Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. Sliced Black Aromatic

A friend recently sent me a sample of G&H Black Rope Aromatic. It arrived rather moist and needed airing out for about 6 hours before I considered it dry enough to load up in one of my Jacono billiards. This weed was tasty and the room bouquet is also pleasant, a bonus for my wife. This tobacco is hard to describe. It arrived in the baggie mostly rubbed out with some thick chunks stuck together. And, unlike the above reviewer's batch, mine was not shag cut at all. The rubbed out portion was long stranded ribbon cut. It is coal black in appearance with that deep, rich oily hue that only the finest, well aged Virginia leaf will produce. It just plain looked yummy. It sure sent me scrambling for a pipe!

Anyway, the nicotine punch is perfect for me (i.e. strong) and, as you might expect from a heavily stoved Virginia, this black beauty does not bite at all.

The flavor is deep (almost woodsy) with a slightly spicy, ever so semi-sweet undertone that I find to be tongue tingling! I have not tried this as a morning smoke and probably will not as it seems just a smidgen too heavy in flavor to be a first pipe load of the day. On the other hand, I'll bet it's a dandy winter afternoon smoke with a strong cup of coffee. Another plus is the fact that there is no perfume taste or smell in this baby (a complaint I have with other G&H blends). Just pure tobacco pleasure in this offering, folks.

Open wide, oh cellar of mine. Here comes a pound of this delightful weed.

Gawith Hoggarth - Sliced Black Aromatic.

The blend includes a few different sizes, and the aroma is suggestive of maybe a floral addition. The pouches I've had have been of a decent hydration, and unsurprisingly the blend's jet black in colour!

Lighting S.B.A. is a joy, and then it's well behaved mechanically: burns even to a white ash. The added flavour is mild, but quite busy, if that makes sense? Some wood and florals, slightly sweet, and a little bit of sharpness from the licorice. I get absolutely zero tongue bite, whether chugged or sipped.

The nicotine could knock out a horse, as could the room-note!

This is a good smoke, but to potent for me! For the quality though, it deserves three stars.

Recommended.

I do not like this tobacco, but you might. I am pretty eclectic with pipe tobaccos and enjoy most, even an occasional aromatic. This one, for me at least, was unsmokable. It has the appearance of dog poop. I have never tasted that substance but I suspect that the taste does not differ much. The tonquin turned me off completely. It has a nicotine content that completely blew the top of my head off. A couple of puffs and my head was spinning and I had a queasy feeling in my stomach. I couldn't get past those first 2 puffs. This is a tobacco best suited for the more experienced smoker who likes a good kick to his smoke. I couldn't tolerate the tonquin either. I suspect that this would be a good choice for an ex-cigarette smoker who is looking more for the nicotine kick than for flavor. For me, this was not a pleasureable experience.

Sliced Black (non-aromatic?)

I am honored to be following up the comments made by the sagacious Pipestud. Really! But unfortunately I have to differ on one point. I did not notice any aromatics in the blend I got from PipesandCigars.com. None. This may have indeed been because as he and the rest of the readers here will agree Black Twist in any form is a strong smoke and any aromatics may have gotten lost in the shuffle so to speak. Nevertheless I did not notice any being a non-aromatics (especially American and some others)smoker and thoroughly enjoyed the blend.

The fact that it is a sort of a string cut with small coins tangled up in it and adding to the flavor(and strength possibly) was a delight to light and burn. The flavor is,of course, robust to say the least but still a rollicking good smoke if respected and paced correctly. I did this having some small experience with the other Gawiths(Both Sam and Hoggarth's) offerings. This blend does indeed smoke like the Black Twist and is a bit milder and less rambunctious than the Brown Twists. It is not a sliced version of Dark Flake though both are admirable in their own ways.Good stong body to the voluminous smoke and very very satisfying-at least for my needs.

Tasty deep and very complex is the way I fill out the suggestion from the side bar of the comments page.I would not ,however reccomend it as an all day smoke or to the inexperienced as much from the price as the strength and robustness of the nicotene and taste/body levels; but it is not a tobacco to be missed and makes a fine evening smoke and for the more "gormandic" smokers (such as myself) it ain't at all bad for the third or fourth pipe in the morning- preferably with a cup of dark French Roast or perhaps even espresso. Yum.

Highly reccommended as a smoke and a repeated buy- You betcha Red Rider!

Update: If you're feeling really ballsey and would like even more flavor and a heavier body rush along with even a more and faster nicotine jolt then put about a healthy pipefull in the coffee bean grinder you absconded with from the kitchen and give this Sliced Black from Gawith and Hoggarth a bit of a whirl in it. No more than three or four seconds worth of a ride and it comes out like a fine cut flake or a dipping snuff (approximately).

Stuff a pipe bowl with it with about medium pressure and light up--- carefully-- don't get it too mad. Then hold on. Definitely not reccomended for the newbies or as a usual method of preparation.It will probably require a re-light or so near the middle or bottom if not allowed to dry our a little.

I know that the twists,ropes.bogies etc have a dual function(possibly) as a dipping snuff but I am just not suicidal yet even though when processed in the Mr.Coffee it looks very very similar I just can't work up the courage to try it that way. Welllll, maybe one day?

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (trippin')

Sliced Black Aromatic is one weird tobacco. The description would lead one to expect black curly cuts like, say, McB Dark Twist. Wrong. My sample, at least, was more like VERY LONG shag cut. Only the center of the disks remained, with the outer parts rubbed out. These disks must have been pretty big, given the length of some of the shag. In fairness to GH, this may be due to poor handling by the vendor, or the bottom of a large bag. At any rate, I was not impressed.

