Samuel Gawith Sam's Flake

This is a funny one. I am not really getting the orientals that are referenced in the description - to my palate this burns like a virginia flake with a little tonquin, and perhaps some perique (none to my knowledge is referenced, I am merely referencing a distinct spicy quality, especially in the first third of the bowl).

My flakes are old, and like strips of dark leather. They require a substantial (30+ minutes) amount of drying to be ready to smoke. They rub out easily, and burn for an eternity. When smoked slowly expect 1.5 hours or so from a medium sized bowl. The smell in the tin is very nice, sweet VA's and and raisin or prune quality. The tonquin is very mild, both in the tin and in the bowl, but it gives a nice additional dimension to this smoke.

It requires several false lights and light tamping to get it going, but burns nicely once lit. This requires slow smoking. While it does not bite, it will get quite hot if you puff too rapidy, and the flavor suffers. When smoked slowly the flavor is rich but mild. I taste VA's and spice, and not a whole lot else. The tonquin is there, but not in a forward way. This would be an excellent introduction to the flavor for someone not ready to take the 1792 plunge. There is not a lot of nicotine here, and a largish bowl can be smoked with pleasure.

Compared to most other flakes on the market this is a 4 star blend. The quality is off the chart, and the flavor, while mild, is singular. There are, however, other Gawith flakes that are significantly better, in my estimation, so I give it three stars. It does not have the magic of Best Brown or Full Virginia, or the complexity and richness of Navy Flake, 1792, of Chocolate Flake. It is a pleasant diversion, but once my stock is gone I will most likely not replace it, simply because of the aforementioned offerings that are simply better to my preference. This is definitely worth a try, however, and could fill a niche if you are looking for a VA flake that is different from most others.

Kind of my go-to when I get the jones for a little tonquin but don't want to go for the full-bore blast of 1792. Not my favorite flake but I end up buying it repeatedly, so there must be something bringing me back. It is nice to have an oriental blend with tonquin, which seems kind of unique.

Presentation is OK by me. Not too bothered with Gawith's old-school method of slicing up a flake. Think of the effect that using a muddler will have when mashing up something for a mixed drink. Not so neat and tidy but a better effect with the smoke, which is what counts. The flakes are dark with some birdseye, covered with sugar crystals and obviously stoved as there is a rind on the outer edges of the flake.

Nice dark and slightly musty virginias, Gawith style. If I were to hazard a guess, I would say that the orientals are dominated by Izmir, since when I am smoking something with Izmir in it at the same time as when I have a tin of Sam's open there are some similarities there.

Flavor profile changes quite a bit depending on whether you fold and stuff vs. rubbing it out and also on chamber size. I prefer the fold and stuff method with this tobacco. In a small chambered pipe the taste is mostly virginias with more honey/lakeland and a hint of the orientals. In a mid chambered pipe, which I prefer, from front to back it goes orientals, virginias, a hint of tonquin and a tiny bit of the lakeland. I enjoy the slightly herbal flavor with the tonquin quite a bit, although I might prefer a bit more tonquin. It is not tonquin forward at all like 1792 is, so if you hate tonquin, dry it out and no worries. Pretty mellow flavor all in all.

If you work at it there is sometimes a delicious sweet note that I like to call the 'green note' that comes out - super nice. Not the sweetest flake otherwise, in spite of all the sugar crystals.

I must point out that Samuel Gawith is in my top three tobacco companies. I currently have forty blends in rotation, and five of them are Samuel Gawith products. There would be more, but I am out of stock on a few. I am primarily a flake and English/Latakia smoker.

I agree with much of The German's review below. I will discuss my experience with the blend here:

The tobacco is fairly moist out of the tin. The flakes are all unique and no cut seems to be the same as the next (think snowflakes). If smoking right after cracking the seal, I recommend a looser pack. If dried and rubbed out finely, it can be packed by a traditional method (i.e. pack first pinch lightly, second slightly harder, third harder still, and so on depending on size/depth of bowl.

The Virginias are there the whole time, but seem to be more present in the second half of the bowl. This is even more pronounced if the tobacco is allowed to dry to where it is just slightly moist. The tonquin bean is more pronounced when the tobacco is wet and almost completely absent once the tobacco has been allowed to dry. I like the tonquin bean flavoring, as it is also present in some of my favorite blends (i.e. SG's Westmorland Mixture). The orientals (not latakia) are there the entire time, but take a back seat to the Virginias as the batch burns to the bottom of the bowl.

If moist, it needs a false light, a tamp, and a true light and tamp. From there it will keep burning to the bottom of the bowl with the occasional tamp. If allowed to dry to slightly moist, I find that it lights with one match and continues to burn with a few tamps along the way. In fact, as I am typing this, I am smoking a bowl and thought that it actually went out on me. I picked up the pipe, tamped it down gently as I lightly puffed in a quick rhythmic fashion to find the bowl started going again with no need to burn another match.

I would give this blend four stars if it had a little more vitamin N and about 10 - 15% latakia added to the blend prior to pressing. Then again, that might make it too much like Westmorland Mixture... thus taking away from the uniqueness of the blend overall. No need to canabalize one blend with another that is too similar. That wouldn't be good marketing 😉

Opening the tin, the smell is of sweet Va and something like tonquin/flowery, the flakes are in different thickness and quite moist as usual with S.G. offerings, it seems that someone has sliced the cake with a rough axe and then sprayed all with a light touch of herbal/floral balm. Don't get me wrong, I don't complain at all: thickness and moisture are welcomed by me because I fully rub the flakes without drying too much, for my taste there's a drastic drop of flavors after the drying. Once lit, SF starts with a pleasant Va sweetness and after a few puffs some spicy/toastiness notes appear as well, the grassy/floral scent partially translates into the smoke, just a waft of "Lakeland blooming" moving in and out together with the sweet/toasty notes, near to the end the turkish roastiness increases in a pleasant way: SF never gets bitter nor sour, it smokes cool and smooth from the rim to the bottom of the bowl. Not in the top of my preferences but a good experience that I'll repeat for sure.

