Samuel Gawith Chocolate Flake

To put it simply, this tobacco is an english blend with a cocoa topping. Not bad at all by any means, I have no idea how some people don't taste any cocoa, its there alright especially on the retrohale. I would say i lean more towards bobs chocolate flake rather than this one because of the rich and full flavor of bobs, one difference i noticed is the latakia stands out alot more with this one and i am not sure if the cocoa compliments it fully, don't get me wrong it goes very nice but not as nice as in bobs for some reason. I smoke this rubbed out and dried for 30 to about 40 minutes.

Hmm. A bit of conjecture here. I have smoked this blend for a good while and this tin is more the color of St james flake than the old tins. Still it has the coco flavor of old.I,m finding it a little more biting perhaps due to less time in the press.I,m guessing demand these days exceeds production.(Old woman says i fall in to this catagory myself.Ive never bit her so whats her problem.) Anyone else notice this? Still quality is there

I have smoked several tins of this over the past few years with varying degrees of satisfaction. Some tins have been good and some have been rather flat and boring. I'm not sure why this is. I suspect it has something to do with how well the tin was sealed. I was recently gifted a ten year old tin, which I am currently smoking. This tin is a good example of this tobacco at it's best. It was not overly moist and needed no drying before it was smoked. I usually rub this out as it is slow burning even when rubbed out. The flavours are Virginia, and Latakia, with just an ever so slight hint of chocolate. This tin is old enough that the flavours have melded so well that it is impossible to tell where one stops and the other starts. While this tobacco is medium in strength, it is mild in taste. For that reason I've dedicated a couple of pipes to this. I should also state that I have had some younger tins that have tasted almost as good as this older tin. They were, of course, moister. I will finish off this tin but probably won't buy any more as I prefer Sam's Flake and SG Navy Flake to this. However, if someone else offers me another ten year old tin of this, I won't hesitate to accept it!

As you open the tin, you'll get a deep, dark chocolate Smell, just a whiff of Latakia can be noticed if you concentrate on smelling it. But the Latakia acts more of a "supporter" in this whole thing.

You have to seperate the taste into two, because the it significally changes if you dry it out.

*1. Fresh out of the tin:* Condition and preparation: - I'ts very, very(!) moist! - I take a few slices and rub them out, stuff it into the pipe pretty gentle, but not too soft. So it has air to keep lit at least for a couple of puffs.

The taste: Even tho it reminds of "hard work" smoking it wet, i'ts definetly worth it! It tastes solely like dark chocolate. Here and there you get a clue on that there's Latakia in it. The Burley support the awesome chocolate flavouring damn well! The only bad thing is you have to light it a bunch of times to keep it lit and all in all you should take your time and not be in a rush, if you smoke it that way.

*2. Dried out (4-6 Hours, 12 hours once but that was too dry for my taste):* Condition and preparation: - After 4-6 hours its halfly dried. From the outside the tobacco is already pretty dry, but inside of the flake slices its still a bit juicy. For my taste this is the perfect dried condition for smoking it.

The taste: A whole diffrent experience! The Chocolate takes a backseat, as the Latakia comes to take you to Latakia heaven. Not too strong taste - but its there, and its delicious! Here its the opposite of smoking it wet! The Chocolate can only be detected here and there - every 3th/4th puff you take.

All in all this is a genius blend in my humble opinion! 4/4 Stars (Edit: Also I wanna mention that after I smoked 2 tins of this, my pipe was ghosted real hard and deep. It took a while to get rid of most of the taste. Every now and then I belive I taste it again, but that might possibly imaginagtion I'll admit. Still: This tends to ghost!)

**Edit:** Somehow the tobacco changed - for bad, as I don't like Lakeland essence! My first two tins didn't have Lakeland at all, the recent ones do have easily noticeable Lakeland... only 3-stars from me now and Flavoring uprated from 'mild' to 'mild to medium'

Clean dry smoke, no tong bite at all, doesn't matter you puff slow or fast.No moisture at the end, just clean ash. Nice English aromatic blend. Worth to try it.

This is my first review and I am a relatively new pipe smoker, so take it for what it's worth. As others have said, this stuff is pretty moist. I rubbed some out and let it sit for a half an hour and I didn't have much trouble smoking it. Very nice, smooth, rich smoke, in my opinion. The cocoa is there more in the tin note than the taste. I must have received an odd batch of this tobacco, because the Latakia is obvious and very much in the foreground for the first quarter of the bowl. Then again, I snork nearly every mouthful. The Latakia slowly integrates with the other tobaccos through the rest of the bowl, while the cocoa takes a back seat the entire time. I really like this one and I will likely buy more, but I'm not sure yet how often I will reach for it. I got a fairly nice nicotine hit from this, so I'm calling it medium strength.

When you open the tin, two rows of neatly stacked, dark brown flakes speckled with some tan leafs are awaiting you, effusing the typical peat smoke smell of Latakia and some earthy cocoa scent, which is an interesting combination. As you would expect from Samuel Gawith, the slices feel rather moist.

From a freshly opened tin it's wise to let the tobacco dry for one or two hours before filling your pipe. You might rub the flakes out, but I prefer to use the fold and stuff method. Either way it's important not to fill your bowl too tightly.

Depending on how fresh and moist the tobacco is, it can take a few lights more to get it burning evenly. You will at least need a thorough charring light and, after leveling out the ashes with your tamper, an equally thorough true light. An occasional re-light might also be required. Apart from that, the Chocolate Flake tends to burn slowly and coolly.

Even though this is a good-natured smoke, because of the Virginias in the blend it needs a little attention. The smokiness from the Latakia and the chocolate flavoring are in the forefront. However, it's not a milk chocolate kind of sugariness, but rather the bittersweet taste of dark chocolate or cocoa beans, which compliments nicely the peatiness of the Latakia and some sublime nutty taste from the Burley. There's also some tangy sweetness from the Virginias, but it doesn't really come out until the finish. It's a medium strength smoke that you can enjoy throughout the day. Despite the moisture of the flakes, it burns down rather dryly to some graying ash.

In the room note the smokiness of the Latakia is softened by the chocolate aroma, which makes it more pleasant for bystanders.

The Latakia is light lending more of a woody note than smoke. The VaBur portion is slightly sweet and nutty. The chocolate topping is about mild to medium and always present. It's a pleasant and enjoyable smoke. Needs some drying time and I prefer it very dry. I seem to get more natural tobacco flavor that way.

Mild to medium in body and flavoring. Taste is medium. Burns very well when dry though it may take a few matches to get it going.

This was an enjoyable tobacco. It had a very smooth, dry, and flavorful taste and feel consistently though the bowl. Its tin aroma was slightly misleading, but still gave a "ball park" promise of how it would smoke. Based on the writing of Frank Hanna, I eventually tried his suggestion of blending chocolate and Latakia, and found it very enjoyable. So, this chocolate-Latakia-Burley blend was almost sure to please.

Granted, this is already a blend, but on several occasions I admit I experimented with it by adding minimal amounts of Dark Star or Yenidje Supreme which both yielded a somewhat milder, yet richer and more balanced smoke.