Samuel Gawith Full Virginia Flake

This is the best virginia flake to me!when you crack the tin you get the foul citrusy aroma with earth notes,grass and fruits.after rubbing it packs easy.needs a few relights in the beginning.burns quite well and cool even if go go really hard.the virginia aromas are there till the end.it has the right moist and the most balanced flavour while smoking.the flavours are sweet fruits,grass ,citruses in the right tense.medium nicotine level.you can start your morning very pleasantly.all day blend.definitelly a must try blend.to me it has lots similarities with dunhill's flake but it's more citrusy and fruity.

The Little Notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach includes a cantata that Bach wrote on the pleasures of pipe smoking. I have often wondered what kind of tobacco burned in his pipe as he engaged with the monumental architectonics of the Mass in B Minor, the great passions - or the kindly humour of the Coffee Cantata. It is a pleasing fantasy of mine that the tobacco was something like Full Virginia Flake. It has a simple, rustic charm which is immediately appealing. The charm endures, but it is simple and needs to be leavened with other flavours.

After reading many of the reviews on this site I have decided to open one of the 3 tins of SG Full VA I bought. I have read mostly positive reviews, but some very negative as well. So I was a little bit intrigued and curious. Being a big SG fan, I tried to be unbiased when I decied to try this flake. was not disappointed.

Upon opening my tin, I saw the dark flakes. They are a bit uneven in size, but I don't care about that. The tin aroma is delicious, more fruity than grassy, IMO. A bit too moist, but after 30 minutes of drying they are good to be rubbed out. Easy to pack and to light, this tobacco burns evenly throughout the bowl.

It burns cool and produces a delicious fruity smoke that leaves a wonderful after taste in the mouth and a okay room note. No tongue bite. If you puff very slowly you can get more sweetness and more flavour out of it.

I have to say that after my first bowl I already knew this would be a permanent tobacco in my rotation. I have been smokying Capstan, which I found to be more grassy and 'hay like' then SG Full VA flake. And now I think I prefer SG to Capstan.

The mixture of leaves, length of pressure, water quality and the expertise of the blenders are all present in this very English Virginia Flake. Thanks to this baccy I can say I'm turning more and more into a VA Lover.

I bought a can of this because of the huge amount of positive reviews, and I think I've played for a fool. I do like straight tobaccos that taste nothing but a good, solid tobacco so I thought this was something for me, but it wasnt.

To make it short; FVF is a very mild virginia flake that doesnt really taste much of anything. I tried drying it, moisturizing it, smoking it out of every pipe that I've got but nothing could give any of taste that taste these reviews are talking about. Im disapointed.

It does smell like wet hay out of the can though, but I dont buy tobacco to smell it. I buy it to smoke it.

7/6/15 Edit

I read my original review on this and thought it to be pretty amateur and it should be as I still had less than a year of pipe smoking under my belt when I wrote it; however, the rating is still the same. To some extent my initial logic in rating this 4 stars is still somewhat sound. If you are constantly hearing about a blend and see so many people singing its praises, it is usually for a good reason; and that reason is, that its pretty darn good.

FVF is one of the best Virginias produced. It exemplifies what one should expect from a quality Virginia. Hay sweetness with light citrus tones. It also has an appreciable amount of nicotine in it as to not leave you feeling under nourished when your smoke is done.

I have gone through a lot of this since I first reviewed my first tin 3 years ago and have quite a bit aging to see how it is in the future. Of straight Virginias, I do rate this as slightly below Dunhill Flake, which is my favorite Virginia; but I do think the two have enough to differentiate them. DF is substantially lighter on in color and taste, but heavier on the citrus tones. It is likely topped with something that adds to the citrus sweetness, but I am not certain on that. Just a guess.

FVF does not have a sweet topping so far as I know. The sweetness is more of a raw Virginia sweetness. The blend has more gravitas. There is definitely room for both in a cellar.

ORIGINAL REVIEW 9/4/2012

I have rated this as highly recommended more due to the fame of this blend, but I find that I enjoy a few other Va flakes as much if not more than this one. I do think anyone smoking a pipe should try this blend if only to use as a benchmark to others of its kind.

This is, no doubt, a high-quality flake. I think that I prefer Marlin Flake (EDIT 7/6/2015 - MF has perique and Cavendish burley in addition to Virginia - My confusion on this was that Marlin Flake only notes that it has red Virginia on the tin. I have since learned it is not a straight va. Also I have noted that MF is not nearly as good new, as it is aged) to this and it is definitely easier to find. I will note that I bought two 100 gram tins of Marlin that were likely old and the tin of FVF I smoked was new. Perhaps with some age this one may be better to me.

