Samuel Gawith Cabbie's Mixture

I popped the tin and took a whiff - nope, the smell was not inviting to me. I pulled out a wad and nope, the tobacco was not ready to smoke as it was too wet. Would someone please invent a blow dryer made specifically for tobacco?

After a couple of hours in the smoke filled air of my home office, I deemed the leaf ready to burn. And it did burn well. The Perique is very noticeable, but the quality Virginia base played right alongside the peppery leaf beautifully. Not particularly strong, but not limp wristed either. A Lakeland VaPer that will present something different for Virginia/Perique fans. I've had the pleasure of smoking a lot of fine VaPer blends over the years and Cabbie's Mixture does fit into the mix, especially due to its aging qualities. This stuff is really good!

Pipestud

Pretty curls with light, reddish brown and black threads...

Smell is utterly different than St. Jame's or another Va/Per that smells of jam, molasses or pot pourri. It's reminiscent of old uninteresting black tea. I use four curls, I shred them, dry them for a few minutes and light in my first pipe ever dedicated to Va/Pers.

Again here, I thought I'd have hints of St. Jame's, but boy was I wrong. The first puffs are strongly peppery with a taste of grilled aubergines ! Maybe some bell peppers too ? I love it. Perique's presence is strong here. The virginias' role here is to lightly sweeten, soften and round the taste. At around half the bowl, enjoyable slightly bitter and vanilla like nunances develop. No significant difference at the end of the bowl. No Lakeland aromas detected in this blend.

Not many issues lighting and keeping the pipe lit in the beginning. Afterwards, the pipe stays lit, the burning is slow and even. At times I puffed a tad stronger to keep the combustion going.

I find this mélange better than St. Jame's Flake and I salute Samuel Gawith's efforts on this particular blend.

Cabbie's mixture is now one of my favourite Vapers.

This tin was a gift from a friend. He told me he left it open for a while to dry a little. I tried some as soon as I got it, and it was still too damp. It stayed in the tin waiting for the fullness of time and once it got leathery, I started cramming coins in a pot and turning them to ash. I did not rub these out, and I found this packing method worked pretty well. It burned without unusual need for relights and was a medium-slow smoke. Aftertaste is good and lingers.

The Virginias present as yellow and red. This is a pleasant combination of hay, mild citrus and a darker sweet, heavy fruit. This is a very tasty combination of Virginias with a bias to the yellow in terms of the flavor. The taste is medium and trends up toward the end of the bowl without ever getting ashy or harsh.

The perique may contribute to the dark, heavy fruit, and it is well integrated in the blend with just a little spicy edge. It is more evident when puffed. There is the distinctive perique tingle when exhaled through the nose but not enough to irritate my throat after a couple of bowls in a row.

This one is very easy to recommend. It is not something I will buy except as an occasional treat due to the cost per ounce, but it is very good and I think it is something everyone interested in VaPer's should try.

This is like two different smokes in the same bowl. Starts off very figgy and peppery and seems a bit out of balance with too much Per and not enough Va. As the bowl progresses, however, the Virginias start to show their influence in a wonderful dark fruity sweetness that continues to build until the halfway point at which the overall flavor is sublime. The second half of each bowl is about as good as a VaPer gets. Sweet, fruity, and spicy. Very well rounded with about an equal amount of high and low notes. Heaven in a bowl. Always takes a few matches to get going, maybe because I haven't tried rubbing this out yet. I do dry this for a couple of hours. Burns well once started. Smokes the same in briar, cob or clay. Great stuff.

Medium in body. Medium to full in taste. Can't detect any added flavorings.

This is a wonderful tobacco that yields a delicious smoke. I'm generally one for English and Balkan mixtures, but this is a rich and nuanced Virginia and Perique mixture that I will certainly buy again.

In the tin, the tobacco is dark and presented in a roughly cut coin form. It has an appetising scent, and - in my tin anyway - is ready to burn from the off. And very well it burns too, leaving a fine white ash. The Perique is well balanced and its gentle piquancy sets off cocoa and woody notes nicely. Another reviewer chose the adjective 'earthy' to describe Cabbie's Mixture. I believe he chose well.

Maybe the picture of the hansom cab on the tin has gone to my head, yet somehow this tobacco really does evoke the past for me (although, I must admit, so do other Samuel Gawith blends). I can't yet decide whether it's the pastoral mist of Thomas Hardy's Wessex or the foreboding fog of Dickens' London I'm imagining: either way, Cabbie's Mixture lends itself to meditation.

Samuel Gawith continue to warrant their venerable reputation with this new tobacco. I reckon any lover of Virginia and Perique mixtures will agree. And even if you're a confirmed Oriental and Latakia enthusiast like me, I venture to suggest that you may find enough worth savouring in Cabbie's Mixture to justify procuring a wee stock of the stuff, for those times when a change is just the thing one's pipe and palate require.

A more incautious man than I might offer the opinion that this tobacco will become a quiet classic. I would have sympathy for such an opinion; but for now I will be content to recommend it, most highly.

