Personally, I think I have found a firm favourite. The flavour is closer to Condor than St Bruno, but if anything it is even more assertive, which is to say that it is even soapier and has flowery qualities in addition to what I perceive as the sour, citrusy notes of Condor.

I do like the fact that this is basically 96% VA and I would love to try the base tobaccos without the off-the-wall casing applied. I am sure they would be pretty tasty. Nevertheless, the fact that it has such a high VA content does mean that it has to be smoked appropriately - smoke it too wet or too hastily and you will get bitten, and it is easy to forget this when other tobaccos of a similar flavour profile are amongst some of the most tolerant in terms of moisture content and smoking pace, largely due to a fire-cured constituent that is lacking here.

So, a sound and almost straight VA base with the kind of flavour profile that smokers of British OTC blends know and love. Nicotine is sufficient to satisfy, but not as strong as a lot of the other soapy flakes.

My only criticism is that it does seem to burn a little hot and a little fast sometimes, although this is very unusual for a GH&Co flake so I can't help thinking it is probably something to do with my preparation and smoking rather than a fault of the tobacco. Either way, it isn't enough of a problem for me to knock a star off.

The usual stuff about the fine, powdery grey ash applies.

Edit Aug 2012: I am revisting some of my reviews and regrading, reserving 4 stars only for a select few that have become mainstays in my extended rotation. Ennerdale is still excellent and when you feel the urge nothing else quite hits the spot. Whilst I always have some on hand, I find that with so many other tasty Lakelands on the menu this one doesn't get as much air time nowadays. It loses a star.

The downside is that upon first lighting, this tobacco has a distinctly peppery bitter taste that you have to endure before a nuttier, sweeter, more balanced tobacco flavor asserts itself. I suppose that's the "soap" burning off.

The bitterness never entirely goes away and at times can impart an ashy taste. I'd say it comes and goes almost as if it depends on the brain offering different interpretations of a hard-to-pin-down taste. The room note is not quite so perfumy. It's a distinctly English scent of leathery tobacco and flowers. The blend burns well, does not bite and has a moderate nicotine kick, less than that of Kendal Flake, another GH tobacco I've smoked.

There was a time when I would have given Ennerdale four stars, but I find I'm less tolerant of the bitterness that comes with the perfume than I used to be.

UPDATE Rubbing out the flake and packing lightly eliminated the bitterness that kept me from giving this tobacco four stars. I'm upgrading my recommendation accordingly. When packed lightly, the tobacco burns nicely down to a fine, light ash and the topping becomes delicate instead of overpowering and the bitterness vanishes.

Recommended with reserves, since no other tobacco could deserve a 1 star as much as a 4 star rating.

I'm no tobacco snob nor to that matter do I feel the need to spend more than £50 on a pipe. This stuff, whilst admittedly having a soapy nature to it, the almondy, rummy, vanilla, and liquorice aromas produced by this billowing blend are captivating..

It's a nice run of the mill, 'what you smell is what you get blend'. If you're a tobacco snob, and are looking to inanely dissect every atom of the smoke, the flavour and the nuances of this blend, until the very laws of oral-factory physics have been re-defined........In your own head. Then you'll probably call this a boring plain smoke, with an overpowering aroma...

Just as well that I'm smoking it and enjoying it soley for myself and not you then isn't it!!

Huzza!

Ennerdale is the epitome of a lakeland style tobacco, a fine scented Virginia flake indeed (approved by the Briarite) in which you will find no tongue bite.

I find this to taste surprisingly similar to (Murray's) Erinmore flake and like EF, it's mild on nicotine but full of flavor!

If you dare venture into the Lakeland style flakes, be sure to try this.

4.2 Stars

Sorry, gave it a shot, can't stand even to look at it. Yuck!

It's very much in a league of its own with a rather peculiar, yet intriguing flavour and aroma: Almond? Hmm... Ok, I'll just about give you that, although I'm more inclined to fall on the side of 'Other/Misc'! It reminds me very much of an aged potpourri, all spice, and cinnamon, mixed in with something like a touch of anise. It really wouldn't appear out of place tucked in a kitchen spice rack. In principle, the casing seems very heavy, but in reality it smokes rather light on flavour. Neither is the tobacco particularly strong. Indeed, it's such a cool smoker that you're hard pressed to believe that there's any Burley in there at all. It all comes across as... well... a little bit boring, if I'm honest - as if there's so much going on that it serves to cancel itself.

Ennerdale doesn't seem to behave in the pipe quite as well as the other G&H flakes, tending to err on the side of wet through the mid bowl, and the need to re- light. However, it's also far less flowery, which probably accounts for its popularity.

All in all, a decent enough sweet, slightly spicy smoke, but a largely forgettable flavour, despite all its boasts.

In terms of flavour and strength you could think of it as a cross between St. Bruno's and Erinmore Flakes but sweeter...and not like either of them...except it is.

