The tobacco arrived so wet that by the time it dries Im looking at 15 pounds for a 10g pouch.

Upon opening the pouch I was reminded of the hay my goat sleeps on - not fresh hay, I mean hay that needs changing.

Upon lighting the pipe the first thing I noticed was an extreme cotton mouth and cotton throat, like one gets on a 3 day booze bender without brushing teeth. Never before has a pipe tobacco done this to me.

Another first - I always used to wonder what people meant when they talked about 'tongue bite'. Now I know. This is the first tobacco that has ever done it to me, even when smoked slowly. It only gets worse towards the bottom of the bowl.

Overall the golden glow experience was like filling a pub ashtray with water, then putting the contents, filters and all into the pipe, still wet, then stuffing a hedgehog on top and smoking it. Ghastly stuff.

When I walked into the room while my wife was smoking it, It was so strong I couldnt breathe. Like 10 people smoking roll your owns in an area the size of a toilet cubicle.

I grow my own tobacco and my bog standard air dried, uncured virginia is 10x nicer than this junk. This one is in my top two most foul tobaccos along with borkum whiskey.

Opening the tin to be greeted by a slightly weird smell of hay, I got flashbacks to my youth, wandering through those farmers fields under a baking sun. The yellowish colour too added in the reminiscence. Not sure I'm completely happy with the whole broken flake idea though, this almost had the look of a sorry mixture of hay and cowpat, as I tried to fish out something to smoke I felt like I was sifting a bull turd for a wedding ring. Still, I've paid for it so I'm going darn well smoke it! The packing was fairly easy, the lighting, not so - it does need a little drying. As for the smoke itself, it's a little queer, a little citrus and a touch of hay pop in and out of a generally nondescript puff of the old leaf, and yet it somehow manages to please. It's inoffensive, doesn't hit the back of the throat or hammer you with any tonguebite, in fact it's incredibly smooth. Like a previous reviewer, I do wonder if it's been spliced with something else, though I picked up a hint of boot polish, aka black cavendish. Might be wrong but there goes.

So, what to make of this little summer frock? Maybe that's exactly what it is, it's like seeing the rather plain girl next door day in day out and then one summer, seeing her step out of the door with a pleasant summer frock and a little slap on her. It just nicely spices her up, makes you look twice and think "Maybe I'm missing something there.". Like her, this tobacco isn't a stunner, but there's a certain pleasantness to it. I've been humming and harring over whether to give this a two or a three star review, now I think that analogy has put it into perspective. Pleasant if not astounding.

Update February 2013: Finished several tins of this and found that it ages perfectly if you're lucky (depends on humidity and temperature). IMO the best pure VA I have ever smoked, even better (brighter) than FVF and completely pure. Will definitely stay in rotation. Golden Glow is the tinned version of MVF, though the curing method is different (at least the description here on TRs.com says so). So, congratulations Sam: 5 of 5!

Upon opening the tin, i was greeted with that creamy, rich, sour note of my favourite kind of smoke. This tobacco comes VERY wet so it has to be aired out to your personal tastes.

Upon lighting, i experienced a flavourfull, tasty smoke that i found really impressive to say the least. Creamy, oatsy, malty delicious.

For South African Pipesters, Samuel Gawith blends are available at Sturks in Cape Town.

Mo, South Africa

To this day, I've only had good experiences with SG tobaccos, and this one is not any different. Extremely high quality tobacco as always, and yes, it's quite moist out of the tin, as always. I found that like with most SG tobaccos, letting it air for a few hours does the job nicely.

This one packs easily, burns cool, and does in no way make a mess in your pipe. It's a very well behaved leaf which burns all the way to the end with no problems and no relights. Flavor wise it's fresh, tangy and simply delightful. For me the strength is ideal as an every day smoke, and it's perfect for the spring/summer. But I could seriously smoke this all day as the flavor is consistent throughout the bowl, and because it's so easy to manage and maintain. Absolutely no tongue bite or harshness, even when you puff hard.

Absolutely fantastic smoke.

