Samuel Gawith Westmorland Mixture

Traditional Scottish blend (BC+VA+L) with a natural sweetness from the BC and minimal to no added flavour. Very forgiving when smoked hastily. Fresh yet malty. Not your typical English or Danish blend, very mild and light in N and flavour. 4 of 5 points, will keep this in rotation.

Westmorland is a very strange smoke. You cannot understand if it's an English or an aromatic tobacco. It is however, light. There is no taste of the Cypriot Latakia and there is a sweetness that seems more artificial than natural. When you open the box and see this gold coarse mixture (this is good because it burns slowly), the smell that rises is a little confusing. It is neither natural smell of smoke nor the smell of an aromatic. It needs a lot attention both when filling and smoking, in order to avoid any tongue accidents. The aroma in the room did not bother me, but I certainly did not like it. I tried it because my friend “karg” suggested it, but this will be as far as I'll go.

Picked up a 5 1/2 year old tin on Ebay, then looked at the reviews and saw they were somewhat mixed. After smoking this tobacco for a couple of days, I have decided to throw my four stars into the mix, and if I enjoy the rest of the tin as much as I have enjoyed the beginning, may very well get a few to cellar. Has a sweet topping (sweetener, not flavor), but to me it is unobtrusive. Pretty mild, but to me at least, very pleasant. The Virginias seem top notch, as do the burning qualities. Gawith has not let me down yet; I gave my lowest rating of the Samuel Gawiths I have tried to Golden Glow, but maybe I'll even give that one another chance. Do I dare try Firedance? This has a nice balance of Virginia and cavendish, and a light application of Latakia, which to my tastes goes along well with this style.

Update 3-31-10: Firedance is great! See my review and others. So is this blend, which I am smoking as I type, in a Night & Day churchwarden. Way to go, Samuel Gawith, and hope to see more of you around these parts soon!

3-9-11 Struggling to remember this one, but I must have liked it as I smoked it all pretty quickly. I'll try it again sometime. I love Golden Glow now: someone sent me a sample which proved beyond any doubt that I judged it too harshly the first time I tried it. Question is, will Westmorland still seem like a four-star when I smoke it again?

12-19-11 I have so much tobacco I still have not bought this again, here at the end of 2011, even though I'm thinking this one has remained avaliable throughout the SG shortage. I'll revisit it someday, GWATCDR.

Well, this is a kind of aromatic by SG.

Not my cup of tea, at all. The latakia is pretty absent and the smoke quite uniform and boring. In this kind of experiments I feel Perfection has more punch (even not liking completely the "vanilla killing" of very nice leafs)

Just recommended as a change of pace (once in a week or once in a month)

RdX score: 82.70 (10 different pipes)

I never repeat with scores under 85 and I regularly smoke with scores over 90.

I really wanted to like this and tried it in various pipes hoping to find the perfect one, however I could not. This was less flavorful than I hoped, though that flavor was of some very good Virginia as you would expect from SG. If I want that though I can just smoke FVF which is a great deal better than this offering.

I have reviewed Skiff Mixture by this Kendal based blender which I gave full marks to as my hands down favourite but for some reason best known to myself I bought 50 grms of Westmorland Mixture. I committed the cardinal sin of mixing it with the Skiff Mixture because of the distinct acidic content of Westmorland Mixture which means I have now rendered unsmokeable half a jar of tobacco. I assume the acidity comes from the Cavendish tobaccos but I don,t know

I've enjoyed a number of the Gawith blends over the years,so I was curious about Westmoreland Mixture,not having tried it... The strength was medium and the flavoring more subtle than I had expected. I can taste a touch of the Gawith trademark which is a full taste but here is tempered down.I shared some with my neighbor and waited for him to light a bowl first so as to get an objective whiff as the tobacco began to burn. Pleasant--kind of old style. I've smoked a few bowls since I bought this tin, and I'm delighted with the consistency and flavor throughout. At the finish, there was hardly any dottle and the pipe was clean . I like this very much and would recommend to pipe lovers everywhere.

This is a really unique tobacco. The combination of tobaccos is interesting. The can note is not unpleasant. It is kind of mysterious. The first time I tried I was not impressed. It was like I had to reset my taste buds. 2nd pipe the reset was activated and I enjoyed it in the smaller English pipes. It does not see action every day. Probably 3 times a week, it is a little hard to find in Kansas City, so I order it. I will keep on ordering it especially during the hotter months. It just goes great with a G&T on the deck.

Stay with this one it is worth it and it is easy to smoke.

I know I'm swimming against the tide here but I enjoyed this tobacco. I find the Virginia dominates this blend more than the other leaves involved. A little damp as recieved, it smoked o.k. even when damp. Not in my top ten but I won't mind at all finishing this tin.