Samuel Gawith Grousemoor Plug

This plug is very moist. I tried it almost a year ago and it was way to moist to smoke. I stored some but left some in a zip lock bag to come back to. I just found the bad and the moister level was almost perfect. 20 min. drying time made a great smoke. The VA is top quality and the lemongrass like flavoring had was not as strong. This is a good quality aromatic.

First of all, the manufacturer's description is very understated. This is very strongly floral. I put mine in a ziplock and the topping smell comes through so strongly that you can smell it even when doubly encased in ziploc and pipe pouch (in this case a heavy vinyl microphone case.) The plug is a mix of darks and lights, and is quite pretty. I cut some up and put it in a pipe I know burns hot and fired it up. WOW! The initial flavor reminded me of geranium incense or these funky laveneder candies. The smoke is extremely cool and really nice, but the flowery flavor never let up. It DGT's nicely, giving that same flowery taste on relight. The ash is clean and fluffy.

Overall I like this tobacco, and once I got past the "Holy Sh*t" stage of surprise, I found that the tobacco taste peeks through here and there. I think I will air the plug out some, as the volatiles in the oil should evaporate some and reduce the floweryness. The most interesting thing to me about this tobacco is I found myself liking the floral taste and craving it now and then. In the long, sullen winter nights of Minnesota, that can be a welcome reminder of the sunny days to come. If your up for an adventure, give it a try.

Added 12/7/04 After chopping this up into 1/4 inch pieces and also letting it sit for six months and air out several times, the taste remains exactly the same, strongly floral. I also tried to blend it down with half dark flake and there is no rebate in floral strength. The taste is fundamentally ok, but in too great a quantity.

I’ve tried Grousemoor and I’ve tried Grousemoor plug and both are very similar (obviously), the plug burning somewhat slower than the tinned variety, if it’s cut thicker than the ribbon.

I do have a confession to make however; when I was jarring up this plug I was short on jars and thought “well, the Grousemoor has a very distinct smell and flavour; I’ll just toss it into the jar with the Canon plug and (as we say in Yorkshire) it’ll be reyt.”

At worst I thought that the last bit of Canon plug would take on the lemon grass quality of the Grousemoor and that wouldn’t be so bad as to be a terrible thing. Besides, I said that I’d get another jar, separate them like two lions that can’t be in the same enclosure, and everything would be rosey.

The down side to my plan was that I didn’t take into account how quickly I would forget to get another jar - it turns out, really quite quickly!

I was doing some general cleaning on the pipe shelf the other day and there, at the back of the umpteen other jars, was the small jar that I had forgotten all about.

After a good year to a year and a half coseyed up in the jar, I thought I would investigate and...I can’t tell which one is which; not By sight, smell or smoke and it’s not that the Canon has taken on the lemon grass, Floris scent of the Grousemoor it’s that the Grousemoor flavour has totally gone.

Not withstanding this rather large oversight on my part - if you like the aromatic qualities of the tinned version then this could be a slower version for you to try.

For me this isn’t an all day smoke but it is in the rotation at certain times.

Tastes like hippy.

I'm reviewing this to steer people who aren't fans of the "Lakeland"-scent well clear. From 10' away, you can smell the floral aroma coming off the unlit plug (which smells a lot like patchouli to me). This scent doesn't go away as you smoke. It stays there, oscillating between overpowering and noticeable.

I suspect there is a large contingent of people out there who like this topping. . .the way to rounds out the rougher edges of a VA blend, and the way it perfumes the air like incense.

I'm not entirely averse to the experience, especially during the last 1/3 of the smoke when the tobacco grows richer and there's some interesting interplay. But it's just not my thing. So my recommendation is only 2 stars.

A strange tobacco, this. Tastes like cookies.

Curious about plugs and ropes, I some time ago placed an order with the good people at www.pipesandtobaccos.com, the Swiss tobacconist that provides the intriguing Schurch blends.

Grousemoor Plug is not a tobacco I plan to try again. At first, it was great fun cutting slices from the plug and then rubbing them out. The rewards, unfortunately, do not justify the effort. It has a very interesting flavour, flowery and very sweet, but one can't keep it lit. Whilst smoking this, one becomes convinced that one is smoking matches, not tobacco. When it does manage to burn, it burns HOT. Searing, parching smoke.

The British know how to make very fine pipe tobaccos. St. Bruno, for instance, or the eternal Condor. Grousemoor Plug is not one of Britain's finer attempts.