Samuel Gawith Navy Flake

This tobacco is one of my preferred flakes. It's smoky, full of the typical Balkan flavours and the hints of rum really bring it all together.

A stand up tobacco that lights, smokes and tastes great as well as being flavoured with my all time favourite spirit. My perfect partner to a good rum on the rocks

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.

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!

After receiving the two tins I ordered, I popped one of the lids and saw two evenly cut rows of a medium to dark flake. As an aside, since SG was taken over/merged with GH, you no longer get the rough looking, sopping wet, mess of flakes that I always experienced in the past from SG; much preferred! I was surprised with the fact that I detected no tin note at all from the contents. No Latakia, no rum, no Lakeland essence.

My first bowl was in a trusty Peterson Belgique. After a moderate degree of rubbing out, I had a lot of difficulty lighting and keeping it lit. The smoking experience was definitely not good. Needless to say, I was disappointed, but took the blame due to my haste in wanting to smoke the stuff.

I left the lid off for an hour or two, still no tin note even after deep inhalation, the flakes looking appreciably lighter than after first opening. For this trial, I took more care with the rubbing out of the flake and loaded it into my Weber Poker. This was a way more satisfactory smoking experience. Oddly, I couldn't taste any rum, Latakia , or Lakeland essence per se, but there was only what I would express as a "umami quality," a mouth feel that was very enjoyable and a smokiness (not Latakia campfire) unlike any other tobacco I can think of. Some would say perhaps, "I must have gotten a bad tin." I don't believe this to be the case. Now, I don't believe any Lakeland essence is part of the recipe, but rum and Latakia are listed as such. I'm sure the magic I experienced is in the expert blending and marrying of the ingredients. I liken this to cooking a nice meal with many ingredients slowly over time, resulting in one sum taste and not the taste of the individual ingredients. I smoked quite a bit of McClelland Navy Flake, Mac Baren Navy Flake, and other similar concoctions with rum, with/without Latakia (I'm thinking Mac's Plumcake and Solvent), and never had such a pleasant experience as with SG Navy Flake. In some ways, similar to SG Brown Flake.

I read in another review that the finish is really nice. I agree with this wholeheartedly. This gets better as you approach the bowl's end, and slow smoking enhances this. I can\'t say that about many baccy's I've smoked over the last 48 years. Highly recommended with 4 stars.

Buonissimi tabacchi per una mistura di livello. Come quasi sempre (Celtic Talisman escluso) Samuel Gawith non sbaglia. E poi con un veliero in etichetta hai già vinto :). Consigliatissimo!

This is the premier Navy Flake to which I compare all others. I purchase this in both the 50 gram tins and 250 gram boxes. I note that because the 250g boxes contain longer flakes while the 50 gram tins have flakes that are sized perfectly for the fold and stuff method if that's how you like to prepare your flakes. The 250 gram boxes obviously offer the more economical choice and the extra preparation required is of minimal concern to most of us, I'm sure.

As with many blends, this one benefits greatly from drying prior to smoking. I try to give myself at least 15-20 minutes of drying time before lighting (and often up to an hour). Failure to do so typically means I struggle to get the blend lit. Adding some rubbed out "kindling" on top can help with that though. Once lit, however, it's very easy to keep lit and burns cool so long as you don't puff like a freight train.

It doesn't happen every time, but I've had several of those "nirvana" smokes with this blend. Highly recommended if you can find it on the internet shelves.

Update: I bought back an envelope packaged in Argentina. When fresh, citrus aromas and just a leather background predominate, with the sweetness of rum just playing at the bottom of the nose. Once lit, the flavors of mature Va are present with just the right latakia to round off a barely sweet smoke, but where Va plays the main role, from start to finish. A good combination to get away from Va / Pe, but ultimately staying in the spheres of Va, ideal for the lovers of Va. Step to 4 stars.