Samuel Gawith Sam's Flake

Where are the orientals in this blend? Maybe at the Samuel Gawith's house they forget adding it to the tobacco of my tin, but I can't detect any oriental.

The smoke is pretty decent as a bland straight Va., but if you expect an oriental blend you'll be highly disappointed.

Two stars, as this baccy is sold as a oriental blend, which clearly it is not.

Fresh tobacco smells a bit after fermented plums. Brown flakes was covered by little sugar even I taste sample fresh from same year. Need a dry time before packing the bowl. Taste of blend is nicely balanced. You can taste all components at same time from beginning to end - Sweetness, earthiness, spiciness and hint of toping, which stayed in bowl all the time.

Need a lot of relights especially when you don't dry it well. Burns really hot and need to say it bit me.

Maybe because I had anticipated something great (as with other blends by Samuel Gawith), it somehow disappointed me. But as I smoke it through I find several good reasons for buying another pack - spicy taste, a little bit unusual flavour and pleasant aroma. You just have to get used to it.

After opening a tin that is well over 2 years old, I was greeted with dark almost black flakes with a thin coating of what I would assume are sugar crystals. The tobacco was extremely moist straight out of the tin which brings me to an issue. My tin was only a 50g tin, but the tobacco was so moist that I feel like I was honestly short changed on some tobacco. The tin was filled 50% at best. I compared this to a tin of Erinmore Flake that I recently opened and had twice as much tobacco inside the tin. I also noticed what some of the other reviewers noticed in regards to the flakes being unevenly cut. This was not a huge deal to me. The tobacco has a nice fig, raisin, dried fruit smell to it and some type of topping / casing. I am not sure what is used to top / case this flake. The topping / casing has a slightly fruity smell to it.

At first I decided to rub this flake out and later to cut the flakes up into small piece and smoke. Both methods produced the same results for me. After firing this blend up, I find that it lights extremely easy and needs no relighting. Flavors of dark Virginia greet me with that casing lingering in the background. As for the orientals, there are none that I can detect. They may be in the flake, although during the visual inspection I could not see any pressed in with the Virginia Leaf. I suspect they are in the mixture but in extremely low amounts and the casing overpowers what the orientals would have to offer to this smoke. As the bowl progresses the Virginia just picks up steam and becomes a little stronger then in the beginning. The casing sticks in the background only to jump in and out every so often to let you know it's there. Towards the end of the bowl, it's mainly Virginia that you get. The casing is barely there at all. The blend burned very well, and did not bite at all.

I find that a smoker would be better served sticking with the other S&G offerings, FVF comes to mind here. I was disappointed in the lack of orientals in this flake. I opened the tin with hopes of finding a flake with enough orientals to give me a change of pace. In the end, one would be better to just stick with a straight forward Virginia and save themselves the hours trying to figure out the casing / topping used on this flake.

Ok, this is my time to rant a little bit about the quality control at SG, for this experience happens alot with SG flakes. I got a flake in this tin that had to be 1/8 of an inch thick! Conversely, some were as thin as shaved ham. At first I didn't know what to do with the damn thing...should I get out my pocket knife and whittle some off of this loaf? Well I finally got it "rubbed" out and loaded up. You get what you pay for and It's not the most expensive tin, yet it costs enough to me. You guys at SG really need to work on this...its not frickin' rocket science..cut the flakes evenly dammit!

On to the review.

This flake was quite unremarkable. It didn't have a bothersome aroma or taste due to the casing, but it really just did nothing for me. The addition of Oriental leaf sounds good, but it didn't add much in the bowl. Too moist in the tin, but this is not a big deal. If you'd like something better from SG try Best Brown Flake, if you'd like something stronger try 1792 or Bracken Flake.

Tin: Vaguely mint floral, SF has predominantly an earthly, grassy, VA aroma, combined with something acrid, like tomato paste. It is quite similar in appearance to SG FVF, like very supple, soft and pliable beef jerky; dark brown, bird's-eyed, mottled and striated with light brown and blonde; only half as long as bulk FVF. SF comes folded in a nice gold paper. Chalky white striations give the appearance of mildew.

Dried out, it has a lighter hue, tan overall, and the blonde is much more evident; it is only partly dry after 4 hours, not bone dry.

Packing and Lighting: When rubbing the pressed/sheet-cut into smaller pieces, it has a stickiness and is a chore to rub out. It is easy to pack too tight. A two-match light, it does not produce excessive gurgle and pretty much stays lit.

Taste and Aroma: It has a grassy floral aspect; someone suggested catnip. It is difficult to distinguish between the subtle contribution of the oriental, versus topping. There is no tongue bite.

Nicotine: mild to medium

Room Note: pleasant, like the taste and aroma.

Overall: Not worth much special attention. 2.9 stars