Samuel Gawith Chocolate Flake

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'

My Sample was from their BULK offering . I think reviewer, "DK" 2010-10-06, gave an excellent review from the TIN offering. Seems like we may have a processing consistency problem with the bulk, there was NO , NADA, ZIP, ZERO Chocolate flavor ,neither damp nor dried. Hey, the underlying tobacco was good, but that's not why I bought this blend.

I am totally reluctant to try G&H's Bob's Chocolate because of the underlying "Lakeland Floral" , my most hated essence in any quantity. I have to rate this low, because it's not what It's advertised in BULK

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.

S.G. Chocolate is a real treat tobacco . It is , by far , the best chocolate flake that I have smoked . At the end of the day it beats the G & H chocolate because it has that real dark chocolate flavor . The problem with this tobacco , and all S.G. tobaccos ,is that is delivered way too moist to smoke . It should be called Rain Forrest blend . Leaving it out to dry for a while doesn't really work because , like chewing gun left on the bed post overnight , it losses it's flavor . What does work for me is adding some really non descript Virginia flake and rubbing it out well . I usually use either Sutlif Virginia flake or the Newminster Virginia flake , nieher of which really changes the flavor of the chocolate . Mostly , I add about a 30% amount of the Virginia . For a really moist can , which sometimes happens , I will go as high as 50% . I mix each smoke separately . The S.G. chocolate flavor is so well done that the add mixture of Virginia does not detract from the chocolate flake . Although this mixture does have some latakia in it I cannot taste it . All in all , this is a great flavored tobacco , actually the only one I ever smoke . If you find S.G. mixtures too moist , and who doesn't , try my method . It works with all the S.G. mixtures .

This is a fine blend, everything with the right amount. Satisfying, not overwhelming, nothing harsh or difficult. I can smoke it all day and night, a bit of dull may be for smoking regularly but there are lots of other SG tobaccos to cheer you up or challenge you for an adventure.

For me this is a perfectly balanced flake. I am amazed how Virginia, Burley, Latakia and Chocolate flavour perfectly complements each other. I have noticed that tins have more chocolate flavour than 250g bulk presentation.