Samuel Gawith Full Virginia Flake

Samuel Gawith’s Full Virginia Flake is on a short list of tobaccos that I think “every pipe smoker should try”. OTOH, if you “just don’t like VAs”, then stay away, because FVF is nothing more (or less) than a consummate VA. To me, it is the Unwobbling Pivot of VA flakes. Yes, there are other good ones with more “obvious” qualities, if that’s what one wants; but, while the others might be “different”, FVF is ever unbowed and “the same”, and I hope it never changes.

In the tin, FVF looks ordinary enough, dark and lightly mottled, and the flakes are a little on the thick side. The tin note is restrained, TOP quality, stoved and hot pressed, fermented VA leaf, with shades of dark, figgy raisin bread, medium roast coffee, and a bare brush of dark chocolate. Surely, too much has been made here of the original moisture. It’s perfect for sealed tin aging, and it’s fine for smoking, too, given some technique and some patience at the light. YMMV, but drying FVF too much results in a harsh smoke, especially for deep sniffers. I like to fold, spindle and loosely stuff most of a moist flake into a dedicated VA pipe. FVF always smokes fine for me with minimal (if regular) attention, although it took practice to consistently smoke the very last of it. There is plenty of smoke for a VA, and the scents and tastes start deep for a VA and then they get deeper, with subtle and subtly spicy overtones, and it’s all pure, premium tobacco, from top to bottom. I actually enjoy the “sophisticated” casing and/or topping, very mild, with a nice taste and smell. Like any good VA, FVF gets better as it is smoked down. It is a very “mature” smoke, complex but never popping its buttons. Basically, it smells and tastes well-aged when it’s fresh from the tin, then it gets even better with aging. Strength is medium. Tastes are fuller than medium. Room note is pleasant. Aftertaste is best of the smoke, only sweeter, and it lingers long, adding just a hint of anise as it trails off.

4 Stars, of course, for this excellent and very satisfying tobacco, and I’m sorry if I’ve ever taken it for granted. I wish I could stay away from my cellared tins.

Opening a tin or a box of Full Virginia Flake is always delightful. The flakes are usually full of plume and marvelously presented. FVF is moist out if the tin and needs some dry time prior to smoking. As far as prep goes, I have always rubbed this flake out thoroughly and I have never had a bad smoke. It smokes dry, soft and cool with a slight fruity flavor that could almost at times be mistaken for a Lakeland essence, but the flavor is a bit different as it is not floral or soapy. It's quite light and refreshing on the palate and I find the first portion of the pipe to have a sprite tanginess along with a whisper of sweetness that is tremendously enjoyable.

FVF gets a bit spicier down the bowl and the flavors firm up a bit bringing forth an array of toasted grain and bread like flavors. Mid to end bowl flavors remain steady and quite delicious. At a proper pace it rarely turns bitter, never bites, remains exceptionally cool and it keeps its warm tone and semi-sweet dark fruity essence.

Another aspect of FVF that I enjoy is that it's fairly forgiving when smoked at a steady pace. A slow cadence will reveal the most appreciable flavors but it doesn't seem the budge too far from tasty when stoked up a bit more than usual. For all its flavor along with its moderate strength, FVF has a nice aroma. You gotta hand it to the British, I love their sensibility when it comes to tobacco.

FVF is a beautiful, excellent and quintessential English flake, and for certain one of my favorites from the Samuel Gawith catalog.

Samuel Gawith - Full Virginia Flake.

I loose count of how many tins of this I've piped, it's simply an awesome straight Va.

Opening the tin reveals the usual S.G. problem: moisture. But after a few years of airing, o.k. that's melodramatic, a few hours, lol, it's a great smoke. The slightly earthy smelling blend transpires into a wonderful Virginia smoke: medium thickness, grassy tasting, even burning, bite free, just below medium nicotine amount, and a steadfast Virginia room-note.

This isn't flashy, fancy, or flamboyant, but it is, in my opinion, a necessity to every rotation: a benchmark Virginia Flake.

Four stars.

A bit too mellow for my taste. I wish it had a little edge to it and a little more body. All in all though, a quality tobacco worth 3 stars.

Out of a freshly opened tin, this stuff is nearly impossible to smoke. It's sopping wet. I open up the tin and stick it in my cigar humidor for a week or so to dry it out a bit (while simultaneously humidifying my cigars LOL). Once you get the moisture content just right this stuff is delicious (note- it CAN be smoked wet, but I find that too much steam in the smoke is not ideal for flavor). I had a bowl of this last an entire full length movie once. It burns slowly and sweetly. It's for the PATIENT Virginia lover. It is indeed one of the premier Virginias on the market and I have plenty of this stuff on hand. In my top 5.

