Samuel Gawith 1792 Flake

If the tonquin is too strong you’re smoking too fast. Take 1792 real slow. This old style, classic tobacco will teach you to sip. Great for gently slow mornings and soft, languid afternoons – make sure you’re sitting in a chair with a back to it. Best if you have a drink to sip. Strong; but smoked properly, very economical. Relights OK and can be used as a strengthening additive on the understanding that the tonquin will make its presence felt. I recommend drying and packing than adding some moist, finely rubbed 1792 to the top of your bowl, as the moist tobacco revives the drier beneath.

This is something to purchase in bulk and store away with a little dark rum added and immense pride! If you don’t like 1792; trust me, in time you will because the longer you leave it to rest in storage the more your tastes will advance and the more mellow in flavour it slowly gets while losing none of its fortifying strength. A real on the front foot masterpiece for the true connoisseurs. Delightful!

As said to the late, great Anthony Bourdain (about grouse) "It is a very adult taste. Somewhat repugnant, but something in that repugnance is quite compelling". It has been said this is a "Sexy" tobacco, and I agree. Not in a bubblegum-and-plaid skirt way; it smacks of leather, darkness, and musky sweetness. My perception of strength is not a good barometer for most people; this is certainly a powerful tobacco, but I never have any trouble with it. Certainly more approachable than many ropes. I seem to have gotten a drier tin, as it was immediately smokeable. There is sweetness to it, but a deeper, more savory sweetness than aromatic smokers may be looking for. In that vein, can this truly be called an aromatic? I don't think so, preferring to put it in a class all its own. The topping- though pronounced- seems to be integral to the tobacco. It accentuates and enhances the inherent qualities of the leaf, and I can't imagine this without it. Burns very cool and never offers to bite, even in a short Pipo. A little moisture left, but I tend to smoke a bit wet anyway. Nothing out of the ordinary. The room note is... Complicated. My wife actually likes it, but it tends to evoke less wistful nostalgia of "Grandpa's Pipe" and more of an... Ahem... Animalistic response. When I can get this in bulk, I'll stock up a lifetime supply.

Who would have thought that dark fired tobacco and the tonquin flavor would complement each other so well. 1792 Flake is a delicate balancing act. I found that this blend really shines upon sipping it. Too fast and you lose the synergism afforded by this blend. 1792 Flake earned its way into my regular rotation.

When I first tried Samuel Gawith’s 1792 Flake I braced myself for a nicotine riptide. It never happened. Yes, it’s strong, but not like G&H Brown Irish X or Sillem’s Commodore Flake. Rather, I would put 1792 between, say, Peterson’s Perfect Plug and BIX. Like HH Bold Kentucky, if you will. Strong. Take it slow and there should be no trouble. In a popped tin, 1792 presents a pile of moist, rough-ish, dark flakes with red-brown and dark gold streaks and flecks. It smells deep but mellow, like brown bread and deep, dark fruit, also rather earthy, and fairly floral, with something like an exotic, hybrid plum/lavender note, along with faint, chocolaty, cigar spices, maybe some coffee, and I gather all this has to do with tonquin added to the highly conditioned VA/KY tobacco blend. Whatever, I find it very nice, and I am picky about additives. Over time the tin note came to remind me of Play Doh, though it never did when I smoked it To prep it, it’s OK to fold, spindle, load and smoke a flake right from the tin; or rub it and/or dry it out, if you like. I always start out smoking straight from the tin and go from there, and in this case I’ve stuck with this approach, despite I always wind up with re-lights and some dottle, because I think it is cooler, smoother, and richer smoked at tin moisture. I suppose it’s the fermented VAs that provide the “dark fruit”, along with significant sweetness, although some of this is certainly casing, as well. There is plenty of fragrant smoke, and there’s very little tobacco “edge”, despite the growing intensity as it’s smoked down. The smoke is dry yet creamy, like a fine cigar with a dark wrapper, top to bottom, plus the “dark fruit”, along with the ethereal tonquin scent. The spices are reminiscent of a fairly intense Middle Eastern dessert rather than a pepper shaker. Overall, I find 1792 quite delicious, with a delectable snork. Although 1792 is not an aro, the top note holds through the smoke. I’m thinking 1792 is similar to Old Dark Flake, but it’s smoother, fruitier, and sweeter, and I think some will prefer it, if only because it is “more accessible”. Regarding 1792’s leaf proportions, the chosen varietals are well met and well balanced, and no doubt the Old World stoving, pressing and steaming affect the results, in the end. One flake provides a lengthy smoke. Again, strength is strong. Tastes are “mellow” but still full. Room note is not bad for a strong KY blend. Aftertaste is the best of the smoke.

