Samuel Gawith Perfection

I must admit this smoke let me down. Any tin that depicts a hunting dog should contain an exceptional tobacco right? Guess I can't use that as a gauge for a good tobacco any more.

All kidding aside I thought this tobacco would have a little more fanfare associated with a name like Perfection. Upon opening the tin you will find a predominantly ribbon cut tobacco with some broken flake mixed in. The VA's dominate this blend with a hint of Latikia and Turkish chiming in. All at once a fade to Vanilla I guess I just can't adjust to this kind of a pairing. Kind of like I don't find ketchup an appealing compliment to french toast.

This isn't an awful tobacco in fact it smokes cool and clean. This tobacco just misses the boat on your hybrid english aromatic blends. I will finish this tin but I doubt I will purchase this one again. Sorry Sam

---

hey is it too late to trade this tin for a tin of Best Brown?

I picked up a tin of this to try. I like Gawith in general, and the name sounded promising. This is not what I would call "perfection." It is a mild crossover that is not too heavy on the vanilla. The cut is a medium ribbon with some chopped bits. Pouch note is a slightly sweet latakia. It came just a little on the moist end of the good range for smoking, and I did not dry it. As long as the tin has taken me to smoke, it has dried a little in the tin.

Smoked I get a pleasant woody latakia, a little hay from the Virginias and some vanilla every now and then. The Turkish is a pretty light touch, and I am not sure there is much of it in the blend. I will claim it is there in condimental mode.

Perfection is good but not especially compelling. It was an easy smoke. It packed and stayed lit without incident. It smoked clean without goop.

This is a 2.5 star blend. I am unlikely to ever buy it again. If it were all I had, I would smoke a lot of it.

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.

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.

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.

My consumption of English tobaccos has grown so bloated that I've looked affectionately over the fence in search of something different.

I've tried Balkans, and to be fair to my own lack of sophistication, I'm not quite able to pick them apart from their English cousins in a blind test. Virginias are fine, but sauced up they can get nasty. I'm not averse to a topping if it doesn't burn the hell out of my tongue.

I thought then, maybe there is an aromatic out there that is both unique in taste and worthy in strength. I immediately ruled out 1792 and Royal Yacht. Sure, they're great, but I'll take them in small, bi-annual doses.

What I was really looking for was a strong Cavendish tobacco. Is there such a thing? What if I laced Captain Black with Perique? That would be wrong.

On one of my infrequent trips to the regional B&M, I mentioned this to the man behind the counter. He immediately offered Perfection as a capable alternative. He said it was a sweeter smoke, medium body, with a vanilla taste.

When I fired this thing up I immediately detected the Latakia. In my opinion, a blend with any Latakia will quickly make this the strongest element in the blend. It's true, Perfection has a topping, but I'll be damned if I can detect any. It's heresy perhaps to ask for a cased aromatic over a natural English mixture. Maybe I'm just not getting this pipe smoking thing.

To me, Perfection is a mild English with few discerning traits. It's decent, but there's too many decent tobaccos that fall in the same category. I'll keep looking.

I am a huge fan of Samuel Gawith Blends. I find their tobaccos to be of very high quality and are always complex or very rich. I'm guessing some would consider this a "cross over" blend but I'm gonna call it an Aromatic. It was something that I was very interested in trying from a brand that has brought me FVF, SL, BBF and Firedance Flake.

The tin has a wonderful presentation of dark blacks and browns with specks of beige and gold. I got a top note of sweetness/ vanilla. I was a little surprised to hear that others didn't detect any casing when they opened the tin. The Vanilla seems to smooth out the Latakia and Oriental's scent from the tin. It's very refreshing.

The tobacco straight out of the tin is a little moist and can definitely use some drying. Packs like most other ribbon cuts but is a little thicker than some other blenders. It is definitely not an overly gooey tobacco and won't leave your hand with excessive flavoring residue.

