Samuel Gawith Firedance Flake

Imagine Best Brown Flake with Brandy, and Blackberry. That's it. This is a high quality aromatic, but not in the flavor spectrum I enjoy. I could only get myself to try it in a cob for the rest of the tin, which did remarkbly well. This aromatic flake will flavor your pipes as I found after trying a bowl in a Peterson, so consider yourself warned. See my review on BBF for its burning and smoking qualities. Yes, it has a wonderful room note. Well done, but not my cup 'o tea...

This is certainly something different. A variation on the berry aromatic- Lakeland style! I have to give high points for originality at the least. This blend is a bit of a biter as the Pipestud points out. Since I'm not a huge fan of Best Brown, I have to say this is a step up on the merit of interest alone. If you like the Lakeland Perfume (some would say curse, however I love it!) and are into aromatics, especially berry flavored ones, then this is your bag! Myself? Not so much!

Gawith presents nicely prepared 6"x2"x1/16" pressed flakes in this bulk blend. They are quite pliable which results in easy packing without rubout which is generally my approach. Blackberry dominates the pouch and room aromas and is present from start to finish in the taste. Although it becomes more subdued as the smoke progresses, I tasted very little natural tobacco flavor. The initial moisture content is also rather high and results in numerous relights with no rubout. Drying for several hours solved this and reduced some of the berry influence. The room aroma got + reviews from family and associates which makes this flake a better choice than many others when in company. However, most of the time, I'm selecting tobaccos for my own pleasure and in that case, the only time I might choose this mild blend would be when I was smoking outside in the hot weather.

Firedance by SG: Not bad...not great. Blackberry is evident in the tin note, and dominates the early part of the bowl. There is a slight vanilla in the background as well. The flavors do become more subtle in the latter half of the bowl, as the Virginia taste comes through a bit more.

Definitely needs dry time before smoking as it can be difficult to keep lit, and will bite while trying. I also recommend breaking up the flake into finer pieces before drying.

Overall it's a decent smoke with some good flavoring, but I wasn't really wowed by Firedance either. Had some harshness at times, and being Virginia based, I think some time in the cellar may help this blend. For now, somewhat recommended as I will smoke the tin, but doubt I'd add it to my regular purchase list.

Contrary to what you might think being a Samuel Gawith mix, when I opened the tin the flakes were quite dry. It was summer and after a few days they all broke and I had a tin full of Firedance's broken flake with no need to rub or crumble. The pipe got overheated when i smoked it the first few times and I had to hydrate the tobacco to get it back. All this despite the fact that I bought it in my tobacconist and the tin came wrapped in a bag to pressurize it. I deduced that it was a precaution of the tobacconist due to the already known deficiencies of the cans of this brand at that time. With a tin of Chocolate Flake from the same brand that I bought at the same time, something similar happened to me.

Once hydrated, the tobacco is an aromatic with reminiscences of blackberry, quite soft, but it does not convince me. They say the base is Best Brown Virginias, which is one of my favorite SG tobaccos. I cannot affirm or deny it, since in most of the aromatic (and this is not an exception) I am not able to appreciate the tobacco under the topping, although in this topping is not too strong.

I will not repeat the purchase but I understand that there are people who might like it, so it is up to each one to try it and then judge for himself.

02/12/2023: Nearly three years later I find myself in the right spirit to give Firedance another try, optimistically hoping to include what's left of tin in my rotation. I load a low capacity Chacón (optimistic yes but also prudent) and with all my good will I turn it on. But reality is stubborn and the bad experience is repeated, in addition to beginning to notice that my tongue is beginning to suffer, with the consequent risk that it will prevent me from enjoying the rest of the day with other pipes. So I empty my pipe halfway and say goodbye to this tobacco, as I'm not willing to be a martyr for science. I think that maybe with a filter it would work better but why bother with a large number of tobaccos that I can easily enjoy?

I am not sure where to start with this one! I want to like it, I really want to like it but some how I can't quite get there. Just on looks and tin aroma alone it deserves to be loved but for me that might be the problem. The flakes are lovely in both colour and presentation. Neat but slightly rustic not too perfect. Tin note is sublime, soft, fruity and fresh, almost edible, the promise is so great that it is a little hard to live up to. I have made my way through a whole tin in 6 weeks before writing this review and smoked it in three different pipes in an attempt to give it a fair crack of the whip! To me this flake has a slightly sweet and sour edge to it that is not unpleasant but fails to deliver on what the tin nose promised, the underlying tobacco flavour is of good quality and is enjoyable to smoke but then so are many other flakes and in here lays my problem. It is not that this is a bad flake it just does not stand out enough, the addition of the flavouring has not lifted it enough for me I'm afraid.

To sum up not a bad flake at all but that said I have never had a bad flake from Sam yet! Some how though not the mind blowing experience I was hoping for.

Initial tasting reminded me of Lakeland florals, but it dissipated quickly into a fairly pleasant berry-ish flavor. All in all, a pleasant enough smoke.

Gee, this lady (from the USA no less) must spend her time at the local dump plinking rats with a 22, when she is not in the trailer. Subtle this is not, it is heavily cased and needs a metal tin or glass jar to contain the blackberry smell. Six plies of plastic will not do it. Overpowering, and like number 44 (43 was a Bush), an embarrassment.

The flakes in my bulk sample look like the contents of the bags the dog owners in our gated community carry. Wet, sticky and not visually appealing. If you are used to the perfect flakes in a tin of Orlik Golden Slices, these are going to be a real let down.



Perhaps if I were "Two Years Before the Mast" (by RH Dana), and had the smoking lamp lit once each month, this blend might be enjoyable. To those of us with the finest tobacco in the world available, this is a curiosity only.

I might enjoy the underlying best brown flake, but this topping is terrible. It starts out very sweet and becomes cloying quickly. The blackberry smell is like a cooked Pop Tart. Try it outdoors first, in a cob, then if you don't like it you can trash the pipe and the memories. If you exhale through your nose it will stay with you for at least a day. It does not leave the pipe.



Worst of all, the flakes need drying out. However the smell is so strong it stinks up the whole area. I tried putting some flakes out in the garage but they attracted cock roaches. I am going to send my 4 ounces to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for Christmas, that place is full of cock roaches and thieves, so they should enjoy it.