Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. Louisiana Perique Flake

Chocolate? Just a pinch. Some kind of floral sweetness and cocoa. Flakes are too moist. Pls dry it as good as it get. Taste is much more noticeable. Taste is sweet chocolate, with hint of figs and again with some kind of floral toping.

Need several relights, but dried well even burn with perfect pace. No need to be afraid of hot bowls. Leave only dot of moisture.

It took some time, when find proper pipe to this tobacco. Can not help to myself, but from cobs it was almost unsmokable.

G&H Louisiana Flake - Here’s the thing w/ Gawith Hoggarth and Samuel Gawith . When Lakeland Essence is applied , you don’t know which one is will be . The rose - geranium or Tonquin is quite nice . Whatever is on this flake is very good IMO and I get a little cocoa also . This flake is fruity also and could be just the Vaper tobaccos but hard to tell . A little hay , baked bread and dark fruit , raisons but not much spice . The Virginias are just sweet enough and Perique is mild bit noticeable, to my liking . Mild to medium nicotine . A great tasting flake . Much better than brown #2 . If I didn’t read the description I would have thought there was a pinch or two of Burley in this . Gawith and Hoggarth is delivering the goods . I have a few more blends to try from them . 3 1/2 stars

Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. Louisiana Perique Flake is exceptional. The light chocolate topping hides beneath the sweetness of this deeply satisfying VaPer. Easily medium strength but I sip, which makes for a higher hit. Prepared and smoked Louisiana Perique several different ways and each was just a little above ‘the best you can get’. Rubs out easily. I always use rubbed out dust on top to ensure an even charring light no matter what way I pack. Relights very well. Comes moist so can be stored or smoked that way for full flavour. Truly superb in a loose packed chimney.

I fail to notice any Lakeland-soapiness, as some commenters do, but retrieve a sweet and dry tobacco scent. Being sent as a sampler from a fellow at Oslo Pipe Club, it’s spent some days in the mail box before I was able to open it. It was thus dry, as some others seem to have receive overly moist tobacco. It didn’t bother me, but it required some relights.

Upon smoking, a dry, medium-bodied smoke presents some breadiness, nutty sweetness, and a tinge of bittersweet cocoa. As promised by its description, no overly Perique-tanginess is present, but ads a mild figgy taste. Quite pleasurable, this is a unique take on the VaPer tobacco, and recommended for its mellow smoke and flavours - as some other put it: gentlemanly.

Best smoked in my small, bent Norrøna Lillehammer 1212 pipe.

In August 2016 Smokingpipes.com was running a sale on this tobacco. In 40 years of pipe smoking I've never tried any Gawith Hoggarth & Co. blends but since I'm a VaPer smoker thought I'd buy some and cellar it for a while before smoking.

Today, while rumaging through my cellar I found it and decided to give it a try. I opted for an old Stanwell Majestic pipe with a deep and narrow bowl that I haven't smoked for at least 7 years.

This review is after smoking just one bowl - but as they say first impressions are always lasting.

This tobacco comes in long strips of about 5". It rubbed out well, packed well and took to the flame well. The package note is sweet but not that grassy, dried fruit and fermented smell of "classical" VaPers athat I love. It surely must have a top dressing or light casing but I just couldn't identify it.

At first I was getting a mild floral scent off the retrohale, dare I say, akin to Erinmore flake along with a similar taste. At this point I'm thinking to dump the bowl and get rid of this stuff. But after about 1/3 of the bowl was smoked I began to get a more traditional virginia taste and a barely detectable perique after taste. OK I thought, I'll give it my real taste test I give all tobaccos - smoke it indoors and outdoors.

Outdoors it smelled and tasted more like a traditional VaPer - I was able to tease out a liitle more of the perique hiding behind that grassy smell / taste of the Virginia - not to bad I thought.

Returned to my office and the first thing I noticed was the room note - extremely sweet, almost like an aromatic but subdued - reminded me of warm domestic beer and apricots - really smelled good.

At around 2/3 of the bowl the taste changed to a more nutty character with mild overtones of raisins - probably caused by the oils in the perique starting to come out. Quite enjoyable.

The remaining 1/3 of the bowl yielded a mild nicotine hit and the virginia took a seat to the lead of the perique.

The tobacco smoked cool & dry to a white ash in the bottom of the bowl. It is a mildly sophisticated blend and probably best enjoyed by seasoned smokers as the subtleties may escape a "newbe".

It was an overall enjoyable experience. Although it will not replace Escudo or my remainig stock of. St. James Woods it is nevertheless worthy of moving onto my B list of VaPers. I'll leave out enough for a few more bowls and return the remainder to my cellar for another year or so to see how or if it changes.

The flakes come a little wet and heavy/thick. It needs drying and airing out for sure. As usual with G&H blends it starts a little heavy on the tonquin bean/floral essence/whatever. The Lakeland scent steadily begins receding to the background, but I always noticed that damned tonquin bean. I think I have a mild allergy with that stuff tonquin, although it's fairly tolerable here.

A sweet smoke, minus the usual peppery overtones associated with perique, or at least not much to make me sit up and pay attention. Even though the floral essence notches down a bit after the first few puffs, it was a while before you taste the virginia. Just wait for it. While smoking, I had trouble discerning the Acadian perique that was up front in the tin note. It eventually showed up, but remained more of an aftertaste and it certainly didn't get in the way of the virginia or the tonquin. But you can tell it's in there somewhere because of the depth of the smoke as the bowl burns its way down. Once the perique finally makes an appearance, it remains a muted presence, more so than in any VaPer I've tried before. The smoking experience here, however, does finally settle down to a tasty, flavorful and sweet one, once you get past the initial floral and tonquin onslaught.

Flake size is distinctive, larger and thicker than other flakes I've experienced, but fills the bowl reasonably well. I enjoyed that it was a very sweet smoke, in my Ardor Urano pencil-shanked poker. Overall, a fairly solid if offbeat smoke the first time around. The kind of blend that requires several smoking sessions for a definitive personal appraisal.

Good tobacco, it smokes cool with no bite and has a nice sweet Virginia taste. This tobacco I think is Bright CR flake with added perique, mild enough to be smoked all day and strong enough to be satisfying.

Good lord, my third tobacco and my first english blend. My first review too. The tobacco is nice, leathery but supple, very nice to work with out the pouch. I've only had a third of a bowl so far, since its breaking in my new peterson pipe on non aromatic english and american blends. my first brush with Perique too. The note in the pouch is raisiny, but with hints of bran flakes, as well as definite tobacco. Smokes cool, with no bite detected yet. Is this what I was missing with the aromatics? Definetly be buying more of this again. Just dont smoke it around the better half.

This tobacco burns slow and cool. It tastes naturaly sweet and raison-like as you would expect from a Va/per. But there is something else in here too... something new that is not common for Va/pers. It is slightly minty and leathery... I suspect tonquin bean? This latter flavor is not extreme or overwhelming as I believe it is in Gawith, Hagarth & Co.'s Dark Flake. Rather it is lightly added as a compliment.