A new release from S Gawith and in my favourite "roll cut" was right up my alley and a couple of tins were duly bought .

The aroma similar to FVF but earthier , almost musky . Appearance like Three Nuns or Mac B's Roll Cake but more moist and not so tightly packed . Packed the bowl very loosely then progressively tighter until quite firm at the top . Lit surprisingly well and stayed lit until near the end , smoked very well despite being so moist in the tin .

Wow ! this is a beautiful smoke ; sweet , pungent , rich and tasty . I can't really fault it . Virginia fans will enjoy it's sweet , hay-like base , while the added Perique gives an earthy richness that separates it from FVF or BBF . For me , more flavoursome than Three Nuns , a more natural sweetness and complexity than Mac B's very fine roll cut offerings . Perhaps a better comparison would be with G&H's Curly Cut which I have not yet sampled .

It's a winner for me !

Cabbies Mixture became in instant favorite. It's got everything I love about Gawith's grade A Virginias with their excellent Perique all wrapped up (literally) into one fine twist. I would love if they offered the uncut twist for sale but I'm fine with their sloppy coins as I usually rub them out regardless. I actually quite like the presentation and the sloppiness of the coins adds to the character of this historical company, it shows that they truly still do everything in small batches and their coins and flakes don't come out perfect like the STG giants. Some of their machinery used was purchased in 1792 (secondhand) and still used to this day! You just can't duplicate that in a warehouse, just imagine how seasoned some of those machines are! Anyone familiar with the quality of tobacco that is produced from this house can easily blind buy this tobacco and I'm certain they will be happy with their purchase. Not much to say about the flavors, everyone knows what to expect from a VaPer and if I tell ya it tastes like a bit of grass with some earthy tones it won't help you any, everyone says that about VA's and it becoming a bit clichéd. I will tell you that I don't think this is redundant if you have St. James Flake in your rotation as I have found plenty of room for both. Be careful with this one as it can sneak up on ya and give ya a big slap of nicotine and that's just another reason I love this so much. I open the tin, rub out the entire contents and give it at least two hours of drying time. After that, I just put it all back in the tin and it's ready to go and easy to lock and load any time I'm in the mood. This is up there with the best of them. Most definitely essential!

There are many coin cut Vapers out there, Escudo taking the grand prize for most smokers. Cabbie's Mixture, in turn, is reminiscent of Three Nuns in its small, partially rubbed out coins and VAPER formula. I can't give you a reference on comparisons, having only smoked the newer Three Nuns which is an excellent VaKen.

Out of the tin, the note reminds me of cranberry juice...it is soft and inviting, as are the coins which were too wet upon opening to pull straight from the tin. After settling in a mason jar for a few days, the moisture content was more suitable to light. I love the novelty of shoving the little coins into the bowl and wish there were more curly cut blends like this out there.

I'm terrible with describing flavors. I don't get citrus notes, or stewed fruits, and I'm not sure what kind of Virginias these are, whether they are golden or reds. The blend seems to have a bit of sugar, and the taste is excellent. I suppose there are what you would describe as grassy notes that begin mildly, and as the bowl develops you will find a medium intensity strength that develops into a wonderful meld with the Perique, average in its distribution.

Some have noted a greater strength, but to me, this is perfectly manageable in terms of nicotine. This is easily a favorite that will have to compete with Escudo's in my smoking rotation. I'll maybe revisit this review after Cabbie's is finished and I open a tin of Escudo's.

At first I was expecting some kind of flake, but then, when I opened the tin, I was very surprised to find out this is rather a spun or twist tobacco sliced up in small little coins with a perique heart right in the middle of it. The tin note has acrid or fermented undertones very similar to Squadron Leader despite the fact there is no latakia in this blend. I have left my tin open in a drawer a couple of days to dry it up as the moist content, as it is customary with all SG's flakes and tobaccos, was rather high. This seems to be a very slow burning tobacco easy to keep lit and get going despite its moist content. I'd say the amount of perique in this blend is rather high and above average, but it does not spoil it. This, in turn, seems to bring cigar leaf undertones the more you progress with your smoke. That is to say perique is the main player here and not so more the Virginia leaf it contains. I cannot detect any casing and the experience seems to be akin to that of an unadulterated tobacco leaf. The only problem I find is that the tobacco leaf seems to be rather fresh, that is, it hasn't been properly aged, so I guess it would benefit from some time off in your cellar. As for the room note just to say there is nothing outstanding about it. Personally, it does not bother me, but your wife might have something to say about it. All and all this is a very good smoke, so I will give it 3 stars.

Edit1 (06/03/2016): this tobacco is better than I thought. I have been smoking it for a week now and it really delivers. The problem though is that it is so different from any other VaPer that I know, but I guess this is why it is so unique. If you smoke this tobacco at a very low pace, it will probably impress you. For a mixture that contains 1/4 parts of perique (that works out at 25%), I am finding it quite balanced. The only thing I'd say is you really need to smoke it in a meerschaum pipe, or a brand new one, to avoid the ghost. I am upgrading this to 4 stars.