The color is jet black, with an almost oily sheen to it. Looks wicked. Though there was little aroma in the bag, a couple of days in a sealed jar produced a sour vinegary smell, much tarter than the tradmark McClelland odor. I am not really sure what tonquin smells like, but "maple, licorice and other traditional English flavorings" could not be detected.

The flavor on smoking is best described by the smell of burnt popcorn. Any additive aromas are COMPLETELY overwhelmed by the harsh tobacco flavor. Half a small bowl was all I could stomach. THis is strong stuff!

However, in the spirit of exploration I dug out my sample of SG Black Irish Twist (a rope tobacco). I sliced up some BIT and rubbed out to produce as similar a texture to SBA as possible. The main difference was that the BIT was dull, rather than oily in appearence. Plus the sour smell of SBA. Smoking these tobaccos back to back, I could tell no difference. Burnt popcorn, no doubt about it.

If you like rope tobacco, and ONLY if you like rope tobacco, should you give this a try. I will keep my samples for when I have been exceptionally bad and want to punish myself.

Raw, this tobacco smells of BBQ sauce, and almost has a burnt scent. In the pipe, it delivers quite a meaty taste, very lakelandy and it is a strong strong tobacco with a hefty N hit. I was thinking, YAWZA! I am glad I had quite the meal before smoking this.

I have been smoking pipes for the past two years and half, gradually ascending from aromatics, to other types of mixtures. Maybe in another few years this will be good for me, but oh boy I don't feel it is so now.

Too bad because I love its almost burnt very very smoky taste. This stuff is good but strong. I can feel the lakeland aromas, but it is very slight compared to what the tobacco tastes like. I would say 2.5 stars but I'll give a 3 because the taste is very convincing. I'll probably try this again in a decade! hehe

A very tasty and predictably strong tobacco with an unexpected bonus which I'll explain... As mentioned, the bulk of this sliced aromatic black twist becomes a nice fine shag, which is easy to dry and pack into the pipe. But The gooey discs, which remain intact turn out to make delightful licorice flavored chewing tobacco. So I save a few discs and put them in foil for a tasty treat. I'm not suggesting to do this with all of the discs as this would limit the smoking material to mainly the outer leafy wrap of the twist, but perhaps half will be dried, rubbed out and added to the shag mix. I like to have a tall glass of ice water with this, but have wondered if a shot of Sambuca might be nice. This black twist is not as strong N as the brown twist and might be considered a smidge less than strong. I am not a cigarette smoker and I have no problem enjoying a medium bowl. So the black twists might be a good place to start before moving on to the brown ones if you're trying to determine your tollerance for N.

As far as flavor goes, its truly wonderful for someone like me who craves licorice candy and eats a box at a time hee. The ultra sweet tobacco flavor ls there in the form of a sweet mapley deep dark virginia mingled with licorice and a clove like peppery zing - Yum! After a slightly persnickety lighting, the rich creamy smoke begins and continuces with fewer relights compared to my hand sliced twists. This is a good to the bottom of the bowl tobacco, so take your time and enjoy it! So what about ghosting? Well, believe it or not, the ghosting isn't going to ruin a pipe that is already dedicated to aromatics and you could certainly smoke something like Lane BCA in the same pipe with no regrets. Within an hour of smoking the sliced twist my cob just had a generic aromatic sweetness to it. Even though this is a sweet blend, my pipe is easy to clean and has no sticky or tarry mess to deal with. And all this concern for a $9 pipe ha ha. But I still get attached to my cobs and take very good care of them.

A final note... I do enjoy the novelty of twists and have several that I slice and dice and dry the heck out of before smoking. But these sliced twists really are nice. They're just as tasty, very convenient, and the fine shag is much more smokable than the stuff that I try to slice myself. So my advice is to get a few twists for long term occasional enjoyment, but go with the sliced twist for the brunt of your twist smoking experience.

I have smoked quite a bit of the non-aromatic version of this (as sold by E.A. Carey (Europe), though I think it's the same tobacco as you can buy under the Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. name). Much of what I said in my review of that applies here also. This is a strong, hearty, cool, slow-burning, outdoor smoke that is just about ideal for a cold winter's day; in hot weather it would be unbearably heavy. Note the word "outdoor": the room note is truly awful. The taste of the tobacco is so strong and so distinctive that I can hardly detect any added flavours. Recommended to the experienced smoker, but definitely not one for the beginner; and start off with a small bowl. Oh, yes - it'll leave a powerful ghost, so it's probably a good idea to dedicate a pipe to it and its pungent brethren.

Black Twist Sliced;

Star Rating = 3.25;

Rating Scores - 10 is the Best and 0 is the Worst;

Pouch Note = 9;

Room Note = 9;

Flavor = 9;

Bite = 9;

Burn = 9;

After Taste = 8;

Raw Score = 52;

Rated Percentage = 87%;

Comment = Smooth, Strong Strength, Full Body, unusual Black Cavendish Flavor, slight After Taste.

This is the last of the samples of G&H tobaccos I got on a recent trip.

BSA is not "aromatic" in any sense I usually use the term. Sure, you could smell the sweet topping in the tin, but once alight only the tobacco flavors could be detected.

I found this more enjoyable a smoke than other ropes I have tried so far (Brown Bogie and Black XX from Gawith). The reasons are (1) that it burned better, requiring fewer relights, especially as compared to Black XX, and (2) the flavor was more to my liking. It still had the peaty, burned plastic flavor and aroma you get from Black XX, but somewhat more subdued, with some nice spicy, meaty flavors to compliment it.

The only reason Brown Bogie gets a higher rating is because of its status as a rite of passage tobacco. For a smoke I'd want to enjoy, BSA would be better.

G&H Samples Wrap-up:

I've enjoyed these tobaccos, and have learned a thing or two. I'd have to say that the most pleasant surprise was Coniston Cut Plug. But I'd smoke any of these tobaccos again.