Samuel Gawith Squadron Leader

This is a good smoke, very similar to Dunhill Early Morning Pipe, without the very slight tongue bite evident in the Dunhill blend.

This, in my opinion, is a mild English / Balkan blend. I has to be smoked slowly in the right situation, otherwise it might anaesthesize your tongue (ie. take absolute care not to smoke it too fast). It is also quite difficult to keep the mild and enjoyable taste during the whole bowl. It is not my favorite tobacco in this category, but still, it's a good one. Might be good for pipe smokers who want to begin in this category. I was a little disappointed because of the remarkable tin, and it reminded me of Captain WE Johns books, of which I was very fond as a teen. For me, it had to be something at the same time oriental and English, but stronger.

UPDATE: I cracked open a vacuum sealed bag of this from Synjeco, purchased early in 2003. The aroma was that of rancid chocolate, of all things, the colour was almost black, and the leaf had hardened into a rock-like mishapen lump, with a few shiny crystaline bits on the edges.

Broke it into pieces with a knife, crumbled it up and packed a small billiard. It was completely unlike the fresh blend, as reviewed below. Dark and smoky, the Latakia comes to the forefront and the orientals are quiet. More like Balkan Supreme than Squadron Leader.

I wonder if anyone else has had this experience -- should tobacco be left in vacuum packs for a long time, or decanted into jars and sealed for storage?

ORIGINAL REVIEW With some trepidation, I write my first ever tobacco review, after being a keen reader of other people's reviews for the past several years.

Squadron Leader, smoked in the right pipe, fairly slowly, in the right mood and situation, seems to this relatively untutored brother of the briarhood at any rate, to be the tobacco equivalent of listening to Tatum playing Sweet Lorraine -- nothing too fast or discordant -- or perhaps the Ellington orchestra's Moon Mist. Every colour, tone and combination of flavour is there, changing in volume, pitch and texture as one burns one's way slowly but certainly to the final ashy remains.

Lighter than London blend, and less muscular than Durbar, sweeter and brighter than the old Balkan Sobranie of happy memory or Balkan Supreme/Sasieni, Squadron Leader might best be described as an oriental partly disguised as a balkan. I don't feel there is enough Latakia to call it an English or a balkan, and the virginias alternate with the orientals rather quietly -- like Ellington's wind and brass sections. There is an odd mixture of sweet and sour tastes, and in my case, the orientals suddently started shouting about 2/3 of the way through.

Unfortunately, there must end my comparison, because I don't know that many blends. Some people have compared SqL to Skiff, and the latter is definitely midler, and some have said that SqL is better described as the wimpy brother to bolder, darker and more volubly balkan/English blends such as Penzance. I can't say.

It may have been the pipe, the weather, or the slow smoking pace, but I started to imagine what would happen if we could just get all the delegates at the UN together, give them each a pipe full of Squadron Leader, a supply of matches, and start them smoking. Apart from the silence, I can picture a kind of contented, shared satisfaction, resulting in immediate cessation of all sqabbling and hostility and a promise of good fellowship all round when they had tapped out the pipes and settled back into business.

I can recommend SqL as an alternative for balkan devotees like myself, and for people keen to try orientals. Don't confuse it with a real English blend and then be disappointed.

It's difficult to come up with original commentary on this oft- reviewed, classic blend. Thus, I'm merely weighing in. The Virginias are very nicely balanced, the latakia subdued yet impressionable, and the Turkish is the proverbial icing on the cake. I enjoy this blend in nearly any pipe and time of day. Well done, Samuel Gawith.

This is, for my money, one of the best of the subtle Latakia blends out there. It seems well balanced, and though it is VA based, it is mellow enough to be smoked regularly without tongue bite. It benefits greatly from some extended drying time (it came to me quite damp), but once dry, smokes evenly to the bottom with little mess or fuss at the end. I'm not a Latakia fanatic, although I enjoy it regularly, but this one tends to get smoked more than my other latakia blends. I do prefer Frog Morton on the Town to this (barely), which I state here to give a frame of reference for my Latakia tastes.

After breaking in the new pipe (Meerschaum) this started to work well for me. It is not overwhelming but has a good presence. I can't get into all the deep esoteric descriptions that I see and appreciate, so all I can say is that I do recommend this. Please note the "room note" is unknown to me, and wife is never around when I get out the pipes.

I had expected this tobacco to be better than it is. I thought anything that had been made since The Great War must be really great, sadly it is only a good tobacco not a great one. The word bland might have been invented for SL. I suppose it is fine for an all day everyday smoke but nothing special. The square tin is so annoying as once opened it won't reseal properly so I had to decant it into another tin. The best part of SL, for me, is the lingering aftertaste which is pleasant

I like this tobacco a lot.

On opening the tin my first thought was "this is Perfection without the vanilla flavouring", which frankly would be no bad thing. It was a little moist, but packed well.

The flavour is very accessible. I'm usually a Latakia fan and this is light on the Latakia, but there is a good, medium-bodied smoke and slightly sweet flavour from the Virginias. The Orientals kick in about halfway down the bowl with a pleasant spicy taste, though they make themselves known from the outset in that wonderful scent of church incense which they impart to the smoke.

This is NOT a complicated tobacco by any means, but as a quality all-day smoker I would say it was very hard to beat. It's also a good choice for anyone who wants an English blend with a bit less Latakia. Heartily recommended.

I was really turned off by the first English blend tobacco that I tried. Must have been way too heavy on Latakia, just not enjoyable. So when I decided to try this one, and opened the tin to a strong whiff of Latakia, I thought here we go again. I lit up and immediately was able to taste all of the components of this blend and not just the Latakia! What a great surprise and a great smoke! I love the tin too, what could be manlier and cooler than a sopwith camel on the attack?! Is that Snoopy in the cockpit?