Samuel Gawith Perfection

An excellent mixture, please do not expect a full English mixture. Slightly flavoured with vanilla, latakia in background. Fits perfectly in SG catalogue, reminds me also to soapy Lakeland's . Leaves white ash, burns well if dried up a little. Perfect for smaller medium pipes, billiards bulldogs Rhodesian. An everyday tobacco which can rotate with Squadron Leader and Skiff. If smoked too much can become a little tiring due to the aroma. Strong room note. If a fav of mine I would give 4 stars. In any case not to be missed.

WARNING

Putting the name "Perfection" to any product is not far from putting a bullseye on it. My tin's lid was sunken in but still held the vacuum. Yes: it looked a tad old and abandoned, as if the aging design and label wear marks made it unfit for consumption. The three store price stickers tattooed on its bottom gave away that it had been doing time. It was the last one of its kind left at the store. Most online shops had run out of it. So, what the heck; I figured I'd let the old dog surprise me with its tricks.

And yes: when I opened it, I got one nasty surprise. The inner edges of the lid and can were covered in a mess of what appeared to be Latakia particles and the vanilla topping. The topping literally covered over half the paper lining above the ribbons and looked, well, messy. My first thought was to return the offending stray and get a refund, but then I figured I should let it air out. Maybe it was stored in an overheated area. "Maybe it's just me" and my unfamiliarity with the product, I figured. Maybe the topping is thin, requiring more of it to get to work with the tobacco.

Anyway, I'm glad I did give it a chance. Just ignore the tin note.

PREP

The ribbon cuts are inconsistent at best. The Virginias, Orientals and Latakia are all there, with my tin seemly biased for the latter which I frankly don't mind. The tobacco is densely packed and firm. You'll have to scratch your way into getting the blend out. It packages well in the bowl, no thanks to the ribbon's diverse sizes and shapes.

BURNDOWN

It takes some effort to get the bowl burning, even with a single-flame torch. The Virginias take the front row on this blend from the initial light, with a brief low-to-medium sweetness along with a hint of vanilla. The Latakia and Orientals blend in quickly. The mix burns extremely well but does require a paused and steady rhythm to stay on. Retrohaling enhances the campfire experience; it lingers strong at the top of the palate but remains rich in the taste of incense and freshness of mint. The room note floats between ashy and incense-like. Closing down the bowl, the Virginias take a backseat to the meditation on Orientals and Latakia.

PERFECT?

The first time I tried this blend, I was not particularly drawn to it. However, each new time around was much, much better. All this blend needs is steady strokes. The variety of flavors is nicely balanced, the very light vanilla rounds up the tobaccos' unique profiles, and all together it's a delightful, almost refreshing smoke. I'll give this tin more attention in the coming weeks.

I decided to buy and try this tobacco mixture. After opening the tin, a light and pleasant smell of tobacco, notes of oriental tobacco and virginia, is not very noticeable Latakia. The subtle smell of vanilla is present in this mixture. As soon as the tin is opened, the tobacco is ready immediately for making a smoking pipe. Smoking pipe with a 9 mm charcoal filter. I sat down. A cup of pleasant aromatic black coffee with cream in the fresh air. Only one match is needed and the process has started. A very pleasant process, a pleasant outgoing smoke around and a pleasant aroma in the mouth. A very slow and pleasant process of filling the mouth with smoke from a smoking pipe and blowing out of the mouth. I recommend it for beginners to feel the soft English blend. There are a lot of pipe tobaccos with added vanilla flavor, but this mixture is the most attractive of all the other mixtures I had to try. This mixture is suitable for everyday pipe smoking. I recommend trying this mixture.

This is a gift from a generous friend. A English blend with Latakia, Oriental, Turkish and Virginia. When I opened the bag I was met by a very pleasant smoky campfire aroma with a woody, musty, earthy background with a light grassy light citrus and very light vanilla hovering behind the main background. The tobacco seemed a bit dry so I loaded up the pipe right away.

Being a thin ribbon cut it loaded into the pipe beautifully. The charring light stayed lit for a couple of minutes and then I had to relight. Relights were less than normal. The smoke was heavy, hanging and long lasting and gave off a pleasant room note of a rich, sweet smoky campfire. This didn't even come close to biting and I am not sure it would bite unless one puffed like a locomotive. This burned into a dark gray ash and left very little moisture in the bowl. The taste was consistent from beginning to end. The tobacco burned at a medium pace and seemed very consistent in burning. This could easily be an all day smoke.

