Samuel Gawith Balkan Flake

In this mixture the Virginias not play the game, the smoke is bland and boring, dirty and the taste is bitter for the first two thirds of the smoke. A glimpse of Virginia, too small, only have enough to reduce the pungent mixture and make it bearable to not leave on the last third. Tobacco monochrome. I definitely rule. I'm not at all a smoker candy. This is more like to smoke the soot from a chimney. It will be a disposable tin gift for a friend who smokes all gratefully.

Everything that could be wrong with pipe tobacco was put in that blend: extremely moist (need to change 3 charcoal filters while smoking or 1 ml of liquid in the humidome of my falcon after smoking!), vapid taste, extremely hard to light (constantly need relighting), tongue biting. The smell is ok. I wanted to try something balcan and this was the only one a tabacconist had. Very disappointing, however, accordingly to other reviewers, this blend is too far from what is called the balcan mix.

I liked it out of the fresh tin, but it was hard to smoke due to the moist flakes, but the taste was very rounded, spicy and cool. Unfortunately the flakes dried rather quickly and although it was much easier to smoke, the taste became harsh and bitter after the half of the bowl. I also find the inconsistent cut of the flakes does not warrant the price. There are too many good Balkan mixtures around to be satisfied with this one.

I hate to write a bad review of a SG blend. I enjoy most all of them. This one is a strike-out. If there was latakia in this I missed it. Very, very, bland.

welp they ruined this one. i *loved* balkan flake circa 2007-2017 ish when i could get it. quit smoking around 2019, picked it up again in 2023 was eager to enjoy alot of the SG leaf i loved so much and my god BF has gone to shit.

what used to be a delightfully cool smoking flake with plenty of latakia and a distinctive gawith english type flavor (idk what else to call it, its distinct to SG its a quality their latakia blends have) is now a mess. burns hot as hell, *refuses* to dry out - SG leaf always requires a LOT of dry time to me, nbd but balkan flake (from 2023) took a literal *day* indoors in a climate controlled home to approach smokeable moisture and even then its not smokeable so much as combustable. it stinks like lakeland sauce. not strong but yknow present. and its not supposed to be. lakeland is fine on lakeland blends but balkan flake never had this weird floral quality to it and it ruins the entire flake for me. doesnt dissipate either. will not be buying this again.

have sadly noticed this with other SG offerings. skiff is off the least tho still takes insane time to dry (used to take 1.5 hrs, and it wasnt crispy then either) now takes all damn day still good tho once its at that point. BBF is horrid, a bitey steam filled horror show with little of the baked goods sugary goodness it used to have. scared to try and find FVF at this point.

sad to see such a venerable manufacturer go this way.

I’ve tried this tobacco twice now, and find my impressions are exactly as stated by Paul McCoy on 12-21-21; “ It’s not worth the effort.” I love SG FVF, and liked the idea of that being combined with some Latakia.

The outside label is SG Balkan Flake, side of tin sticker says Kendal Tobacco, and when I opened the tin, the inside “decorated” card says Gawith & Hogarth. Interesting?

On to the tobacco; in a nutshell the sliced flakes look like a very dark, oily SG FVF.

For the first bowl, I broke the flakes into smaller pieces, hand rubbed them between my palms, gave it about 15 minutes to air dry then lit up. Then I needed to re-light time after time; I would not stay lit. Second bowl, flakes were vigorously rubbed out until it was in ribbon form. Same story as before; it just would not stay lit. Not so much due to being overly moist, but it was more of a sticky, almost oily feel and consistency.

Overall, it was an arduous process, not a relaxing, flavorful smoke.

A lot of people question the name "Balkan" for this blend, since there are no orientals, but the name is perfect. I guess not many people know, but the Virginia used by SG comes from the Balkan states (Bulgaria, Macedonia, etc), thus the name fits perfectly.

To mask the cheap Virginia in this blend, SG has employed the usual aromatic tactics, this time lacing the cheap tobacco with some kind of medicine-tasting casing and maybe a bit of menthol. The menthol is working - no matter how hard you puff on this flake - it will burn cool. The medicine flavor is really weird, it smells just like old pharmacies used to, back in the days, when they actually made drugs on premises.

In a nutshell, if you are looking to try the weirdest aromatic blends, SG does not disappoint. If you want something that even remotely resembles tobacco taste, this manufacturer is not the one.

I was looking for something a bit stronger than Balkan Sasieni when I picked this up and boy did this disappoint. It's not even in the same league. Let's see, where do I start. At first I thought I detected a nice Virginia taste, but that disappeared after the first bowl. Now I get nothing but this faint minty menthol taste. I couldn't in good conscience recommend this to anyone. It is simply a weak tobacco that requires constant puffing to keep it lit. Who would like this tobacco? I guess if you are trying to give up Salem's, Kool's or some other menthol cigarette this might be better alternative(healthwise, though it won't taste as good), but if you like the mint taste you'd be better off eating a mint or brushing your teeth. I left the jar open for a night but I'm not that hopeful that it will improve much, though it might burn better. This one is probably destined to mulch my shrubs.

UPDATE 11/2/07 - I tried to doctor up the rest of this just for grins. I boiled some water, then mixed in a bunch of salt and soaked the baccy in it. I poured off the mixture, baked it and put it in the garage to dry. Although this succeeded in nixing that weak menthol taste it didn't improve it enought to raise this a star. Per the other reviewer's suggestion I did buy this in a tin so no mistake there.

I confess that I share both Sasha's and Beer's reviews. Sure this is not a balkan. Small quantity of slices and quite moist. They MUST be dryed and rubbed out, otherwise your pipe will not stay lit. The smoke is very cool, slow and sweet, much more pleasant to the nose than to the palate, but there's nothing else to drive me crazy. If You think that SG's products are on the very top pricing list, and this one is priced EUR. 17.50 per 50grms ... Cannot give more than two star, and just because of the quality and tradition of SG.

EDIT REVIEW OCT05/2009:

during the months passed after my review, this Balkan Flake has never called me again... I even tried to mix it with something could bring it some life. I tossed the rest of the tin in good company of Sam's Flake. Never again.