Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. Balkan Mixture

Lakeland Tour Stop 10

As I reach double-digits in my Lakeland Tour, I've finally found a real uncontestable winner in the latakia mixture category. This is the first of the lakeland latakia mixes that I think can hang with the best of Pease and Germain. In fact, it has jumped to the top of my favorites overall in english/balkan baccy's.

This is rich stuff. I notice hints of brown sugar, liquid smoke, and worchestershire sauce. The perfect combination of sweet and salty, the way I like it. Also very toasty with plenty of oriental character (i.e., an earthy, sour flavor--not a bright sour or tangy note but darker--and just a bit of the characteristic "perfumey" or incense note).

As a side note, I experienced with this a very similar phenomenon to what I experienced with Odyssey. When I first opened the tin, before the tobacco had aired and dried out sufficiently, this was very salty, one might say "alkeline", with a very fluffy mouthfeel. As with Odyssey, I didn't like it then. But a bit of drying and airing, and sitting in the tin for a week or so, caused this to dissipate and allow all the qualities I did like to come forth. Unlike some reviewers, and like others, I noted absolutely no lakeland "soapiness," (i.e., florals). But it just might be that the fluffy alkeline flavor of the mix when first opened might lead some to conclude otherwise. I think if you like Odyssey, or if like some your only problem with Odyssey is that you had trouble keeping it lit (not a problem I had), this will probably appeal to you.

Smoke it distractedly....it is a perfect alla-day tobacco. Smoke it carefully.....it is a refined, complex,meditative tobacco. Surely a VERY balkan blend. The flavor is perfect, first 3 puffs are wath every pipe-smoker have to try in the life. P.S= it burns very well, easy to smoke, but dry it a little for a perfect flovor.

If you want to experience the ?soapy? (or, less pejoratively, ?floral?) taste commonly attributed to Lake District blends, look no further than G&H Balkan. Though I like Balkan blends, I found the soapyness here too overwhelming and could not finish the two ounces of this that I bought.

Review for a three year old tin.

Tin note:

WOW! Just... Wow! Leather leather leather. Smokiness as well, but... leather!!

Aspect:

Equal parts of black, brown and gold. Small and medium cut ribbons. Good moisture level, but still need to take what I need and leave it out to dry

Taste:

From the first puffs comes smokiness, leather and curiously some fig notes. A bit spicy, a bit of wood notes.

It’s smooth, it’s not a harsh blend even though it has a lot of oriental, it’s actually creamy. Surprisingly creamy for an oriental forward blend. It has some sweetness and I don’t know why but I think they used some red virginia. It tastes more like red virginia than golden virginia.

I let it sit for a while and then relight it. Notes of leather, smoky.... the orientals are in front, they are a bit spicy, but also a bit floral.

This baby is smoky enough, even though not a lat bomb, and the taste level would be around medium. However, in the beginning when I first started the tin it seemed to have an added flavor and also it seemed to by milder, but I knew that once I leave this in a jar to let it bloom it will change, and it did, there was no flavoring at all and the taste is better.

What can I say? It’s a good/very good blend, however, for some reason, it doesn’t get into my favorites list. I still give it 4 stars, but it just isn’t something special enough to get into my favorites list. Squadron Leader and Commonwealth Mixture from Samuel Gawith seemed to have a bigger impact on me than this one. This one seemes to be quite monotone with nothing spectacular. For me this would be an all day smoke, not a special english/balkan blend. But, nevertheless, good blend. I’d recommend you smoke this in wide bowls.

It burns excellent, it doesn’t bite, it doesn’t get hot, it stays lit, it delivers a lot of thick smoke and very potent room note, a medium to strong room note. It’s smoky incense/frankincense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjA975Qc46E&t

Apart from the hint of spiciness I get a really musky sandalwood flavour when smoking this blend. It's thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish ending with a pleasant manureish smell and taste. After posting I noticed this review I noticed it for Sammy g Balkan mixture and my review is for petersons

Tin note is typical of the Balkan genre and the cut is a chaotic ribbon. Lighting is easy and boom! You are straight in to a pipe full of junkyard dog! It's rough, raw and takes no prisoners, ripping through your olfactory senses like a ripsaw. Now one could be forgiven for thinking that it's nasty and unpalatable but this is a glorious tobacco! Full of character and flavour with quite a pokey nicotine hit, comforting as a roaring campfire that stings your eyes and makes your nose tingle. Mouth feel once you get over the initial WTF! is rich and creamy with a lovely sweetness from the Virginias playing in the background. The Indian leaf is spicy and herbal like the bidi cigarettes rolled in miniature cones with a red thread holding them together. This takes me back to so many different memories of growing up and it's very comforting and contemplative. Make friends with the junkyard dog and he will be your loyal friend and companion. I can't tell you what the room note is like because I have my windows and door open. Kind of reminds me of Gaulois blue in a way. Take this one to your local pipe meet provided you are prepared to leave with a few crumbs left in your tin because everyone will want to stuff it in their largest bowls! I don't know if I would recommend to novice pipe smokers as I would imagine the initial impression would be a bit of a shock to the system. This one drop kicks Skiff mixture way off into the sunset! Outstanding! Oh, and don't ruin it by drying it out because the moisture is just as it should be.