S. Gawith say 1792 is a bestseller, so I guess I am not alone in finding it a relaxing and satisfying, first quality smoke, not to mention “Old School”, in the best sense. It’s “simple” in a good way. Some describe the topping as overwhelming, but I think it yields to the fine, tasty, fragrant tobaccos, ultimately adding to the smoke. 4 stars.

This could possibly reserve a spot in my top 5 tobaccos, out of the measly 15-odd tobaccos I've reviewed, and the 20 I've tried so far.

The post office wasn't too kind to my tin, it arrived heavily dented and without any sort of seal, due to Covid-19 issues it also sat for about 3 months, so no doubt it lost quite a bit of it's uniqueness. But let's move on.

The smell from the tin is incredible, rich, very rich and heavy, sweet, spicy, warming, brooding, inviting and dark. This is not a homely cottage kitchen baking a spiced cake, this is the smell of an old castle, full of perfectly restored gilded antiques, thick perfumed carpets and varnished dark pine. A smell which makes you question if you dare to go in. Of course I do!

Neatly packed flakes are within, very dark brown, moist and pliable, of course the failed seal and sitting unjared dried them a bit, but actually it dried them to the point I was able to fold one in my pipe and begin smoking immediately.

What a glorious smoke this is, I am losfer words (come on, this is an English tobacco, need to drop in a favourite English band reference!). The taste follows the smell from the tin, dark, sweet, spicy, warm, heavy and serious. I detect vanilla, cinnamon, cloves, very occasionally pine, citrus, alcohol on a bed of delicious, creamy and heavy tobacco.

The taste develops and stays consistent throughout the bowl, I found that regulating how hot you smoke this allows you to play with the flavours, hot makes the tobacco shoot up, while smoking it when it's almost about to die out is pure tonquin. Incidentally I knew of tonquin before but I'd never tasted it in its pure form, I can only guess what wonders it can do for deserts with it's warm vanilla, cinnamon, clove and citrus notes. It is also savoury, very multidimensional, and the taste lingers around your mouth, nostrils, fingers for hours to come. It's not an all day smoke by any means, doing this would be no good to anyone, you need to savour this.

Let's talk nicotine now, this flake is famous for its strength. My first retrohales were puzzling because I got pepper in my nose like when having a Perique-heavy blend, then I realised it is the nicotine blast that singed my nostrils! This just adds to the immense pleasure this blend brought me as it's filling, satiating like only the Sweet Rum Twist (Gawith house again) had managed to do. Yes, this is a nicotine bomb, eyewateringly, nose-runningly strong but, like the Twist, not a coarse tobacco at all. It is in fact extremely refined.

Need to stop chanting praises for this tobacco and simply say this is easily in the top 5 of tobaccos I've tried. It's like catnip, I can't stop smelling that tin to take in all that dark and delicious flavour.

Need to also say a few words about the Gawith house, what they do is unique. Simply unique. Their flakes are miles different from anything else I've tried so far, something about how they blend, flavour and steam press them. Some detractors like to cynically say "Gawith sells you 25g of water and 25g of tobacco". My answer to that is that yes, their flakes are very moist, however they burn very differently to other flakes I've had: first they turn to stone in the pipe, smolder cooly for a long time, before turning to ash. I got an hours' worth of pure pleasure from one flake, in the same time I could have smoked 2 flakes of another house, so it balanced itself out on that front, and a lot of their stuff blow so many others out of the water.

1792 Flake. Time to sing some praises.

If I wanted to keep this brief, I could simply tell you that this is my favourite tobacco. But keeping it brief wouldn't do this blend justice.

Instead, let me start by telling you what greets you when you open the tin. The blend produces lovely notes of cinnamon, perhaps some caramel, but also some good, earthy tobacco notes.

In terms of cut, you'll find that it comes in large, rather "crumbly" flakes that easily come apart. Out of the tin, it's on the moist side of things and will need some drying.

Once that's done and you have your finest pipe (This blend deserves it) packed with this blend, you'll find that it takes a light with no issues, and then..... oh my, then the magic happens.

Now, you get a good bit of sweet, mellow virginia leaf, as well as some earthy spice from the kentucky. Both of these components are absolutely top-grade, and would probably taste wonderful without any added flavour, but in this blend, the flavouring is a farily strong player. So strong in fact that I consider this blend to be an aromatic, if an unusual one.

