My neighbor smoked two bowls back to back in a Nording Eric the Red straight billiard. He usually dips skoal or grizzly, but liked the scent of this enough to pull out a pipe and try it. He rates it as strong and very satisfying.

The most prominent flavor is licorice: this is real licorice like I grow in the garden and not some nasty anise candy or liquor (I much prefer real licorice, like traditional Sambuca or Ouzo, though about half of the ones on the market are anise based these days. Anise tastes too chemical and not sweet enough to me.). The rum is also present and I detected no vanilla. The aftertaste is to die for. Why I never tried this one before is beyond me. I am definitely going to be purchasing more.

The room note is much like amphora red, but far, far better. One of the girls said it smelled much like a gentle incense.

I broke up the loose flakes into the lid of the tin to about broken flake consistency, and then let it dry for an hour. I smoked it rather aggressively (a puff every 5-10 seconds) and it burned all the way down to a dry ash. This is one of the smoothest flakes I have ever smoked, absolutely no tongue bite. It has the most delectable english "soap" hints that weave in and out while smoking. It is very slow burning, and very satisfying.

If you haven't tried this one yet, by all means, get some. Gawith and Hoggarth ought to be given an award over this!

*Update*

The burning qualities of this flake are second to none. No matter which pipe I put this in, which I have dedicated to flakes, it never smokes hot or produces strange flavors.

*Update*

After extensive experimentation I have finally hit on the perfect drink combination for this excellent smoke: Sazerac rye whiskey. The 18 year old is good, but I have noticed the regular 6-8 year old is better to pair with Rum Flake as the rye aromas leaning toward licorice are a bit more pronounced (but faded with age in the 18 year old) and compliment the note of the tobacco slightly better.

Rum Flake is too rich to be an all-day smoke, but when you just had a big dessert of tiramisu or blackberry pie, and want to finish it off with a most relaxing smoke and a drink, reach for the Rum Flake and the Sazerac.

Highy Recommended

Not something I'd want to smoke everyday and not my favorite GH Flake but Rum Flake has a taste all its own. Worth a try.

* * *

Update:

I recently took another run at this tobacco and I'm glad I did. This experience was completely different from my first and I don't know if I got a bad batch or whether my taste buds were slightly off during my first try. The floral taste is definitely present, but it now seems to add rather than detract from the experience. I like the strength and the transition of tastes.....can't wait to order more.

Anyway, this tobacco is unusual. It burns exceptionally well, tastes good and does not bite, The only thing is, and here I seem to disagree with everybody else, I did not get a huge nicotine kick. Now I think that University Flake is mild, so it may be just me but I was not fully satisfied in the nicotine department. Still it may be just me as I say. The other negative is that the aroma upon first opening the tin is strange. It reminded me of Bovril!!

"The first noel..."

The only thing is, I could not smell nor taste any rum! This is my second rum tobacco (the other was C&D blockade runner) that does not have the slightest resemblence to rum. However, it is still a very pleasurable smoke. I'll give it 3 stars.

Enter Rum Flake! A fine tobacco taste with crystalized sweetness and little goopiness. Hell, I've smoked English blends that burned wetter.

Superb, excellent, praiseworthy.

I give this three stars because it is not the pinnacle of my piping experiences. In solely aromatic realms this is a 4star.

Images evoked include an undead santa claus delivering monkey brains to the stockings of anklebiting zombies during winter solstice.

Update: It became more bitey and the taste went flat, going to have to down this a star.

I normally try and avoid tobaccos with any sort of casing or flavouring, but sailors have added rum to tobacco since ancient times, so I felt I should give this one a go. Having said that, I don't feel I should welcome the taste of rum first thing in the morning!

Well, it is simply outstanding and I recommend it wholeheartedly. It never overheats the pipe and smokes beautifully right to the end of bowl, which should appeal to the more thrifty amongst you. The quality is instantly apparent from the moment you light your pipe.

What is the perfect medium flake? Is it British, from the Old South, or could it possibly be Danish?

This is a first class tobacco with which to sweeten your by now, thoroughly confused briars. Even my most hated Dunhill Pot, seems to have taken on a new lease of life!

Anyway, this is Gawith's Rum Flake. o.k. First impressions, this is not a good driving tobacco. It is way too subtle and filled with tastey goodness to be ignored while watching out for local idiots on the road.

I had been waiting to try this stuff for a long time. I finally did last week on my drive to work. Where's the sour flowers? I wondered. Is this really a Lakeland product? Well, yes. You can certainly taste the dark air cured leaf, application unmistakably Gawith. And there is the teensiest of hints of Lakelandness once or twice during a bowl. Yes, teensy. But mostly it's a medium to strong virginia/burley flavor with a touch of maple sweetness (and I mean a small touch). It has a smooth spicey round body, and, like my wife, an outstanding room note. It also has a healthy supply for your Recommended Daily Allowance of vitamin N.

Note to Charles Schultz: Happiness is a sack of Rum Flake and a pipe to smoke it in.

I've always been impressed with the quality of G&H, even in their offerings that I didn't particularly care for. There is no denying that the tobacco is of the highest quality. And Rum Flake delivers on this with satisfying taste and aroma all the way to the bottom of the bowl. It will not take the place of my favorite smokes, but is definitely in the lineup for a once a week smoke.

It lights and burns easily, and smokes dry, with no bite unless puffed too fiercely. Breath smoking is ideal, and brings out the most subtleties of the smoke, but it is certainly more forgiving than the pure virginia flakes. The flavours are complex and interesting, yet mild and unobtrusive- you can sit and really enjoy it, or just puff away at it while doing something else. The flavours are tobaccoey, in the sense of a lightly stoved virginia, and with a sweetish fullness. The rum taste might appear if you really look for it, if you've been smoking it in the same pipe for a while, but really it just lives in the background, to enhance the taste of the tobacco.

I do not find this to be extremely strong, like St Bruno, but it is by no means a weak tobacco. Neither do I detect any soapiness, this is not a scented flake, as such. It is certainly not an aromatic in the vanilla cavendish sense of the word. Well reccomended to virginia flake lovers, or to people who want to try Lake District tobaccos but dislike the heavily scented ones.

++++++++++++++++++++++++Update+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

After enjoying this tobacco it became one of the first baccys that I would buy some more of after finishing a packet. While I lived in Preston this became one of my "staples" in a way few other tobaccos have. I enjoy Latakia, I enjoy Perique, and I enjoy the soapy Lakeland flakes too. But all of those are something I like variety in, while Rum Flake seems to just sit in a category of its own as something I can smoke every day without getting bored of. When I moved down South and couldn't find it in the tobacconists I rather forgot about it, but obtained some by mail order last week. It's still as delicious as I remember, I'll be getting more soon!