Samuel Gawith Navy Flake

I ordered this tin because the blend is considered as the "legendary" "navy" flake. Maybe I gave it too much expectation, only to find it not so legendary. Good tobacco indeed but considering limited time frame for daily smoke and seemingly unlimited alternatives out there, I would only finish the tin on hand without further purchases.

Balkan flake with a splash of rum. I wasn't keen on Balkan flake and the rum didn't fix it.

I must confess that I do not know what is meant by Navy Flake or Navy Cut. Peter Stokkebye's Luxury Navy Flake is a blend of virginia and perique, as is Dunhill's Deluxe Navy Rolls. Mac Baren's Navy Flake is a mixture of virginia and burley. Samuel Gawith's Navy Flake is a concoction of virginia, latakia and rum. This exuberance in nomenclature makes it difficult to make comparisons.

The pouch (Synjeco supplied my order in rather well designed pouches) aroma is clearly virginia and latakia, with the hint of rum. If you rub out the flakes between your palms and then put your nose to your palms, the rum aroma comes through very clearly. All three components merge together nicely into an inviting redolence. The taste is what the pouch aroma would lead you to expect. I did not find the blend to be particularly sweet; perhaps the proportion of latakia has been adjusted to prevent any cloying sweetness. Certainly, the proportion of latakia is far higher in this blend than in Chocolate Flake. The tobacco burns well once it has taken light, but stays cool. The `heaviness' of Samuel Gawith flakes generally results in slow and cool smokes - it is practically impossible to get them to burn hot unless they are severely maltreated.

I think an apt comparison would be with Esoterica's Pembroke. Pembroke, with no virginias and a sophisticated application of cognac, is like a wildly exciting can-can: alright for an occasional treat, but you can not make it your staple entertainment. Navy Flake is more like a homely amusement that you can live with every day without getting exhausted.

I only wish I could discover the marine commonalty between the various Navy blends.

A good, savoury tasting flake with a subtle latakia presence and an added tang from the rum.

I've never had a navy flake with latakia before and I can't think why no other manufacturer has thought of it. It just seems right to me. It fits.

The usual SG flake attributes of overmoistness and inconsistency of cut apply as does a slight reluctance to take light and a mild desire to bite (easily avoided with a little attention). It reminds me alot of SG's Kendal Mayors Collection Chocolate Flake but with a rum topping insead of a cocoa one, which I think works slightly better with the base tobaccos. Although, like Chocolate Flake, the taste doesn't vary much throughout the smoke and is ever-so-slightly dull.

Overall a good, interestingly differnt tasting, tobacco which is slightly 2 dimensional but worth a try.

Upon opening it, the rum smell takes over your senses. Wow! It smokes with the same definitive character. This is a unique blend. The flakes are dark, but not as dark as 1792. Dry em' out for the full experience, but not too dry, you'll miss out on some of the beauty.

Sweet, smoky, and delicious. Like all Gawith flakes, this is top drawer tobacco, nicely prepared, with flakes of varying thickness.

I'd say this is on the milder side of medium, sweetened only slightly by the almost unnoticeable addition of rum. The rum is unobtrusive and somehow melds nicely with the Latakia, added with a gentle touch.

Too mild for an evening smoke, it is nevertheless an agreeable companion during the day. Three and a half stars. A little more heft and body and I'd rate it four stars.

Almost the perfect baccy. I love everything about it. It can be smoked cool or hot (but not too hot) and one can have a wide range of sensations from it. The smell is what I love the most - both, when fresh or when smoked. I hoped would like to make this my all day smoke but it's probably little too strong for that. If you looked up this tobacco you're interested and there should be no reason to buy just a sample, you'd be going back soon for more anyway!

I like Virginias, I like Latakia, I like Rum. So why is this tobacco so underwhelming? It is a bit of an odd mix and certainly isn't that arresting; there's nothing here that screams Classic to me.

I'm beginning to appreciate, though, how trying to communicate taste, and even judgements of taste, to other humans requires one to go deeper into one's own experience, and writing this now I am searching for what's going on here and it's proving an enjoyable hunt. So there's something to be considered here.

