Samuel Gawith Chocolate Flake

Nice dark brown tobacco flakes; too wet from the tin to keep lit but drying it out does change its flavor significantly. Fresh from the tin, the chocolate flavor and aroma is intense. The latakia takes a backseat but it definitely enhances the experience.

Smoked very dry, this becomes a classic burley/virginia flake with a more prominent latakia taste... that is to say, the latakia is more noticeable, but nothing approaching an equal partner. The chocolate flavoring becomes more faint and appears as the same wisp that the latakia does when the tobacco is moist.

Well done, SG!

I have wanted to try GHs Bob's Chocolate Flake and SGs Chocolate Flake for a good while now.

As with Bob's Chocolate Flake, I was off-put by Sam's version of Lakeland florals - way too perfumy for me to taste and appreciate the tobaccos within. Actually, both made me a bit nauseous and it took a while for the aftertaste of both to leave my palate. Not a pleasant experience for me.

Moisture content of both was just about right for a flake, although SGs was the drier of the two and the easiest to pack, light, and keep lit. I did get a bit of a nicotine hit with SGs Chocolate Flake, but nothing noticed with Bob's.

I intend to keep the lids off both of my tins for about a month to see if it minimizes (I hope rids them) of the soapy/perfumy tastes that made smoking these blends so not enjoyable for me. 1 star.

UPDATE 4-20-10: I had a similar experience as with Bob's Chocolate Flake (see 4-20-10 update under that heading). Deciding to re-visit since my original review, time has allowed all but a trace of the Lakeland presence to vanish, leaving a tobacco that was smokeable - and enjoyable - for me. After smoking both chocolate blends, I tend to favor Bob's Chocolate Flake more so than Sam's version due to a more pronounced (yet not over the top) chocolate flavor present throughout the smoke. Can't taste chocolate at all in Sam's version. I can definitely taste the Latakia in this one as it was minimal with Bob's (I'm not a big fan of Latakia so this was just fine). Sam's Latakia adds a subtle background presence and is more dominating than with Bob's. The soapy presence in Sam's was very minimal in the tin aroma, and nil while smoking this time around. Both are high quality tobaccos and I can now appreciate the 3-4 star reviews each has garnered. While perhaps never becoming daily smokes for me, both are definitely worthy of weekly rotation; but if I purchase any new tins, I will need to let the Lakeland presence dissipate off long before I smoke either blend. Sam's dries out quicker which was ok. The flakes were almost crunchy, but laden with beautiful sugar crystals adding a subtle, non-cloying, sweetness.

UPDATE 2-18-21: Recently revisited. I think the Lakelands have been toned down a bit. Either that or I'm just used to them by now. All in all a very pleasant smoke..enjoying more than Bob's Chocolate Flake and raising to 4 stars.

Samuel Gawith - Chocolate Flake.

I reviewed this years back and wanted to re-post.

Opening a tin reveals a set of flakes that are a little darker than medium brown, with yellow specks, there's an absence of the usual Sam' G' moisture issue, and the chocolate is easy to identify in the aroma.

I don't find it as 'sticky', or sweet, as Bob's Chocolate Flake. The chocolate adorns the tobaccos, but doesn't dominate the smoke. The Burley and Virginia are about equal in weight, with the Latakia giving a 'touch', rather than a blast of smokiness. The burn from C.F. couldn't be better, being even and cool. The actual smoke? Dense, thick, heavy, and bite-free.

Nicotine: medium. Room-note: Pleasant enough.

Easy, highly recommended:

Four stars.

This is now my go to. It has an underlying cigar taste, with a subtle sweetness. I don't taste chocolate, but it lays on the palate like a milk chocolate/ cocoa. It makes me feel like I've just eaten an elegant desert; with some sweetness, but not in the diabetic sense 🙂 The body is full. It doesn't always light well, even when dried. It has something to do with the packing rub and ultimate size of flake you fashion.

You know that this has been treated in some way, yet it is a tobacco taste of high quality. I am bummed out because it is hardly available anymore.

For those who are still reading, know I was led to this one through SG Full Virginia Flake, SG Kendal Cream, Bob's Chocoloate, Esoterica Aged Burley Flake. If you have experience with any of those, you will likely be very pleased. To me is hits the 93% mark.

My wife is annoyed by the room note. Also, once you puff this strenuously, you will smell like a tobacco factory She always says, "you smell like a pipe." Oh, the nicotine feels high. I also think for some reason the N is getting absorbed rapidly. Addictive. So take care.

This is another home run flake from Gawith. Some reviewers have commented on the lack of chocolate flavor, and they are correct. This is not "chocolate" in the typical aromatic sense, and if you buy it expecting to smoke a chocolate bar, you will be let down. What this is, to the contrary, is a very natural tobacco whose flavor just happens to be enhanced by the addition of chocolate.