I couldn't smoke this everyday but when you want a good dose of (a slightly bizarre) flavour and a decent amount of nicotine you could do alot worse than Ennerdale Flake.

It is inexpensive and readily available, weighed out loose, from many tobacconists in the UK, although I have never seen it sold in a tin. I bought my pouch from an unassuming little newsagents in Kendal. Where the lady behind the counter gave me the opportunity to smell each of the tobaccos they sell along with a precis of thier relative qualities and popularity. Altogether excellent service. I think the shop was called Robinsons or Roberts.

UPDATE...

having recently given up smoking for lent I was taken by suprise by how much I craved this tobacco. It was the only one that really tempted me and my subsequent bowls of it are forcing me to up the rating to four stars.

...(another) UPDATE...

Ok, so my craving has been sated and I can taste this tobacco objectively again. I like the flavour but, to be fair, it's not for everyone. Still, three solid stars for my money.

...(another) UPDATE (again)...

I've been smoking it alot again recently and I love it. Good leaf, good cut, great price and the added flavour gets more and more appealing the more I taste it. This stuff really does it for me. Back up to four stars then.

So I've tried drying it out and after a few days it's ok but still a sort of chemical taste. The tobacco looks and seems like it must be good quality but it's just wrecked by the casing, in my opinion. I'm not a fan of aromatics anyway but this is silly. Why not let the tobaccos speak for themselves with all the different ways of curing them and so on?

I'm guessing that maybe there's a trick to it but to me life's too short to be hanging around with this one as there are many other tobaccos I've tried that I get on much better with, especially the Samual Gawiths stuff, which is made just round the corner from this lot but couldn't be more different. G&H is made on an industrial estate whereas SG's stuff is made in an old stone building and I think that it sort of comes through in the product, though SG's stuff is incredibly hard to get hold of in the Bay area, alas, whereas G&H's is everywhere.

It packs and lights fine, smokes fine, but I've found the taste to be offputting and not in the slightest bit interesting. I'll keep on trying until I've smoked the rest I have but at the moment it's just one dimensional chemical pretense methinks. Like a pipe tobacco for the day the world turned day-glo? perhaps that's a bit harsh.

Like some of the other reviewers here, I found the scents/flavours strange, crude and overpowering - to say the least of it. God know what they put in it to make it taste and smell the way it does, but tobacco shouldn't smell and taste like this. EF is a tobacco that seems to be trying too hard to be interestingly different. In terms of flavour, it struck me as lying somewhere between St Bruno Flake and Erinmore Flake, but with an overall 'cheap' feel to it, if you see what I mean; also, the flavouring is much, much stronger, and has what I can only call a general, overpowering, sickly, chemical, artificial quality. To my mind, EF is way, way over the top of where a tobacco should be; it tastes and smells like a tart's boudoir.

"'English type' flavours which give this tobacco its distinctive, yet typical 'English' aroma"? I don't really understand this description. There's no Latakia here, and I can't see anything 'English' about this tobacco as I understand the term. Indeed, I've never come across anything quite like it.

I have a suspicion that EF will improve if you cellar it: the flavours may well mature into something a bit less riotous and raw. It leaves a very noisy and assertive ghost, by the way, so maybe try it in a corncob or meer first. The room note certainly isn't to everybody's taste, either; it'll probably kill the fleas that the dog brought in. Maybe it'll even kill the dog. Not recommended, I'm afraid. On the contrary, actually. I would counsel anyone who doesn't like tobacco to taste like aftershave to avoid it at all costs.

Very slightly off-topic: like Fuzzypeg, I come from Durham, England, and know the shop that he refers to. I don’t know where the ‘Coronation Flake’ sold there comes from (I’ve never heard of it anywhere else), but Jim the proprietor says that it’s Ennerdale Flake without the casing. It’s a very pleasant, cool, mild u/s Virginia flake: a great favourite of mine, alongside G & H’s Brown Flake, smoked in a nice old Hardcastle Rhodesian. I don't know if the Durham Shop does mail order, though. I suspect not.

Ennerdale is one of the best-sellers in UK. A fine scented flake in the Lakeland tradition.

At the opening of the non-sealed pouch I was greeted by a strong perfume: certainly almonds, bergamot oil, flowers and who-knows what else. That kind of perfumes of old. The long and partially rubbed flakes have the right humidity for immediate smoking, and something tells me that better they are not dryed further. Smoked in a couple of narrow bowls: a sandblasted Savinelli Punto Oro shape no. 105, and a smooth Parker Dublin shape. The strong pouch smell is only partially imparted to the smoke, and the good quality of the leaf (mostly Virginia) develops in a steadily medium smoke with mainly citrusy notes, and some soap. Yes, I share someone else opinion that Citronella comes to mind.

No way to be bitten, but you must keep slow drawing under control, otherwise you will hardly be able to keep your small pipe in your hands...

Ennerdale has delivered me long, cool and satisfatory pipe experiences.

Always 2-3 tins in my stash...I like it so much...