****EDIT****

It has now become my desert island tobacco. This may be the only blend out there I could ever smoke day after day after day without tiring of it. Damn it's good.

I'm not a huge fan of straight Virginias, but I enjoy quality VAs and VA/Pers now and then. Given the hype surrounding this iconic VA, I gave it a try.

Tin note was interesting, not great. Hay and fresh grass, but not very vibrant. Kind of flat, even a bit sad. Flakes were damp and limp compared to others I've tried. Burn was lousy despite using multiple approaches. Plenty of relights and more than one bite.

Maybe this would be better with some age, but compared to other VAs of similar age, it just struck me as a lousy tobacco. (Admittedly, I could be approaching this the wrong way, but I have not found similar blends this fussy.) It also seemed like a lot less care goes into the packaging than with other brands. I'd be OK with that for the right price or a quality tobacco, but that wasn't my experience at all.

Bad tin? Bad day on the Gawith factory floor? Maybe. I'm not planning to buy any more of it though. Life's too short and there are better VAs out there, in my non-expert opinion.

When I started my foray into Virginias, I ordered an 8oz tin of Union Square, a 250g box of Gawith's Best Brown Flake, and a 250g box of this. I had smoked Union Square aged before and loved it, but fresh, it didn't quite do the same thing, so most of that is aging away. The BBF is really subtle and after smoking 2oz of it, I don't feel like I have a good enough handle to review it.

Then I opened my first 2oz jar of this, and it was love at first smoke. Yeah, it's wet and needs drying out. Yeah, the 250g probably turns out to be more like 175g once you dry it out to smoking levels. But once you get your technique figured out, you'll be rewarded with a delightful middle ground of all the best parts about smoking a straight Virginia. On lightup, it has a little bit of the tang I associate with red Virginias and a little bit of the zest I associate with brights. It's sweet, but not too sweet. It's tangy, but not overly so. But as the smoke progresses, it gets a little earthier, a little darker. The sweetness takes on a deeper note I associate with stoving.

For me, I like to dry this out for at least a few hours. Sometimes I dry it out overnight, then breathe onto the flakes a bit to give them a little pliability back. I rub it out fully and pack tightly, as I find that gives me a consistent, long-lasting smoke. A group 4 sized pipe can smolder this stuff for two hours. That somewhat makes up for the moisture taking up so much of the packaging weight. I usually find that I can get 16 pipefuls out of 50g, but this was more like 12-13.

This is a serious desert island blend, and that's fresh. I'm guessing aging will deepen the flavors a little further, and am looking forward to order lots and lots more of this. That you can order it in bulk for totally reasonable prices makes it even better. Highly recommended for almost anyone.

I'm with Elmo somewhere below. I am the most generous giver/friend/parent that I know in my little slice of life. I've been blessed with an embarrassment of good fortune professionally and have no qualms about, for example, tipping for great service at twice or more the accepted rate. But I don't like pickpockets. Despite my having written many times that price is what it is and that a tobacco review should concern itself with just that -- the tobacco -- I can't help but to say that not only does one have to fuss to an incredible degree to get this stuff ready for use, but in doing so I hear laughter from abroad as the flakes dehydrate with a good third of the purchase price following into the netherlands. That said, once played with, set aside, allowed time to dry and having had the (imagined?) ridicule subside, you can light up and enjoy an extremely satisfying flake that embodies what at least I think to be "the true tobacco taste". I have 8 more tins in the den and I'll still smoke them, but I've got to get to an anger management course before popping the next soaking wet lid.

Full Virginia Flake is a straightforward, almost dry tasting, medium to full smoke. Unlike other natural Virginias reviewed here, FVF is of a rather austere variety: there is virtually no natural sweetness and no flavour complexity to it. Still, it is a very pleasant natural tobacco, easy to rub out, with a good burning rate and a lasting, toasty denouement (redolent of Grape Nuts cereal). The flakes are medium to dark brown, slightly oily but not moist, with a very plain and agreeable aroma. One could safely say that what you see and what you smell is what you smoke.

Personally I wouldn?t smoke it all day, because by the end of the bowl you do get a subdued harshness that tends to go relatively bitter. It also provides quite a strong nicotine kick. But other than that, it seems to me an excellent example of what a clear-cut, uncomplicated Virginia tobacco tastes like. Again, if someone out there is trying to switch from cigarettes to pipe smoking, Full Virginia Flake can be an excellent choice, albeit it?s by no means a beginner?s tobacco.