This seems to be very similar to Best Brown Flake, with the addition of latakia and the aforementioned chocolate. This blend is extraordinary, and has quickly become one of my very favorites. I dry it a little from the tin after rubbing out, and pack it loosely. It lights easily and burns very coolly. With the most vigorous hard puffing it is only mildly hot, and when smoked patiently it never bites. If you are getting a hot smoke from this you really need to look at your packing and smoking techniques, because I assure you it is not the blend.

The flavor is singularly rich and enjoyable. The VA's provide the base, but in a very "Gawith" way. It is not tangy, bright, sweet, as is typical of VA blends. Rather, it is cool with a broad, deeply rich and slightly sweet. That, however, is only the beginning, as the subtle addition of latakia gives this blend a whole new level of flavor. The latakia blends perfectly with the chocolate. I would say the chocolate enhances the latakia flavor, so that you get an impossibly rich and sweet (but not in an aromatic, cased way) smoke with a subtle latakia flavor. The chocolate itself is only apparent by itself in the tin aroma, and is subtle there as well.

This is an extraordinary blend, and I would especially urge non-aromatic smokers to give this one a try.

*****So I have had a pound of this in a savinelli humdor for years now, and it has morphed from very, very good to insanely, out of this world incredible. The flakes are now covered in sugars and the flavors have deepened and intensified while also becoming smoother. It also burns forever, a bowl of this rubbed out in a medium sized bowl will easily last an hour or more, and it never becomes hot or unpleasant. I once had an opportunity to smoke a VA flake that had been sitting unopened in my tobacconist's basement for more than 40 years, and it was one of the best smoking experiences ever. This is like that. If you have the patience a decade or more of aging does wonders for good virginias, and this is no exception. A truly singular experience.

This is one of those tobaccos that I regret smoking, not because it bad, on the contrary but because it is so delicious yet so rare to find that it is frustrating. It is by far one of the best tobaccos I have tried. Excellent tin note, well pressed flakes, rubs easily and packs nicely. It takes some work to get it to light well but once it does, no need to maintain it a lot. Its flavour profile is quite nice. Feels like having a cup of coffee with dark chocolate. The virginia play the dark, earthy coffee like notes and the hint of chocolate tops it up. Overall, if you can find it, get it. it is worth it

Perfect flakes that light easily and burn evenly to a white ass. Exquisite aroma and flavor, but more of a VA/BUR than an aromatic. Not exactly chocolatey in taste, more like a medium strength Nicaraguan cigar, although with no cigar leaf characteristics (if that make sense). Moderate sweetness. No tongue bite. Latakia in the background (not a "smokey" tobacco). Moisture content a bit on the high side.

Better than GH's Bob's Chocolate Flake because it has almost none of the Lakeland floral essence that GH is known for, and because the SG flake has a more subtle and complex top note.

If allowed to dry completely, the top note flavors mostly disappear but the tobacco remains extremely tasty. So, as one other reviewer noted, it's like having two tobaccos in one.

I would put this tobacco on my Top 10 list, maybe even in the Top 5.

I have thought on this barely-aromatic as I was working thru my first tin and I am concluding this is some special gear; I really like this flake a lot. The flavor, the nature of the blend, has been hard for me to pin down so I drifted over to these reviews and read the words of others for inspiration and guidence. You know - plagerism.

The latakia this blend claims is almost invisible but, knowing it's there, I imagine it adds body and depth. Like other aspects of the blend, the latakia effect is key but suble.

The Virginia is rich and flavorful but shows itself with gently rounded edges and a just-muted brightness; no doubt this is a taming effect of the latakia.

Chocolate? I may not have ever guessed that's what's in it but not for the clever clue written on the top of the tin. Having mastered the obvious (in this case) I detect there is something else going on besides muted brightness and a touch of smokey depth - there is that hint of sweet and tar that completely absorbs my interest thru the second have of a bowl. Chocolate, if they say so.

I've never seen a flake that smokes this rich and feels so leathery but burns so easily. (If there is a touch of burley in this perhaps it rounds off the Virgina a bit more and makes this flake burn so nicely.) The first light is the hardest, and it isn't that hard. I've shredded it, crumbled it, mooshed it, folded and corkscrewed it into the bowl and it burns fine every time. I can't make it burn my tongue and it must take a pretty bad pack and some serious uber-puffen to overheat a bowl.

The tobacco has my idea of perfectly balanced elements, none of which control the flavor, but rather, all of which contribute to a new and unexpected conclusion. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

This is a new favorite of mine - a wonderful flake made up primarily of virginias, just enough latakia for some added body and a subtle, semi-sweet chocolate/cocoa flavoring. I prefer it to Bob's Chocolate Flake because it seems to have a greater depth of flavor without the slightly soapy/flowery aspect. Highly recommended.