Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. Gawith Red

As far as I remember the last pouch of Amphora I had (which should be reasonable well, it was one of the few aromatics I really enjoyed), this resembles it about as well as can be expected.

It really looks like it- a mix of broken flake and ribbon, mid brown tobaccos with a little birds eye, it even has the same fault as the original, that the last few bowls out of the pouch burn hot because the pieces of flake break apart too much when it's bumping around in your pocket all day!

It is a pleasant, semi-floral, semi-sweet aromatic, with only a little fruitiness compared to the original- I suspect that in this blend most of the fruitiness comes from the choice of tobaccos, rather than the casings. This blend is less noticably flavoured that the original (which was very subtly flavoured, the casings complementing the leaf, rather than smothering it), but has a pleasant, subtly sweet aroma, and the sweet taste is quite noticable- some liquorice extract perhaps? In fact, this blend seems almost a cross between the Dutch Aromatic original, and the sweetish and floral Lake district aromatics. All that is missing is that chocolatey flavour and aroma that Amphora seemed to generate in the last quarter of the bowl, as the flavour thickened up. I miss that- it was the complexity that made Amphora so pleasant- it never got boring.

However, this is a very pleasant tobacco, and well worth a try. It is strong enough that it is worth smoking, more than can be said for many aromatics, and while the room note is pleasantly sweet, it offers enough depth of flavour to please the smoker as well as his "audience".