Anyway, I feel fortunate enough just to secure the tins I purchased (EDIT 7/6/2015 It may be hard to believe to those reading this review today, but when I wrote this review, FVF was almost as hard to find as any Esoterica blend. In fact, Stonehaven, Dorchester and Dunbar were everywhere; now FVF is pretty commonplace) and may sing more praises after a few have had the chance to age.

this is the ultimate in tobacco. if you like va or are trying for the first time imho i would definately try full virginia flake.

if you just dry out for about 30 minutes or microwave for 5 seconds and leave for 5 minutes. just ready to fold and stuff into your pipe, with just a little rubbed out on the top, to light and your in for a very slow burning, enjoyable slow smoke, which lasts for ages.

you will not be disapointed at all, believe me, enjoy.

Pyrolysis single-photon ionisation (SPI)?time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOFMS) and statistical analysis techniques have been applied to differentiate three major Virgina flake type tobacco by means of the gas (combustion) phase. SPI is known as a soft ionisation technique that allows fast and comprehensive on-line monitoring of a large variety of aliphatic and aromatic substances without fragmentation of the molecule ions. The tobacco samples were pyrolysed at 800°C in a nitrogen atmosphere. The resulting pyrolysis gas contained signals from more than 70 masses between m/z 5 and 170. Mass spectra obtained were analysed by principal component analysis (PCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) to distinguish between different tobacco types. Prior variable reduction of the data set was carried out by calculation of the Fisher ratios. Results achieved give information about chemical composition and characteristics of the smoke derived from each tobacco type and enable conclusions on natural aromatic compounds and nicotine content to be drawn. Based on LDA, a model for tobacco type recognition of unknown samples was established, which was cross-checked by additional measurements of each tobacco type by human ingestion(pipe smoking). Furthermore, first results on the recognition of tobacco mixtures based on principal component regression (PCR) are presented. When tested against MacBaren Virginia Flake, and Erinmore Flake; Samuel Gawith Full Virginia Flake was deemed superior in every respect except nicotine content. Erinmore flake produced a higher percentage of nicotine in all procedures at 1.9883223ppm. Taking into account any subjective influence beyond the control of these tests, it nonetheless determined that Samuel Gawith FVF is the best Virginia Flake in the world!

There is virtually nothing to say about this blend that hasn't been covered in any of the other 400+ reviews, but I would mention that ones enjoyment of this blend (assuming your not predisposed to dislike VAs in the first place) depends on patience.

Like most Sam Gawith tins, the flakes (which are quite dense to begin with) are very moist. Given 12 hours of time to air out in a dry room with decent air circulation will work WONDERS for the experience. Smoked straight from the tin you'll consistently be relighting, fussing, and struggling for a smoke that is slightly sour, lacks body, and is unsatisfying. Smoked with appropriate drying time, all of the wonderful flavor and aromas that you're expecting come to life in a smoke that is full-bodied and rich.

Otherwise, to summarize for the sake of expediency (when appropriately dried):

Deep, dark fruit tin note; complete, rounded, and unadulterated VA tobacco flavor; consistent from tin to tin, from bowl to bowl, and throughout each bowl itself. Good fresh, but improves dramatically with age (even at 2 years old it goes from good to very VERY good).

In typical SG fashion, this comes very wet out of the tin and you have that dark, grassy, earthy smell that's so often associated with Virginia. What I found interesting about this one is that, unlike other flakes I've tried, these are very long and have a raw, almost aged appearance. Of course, it requires a bit of drying time. In my case, rubbed out and left for about an hour, maybe a bit more.

Mechanically, it won't give you a headache if dried to the proper moisture. If you rub it out, it can be a bit trickier to pack than your standard ribbon cut, but can provide the right tightness if tamped properly. After that, it goes fine. Lights well, burns nicely and dry, doesn't require many relights and, at least in my case, didn't heat the pipe too much; it was more on the warm side.

The smoke itself is pretty much what you would expect. The pretty full flavored taste of a straight, dark Virginia. Sweet, grassy, hay, earthy, slightly fruity and floral, it's all there. It's not spicy and the taste is uniform from start to finish. That's what I like about tobaccos like this: you don't have to contemplate, focus and delve into the different flavors, the melange, the bouquet. You just need to sit back, relax and enjoy the simple, yet very pleasing taste of a good Virginia flake. A truly venerable classic.