Lighting this tobacco there is a slight hint of vanilla. It's hard to call this a vanilla because it's an overall general sweetness. It does a great job of pushing the flavor of the orientals with the latakia into the forefront while providing a nice undertone of sweetness. Pipeline hit the nail on the head comparing this to a softer version of Squadron Leader. The VAs don't seem to do much in this blend, or at least not in my experience with it. But the first half of the bowl has some nice interplay between the "vanilla" topping and the other tobaccos (mainly latakia and turkish/oriental). There does seem to be a bit too much of Turkish taking the spotlight away from the other tobaccos. It doesn't tend to bite too much but does leave a funny feeling in your mouth. But I have had this reaction to some English blends.

Now, the remaining half of the bowl is something that's frustrating and disappointing. It seems that the topping wears off (or potentially compounds on itself) and gives off a very ashy flavors. One of the reviewers, Sirloirn, aptly put "cigarette taste towards the bottom". I don't know if it's just too much Turkish or what. But, without fail almost every bowl, of every material that I have, of various sizes of pipes, the latter half just turns into an ashy flavor with the occasional hint of Latakia. The one positive about finishing a bowl is that there is a clean white ash and no gooey mess.

If this tobacco could maintain that gentle balance that it has for the first half, this would be an easy 3 star blend if not bordering on a 4 star. But, since I can't have a positive latter half of the bowl, it's only good for 2 stars.

Alas, I could not enjoy this blend as much as I wanted to. I have found Glynn Quelch's Chocolate and Vanilla to be the Aromatic Latakia blend I was looking for. Though it is nothing like Perfection.

Tin: Abundant, smoky, spicy Turkish bouquet, mix of tans, brown, and blacks. Medium ribbon cut. Supple but not sticky.

Taste-Aroma: Nice soft, tasty, sweet, with a spicy effect, a nutty tone, with the Turkish fragrant herbal taste and aroma predominating. A stoved sour cigarette taste develops towards the bottom. Classic tongue bite develops with consecutive bowls.

Nicotine: moderate

Room Note: Turkish cigarettes

Overall: The nice initial oriental taste at the top, followed by classic tongue bite by the bottom of the bowl, reminds me of Balkan Sasieni, which I recently tossed out. Two stars.

Appearance: The 100-gram pouch, packaged from a bulk, had an excise stamp that read "Q2 2020". I couldn't find any other information about the date of production, but I'm willing to believe that the tobacco is at least two to three years old. The fine, almost cigarette-cut ribbon of light-colored Virginias, treated with steam, has turned from yellow to wheat. And the rest of the tobacco, cut with a slightly coarser ribbon, had also darkened. Despite the age, the blend is somewhat moist - I had to dry it out for a while before stuffing it.

Flavor: Smoothed leather and wood aroma that brings to mind an old armchair, a touch of peat and dust, a faint but noticeable citrus sourness from the aged bright Virginias, a touch of sweet wildflowers from the same, spiced with the lightest whiff of vanilla. Orientals? Perhaps they are there, but their smell hardly participates in the overall flavor, creating something like smoked paprika in connection with the latakia.

Taste: very smoothed out, well assembled, with a slight density. Wood and hay notes play a major role, being framed by a very carefully added smokiness, there is a slight sweetness with a creamy taste. Orientals give a light sour note to the palate and are also felt on the retrohale, bringing a slight spiciness to the overall bouquet. Slightly harsh initially, the tobacco flavor becomes more balanced towards the middle of the pipe. The tobacco burns slowly, evenly and cool enough, but does not like overheating, quickly losing taste, although it does not bite. It is quite hygroscopic, leaving some moisture in the pipe even after drying, so I would suggest a straight pipe for this tobacco. The strength of the blend is low - I didn't get a nicotine hit even from a very large pipe. The blend burns out into an almost white ash, giving no lumps. It has virtually no aftertaste.

The smoke from the tobacco is quite light, with a barely noticeable aroma of peat and wood.

What's the bottom line? "Perfection"? No, not at all. I prefer the name the Chinese gave the tobacco after looking at its label - "Blue Dog". Calm, dozing at the feet of his master, who’s sitting in an old armchair with a pipe in his hands. I prefer other accents of English blends, but I suppose that, as an everyday tobacco, this dog would never be left unattended. 2.5.