Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. Brown House Roll Cut

Having only smoked a pipe for 23 years, I consider myself very much a junior pipeman, and my rotation only includes seven or eight blends including aromatics, orientals, periques and Lakelands, which I remain staunchly loyal to. Still, I wanted to try something different, and when my local tobacconist held the jar of Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. Brown House Roll Cut under my nose, I picked up a strong aroma reminiscent of rich clean hand-rolling tobacco, sweetened with maple. Before the tobacconist could complete his explanation that this was a 'Reunion Series' blend marking the reunion of the great Kendal producers of Samuel Gawith and Gawith & Hoggarth, and was named after the famous Kendal Brown House, and was heavy with dark-fired Kentucky, like the impetuous junior pipeman that I am I had already requested a 25g sample on the spot.

The presentation of small rough cut coins of varying shapes, sizes and states of disintegration appealed to me, and whilst being a little moist for not having been aged, these rubbed out easily enough. And so I settled down to enjoy my first tour of the famed Kendal Brown House.

Now I have to say that at first, I was disappointed with this pipeweed. I was expecting more sweetness from the Virginia and a pleasant Maple topping, over some intriguing dark spice. However, this simply smoked like a generic strong retail pipe tobacco, uniformly dark and bitey. The Maple was not detectable at all. Then I read the negative reviews and considered that I might have bought a lemon, although this has never happened before even once.

But a day later, and I noticed that that bowl had rewarded me with a wonderful clean light-headed nicotine hit that was still gently lowering me back to Earth by parachute, and I lustily loaded another bowl, having left the coins out to dry a little in the meantime. This second bowl was much better. An ex-cigarette smoker, I used to love good clean dark shag rolling tobacco, and I found the spiciness of the moist dark-fired Mozambique reminiscent of the taste of a good chubby roll-up. Not a sophisticated flavour, but one which I recognize and have enjoyed for many years nonetheless. But then the bowl started to evolve, as first the Virginia made her presence felt, and then the spice of the Mozambique Kentucky became subtly more piquant and peppery, and I had to pace myself to ensure it didn't become bitey again. By the end of the bowl, the Kentucky had subtly evolved into dark coffee beans, which might have become just the wrong side of bitter but for the masterstroke of the light Maple topping, which, having been undetectable for most of the bowl, had collected and toasted at the bottom of the bowl to make its late entrance, with a slight delicious toasted ginger biscuit flavour! Coupled with the heady but by no means overpowering nicotine high, all thoughts of my giving up on this weed had entirely evaporated. I thoroughly enjoyed this smoke.

Brown House should not be smoked moist; the flavour becomes muddy and bitter and unsubtle, although the high remains superb. Also the dominant tobacco flavour may not be to everyone's taste (I love it). But with the proper moisture content, this is a medium-strong but subtle smoke, which rewards a conscientious cadence and thoughtful consideration of flavour evolution with buried treasure. It may not become part of my regular rotation, but I will certainly be chugging my way through this 25g to see what other secrets there are to discover in the legendary Brown House, and will always keep some of this intriguing pipeweed on standby for when something a little bit different and special is required.