Samuel Gawith Scotch Cut Mixture

Starts nice the first half of the bowl. Very robust smokiness, full bodied, with a distinct but complex taste that has an intriguing appeal. A kind of floral undertone to it, perhaps also with a soapy tone, but also robust (can be a bit too owerpowering for retro-haling). Difficult to pinpoint what it tastes like (also citrus note?), it reminds me a bit of Dr Pepper. Dry and cool smokiness, kind of refined feeling, burns very nice and leaves light ash. Nicotine a bit strong, over medium. So far so good. But second half of the bowl is a different story. It turns sharp and sour, or acrid (can give tounge bite). The mellow refined taste is overpowered by an aggressive smoke (the kind of effect when your mouth reacts by producing saliva and the stomach gets a bit upset). This is very unfortunate, a very nice tobacco that turns into an aggressive smoke as the bowl progresses. Impossible to finish without a beverage by the side. This one reminds me a bit of Dunhill's Durbar, both in taste and in dissapointment. Two stars for taste (but frankly as it develops it only deserves one star).

It is so unfortunate that this develops in such a dissapointing way, because it tastes really god at the beginning of the bowl. I recommend using the air-pocket packing technique, for better smoking results (and I simpley toss away the latter part of the bowl when it starts to taste bad).

Samuel Gawith - Scotch Cut Mixture.

Quite a light coloured ribbon, including a few different size pieces, with only a smattering of black. What d'ya know, it's a Sam' G' which is wet!

The smoke from it only contains a slight touch of Latakia smokiness, there's a lot more rustic Burley and fresh Virginia. The black Cavendish doesn't bring a heavy vanilla flavour, but a mild sweetness. It burns well giving a medium temperature smoke. I get no bite.

Nicotine: medium. Room-note: pleasant-ish.

Scotch Cut'? Hmmmm, discontinued and I don't think that's too bad a thing. Somewhat recommended:

Two stars.

The problem with SG mixtures is how they burn. I had a tin of Grousemoor which needed I would relight it several times as the tobacco was damp although I had let the tin open for some weeks before smoking the content. Then I opened a Scotch cut mixture, bought at the same stockist, and it was so dry that it burnt strongly and almost damaged a pipe. That said, rather disappointing, too easy to smoke without enjoying it. I understand other rewievers were more lucky with their tin!

I could review this blend in a single word 'odd'.

I'll write more. A faint tin note of nut and sweet with a trace of woody smoke in the background.

The first half of the bowl has a very odd flavour of burning nuts and a similar room note, I do find this unpleasant. As we start to get towards half way the latakia starts to fade away and a sweetness starts to emerge creating a nutty carmel flavour that reminds me of peanut brittle. As we pass half way the nutty carmel flavour softens into a brown sugar type of flavour and a creaminess appears, this continues to the end of the bowl. The start of the bowl tastes nothing like the end of the bowl.

Slightly similar (but also slightly better) than Rattray's Highland Targe, but with the addition of Burley.

As someone else said, the smell from this one when burning is weird: as soon as the light touched the tobacco, a nasty smell like of electrical fire struck me. After a while it actually smells better, but surely the unusual combination of Burley and Latakia causes this weird aroma.

Sorry, I am not a big fan of this combination (only some Cornell & Diehl blends do it in a pleasant way), and also the taste has something weird and "dirty". Mind you, it's not a bad tobacco at all: actually it's quite pleasant, though unspectacular and lacking both fullness and finesse/flavour development.

I sorely miss the lack of orientals, and I am also sure that the black cavendish always does more damage than good things.

At times I get glimpses of interesting stuff happening here: a nice creamy Virginia, a touch of nice Latakia smokiness. But other times, it gets a bit cardboardy and flat.

