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.

This review comes from my first tin, so I think it could be updated after more.

Very dark flakes with fruity notes (it reminds me of apple and pears), quite moist like all SG. I rub the flakes and let them dry for a couple of hours and then load in the bowl and light.

Lighting the mixture you can taste and smell a mild flavouring (not fruity when lit), always very pleasant and never overpowering, very well balanced and never tiring. Dry and sweet smoke, with spicy notes due to orientals.

Something different from usual VA mixtures, top quality flakes. Great smoke for morning and afternoon!

I'll buy more and keep in my rotation.

Highly recommended!

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 am a real fan of gawith but for some reason the topping makes me sick its like smoking a pack of big red bubble gum. I smoked 3 bowels in 3 different pipes and can't see myself EVER reaching for it again.

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

Although I've found many excellent Virginia tobaccos available (McClelland, Rattrays, F&T), somehow Sam Gawith puts a spin on them that I find irresistable. The only thing that keeps me from grabbing Sam's flake every time is the incredible moisture content. I actually have to plan a day or two ahead of time to get it to be ignitable (same with Chocolate Flake). Ah, but the steam is delicious when I finally succeed! Don't go too dry.

Unlike several other reviewers, I find this to be every bit as sweet as MacBaren's VA#1 and Marlin Flake: pseudo-aromatic, almost. The label even admits to a bit of topping; I find it spicy and fruity, sort of a mincemeat taste. Yummy! Cinnamon toast aroma? I'll second that.

Pipe: big. Go big and prepare the flake by rolling it around in your palm so that it is not entirely broken up. In a big pipe, I get a wonderful easy draw through it and (once finally ignited)it practically smokes itself with no bite. For a LONG time. Nicotine is mild enough that you won't be swimming. Prepare for moisture either with a reservoir pipe or with pipe cleaners.

This changes my idea what turkish tobacco tastes like. Maybe it's the VA's or the topping, but there is none of the leatheriness I associate with them.

Highly recommended to smokers of flake Virginias who enjoy them sweet and rich. A good companion to Gawith's FVF.

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.

I ordered this blend in a 50g tin and the nicely prepared,very pliable flakes were like the chewing gum I used to buy in my youth and ~ 3"x1.25"x1/16". None were damaged in processing or shipment which fit perfectly with my SOP of no rubout. The color ranged from black on the edges of the original cake to redish and brown with even some golden included. The intial mositure content was higher than my ideal and with my packing technique resulted in a difficult initial light and numerous relights. Even with drying, this was problematic. I sensed a hint of the Lakeland soap in the tin aroma but that wasn't present enough to spoil the tobacco taste for me. However, it smoked cool and without any bite even with the relights. It was not as sweet as my preferred straight VAs probably due to the Turkish add but still is worth a try by any flake lover.