Samuel Gawith Squadron Leader

I think I need to preface all my reviews with "I have no idea what I'm talking about -- I just know what I like." I started smoking a pipe about a year ago and have been concentrating mostly on Virginias and mostly Virginia flakes. Early on I tried a tin of Three Nuns and Dunhill Nightcap and didn't find them to my liking. But recently I thought that maybe I should gently wade back into English blends that are just a bit more challenging than what I've been smoking, but none that are too strong or have too much latakia in them. Well, if that describes you at all, I think you should try this. I feel like I've hit paydirt with this one!

The smell when you open the tin is just heavenly. Someone in some other review here said there's no tin note to speak of. Whaaaaat? I shove my nose in the tin each time I open it and just inhale for a couple of minutes before packing my pipe. Sometimes I open the tin and sniff away even when I'm not going to smoke a bowl! And the flavour, once you do smoke it, is subtle, though ... I think anyway ... fairly complex. Flavours come and go as you progress through the bowl. It's like a chorus after the single note of Virginias. I don't really have the vocabulary yet to describe those flavours but suffice it to say that there's nothing here which is overly challenging though it's certainly a lot ... earthier? ... than my main go to tobaccos like Dunhill Flake. This one is going to be a new regular smoke for me. And the name and retro tin design don't hurt either. How can you go wrong with a pipe tobacco called "Squadron Leader"?!

Squadron Leader leads with light, grassy sweet virginias, supported by woody (and slightly buttery) orientals, and there's just a whisper of latakia that makes this an elegant morning or all day English blend. This blend is just so very well balanced with quality leaf, and, I emphasize, elegant. Squadron Leader is a permanent staple of my regular rotation, and I can find no fault with it. 4 stars.

A very pleasant and light English blend. Upon opening the tin you will get a good grassy earth aroma with floral notes and just a hint of the smokey Latakia smell and excellent ribbons of tobacco. It is light on Latakia, and certainly does not have a great deal of oriental in it as there is no punch to it, but rather than being Virginia heavy in taste it does well to be a balanced blend in which you can taste all that is in it. It has a smooth retrohale which I find kind of sweet, normal with some English and in this case complimented well by the very small hint of "Lakeland essence" it contains.

To summarise its a very unoffensive blend that offers everything an English should.

I bought my first tin of this back in 2013. Was watching this like a hawk till it was restocked probably for the 100th time. I was still fairly new to pipe smoking, so i truely didnt know what i had till today!!!

I think i had 2-3 bowls of this at absolute most when it first came in. It really didnt do anything for me. It wasn't horrible. Just......didnt care to smoke it.

I remeber cracking the tin, and seeing light and dark golden colors with some black strings in there. Well. Is that what an "english" tobacco looked like? NO WAY!!! It should be dark, dark, dark and smell terrible!!! Right?!?! Any way. This smoke didnt wow me.

Jump forward to today.

This tobacco has been on my mind for months now. And yet i still over look it.

I almost didnt recognize this tobacco. The leafhas completely changed color!! Its now a rich, chocolate brown, with even deeper blacks in the mix. Luckly it was labeled.

Opening that jar was amazing. The aroma is the most wonderful, tangy, zesty spice i have ever smelt. But its so smooth it doesnt burn your nose. It has almost a creamy texture to it. Lighting this was great. The aroma that came off the smoke was perfect. Smooth and spicy. Just how i like it!

Did i accidently grab some Dunhill 965?!?!?!?! Nope. Its Squadon Leader!!!

The profile has changed so incredibly much in 3 years, im shocked!!!!

It resembles 965, but less spicy, and a little less body. NOT IN A BAD WAY AT ALL!!! Dont take that the wrong way. This stuff is great. Period. But the characterists mock 965 now in just the slightest suggestion. Think.........mellow.

SL stays true the entire bowl. No added strength if pushed. No crazy head spins. Just pure soft spicy with added sweetness. Man. am i glad i still have some of this. I think its time to snag some more tins and let them rest for 3 years.

I can only imagine how more age will improve this blend.

Squadron Leader (SL) is a member of my personal "holy trinity" of essential English tobacco blends, the other two being Dunhill Nightcap and Dunhill EMP. SL has so many great qualities that make it one of the premier English tobacco blends on the market today. I would recommend you buy this in the 250g packs when available. The latakia in SL as it slowly burns in your pipe smells absolutely wonderful. Just that smell alone makes me love this blend so much. The components are well balanced. The one gripe is that it comes wet and needs some drying time. But that's to be experienced with any Sam Gawith tobacco.

Samuel Gawith’s Squadron Leader is long-established and very popular for good reason, as it has pretty much defined the “mild English” category for longer than anyone living can remember. Though a contemporary tin surprised me with a poof of Liquid Smoke condiment when I popped it open, time faded this, and underneath the initially-fake smoke are the same scents I’ve always associated with the iconic tin art, namely peat moss under the smoke, and wet hay under that, and there are savory kabob spices well below that. The tobacco is cut into thin ribbons that range from dishwater blonde to medium brown, to black. It’s moist in the tin, and IMO it benefits from some drying, if only to get rid of the Liquid Smoke scent, if that’s a factor and a problem. Stuffed loosely, SL lights with ease and burns down at a fair clip. The burn can be slowed by packing it tighter, if it’s dried first. If it’s packed tightly while tin wet, it gets fussy. As for the smoke, itself, I find SL to be easy and quite relaxing, with well-met, perfectly balanced varietals that are harmonious rather than amalgamated. There are grassy, straw-like, golden VAs that add a little sweetness, and fragrant, exotic, savory Orientals that sour as one smokes SL down. There are aromatic, woody resins but there is little pepper. The Cyprian Latakia is just smoky enough, and it also adds some bracing astringency, especially down the home stretch, and here is the “soap” of yore! What’s not to love? Strength is mild. Tastes are toward medium from mild. Turkish/Macedonian varietals factor in the room note; hardly offensive to me, but you’ve been warned. Aftertaste is a fairly brief, slightly metallic, slightly ashy trailing off of the smoke; nothing to write home about.