As described by others, it is very siimilar to Full Virginia Flake in texture and appearance. The aroma of the tobacco in the tin reminds me of cinnamon toast. The smoke is quite mild with the natural taste of Virginia slightly spiced with Turkish. There is light, sweet element in the taste but none of the cinnamon aroma comes through. This is not a typical Lake District flake; no typical English flavorings interfere or complement the taste of tobacco. There are no "soapy" additives here. All in all, this is a nice Virginia and easy to smoke with no bite. Well recommended. Paddy.

I am a virginia smoker and find this very nice. I must say it has a wonderful tin aroma. I am going to try more Lakeland flakes to try more of their essences. I am not traditionally an aromatic smoker in the least. With that said I wish more of that wonderful tin note was in the smoke. Honest tobacco taste 3.5/4

Very mild, sweet dark Virginia flakes, lightly top flavored with some Lakeland perfume, tasty, mellow, extremely sweet, cool burning, truly enjoyable smoke!.

I believe there is some oriental in the mix but I could not notice any, for me this is a sweet Virginia with Lakeland topping.

Sam's Flake is a delicious Virginia smoke, very mild in nicotine, very sweet and tasty, with some honey/candy note similar to Mac Baren Virginia No.1. This is now a favorite of mine and I will add it to my regular daily smoke.

I have lately been exploring Lakeland Scented Flakes. It is a fascinating journey. Sam's Flake is the latest in this genre.

Appearance: A mostly dark brown with some light brown and tan mottling leathery flake of varying thickness.

Tin aroma: Sam's Flake is that it is fairly lightly scented, and not one that most American pipe smokers would likely call ?soapy?. There is a faintly sweet aroma of maybe lavender or some other floral essence, it is very hard for me to tell. Some typical hay-like tones of nice ripe Virginias and a very slight hint of Turkish There is an underlying sour almost citrus scent as well.

This tobacco seems too moist to me, but I find that it generally performs well straight out of the tin. As with most flake tobaccos I simply take several flakes together, fold them in half and insert them length-wise into the bowl trimming off the excess. I find it has a much better burn this way and makes for a long enjoyable smoke.

For this review, I?ve chosen a Lannes Johnson semi-churchwarden. A first light is brings billows of rich white smoke, followed with a brief visit of the tamper and then a tamping light. The topping just there, a nice sweet compliment to the fine quality leaf underneath. I can only just detect the topping and really have no idea what the flavor really is, that said I do like it. Some have said the room note or aroma remind them of cinnamon toast and I think that's a fair assessment. There is a nice inter working of Virginia sweet 'n sour and Turkish mustiness. This is a fairly sweet mixture owing partly to the Virginias and to the topping/casing agents. As is fairly typical of English flake tobaccos when smoked un rubbed it takes a bit to get this blend going; once there though it smokes with minimal re-lights. The first third of a bowl is fairly uneventful, just kind of simmering along at a nice steady pace.

Mid Bowl: Approaching mid-bowl, the fullness tends to build getting rounder and building in complexity. The topping or casing gradually fades completely into the background imparting a steady and lasting sweetness to the bowl. The Virginias build in depth and character while the Turkish slowly builds and begins to assert a deepness and rounder quality to the Virginia. The over-all taste reminds me of some more well known offerings, though direct comparison is not really there completely. It seems to fall somewhere between Rattray's Marlin Flake and SG Full Virginia Flake in over-all flavors and strength. If one takes the time to smoke this slowly and methodically a sweet, rich and flavorful voyage is there for the taking.

Home Stretch: As end of the bowl approaches, I find that it becomes more intense though never overpoweringly so. This blend never reaches the strength of some other SG offerings such as 1792 or Bracken Flake. It is more subdued and mild by comparison. The Turkish never really does anything greater than fill in the gaps. Deep and resonant forest, leather and sweet tones emerge from the heart of this blend. The sweetness and topping/casing are more of an enhancement and have matured and ripened into a fascinating mixture of stewed spiced fruits and rich adult pleasures.

Overall this is a mild to medium bodied mixture of outstanding quality and flavor.

Supplemental Notes: This is very likely to become a regular part of my rotation as a something to be reached for when a heavily scented flake is desired without the strength of similar offerings. ***1/2

I find this flake somewhere in between McConnell's Scottish Flake, and Ashton's Old London Pebble Cut (the English version). There may be no Burley (i.e., Kentucky) or Perique in Sam's Flake, but the Turkish element makes it, in my opinion, somewhat closer to those two blends (after all, the Lake District is in between Scotland and London) than to Gawith's own Full Virginia. Sam's flake is slightly richer than McConnell's, but milder than Ashton's. The Turkish and Virginia combine for a somewhat subdued smoking structure. A surprisingly smooth and mild flake, with a slight sweetness, it comes rather on the moist side. In my experience, it was difficult to light and keep lit. However, the flavor is nice and quiet, and the room aroma is not heavy at all. This can be regular smoke through out the day or, in any case, a nice change of pace for the Virginia smoker.