Samuel Gawith Perfection

Ok, so after many bowls smoked in a cheap Angelo pipe biliard shape, in a Savinelli Porto Cervo 628 bent brandy shape, a Savinelli Tevere 315 KS prince shape and a Jean Claude prince shape, I decided to give my personal opinion on this blend.

First of all, I want to mention that the tobacco is almost 4 years old, so it might be different from a fresh tin.

We start with the opening of the tin. You encounter a strange but very pleasant smell, like leather and wood. There’s no smell of latakia or vanilla, it smells like wood or more like leather. I find this smell very interesting and pleasing.

The tobacco is not very wet (well, after all, it was in a tin for almost 4 years), it’s just sticky, so you need to keep it to dry at least 5 minutes. It’s a small ribbon cut, with colors ranging from dark yellow to brown to black, in just about equal quantities.

Enough with the theory... Let’s light it up! At first, it used to go out a lot, but in time I got used to this tobacco and got to light it with a single match, two at most, and keep it lit. It delivers a cold smoke and a very pleasant taste. It’s a smooth taste of latakia, but not very strong, only to give it its sweetness and silky magic. Right away, subtle notes of vanilla start appearing. This is not an aromatic, it’s an english with a lean towards aromatics with a subtle topping. And honestly... I LOVE IT! I love this combination of latakia and vanilla. It’s not a chemical taste, but a delicate and pleasant taste.

Many people didn’t feel the vanilla taste... probably because the tobacco was new and didn’t have time to combine its aromas, or maybe aromatic smokers want stronger aromas, I don’t know. For me, this easy note of vanilla is amazing, like a vanilla pudding, not very sweet, but rather creamy and smooth. And I’m not an aromatics smoker!

It doesn’t bite, it doesn’t get too hot. I only had some problems when smoking it in my Sherlock Holmes Original when the walls of the pipe got too hot, but this happens with any tobacco that I put in that pipe. So in the end, I started smoking this tobacco in my english dedicated pipes, the prince shaped ones. The result was an amazing smoke.

When you go past the half of the bowl, the vanilla taste starts to disappear and you’re left with the delicious combination of latakia and oriental, each trying to take a front position. One time you may feel latakia, other time you may feel the oriental.

It’s a very plesant tobacco. It’s not something that made me crazy, like “wow, what a blend!!”. Still, I find it very tasty. It’s like a combination of Ashton Consummate Gentleman, Dunhill Early Morning Pipe, Dunhill London Mixture and a vanilla topping. It’s softer than Consummate Gentleman, both in taste and in vitamin N, so it gets closer to EMP, and the smell and taste of leather is very similar to the one of London Mixture. The taste somehow reminds me of Thomas Radford Sunday’s Fantasy... I don’t know why, I haven’t smoked that in over 2 years, so my memory might deceive me.

I forgot to mention, the room note is very nice. It’s not a latakia smell. At least I don’t feel it. Some of my friends said it smells like frankincense.

Final conclusion: An easy, pleasant smoke.

P.S.: Don’t combine it with coffee or beer, it will ruin all the taste. Try it with an ice cream frappe instead, or a frappuccino. 🙂

P.P.S.: If you will put it in a jar, know that you will never be able to get the smell out of the jar whatever you do. I've tried multiple methods and haven't been able to take the smell out of the jar.

Perfect, no. Close though. Great S.G. Virginia’s for a sublime citrus and hay note, enough Latakia to satisfy and just enough sweet/sour with the Turkish and other oriental leaf. Satisfying but not over the top in strength. Can be smoked multiple times in a day or sitting for that matter. As for usual Gawith delivers a great smoke. Have tins cellared and jars as well. Yes it does improve with age.

I love this mixture. The english mixtures, in many cases are to much strengthfor mi, but this is not the case. Also I feel a good taste, seems wood and smels like grass. Totaly recommended.

I have to give it a 2 stars, even though it would be a 2,5. On the technical side, I found this one to burn quite fast, even though it won't get super hot and won't bite your tongue even when heated; could need some relight, leaves very few moisture in the bowl, with a very fine gray ash. On the opinion side: I find quite pretentious to call a tobacco "Perfection", because we are talking about personal tastes; I would have accepted it if this were the quintessential english mixture (Squadron Leader), which it is not. The quality of the tobacco is indeed very good, in line with the SG high standard, but what this mixture lacks is the decision of its taste. For me it was very disappointing to find out that the latakia doesn't emerge as I would like when I buy an english mixture; that the orientals tend to dominate over it, combining better with the virginia than with the latakia. The declared little bit of vanilla casing is very very light, I would say undetectable. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate this tobacco. It is what it is: a very mild, all-day mixture, one you can enjoy while taking a walk in the park or in town, and in this it is perfect. But, as I said, I would invest my health (and money) in something more worth them both, something whose taste has more character and in which the latakia is not a back player.

This is a nice tobacco. Contrary to what others have said, the Vanilla is definitely there,very very subtle, but there. Its actually a vanilla like sweetness, rather than a strong vanilla flavor, but it is a lovely compliment to the light english blend. The blend is truly a blend, and it is a little hard to identify the different components. Very light, by the standards of one who enjoys very full Latakia blends, but not overly light. It taste like you would imagine a perfect light english blend tasting like, with some sweetness added in. Dont expect an aromatic type casing and terrific smells, the sole purpose of this flavor is to slightly sweeten the taste.

If i had to say, i would say the primary taste comes from a mixture of sweet virginias and turkish. The latakia is pretty light and the vanilla adds to the flavor slightly rather than dominating it.

If your a fan of Early Morning Pipe or Squadron Leader, i would recommend you give this a try.

So this is Samuel Gawith's idea of perfection? Well, it isn't mine, and it's a fair bit less perfect than some of their other blends. Unlike some of the other reviewers, I had no trouble picking out the vanilla. It was more prominent in the room note but I tasted it as well. It was the Turkish that I couldn't find. The virginias were out front with the latakia well to the rear and the vanilla flavor sort of lightly draped over the proceedings. But the Turkish was MIA in my tin. I got a feeling that the vanilla flavoring was just evident enough to throw this blend into confusion. It was not unpleasant but, like Grousemoor, it just seemed to me that SG didn't put their best tobacco into this mix. Smoking BBF and FVF along with a slew of others lets me know that they have stellar virginias in their house, but chose not to use them for this one.

I'm not sure what the steaming process does unless it's like stoving, which would definitely tone down the assertiveness of the tobacco. It surely did so here. Again, the concept is intriguing but the execution didn't fare quite so well. Worth a try if you like very light latakia and want something that smells better in the room. If you're looking for something more flavorful, SG has plenty to choose from.

It is my belief that the large dog depicted on the label is responsible for the contents of the tin.

How ironic that there is a faithful looking retriever on the front of the tin.....

The only thing that's missing, is the accompanying freshly laid 'lawn turd' situated right behind mans best friend in said picture.....Because that's what this bland flavourless dross smoked like.

Weak, tasteless, smokeless, indulgent rubbish. The worst SG I have sampled to date. The only reason it gets a star, is because I like dogs.

If you want a decent medium English, try Old Dublin, not this kackarakkahoohaar!

There are NO traces of the suggested VANILLA in this blend whatsoever either..

Perfection this aint...

Not my idea of perfection. A decent VA/Latakia/Oriental mixture, but nothing outstanding. The vanilla flavoring seems to spoil the overall impression. One tin was enough.