Samuel Gawith Perfection

Some notes on Samuel Gawith's Perfection ...

It's a mild English that can't seem to win with the reviews here - smokers of full English and heavy Balkan blends complain that it's mild and has vanilla flavor at all, smokers of aromatics complain that it doesn't have enough vanilla flavor.

Don't pick this up expecting huge Latakia flavor, it's much more Izmir-forward. Squadron Leader would fill the needs of a medium mixture, and Commonwealth is full. Perfection is mild.

The vanilla topping is light, unobtrusive. It's a condiment, not a glass of vanilla extract. It softens the blend considerably, but Perfection does not taste like a vanilla aromatic. Good chefs can work with condiments and flavors that will not be obvious in the dish, but will round it out - think of the vanilla here in the same way.

The steaming process has rendered the Virginia tobacco bite-free. Puff away.

I give it 3 stars for being good at what it is, a mild English mixture that makes an excellent breakfast smoke, but is easy enough to smoke throughout the day. It's probably not the best choice to pair with straight whisky after a steak dinner.

Sam Gawith - Perfection.

Will it live up to its name?

Upon opening I can quickly ascertain that it has the 'usual suspect' quality with Sam G' tobaccos, too moist! That said, it is not saturated so it only requires a very short quantity of time to let it air. The dissemination of the tobaccos seems to be very fair, an even quantity of each type. Once I have let mine rest until the right moistness is achieved it's time to get the bowl started, 'the proof of the pudding is in the eating'!

Mine takes to lighting superbly, once it is lit the burn is even and it only desists in the burn if it is left to sit untouched for some time. I know it contains vanilla but that said I struggle to detect it, don't take that too negatively as the taste I get agrees with me. It is by no means a lat-bomb, it is actually (like the appearance) a fair selection of the different tobacco flavours. I would say it's perfection but that would be too cheesy! Tongue bite? Not at all throughout the whole bowl. The room note is excellent, it is quite a light one with both aroma and thickness in the air.

To be fair, it has been accomplished very well but it lacks 'the X-factor' for me, becoming a little laborious after a while. For this subjective reason it scores 3 stars not 4 stars. I feel 'Perfection' is too much of a prodigious name for any tobacco to be called, Sam Gawith 'Really Good' would be more apt !

Recommended.

Judging from the reviews here, this is hardly a blend that lives up to its name. And the blend itself doesn't. But so what? Tobacco perfection for me is not only about how the blend is composed, but about the whole setting of a particular smoking experience. And I just spent the most perfect hour of the morning in total bliss over a huge coffee with lots of milk, paired with SG Perfection.

The VAs come with a hint of citrus, but also a satisfying sweetness. The Orientals and the Latakia are nicely balanced, so that it's difficult (to me anyway) to tell the different layers of the taste from another. The vanilla topping is definitely present, but I wouldn't say it was vanilla unless I had read that already. All the casing does, is to add a lovely creamy sweetness to the blend, that goes well with the woodsy cream of the Orientals/Latakia.

Is it a perfect masterpiece of a blend? No. Is it complex and interesting? No. I but once in a while, when I just want something almost childishly simple and comforting, this is one of the blends I could pick up. On those occasions, it does the same for as a café latte made whit whole milk. Sweet and mellow, but not too sweet in any way. I advise you to pair SG Perfection with said beverage.

I found that the casing gets more prominent (and I think that is a good thing for this blend) when I smoke it in a larger bowl. That also makes the Orientals/Latakia shine a bit more, in my experience. To me, Perfection does the job I want an aromatic blend to do (but that comes from the mouth of someone who would have chosen GLP Odyssey as the only tobacco to bring to a remote island, so if you smoke predominantly aros, you'll probably strongly disagree with me).

The casing fades and the Orientals get sour towards the end, and that is one of the reasons why 'perfection' is the wrong name for this blend. It also gets a bit more fussy to keep lit. But honestly, it's worth your money – at least for a try – if you're into Latakia and aromatic combinations.

Low on nic (I am a nic lightweight and I smoked this on an nearly empty stomach early in the morning without feeling anything that couldn't also be ascribed to the caffeine in my coffee). No bite what so ever. Leaves only a little moisture in the bowl.

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.

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.

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...