Again, Squadron Leader has been popular since Hector was a pup, and no wondering why; it’s about as good a true, light English as one can find. If you’ve not yet tried it, you simply must sample this Tobacco Hall of Famer. 4 Stars, of course.

One of my favorite straight-up medium Englishes, Squadron Leader exemplifies the Virginia/Turkish/Latakia subset of the phylum. The flavor is a delicate balance of sweet, musty, spicy and smoky. The Latakia adds a subtle influence but it's purely a condiment in the mix. Squadron Leader rides the line between being Virginia-focused & Oriental-focused, and often times it flip-flops between these two flavor influences, smoking sweet, woodsy and mellow for a while, only to turn musty and spicy after several minutes of sweet clarity. I have found that a pot shaped pipe or a wide bowl Prince of Wales works wonders for rendering its many flavors, often times increasing the number of its tasteful complexities. In a wider bowl the Turkish speaks louder with a spiciness that's almost at perique volume. Squadron Leader is just plain good. It takes to flame perfectly and stays lit quite well. It's an easy repeat smoke, one that you can smoke many bowls of in a day with little to no fatigue. It's a solid anytime mixture. The end smoke flavors are superb and I have always felt that that's the sign of a good English..

Squadron Leader is not a name of deception. SL is truly a leader. The imagery of the tin is really great symbolism of this smoke as well. Like a squadron ace, this blend is full of zip and punch from the tin aroma to the last puff. Not lacking in nicotine, SL is a type-A(viator) smoke that is worth the ride. It is, surprisingly, a smooth smoke with zingy, latakia and oriental updrafts now and then.

Upon opening the tin I was very surprised to see a mixture of very bright appearance. I had the impression that this was a darker, more Latakia-laden than its brethren blend Skiff Mixture. Yet compared with the dark brown complexion of Skiff, Squadron Leader consists of almost equal parts of blonde, red and light brown ribbons embellished with just a few black fire cured ones (Latakia). This is what I had got out of reading the reviews for both and the impression was enhanced by the connotation of a skiff with open air and of Squadron Leader's tin art of a WWI biplane with smoky engine fumes. But it actually is not so. Skiff is much smokier than Squadron Leader whose tin note is predominantly woody with only a slight smokiness and a hint of fruitiness (citrus but also some red fruit) which seems to be from the tobacco itself and not a casing.

As for moisture, it came smokable right out of the tin but could use a few minutes of drying time. It is coarse ribbon cut, coarser and with longer ribbons than Skiff and needs a little unfurling before loading to avoid clogging the draw. It smokes cool and dry to the end with no bite and with need of only a few relights. As expected by the cut and the mostly air cured? leafs it burns a little fast.

Now to the smoking experience itself, though I am not a devoted Latakia aficionado, I initially found Squadron Leader much blander than the smokier Skiff Mixture (not that Skiff is in any way bland!). I thought it lacked the ethereal smokiness of its brethren but also lacks its pronounced Oriental tang and its saliva inducing salinity. I actually, to my surprise, given its fame and esteem, found it quite bland and innocuous. What I could taste were mostly bright hay-lie Virginias with a faint touch of Orientals enhanced by a very light smokiness. It did give me though that sense of old school, aged tobacco which is not found in most English blends. It is of mild to medium strength, in this sense it’s good for an early morning smoke but I also found its flavor intensity only mild (towards medium approaching the end of the bowl).

So, overall I was not enthralled by my first experience with Squadron Leader. On the other hand my slight disappointment might have been due to failed expectations, and so I thought I should try to appreciate Squadron Leader on its own merits and not as a fuller, darker version of Skiff mixture as I mistakenly had supposed it to be, when actually it is just the other way around.

Taken by itself however, Squadron Leader is a smooth, mild, nuanced -though not overtly complex- mixture where bright hay-like Virginias are condimented lightly by Orientals and a little Latakia. Seen under this light it would be unfair to call it bland, it’s just a mild mixture and as such it can have a place in any piper’s rotation. The tobaccos are of excellent quality and I find, as with its brethren, that it is a uniquely tasting English mixture. To conclude I believe it is a mixture every piper should try for at least once. For this and the above reasons I am going to go with the flow and give it four stars.

Do I prefer Squadron Leader to Skiff? I find Skiff more tasteful, but while Squadron Leader could become (potentially) an all-day smoke for me, I doubt the same about Skiff Mixture.

----As time goes by I appreciate Squadron Leader more and more, it may have taken me some time - and drying - but I can now say with confidence that it's one of the best tobaccos around. I know I'm carrying owls to Athens but it took me some time to realise. It's an amazingly flavourful English and unique among too many similar-tasting blends. Actually it has become one of my favourite first smokes of the day.