Samuel Gawith Beginner's Luck, Second Chance

This is a great easy to smoke pipe tobacco. As a cigarette smoker that try to quit the cigarettes it has what I need and my surroundings appreciate it as well. The marzipan flavour makes it very unique.

When you open the tin you are greeted by a wonderful, light, natural marzipan aroma. Indeed this has by far the best and most natural tin note out of all aromatics I've ever come across.

It's not as moist as Gawiths blends sometimes are and will only require a bit off drying out.

The tin note did translate into the taste, I would describe the flavour as a pastry with marzipan on. Or marzipan on toasted bread. It is very light and weak in taste, but very pleasant. Never too sweet, never overpowering, nothing about it feels chemical or artificial. Unfortunately it burns off VERY quickly, almost all the topping seemed to have burned off when there was about 2/3rds left.

I'm left with some very bland and flavourless black Cavendish and bright VA. The VA has just a little bit off some sour citrusy top-notes that I did not find very pleasant and just didnt mesh well with the marzipan topping. There is no depth. TBH it just seems to be low-quality VA, MUCH to my surprise considering the brand, this is the only dissapointment I've ever bought from them (in fact, looking at my shelf I realize that almost half off the blends I plan on rebuying are SG blends). It isn't harsh like crap-quality VA, it just has no flavour to the point off being absurd. I once tried smoking cheap RYO tobacco (VA/Bur) in a pipe, it tasted like this, IE almost nothing at all.

The phase in which the toppings burned off (1/3rd smoked, as mentioned) and tobacco flavours became evident just felt jarring and odd, it most certainly wasnt a symphony off flavours. More like a 2 man band with a guitar player and drummer awkwardly going from guitar solo to drum solo, with the drum solo ending up being played at a different beat than the rest off that song.

There is no depth, complexity or much in flavour at all from the tobacco and the topping is too monotone and too lightly applied to carry the blend.

The burning qualities do not have the excellence that one, IMO, should expect from something marketed towards a beginner. This burns like a typical VA ribbon which may be too unwieldly and prone to bite for a beginner. Smoking too fast/hot will also burn off the toppings at record speed, making the slow and steady pace off an experienced piper extra important to get enjoyment out off this blend. This matters alot to me, in fact I bought it to share with occassional-smoker friends when they visit. I wanted something easy-burning & mild that they could puff away on even if their smoking technique was poor. I'll find some other blend.

All in all I will give this blend 2 stars instead off 1 since it might be me having a spoiled DFK/Latbomb tongue demanding too much from this poor humble aromatic. And my review is based on one tin, perhaps I had bad luck with the specific VA leaves that ended up in mine. It wouldn't make sense if there wasn't some variety in quality off the leaves used that manufacturers can't fully control, considering it's a plant and no two plants will ever have the same exact nutrients, sunlight etc etc.

I also don't feel comfortable leaving the overall score at 1 star just because I'm the only reviewer so far.

But I cannot say that I'm not dissapointed by this blend, in particular the flavourlessness off the VA. And I have a hard time recommending this tobacco to anyone, really. Apart from the mildness the flavours that are there they just don't come together very well IMHO.