Samuel Gawith Best Brown Flake

When i smell this tobacco it reminds me of sweets shops as a child. A really nice Va that can bite if rushed. Mine was bulk and needed a little drying. Quality SG.

My favourite VA , I love it. Sometimes I cannot wait to let it dry after opening. Nevertheless, it is always a top experience. I like it more than FVF which I found to be milder. The dark aged tobacco in the BBF is a well balanced experience in terms of strength and flavour.

This review is based on a tin purchased in january 2011, smoked in a large (group 4'ish) billiard, which is dedicated to VA/flakes.

Presentation was what I've come to expect from S.G - varying degrees of thickness and length. Tin note is appetizingly sweet and raisiny with faint cocoa undertones. Rather wet when freshly opened, airing is preferable, but not absolutely necessary. Optimal a month or so after opening (I store all my opened tins in tupperware's, though).

As others have mentioned, this isn't a very 'in your face' tobacco, and it benefits greatly of a slow and steady smoking pace. I found the taste to be good, a little non-descript, but sweet along the lines of brown sugar. Consistent in taste from top to bottom, though sadly not much strength in the nicotine department. It does have a nice body however, and if I hadn't known better I would've said there's a burley component somewhere in the mix. The sidestream is, as advertised, absolutely wonderful. I usually never drink coffee while smoking, but BBF is one of the exceptions I make; it does complement a cup of coffee very well. Roomnote is rather discreet as well, though unmistakably that of tobacco and nothing else.

All in all BBF turned out to be a pleasant surprise and I will definately buy it again, despite the nuisance of the inconsistent cut.

I am trying to like this but I find it smokes very wet, perhaps I am doing something wrong?

The smell off the tin is very inviting. Easy to light and keep lit. A slow burning, full bodied smoke. I get a toasty, sweet and slightly tangy smoke with malt accents.

Virginia lover

I managed to win a tin of Samuel Gawith's Best Brown Flake from ebay for the initial bid price of $14.95 . I was quite surprised mine was the sole bid throughout a 7 day auction.

My tin was dated 12/04 and I was delighted that my first foray with this tobacco was from a fairly well-aged tin. The clump of unevenly arranged flakes were quite moist considering the age of the tin and came apart quite readily for smoking. I like the uneven style of packing flakes that Sam Gawith employs over the more uniform presentation as found with other blenders. The flakes in my sample were VERY dark brown in appearance without any sugar crystals present. There was absolutely NO Lakeland floral or soapy aroma. It had no cased/top dressed aroma at all. It smelled very earthy - similar to damp soil - and a tad sweet. In spite of its seeming freshness (not what I expected in a 6 year old tin), it packed and lit quite readily, only requiring the initial 2 lights and one re-light by mid bowl (Group 3 bent billiard). It produced a small bit of moisture, but nothing to be off-putting. After many further tins, I find BBF a very different tasting VA and very delicious with one of the best, natural, "old-time pipey" roomnotes ever. Much better than their FVF in my opinion.

UPDATE 4-7-12: Due to availability issues with SG, I've been saving what I had left of BBF but now that it is available again, I delved into my stash from a tin nearly 2 years old and I promptly ordered 2 more tins. I had maybe 3 flakes or so left and they were dry to the bone. They also exhibited sugar bloom as well. I broke some slivers along the length of a flake and literally crunched them into my Peterson's 2012 St. Patrick's Day bent billiard and lit up. Dry to the bone, but what a smoke! I was thoroughly impressed just as I first was. It smoked like a charm and without heat or bite. Subtle in flavor and very tasty, it left a nice lingering tobacco presence in my beard and mustache.

UPDATE 4-12-12: My 2 tins arrived the other day. I cracked one open and was greeted with a nice, sweet smelling, honeydew like aroma. Even though it was very moist in the way SG is noted for, it smoked like a charm. My favorite Virginia hands down!

I picked this up from a bulk jar at Leavitt and Peirce over in Cambridge, and I'm only guessing this is the same stuff.

Mine came a little dry, but rehydrating it produced the most wonderful smelling tobacco ever. Plums and citrus. Picked apart the flakes and stuffed it in a medium kirsten, lit up pretty well.

The flavor is good, if monochromatic. Earthy with little hints of sweetness here and there. Definitely less bright than a yellow VA, as would be expected from something described as 'brown'. Sweet sidestream, but ashy room note.

I'm still up in the air on this one. I really looked forward to trying it (perhaps I'll get a tin straight from SG and see), but it didn't live up to my admittedly high expectations. It's not bad at all—far from it—but it doesn't tickle my fancy the way others do. When I'm done with my little stockpile, I just might grab some more to keep around.

Very pleasant not-in-your-face tobacco: brown flake with a tart undertone not present in the FVF. 50g tin seemed to go on and on (but not complaining!)

I recieved an aged tin of this in a trade and had never really given this one much thought. Boy was that a mistake, I really like this one and reach for it often, in fact one more pipe full and I will have used it up in about four days. I will certainly buy more to cellar of this one.

It comes in a rather plain uninteresting rectangular tin, and upon opening it, I am greated with a sweet rather twangy haylike aroma. The flakes are pretty uniform but coming aprt a little and are mostly a medium brown color with flecks of a lighter brown. I dried it overnight and it crumbled into a nice bit of thin ribbon cut pieces and loaded easily into my pipe. My pipe I used first is a new Jan P and then I used several different VA dedicated pipes. It is very easy to light and it stays lit well. The first taste upon lighting is a semi sweet haylike flavor with a little tartness in it. The smoke is nice and creamy and very pleasant. As it burns down, it does pick up more strenth and really picks up on the sweetness factor. It smokes down all the way to a mottled grey ash with no moisture in the bottom of the pipe. Smoked nice and slow, it never bites and is very gentle on the pallet. If you really get her going though, it can bite a little but you have to try to do this as it smokes pretty slow and easy with regular smoking. The room note of the smoke is pleasant to me, not over powering, i had a non smoking neighbor tell me it was very good smelling and not overwhelming. This is one of the VA blends that really satisfies my taste buds, I always want to refill and lite another bowl of it. A really good VA flake that I will keep around. I highly suggest geiving this one a try if you are a straight VA lover. It is a top notch smoke.