The tobacco in every tin was sopping wet, and most were covered in mold. I cursed loudly. An entire tin of Scottish Flake was destroyed, with barely a couple flakes removed. I thought I could salvage Golden Glow, so I set the tobacco atop a sheet of paper, picking out every instance of mold I could see. I claimed victory, and left the tin open to dry a bit before transferring the contents to a mason jar. I returned in another week. To more mold. Well, I repeated the experiment and came again. To more mold. Having picked apart the spore laden leaf this time around, I decided to smoke a bowlful of the affected weed.

Noo, what about highly toxic, virulent mold spores?!! I just didn't care. It had to be done, for science. Relax, whatever brain damage I have was likely the cause of this incident, and not the result. The tobacco tasted like its unaffected half...

Pure, unadulterated, the scent and flavor characteristic of hay, of medium body and nicotine. Golden Glow has a natural disposition, far removed from Full Virginia Flake, with its dark press and molasses-like flavor. What you have here are the high notes, a huge change of pace from Golden Glow's more popular cousin. And the smoke is consistent, it doesn't waver or modulate from top to bottom of the bowl. You expect a bright Virginia would be sugary and bitey, both of which remain foreign to Golden Glow. And though I perceived a lacking of complexity, there is a richness that pervades the experience, particularly when paired with a high percentage of Perique. At 30%, Golden Glow really shines. It's a testament to Sam Gawith that the blending house can offer two radically different extremes of Virginia in the same line of tobaccos.

Because of my poor judgment, I've been paranoid about my remaining bits and ends of that dwindling, tragic sample of Golden Glow--checking it daily for new growth and consuming frantically what might soon spoil for good. Now here's some advice...once that tobacco gets a taste of mold, it won't disappear--even with great care taken to eradicate any sign of blight. It's like cancer. Delicious, tasty cancer.

Tin aroma was really nasty for a virginia, which took me by surprise. It did not make that first load very appealing, but the taste made up for it. A highly and naturally sweet blend, this one showed its Citrus Spunk with the lemon virginia but the citrus didn't overpower me as it does with some VA's. Mostly high note oriented, this one still satisfied with some midrange depth. A reasonably complex blend, the flavor ran the gamut of citrus, hay and tang. This would be a good all-day blend for smokers who run that way but I found it kind of lacking in the evenings. A little brother to FVF? Perhaps. Not nearly as seasoned as FVF and a lot more playful. I prefer the zest of FVF over this but this was a very worthwhile journey. Try this one if the various brown flakes are too much for you and blends like OGS and Dunhill Flake are a little too "fruity".

The broke flake packs and lights right, with a regular burning pace. For me this blend is too bland and too flat in taste with a total lack of the nuances that the opening of the tin seems to promise to my nose. Unbalanced in the strength/taste ratio, I'd not recommend this stuff for smokers, like me, who likes fuller and stronger virginias (Full Virginia Flake is one of my top 5 in rotations). And for those on mild smokes or looking for milder smokes in summer time, I think there are better options out there.

As Sir Walter Smiley said below, maybe it could be a good blending stuff, mixing with other blends tha give it the taste it lacks.

For my personal taste GG is a 1 star blend, but as its packing, lighting, burning performances are ok and its room note is good, I give it 2 thinking on social smokers.

I keep my baccy in glass jars on a shelf in my study and this one has an added benefit: the color of the twisty flakes is bright gold and contrasts nicely with the other, darker blends - so it is a treat for they eyes as well!

Update 6/7/2011: still a great baccy on my list but dropping to three stars because I am finding it a bit one-dimensional.

The tin aroma is damp natural virginia tobacco scent with a hint of citrus. As a matter of fact I could have sworn I was smelling a virginia cigarette had I been blind folded.

Careful loading is necessary. I found it hard to light and keep lit as it really needed more time to air. The room note is quite simply tobacco cigarette, and so is the tastes except for a hint of lemon on the tongue. On it's own, it would make a very mild all-day smoke for someone content to smoke a very monotone baccy.

Too boring for me on it's own so I cut the ribbon shorter and added a bunch of latakia to what I had left. Once I did this, I could swear I was smoking Frog Morton.

No bite, smokes clean down to ash if allowed to thoroughly dry before lighting. I consider this a good "beginner's" blend. I won't buy it again simply because it is just too bland for me.