Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. Kendal Kentucky

This tobacco is a bit of a trip down memory lane for me as it smells just like the tobaccos my Grandad used to smoke. I'll try to not let that cloud my judgement, much.

It smells nice in the bag (like all G,H&co. pipe tobaccos, it seems you can only buy this weighed out loose in England, so no nice tins) and has an attractive, uniform, burnt umber colouring. Despite the shag cut I found this tobacco to be easy to deal with and lacked both the wimpy ability to put flavour across and the temperamentality I usually find in this kind of tobacco.

The flavour has been well described here; being (to my tastebuds) woody and toasty with a hint of spice and a slight bitter dry edge softened with a natural and delicate muscovado sweetness.

Although this is a fairly strong tobacco I had no probelms with the occasional inhale because of it's seemingly complete lack of additives or flavourings (which always seem to irritate my lungs). I also tried rolling it in a cigarette paper and found it quite enjoyable - retaining it's full flavour and being of a much higher quality than any other hand rolling tobacco I've ever tried, which is admittedly, a limited number.

I can hardly fault the stuff. If you like smoking full flavoured, natural and high quality tobacco and you don't like paying huge amounts of money for the privellage you could do much worse than to smoke this!

Very similar to Kendal Dark so if you're interested in this you may also wish to read reviews of the other.

I had been wanting to try this for some time, but it seemed to be out of stock every time I checked. Then I met a new friend who gifted me a very generous sampling. Many thanks, Dustin.

I really enjoyed my first bowl of this. At the time though I was both smoking and talking and was unable to fully concentrate on it. I would have given it 4 stars based on that bowl. After having had several more I have to downgrade it to three. The problem is my normal pace which can be rather quick. At that pace it's slightly acrid due to the nature of a smoked tobacco. I do get some very nice nutty notes and a fair amount of earth and smoke. It taste very good, but that slight acrid note is a little distracting from the pleasure. Not terribly so. Just enough to detract. It can be avoided by adopting a slower pace and then it's an outstanding smoke. Problem is, I have to force myself to do so.

Smokes very much the same in cob or briar. The nuances are a little clearer in a clay. I like this best as a blender. A dash of this with some Bright Virginias is delicious.

Body is medium to strong. Taste is full. Has a near perfect burn, although a little quick. A very nice smoke.

The cut is not so thin as 5 Bros or something like Drum. I would characterize it as very fine long ribbon. The color is a uniform dark brown, and the pouch note is smokey and slightly sweet. Mine was delivered slightly moist, but I smoked it as delivered and did not worry about drying it. I was careful not to pack it too tight initially but found it smoked better firmly packed.

The first observation is that this is a strong tobacco. For me it is stronger than OJK, and up there with Irish Flake. The flavors are very good, and there is spice and toast. It is (as expected) smokey, and a little thick in terms of mouth texture or "feel." There is a flavor in it I can't quite identify, and it is a heavy fruit with just a whiff of Lakeland sauce every now and then.

I liked this, and I found it smoked best in a wider bowl. This quality combined with the strength means it may not be suited to every smoker. It is expensive for a cheap guy, but I do find I am very fond of it. It is a solid 3. If you need a "fix," this will do it with style.

Edit 9/12/17: I am half way through a 500 g sack of this, so it is really a 3.5 on my scale.

I was given a sample of this with several other shag cut GH blends. All of the samples were large as the person who gave them to me used to use them all for RYO and he no longer wanted to be reminded of his cigarette habit.

To start, I don't like a shag cut. It has nothing to do with the actual smoking of the blends although with the additional surface area, I do find these blends to burn quicker. They are really, to me, a pain in the ass to pack. You take a pinch and you have this large clump that won't even fit into the bowl. On the fact that it is a shag cut alone keeps it from me truly recommending the blend, but I will say that this one is a pleasure to smoke.

It is tasty, strong and has a rich sweetness to it. Underlying all of this is that slight Lakeland floral touch that is almost undetectable in this one. I really like Gawith, Hoggarth and if this were more a standard ribbon cut or a flake I think I would love this one. It is a little like Rich Dark Honeydew in taste to me, but not as aromatic as that one is.

I wanted to post this one before I forget. Once again, a generous sample that I really enjoyed. This one reminds me of Dark Bird’s Eye, maybe not as fine of cut as this is suppose to be a shag also. As Dark Bird’s Eye has VA/Burley this is pure Burley and not cut from the whole leaf. Other than that, I get a similar dark fired taste and quite the nicotine hit from this one. A really good smoke if you want to get your batteries recharged but might want to enjoy after a meal.