Another useless blend to me. If you love EMs, why smoke Lakeland soap? Maybe you should reconsider your taste, and admit you like the Lakeland soap 🙂

I understand this can be an easy break for EMers between stronger and more definite mixtures.

Easy to pack and smoke, left me with an unpleasant sensation of unfulfillment.

Will give it two stars as a form of respect to the estimated english blenders.

First of all, I would like to say, that after having really great experience with Skiff Mixture and realizing that smokiness of latakia is extremely awesone to me, I decided to move on to something else, with higher content of latakia or more nuanced.

Moisture level, in the tin was nice to take this tobacco and smoke, but drying at around one hour time might reduce the number of relights to one/none.

Tobacco burns really cool with strong flavoured and fragrant smoke. In reviews below I have seen some lads trlling about the soapy or lavender smell of this blend. When I was letting the smoke through my nostrils out, I could even feel this flowery nauseating scent cloying me. That was the reason, I could not finish my first bowl of it. My next attempts were better, but I still could get this strong flowery scent. By accident, the same day after the shower I had used some old style chypre cologne. And it smelled exactly like the smoke. I bet, this tobacco has a smell of lavender, rose, maybe a hint of patchouli. This kind of smells are called barbershop, because it smells like high end shaving soap or chypre cologne. It is OK, but with this blend it is too overwhelming. Maybe, that is what they call Lakeland Essence. The nic hit is somewhat noticeable.

Not my cup of tea, but lovers of highly fragrant latakia blends will like it for sure.

Those of us old enough to remember the Sobranies of the 70s should give this one a try. Mine came in a 50g pouch, and the first thing I noticed on opening was that the aroma was nearer to the old black tin 759 with greater latakia content than the white smoking mixture. The aroma from the white tin was unique, probably on account of the Yenidje leaf, which is absent from this offering. In appearance it was somewhere between the two, and the moisture content was more akin to 759. It filled the same as Sobranie, although it seems to be a more refined mixture, lacking those occasional little stems of unsmokable "driftwood" that I remember from the Sobranie tins. I'm now led to believe the driftwood was an additive of some plant substance or other that Sobranie actually intended to be there. It lit fairly readily and after a few puffs the latakia just about swamped the virginia content. I see some reviewers have made reference to "orientals" in this mixture, but I couldn't discern any such extras. Most UK tobacconists describe this mixture as virginia and latakia with no other tobaccos, and I would tend to go along with that. A feature of the white tin Sobranie was that the flavour often changed slightly as the bowl was smoked down, and I did experience that with this mixture. It certainly reminds me of the old "Balkan" Sobranies, but it definitely is not a facsimile. This mixture is different enough to stand alone, and it is a pleasant smoking experience. However, it isn't Sobranie, and perhaps should not be compared with any of their old mixtures. I have family who live in Crete, and sadly it is almost impossible to find any "local" pipe tobacco there.The Greeks complain that the excellent tobacco they grow there is not appreciated, and pipe smokers have to be content with the usual North European "Eurotrash" offerings of Scandinavian manufacture. The Turks will tell you that tobacco is not a native plant to their country, and the various sorts cultivated there tend to be smaller leafed and milder tasting than the tobacco grown in less arid areas. Incidentally, not many Turks smoke the meerschaum pipes that seem to suit latakia mixtures so well. The fact is that this "Balkan" mixture does not contain any tobacco from the Balkan region at all. It is a straighforward blend of virginia(s) from an unknown source or sources mixed with latakia, probably cultivated in Cyprus. However, given that the tobacco we smoke all had its origins in North America, the geographic location of the ingredients of this mixture is perhaps not really all that important. All in all, this is a well balanced mix. The latakia content was a bit more than I was expecting, a la 759. That aside, it brought back pleasant memories of the 70s. Unless you have a tobacco tolerant family, you might have to smoke this one outside, as the smoke generated has that typical latakia tendency to be a bit acrid.