As for what the flavouring is, it's tonquin bean and whisky. Now, i'm not sure i've ever tasted tonquin bean outside of this blend, so i'm not certain what it's supposed to taste like, but boy, does it do wonders for this blend. It's a flavour that makes me think of vanilla, but it's more dry-tasting. Almost like it's powdered vanilla, with maybe a bit of cinnamon in there. It gets along marvelously with the tobaccoes. As for the whisky, I do think I detect a slight alcoholic note, but it remains very much in the background.

What makes this stuff truly special in my eyes is the fact that it's without question quite strongly aromatic, and yet, it's also a very strong blend. And I mean -very- strong. Irish-flake-strong. It's got some power. Much more power than anything else I would consider an aromatic.

Throughout the smoke, it burns quite clean and dry, doesn't need too many relights and doesn't lose flavour until there's nothing left but fine gray ash.

If you smoke it too fast and hot, I could well imagine it getting a tad harsh and maybe even biting a bit, but due to it's strength, I never dared to test that. It also burns fairly cool in general, so that shouldn't be an issue.

Also, it gets some bonus points for the room note. Admittedly, I live by myself, so I can't ask an unbiased party, but I do love how my apartment smells after a bowl of this.

So, high quality leaf, genius flavouring and it's well behaved to boot. Yeah, this blend is amazing and just about perfect. Though I can see that nearly 50 people gave it 1 star, so I suppose your mileage may vary. Still, if you smoke a pipe (And I mean, you're reading this, so surely you do), I very much recommend you give this a try and see what you think.

Just so that no-one suspects me of being bribed to sing praises here, I will bring up one little complaint: The rectangular tins Samuel Gawith use for their tobaccoes have a tendency to bend quite easily when you first open them. That means if you keep your tobaccoes in the tin, you may get a problem with the tins not properly sealing after opening, and the tobacco drying out over time. I use mason jars, so it's not an issue for me, but I felt the need to write something so this review wouldn't be entirely one-sided. 😛

I bought 1792 from bulk that was carried at a Pipe and Cigar Store I visit from time to time. This was at least 5-7 years ago and stored in a jar. Not many pipe and cigar stores left in California I might add. More pot shops now. I remember when I bought this, it was really moist. Now it is dry as a bone but if anything, I guess it has mellowed out. I am not going to write paragraphs about this one because so much has been said about it already. It is a great and smooth pipe tobacco. It has a particular smell to it which I find pleasant and with the Tonquin bean flavoring I only smoke this in one particular pipe, Eriksen, an Eric Nording second. Top quality and I can see how this one gets a lot of 4 stars.

With the disappearance of Bracken Flake I was hunting for a suitable replacement and 1792 Flake seemed like a good start. A good rubbing out followed by 2 or 3 hours of drying (It is an SG product) and we were off to the races. The flavor is delightful with a strong hit beef jerky (or maybe burning tire?) note that fades into sweet vanilla which itself fades to a note that reminds me of clove/cinnamon. The tobacco flavor is there all the while offering a dialed back version of that classic FVF cereal note. Good stuff! Strength? I guess it's pretty strong in the nic department but no more so than Peterson's Irish Flake (My go to morning smoke) and FAR less brutal than SG's own Bracken Flake (RIP). For me this will make a great morning pipe for the commute.

The amazing tonquin flavor, from the tonka bean, Dipteryx odorata. This is the essence of this blend, not to overshadow the excellently produced tobacco. This is one of those tobacco's you'll either love or hate. This is the second in a series of Virginia flakes that I tried when initiallly exposed to Lake District tobaccos. Natural, that is comes to mind when the tin is opened, the pressing of the tobacco, and then scented with the essence is sublime. The smell alone makes for some to get giddy headed. Small, thin flakes, sliced to perfection, and wraped. This, like FVF needs some air to become functional, and don't forget to put the lid back on because this has no PG and will go dry, in a hurry. This flake rubs out nice, and filling an old Pete with this seems to fit. The charring light seems to emit a flavor, odor, pungency, that cannot be left alone, in that I mean that it is alone, in it's own catagory, this stuff will light YOU up. The palate tries to discern the oncoming rush of variants, but to no avail, it capitulates to the realm of overintoxicating flavor. Middle way down the bowl the smoke with it's messengers, in the form of smoke rings, dance around the acrid atmosphere in a moment of almost asphyxiation from the presence of increased nicotine and tonquin. The bottom of the bowl emits little dottle, and a base of white ash. To indulge yourself in this pleasure, commit a pipe to it and explore. This is not a hallucinogenic, but merely a product of perfection, that can bring a feeling of exhilaration to those that partake. Enjoy