Samuel Gawith Navy Flake

I have yet to find a Samuel Gawith blend I come close to liking, and for some reason I am desperately trying. Alas, I think this is it for me with SG. This blend has no idea what it wants to do. Is it an english with Latakia? Is it a virginia? Does it try to be an aromatic with the rum casing? Who knows, but for me it does none of the above and the three do nothing combined. Way to mild for me either way. Either I want a strong english or an aromatic where I can taste the casing. If you are anything like me, don't bother with this one at all.

I really wanted to like this but no. I have smoked three bowls and don't feel at all inspired to try anymore. I detected no rum, very light Latakia and occasional nice Virginia's. To me it just seemed like a weak English tobacco. Very bland and dull. I wish I had tried a sample before buying a tin. I know some people love this stuff but its not for me.

Well, I agree with Wibble on this one.

To be honest I have got fed up with SG's poor track record. I've had quite a few tins either not sealed and/or rusted inside. Tobacco so unevenly cut and soaking wet that it's a pain to get them to smoke evenly. I've even found mouldy tobacco on opening the tins. Sad to say it because I love Bracken Flake and 1792, when I could get a decent tin that is.

As for Navy Flake...I've had one or two tins where it's been a tolerably nice smoke but on the whole I have had the results Wibble has had.

I go to G & H now in the main...always good in cut, taste and flavour...and value for money.

Similar to Blackbear Queen Anne's Revenge (the Knoxcigar flake made by Gawith), perhaps lighter in Latakia and overall punch... Read my review for this other tobacco, and you'll have an idea.

This Navy Flake is even duller, more monochromatic and boring: not smooth and delicate, just dull.

You can't almost feel the Latakia, and get less Virginia sweetness and richness than in Gawith's pure Va flakes.

I really can't smoke this stuff: not unpleasant, simply in the category of "why should I waste my time with it?".

I have tried a dozen or so tins of this over the years and simply can't go along with the Virginia leaf explorers society nor the SG fan club that appears to love everything that is: 1. Flake 2. has the word 'Navy' somewhere 3. Tobacco from Britain (as in 'steeped in history')

SG has been available in Canada for at least fifty years if not a lot longer and I've smoked every SG blend that has reached our shore for decades. I am not anti-Gawith but neither am I weepy about the 'priviledge' some associate with access to SG tobaccos.

I smoke several SG tobaccos - three on a very regular basis and a three others every week or so. Samuel Gawith Navy Flake is not one of them. It is a bit of an abomination and certainly not to be considered a 'Navy Flake' despite what's on the label. What's wrong with it?

Firstly, the Virginia component SG chose for this flake is not the best they have. Secondly, their 'recipe' defies the historic blending conventions of a Navy Flake and the resulting taste is confused, just short of a shambles and completely misses the mark. Thirdly, even after considerable drying and working the flake, it's difficult to keep lit while smoking on land let alone at sea. Any real sailors would chuck this to the gulls in frustration. This is not just an exercise in academics either because I am not the type to write at length about a pipe tobacco because it is oddly made -- IF the end result is tasty. But it isn't good. It isn't even average. Latakia really has no business in something called Navy Flake let alone one produced in Britain by a company as old as SG. They should know better. Add to that mix a sprinkle of SG's Eau du Lakeland and you have an incomprehensible tangle your mouth can't sort out. Admittedly, I am old and cannot pick out all the nuanced tastes younger pipers believe thay can but good Navy Flake is simple and clean. This one is not.

Make no mistake; it doesn't matter how you air it, prepare it, pack it or what you smoke it in because for me, whatever small change that bring has never turned a sow's ear into a silk purse. SG Navy Flake is not getting any better over the years. I've smoked too many tins over time trying to like it, trying to reconcile myself with SGs approach to navy flake but it's a poor tobacco at best and does not deserve the high rating it has here. 1.5 to 2 stars from me.

Just about every SG tobacco I have tried so far has been somewhat of a disappointment. Navy Flake unfortunately was no different.

The tin description sounded intriguing, and though I am not a big fan of casings with my Latakia blends, I decided to give it a shot.

The tin aroma was pretty horrid. The rum came out and simply assaulted me. I could barely detect a little bit of Latakia through the stench of the casing. The aroma of the sweet Virginia had been totally knocked out by the fake liqueur smell.

The pressed flakes were pretty dry and easy to break up, but then again my tin was about three years old.

I smoked this out of numerous different shapes and sizes of pipes, and still could not get it to taste like what it was advertised as.

The Virginia was not at all playing its part in this blend. In fact the only reason I could detect any VA leaf was the way this tobacco would bite when puffed even the slightest bit too hard.

The Latakia that was promised never really made an appearance, but lingered in the aroma instead.

I think had the casing not been present, this would have measured up to be yet another one of Samuel Gawith's two star bland mixtures.

Good thing I had 965 on hand to remind me what a good English mixture is supposed to taste like.

This one that I just can’t get along with.

I’ve had a tin, jarred up, for over a year and, unless there is a subtle nuance too subtle for me to get, it isn’t offering anything to me.

I don’t get any rum from the pouch note or from the smoke. I guess, it being a navy flake, that I should be getting some rum, from somewhere, somehow?

It is very moist so maybe my jaded pallet is missing something?

The test of a good tobacco to me, is how quickly you need to restock and this one has been sitting on the shelf - alongside some Gold Block and some Kentucky Black Cherry - for significantly longer than some other blends that have been smoked and repurchased.

Once every so often I’ll try one, to see if they’ve changed in the jar but they don’t seem to have matured in the least.

The room note doesn’t smell pleasant at all; more like you’ve been smoking a pair of old wellies you found at the bottom of the garden - a 3) on the wife’s “you aren’t smoking that in here!” Scale.

This is, of course, only my opinion and I don’t doubt for a second that for some this will be the tobacco at the end of the rainbow, but not one for me.

Maybe I’ll leave it a year or two more and see if anything changes.

What ever happened to this tobacco, that used to be among my favourites? I bought a tin two months ago, and the wonderful big thick dark flakes were gone, replaced by what looked like FVF. Also, the tin aroma was something in between FVF and Balkan Flake, a pure not the best Virginia aroma! No traces of Latakia or Rum. No moisture... I smoked it, after having rubbed the flake, only to get warm air. No strenght, no N vitamin, nothing. I thought it was a bad tin. So I tried a new one, and another... today it's the 5th tin with the same results. Probably, reading all the enthusiastic comments, it is a bad stock SG sent to us here, I don't know.

Update: I mixed 50/50 Navy Flake and 1792. The result is a smooth and creamy VA-KE, bringing down Vitamin N. Still, non latakia was detected.

I had many expectations to this staff. SG does quality mixtures and tobacco blends. However, I finished tin only in one year after I opened it. Tobacco is very simple, empty and mediocre. This is first tobacco in my smoking pipe career which I force myself to smoke.