Upon lighting I experienced a wonderful, rich, sweet, smoky campfire taste. In the near background was a very pleasing woody, musty, earthy flavors backed up closely by very light sweet, grass, tangy citrus, spice with mildly tart and also light butter and very light vanilla. This left a wonderful sweet smoky campfire aftertaste. The flavors stayed in place and danced together well and none of them were overpowering but complimented each other beautifully.

This was a excellent smoking experience. Complex enough to keep my attention, but no changing flavors, just consistent great flavors that did not crowd each other out, did not drown each other out and together made a wonderful smoke. This is on my favorite list and will be in my regular rotation. a 4 out of 4 stars.

I had very high expectations for this light English blend but to me it flopped. As with most Sammy G. Blends the tobacco condition out of the tin reminded me of a drowned rat. It took hours to dry this out to the point that i thought it would be OK to jar-up. The tobacco form that point would take an additional 10 minuets before stuffing into your pipe. The tobacco did behave well in the pipe with minimal relights but just lacked in flavor that was even remotely enjoyable to me. Hope this helps.

Well, no. Although this is mild, and has in it some good quality leaves, the synthetic-tasting vanilla topping is absolutely masking everything else throughout the smoke. Frankly, I did not notice the word 'vanilla' before a bought a tin to try. Without the vanilla, this may have been a nice, smooth mild semi-English, but with it, it is just another ersatzed nonentity.

Firstly, this is not an aromatic or even a "crossover". It's a full fledged Balkan mixture. If there's a molecule of Vanilla in it (though I fail to find any) it's present in homeopathic quantities just to even out tobacco flavours, working in the deep background and being unnoticeable.

The Virginias play a similar role, binding together the main players, Latakia and Smyrna (Izmir), and never stepping out to the forefront.

The Latakia is of the same easily recognizable strain that's also used in Commonwealth Mixture and other ribbon-cut English blends by SG (not the same as in Balkan Flake though). I'm really glad to meet it here. Samuel Gawith's ribbon Latakia is very good. It's superior to its Gawith Hoggarth counterpart. It's not "just a touch" of Latakia in this blend as some report, I guess Latakia constitutes no less than 25% of the mixture (so definitely more than in Squadron Leader).

Latakia shares the centerstage with an Oriental of the Smyrna (aka Izmir) variety, which dominates the general flavour profile of the smoke. Smyrna imparts a gamut of pleasant and complex flavours changing and developing through the bowl. However, the abundance of the fragrant leaf comes at a price: depending on your sensitivity to Orientals you may desgnate this blend from "nicely spicy" to "sharply acrid". Me, I'm unfortunately pretty sensitive to the Oriental bite, but if I want to enjoy the unique flavours I have just to bear with that, and slowing down my smoking pace to a very slow and cool smoke helps greatly in that regard.

The only things I'd complain about are the poorly thought-over naming of the blend, which is, however good, not a perfect one, and also the tin art, as fat dogs never symbolize perfection in any existing human culture, English including.

The tobacco itself is very good and although it might at times taste sharper than I care for (especially at the end of the bowl), I like it and I think it's good enough to always have some of it in my rotation.

Also, the rumour is that Perfection is the favourite blend of its creator, Bob Gregory, the chief blender in Samuel Gawith, which tells a lot about the quality of the mixture.

Recommended.

A very well balanced blend. The Vanilla touch is almost unnoticed so simplifying is a fine mild english. I really admire the balance in each element of this one but in truth there are lots of better options in Samuel Gawith. Cool and mellow, emotionally neutral and quite pleasant...

Not everyone's cup of tea it seems, but goes well with coffee. Very mellow and smooth english flavor. It can be a little bit tart and has some nice nuttiness, which more or less complements the very subtle vanilla casing. Good for breakfast or as an all day smoke.

I have smoked two tins of it so far. With the first tin, the vanilla casing was stronger and sweeter. I actually enjoyed it a little more that way, though not a fan of aromatics. And with the second, it was barely detectable, and the character of the tobacco is slightly different; not in the least bit sweet. Still good. The first tin was great however.

Moist in the tin, and may not immediately take a light, but burns slow and cool. It's my opinion that this one is good revved up a little - just a few sharper puffs to get the oils in it properly combusting, and then smoking at a cadence that is just a little more aggressive than slow sipping to keep them that way.

Not every blend has to knock your socks off, this one doesn't. Will be buying more, it's a good change of pace blend.