I just finished a two-month stint of smoking a quantity of Dark Birdseye, Kendal Dark, and Kendal Kentucky in rotation at various moisture levels, times-of-day, etc. in an effort to decide which one to start buying in bulk. In the end, although they seem quite different when smoked back to back, I can honestly say that if only any one of the three were available, I would lay in a large stock of it and be thankful.

The middle part applies to all three:

The cut is what I would call an "ultra-fine ribbon." Just wider than a true shag, but handles like a shag. I like how it dries out. I like packing it into the pipe. I like how it burns. It can burn really really fast if you truly pay no attention at all, and with tobaccos of this strength it can be unpleasant, but I am lazy and like how easy it is to get these ribbons to smolder compared to larger stuff. Just let it dry until nearly breakable, squeeze it, light it, and puff easy.

Nicotine. There's a lot in here. It awakens the senses, calms the mind, and coats the mouth.

The flavor of these is decidedly dark and strong. Meaty, tangy, oily, a little sweet, fermented, a little smoky. Smoking these is not a multi-dimensional experience like a symphony. More like Sacred Harp sing--4 notes, wild and good and loud. Full on dark tobacco taste. For real. Rough around the edges, raw, old-timey. I have nothing to compare it to, really. I can only say that I really like it and will keep something like this around at all times.

Dark Birdseye is my favorite. Kendal Kentucky is the only one of the three in which I can detect zero non-tobacco flavorants, but it is still tastier than Kendal Dark. It has a raw woody taste (absent in the others) that reminds my of Burley, which is very pleasant. It is decidedly the old-timey-est of the three.

Kendal Kentucky has a lot of positive attributes, and very few negatives. I like the shag cut, which makes packing a bowl very easy. It lights and burns effortlessly. The shag cut makes it burn almost too quickly, and as a result, a bowl won't last too long. I liked the straight Virginia taste, which yielded some delicious nutty flavors. It smoked cool. Zero tongue bite. I did not find this tobacco to be overpowering in the nicotene component, it did put me in the bathroom once, but it did not bother me otherwise. Kendal Kentucky burns to a fine white ash, and leaves the bowl clean of dottle. A pleasant, no nonsense, smoke - recommended for those moving up from aromatics and those desiring a change from English blends. Recommended.

I always make sure the jar of Kendal Kentucky in my cellar is topped off. It's one of those blends that I consider essential to my smoking rotation, even if I don't smoke it all the time. It's rich and robust with a strong, potent earthy flavor, but at the same time, there are lots of delicate fragrant flavors in there too. Some floral, some herbal and spicy. And some sharper cigar notes. It's a surprisingly complex blend for being just straight Kentucky. This is odd, but I always get the scent of my father's old cologne, Pierre Cardin, when smoking Kendal Kentucky. I know that sounds awful in a tobacco... but I mean in it in the best possible sense. It's a musty, herbal, very pleasant scent.

Despite the shag-cut, it burns fairly cool with zero bite. Also, as everyone else has said... it's strong. There's a good amount of nicotine here. So keep that in mind.

Bottom line: A really wonderful tobacco. Potent and rich, it's extremely flavorful and perfect for when you want a good strong smoke.

I think someone wrote that this is like the espresso of tobaccos. I agree, in fact, that is pretty much how I like to smoke KK. Unlike other strong tobaccos the effect of this one is more mental than bodily; it perks you up rather than make you feel heavy or drowsy. Tastewise, this is a very stout tobacco. If smoked carefully, KK is tasty, full and rich. But on the downside, if puffed to hard the smoke can easily turn acrid; and the shag cut also makes the burning a bit sensitive. It burns a bit fast but all the way to the bottom leaving a fine grey ash.

This is not an all day smoke. And for my personal taste the stoutness can be a bit owerwhelming. I therefore prefer to use a filter pipe to reduce the unwanted acrid taste. Also, it is good with a sweet drink to keep the tastebuds in balance. I do get a taste of lakeland essence, only mildly present but enough to ghost my pipe. The lakeland taste first made me hesitant to use KK for blending. But I tried blending it with other tobaccos and the result is ok in lesser dosage.

I think this is a tobacco that is fit for its purpose, it has an inspirational quality that can comes well to hand when I want to be perked up. And it is also ok for blending if you want to add some extra streangth to a milder tobacco. But be careful not to light up a big bowl of KK before having gotten to know this tobacco, because it has a lot of nicotine in it.