The good moments would make it a worthwhile blend enough, that's for sure, but it suffers in comparison to Skiff Mixture: in Skiff there are the same qualities of Scotch Cut (logically, being from the same blender and having some identical ingredients), but Skiff is immensely better, more complex, rich, rewarding and without the faults of Scotch Cut (which, again, are IMHO due to the intrusion of Burley and the cavendish).

Not bad at all, and I'll gladly smoke the whole tin. But I think that SG makes much better blends. And yet... at times, like tonight in a large Larry Roush "belge", this blend really shines and I would be tempted to give it a "Recommended" rating. Go figure... So get a tin and judge for yourself: please let it dry a bit, as it gets better with less moisture than it has from a fresh tin.

I got a sample of this at the Chicago show. I don't pick up a lot of flavor here; just a little licorice and some heat. I am confident that I will not buy this.

Govern Yourself Accordingly.

Appearance: the 250 gram bulk, sealed and packed in a cardboard box, of course, did not contain any release dates. The excise stamp indicated Q3 2016, and I'm willing to believe that date - tobacco in bulks hasn't been imported to us long time ago. An almost mono-color blend of fairly broadly sliced ribbons of brown, with an almost black cavendish standing out. The tobacco is a little dry, but this fact didn't hurt it, rather the opposite. It is perfectly stuffs into the pipe.

Flavor: When I opened the balk, I smelled quite a stiff and dense smell ... pork rinds! Over the years, the black unsweetened English Cavendish by Samuel Gawith, whose "flavor" I was already familiar with before, completely superseded all other notes. The tobacco had to move to a jar and rest in it for a couple of months with regular airing. Only after that was I able to pick up any semblance of light topping, similar to cheap apple cider (the manufacturer claims it's apple and whiskey) as well as other tobacco notes. All tobacco tones were safely hidden under the smell of unsweetened Cavendish and only appeared after ten minutes of airing in the draught - the suede smell of latakia and its, almost imperceptible here, peaty smokiness, soft hay notes, a slight earthiness, noticeable wood tones and finally, the aromatization I mentioned earlier. Slightly discouraged, I closed my eyes, and in my mind's eye I saw a glass of Johnny Walker, mixed with apple juice, with a pan of roast smoked pork next to it. Both the booze and the snack were, say, so-so. I stuffed my pipe and braced myself for the worst.

Taste: Of course, the smell of pork rinds from the cavendish can be weathered. But it is impossible to remove their taste from the tobacco. So, I was not too surprised to find a note of roasted smoked pork fat on my tongue. But framed by the tobacco notes, it wasn't irritating: sweetish baked fruits, a slight earthiness, some wood and nuts, the lightest wine note - all of this together was quite balanced, although very simple. Perhaps even the Peterson Old Dublin, close in composition to this tobacco, had a more complex taste. Towards the middle of the pipe the taste changes slightly: the sweetness goes away, the woody and meaty notes come to the forefront, but don't dominate. The tobacco has a slight roughness in taste, disappearing to the middle of the pipe, does not bite the tongue, smoked slowly, very dry, cool, and fairly tolerant of overheating. The strength is medium or slightly lower - in very large pipes a nicotine hit is possible. The aftertaste is sweet and sour with a woody undertone, not bright, but quite persistent. The tobacco does not leave moisture in the pipe, burning out in almost white ash, which, however, contains some dark fractions.

The smoke from the tobacco is reminiscent of pan-fried escalope (surprising, no?). It's fairly persistent indoors, but it has virtually no peaty latakia notes that irritate those around you.

What's the bottom line? First of all, this is not a tobacco for everyone. Its strange flavor and taste can put off a fair number of pipe smokers, and if you smoke it regularly, you'll probably need a separate pipe for it. It has a very simple taste and is a good everyday tobacco - especially if you live alone or work outdoors and don't have to worry about the smell in your house. I, on the other hand, smoke it when I'm in the mood, and I'm seriously considering where to put the second bulk of this. It looks like it's been discontinued, so maybe over the years it will acquire some collectible value. Who knows? At least, it will take a long time to finish it.