than most other blends I have tried....Or at least to my expectations... The Virginia is typical S.G.- Nice, Sweet, flavorful...Just enough Latakia to make it exotic, and a great rum flavor that sweetens the whole effect. From begining to end, a smooth, tasty smoke. No hint of bite, no harshness...Just a good smoke. Definatly a doer....
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k9zm	10/26/2006	Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium	Pleasant
I just love the taste of the tobaccos used in Sam Gawith flakes. I assume that it is a combination of where they are from and the processes used to produce the flake tobaccos. Almost a meaty flavor. Superb! I have to leave a tin out for a couple days to dry a bit. I really don't mind, just wish they would pack a full two ounces per tin to make use of the space. But I have also been stocking up with pounds. Rubs out easily, packs well. Navy flake smokes as cool as other Sam Gawith flakes. No tongue bite waiting here. Plenty of latakia and a nice chosen flavor. Yes, that could be rum, but it might just be good Virginia's and the process that makes a sweet tasting flake. The latakia is present and not overpowering. This could be an all day smoke for most. This Podunker gives a thumbs up. Enjoy, Carlos
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Spike	10/22/2005	Medium	Mild	Medium	Pleasant
As a big fan of Balkan flake I anticipated liking this and I do. As with moist flakes, I rub them out pretty thoroughly and load them in the pipe bowl. After waiting 15 to 60 minutes I fire it up. If it doesn't light right away let it sit a while. I think if you smoke this too wet the rum flavor is too much. My only regret is the limited amount in the tin. Looks like about ten smokes to me.
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