Now, my opinion of SG's tobaccos is that they are Premium Grade. Some of the best. I realise there is an obvious bias; my consciousness was forged under the same hills that have watched over the pretty town of Kendal long before tobacco became a commodity and I can't help but lean towards a view that there is an aesthetic appreciation informed by that landscape and running through the natives from thereabouts. One that set sail on the high seas at some point. I'm not too sure how much maritime history has any bearing on the choice of this blend of tobaccos that warrants the title Navy Flake but the description from SG for this one is probably its most florid and as such quite possibly raises undue expectation for those who mistake regional humour and cultural heritage for sales pitch. And maybe even the folks at SG can't tell the difference. Who knows?

But the sheer poetry of the words Navy Flake tend to infer I think a transporting experience and anything short of that is likely to disappoint.

Well, what of the tobacco? One thing to be said of it is that as far as the quality of the raw ingredients goes I don't detect anything less than the excellence of the same calibre as FVF. The rum is real.

So what must disappoint is the balance and treatment of the materials at hand.

Nothing in this flake jumps out and grabs you. The rum is ephemeral, the Latakia a light touch and the Virginias subsumed. So initially it comes across as rather bland and if you couple that with the most predominant complaints of SG's tobaccos, that they come too moist and are thus also scant portions, it is inclined to not register much for those on a Search for (affordable) Excellence.

However there really isn't much wrong with SG's Navy Flake. It burns well, it has a fairly pleasant room note, there are no artificial flavours to obstruct the natural ones and the flakes are solid and well prepared. It delivers the hallowed Vitamin N in a comfortable quantity, there's no bite to speak of and the after-taste is very satisfactory.

I suspect that ET's Penzance might actually be stealing this fellows wind, assuming that that blend has some direct inspiration from its namesake, but I haven't tried that one so I couldn't say for sure.

I agree with Hemlock - this is a companion smoke, and a very steady one at that. The other day I was walking to Hemel Hempsted from Berkhamsted in High Wind and this smoked really nicely whilst walking with my pipe girt between my teeth.

So there's something in the description. Perhaps the set and setting has more of a bearing than is given credit. You certainly have to take it into account with the ritual ingestion of psychotropic substances so this tobaccos je ne sais quoi could be its steady quality. It delivers, not excessively, on all important counts. Steady as she goes!!

I would definitely buy this again but on such a short voyage with this one I am reluctant to give it 4 stars. Time will tell, and also future voyages in the company of this somewhat inestimable flake.

Appearance: a 50 gram tin had an excise tax “Q3 of 2017”. As is usually the case, no other markings about the date of production could not be found on the tins of the British manufacturer. Dark-brown dense flake with small flecks of straw color, the aging of which just made it better - steamed Virginias darkened and slightly sugared. In terms of thickness, the flake are sliced as it is customary to do at Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. - that is, "as it is": the flake I had for sampling were a millimeter to two millimeters thick, so I had no chance to roll them into a ring without breaking them. Nevertheless, the tobacco was not dry, and was generally in excellent shape. I noted this by carefully separating the tobacco into fibers along its length.

Flavor: quite simple and unimpressive, perhaps due to age. However, there is still a hay note, a sweet fruity note, a bit of wood, a faint note of tar and a slight peat of latakia. All the components are roughly equal in brightness, and no matter how hard I tried to find some halftones in the blend, I failed. As for the rum used to flavor this blend, it has weathered quite a bit over the years.

Taste: as mild as it is pleasant - except that it lacks a bit of brightness. A sweet note of baked fruit dominates, framed by quite logical hints of peat, tar, wood and a very small amount of cinnamon. The latakia, subjectively, could be added some more. The taste of the blend does not change from the beginning to the very end. The tobacco does not bite, has no sharp edges, smokes extremely slow and cool, several times I had to relight it. In bents it seemed to me a little less sweet. The strength, despite the simplicity of the recipe, is close to medium – pipe smokers with very large pipes can be surprised by light nicotine hit. The tobacco burns out into a light gray dusty ash, leaving no moisture in the pipe. The aftertaste is sweet and fruity.

The smoke is fair and unstable, a light note of burning dry grass, practically without tar and peat.

What's the bottom line? A good everyday product, with the rare original recipe that is sorely lacking today. Indeed, with a limited range of options, it's very hard not to be tempted to copy some successful recipe (especially if its owner has already left the market). Frankly, I would be delighted if any of the current manufacturers would take up the challenge of reading the ancient British grimoires that hold the secrets of Samuel Gawith and release their vision for their lineup. Alas, so far that hasn't happened.