Samuel Gawith St. James Flake

When you open the tin of SG St. James Flake you find flakes very appealing to the eyes and nose, with different thickness levels, and humid like other tobaccos of the same house.

On the tin note department it smells like hay, fermentation, dried fruits, prune, raisins, spices and sweet. From this point you can notice similarities with Full Virginia Flake, and in my HO is the same Virginia with perique added.

From the first lit I can detect these mentioned fermented and fruity quality of the Virginias, reinforced with the raisins, dark fruits flavors of the perique, adding spice and body to the smoke. There´s also some hay and earth notes coming from the Virginias. As the smoke progress it delivers some bread notes and some deep sweetness. Compared with other Va-Pers is darker and more fruity than spicy. The flavors are consistent through the entire bowl, leaving a nice aftertaste. It burns well, need a relight or two, and no tongue bite detected. It needs a little drying time. Excellent tobacco and one of my favorites!

One of my four absolute preferred, because they STAND as landmarks in their categories: FVF for virginia, Solani 660 for va/bur, Triple Play for va/bur/per, and St James for va/per. (No, I don’t like EMs). The first time was love: such a grassy flake in the tin, a smell like NO other, all those crystal glimpses of sugar .. made me want to ... YES it’s good to chew!!

Unfolding and loading: not easy, just like his aunt FVF... this lady is tough.. take your time, break it or let it dry a bit.

The smoke is delicious, the pepper from perique gives an extra to all the figues-raisins-lemon from the excellent SG virginia. I thonk it’s the best va/per around because it is something MORE than just a sum va+per.

Always makes me rant for another bowl, once you get it going and rub it good, it can be an excellent all-day, because -as FVF- you are going to taste it differently everytime, evolution is continuous.

I found this tin in a stack of random tins I bought 8 years ago. Upon opening, the initial tin note was a blast of the best smell I have ever smelled. The flakes were crystalized with Plume, the Perique seemingly completely assimilated into the Virginia's which seem to have fermented and deepened. Simply fantastic, sweet, sour, figgy... the smoke has no bite whatsoever. Simply as good as tobacco gets. After a month open, the tin still gives that wonderful smell every time I open it for my once a week pipe. I only wish I could buy some more. This is perhaps my all time favorite.

Great Vaper,good real tobacco taste all the way,the perique is masterly blended- I do prefer dark virginias,but this one is a big exeption. some plum notes all the way but not at all overpowering, rubbed out and let it dry for 8 minutes....Go ahead,try it with a cup of coffe!

I like St. James Flake. It is something about it that puts me in a good mood, a good review mood. With the risk of generalizing, when it comes to the nic effect, I like to think that there are basically two categories of baccies, those that make you a bit dull and tired and those that perk up your senses. This could all be very relative and might vary for every individual pipe smoker. But for me, SJF belongs to the latter category. It is an inspirational smoke, and, that is a quality that I value in its own right. Maybe, the combination with coffe helps. And if you are, like me, a fan of Delta blues, I really recommend sipping on this while listening to Son House. A nice leisure summer day, a good cup of coffe (or a sweet cold fruit juice is also nice), Son House in the background and SJF in the pipe - yeah, that's it!

Ok, I'm digressing a bit from the standard type of review. But there are plenty of descriptions for you to read. But, what stands out with SJF is its smootheness. Yes, the peppary streangth of the perique is definetly felt, but the virginias are so smooth with subtle complexity, no harschness, smokes dry all the way down, and, ideally, no bite. But it needs drying, I dryed the flakes for at least three hours. If you don't dry it properly you might have to struggle a bit, with risk of tounge bite.

I also recommend the review by Corey Mac, written with an imaginative palate. For me, this is a blues kind of smoke, it stands firm on the earth, it is a mature smoke, some heaviness and streangth to it, but also at the same time it has that smooth lightness that lifts your spirit by sheer refinement and enjoyment. Also, when I left half a finished bowl only to return to it the next day more than 12 h later it was just as good!

I bought this from a seller that sells portions of bulk. But I presume the tin and bulk is the same, so I added my review to this list.

So you like Perique and VaPers, eh? Well, this is your new benchmark and quite a kick in the ass. Not unlike a McClelland, SJF is moist out of the tin with thick flakes that are a bit of a chore to rub out, but let it dry, be patient and sip with reasonable cadence.

It starts out fairly mellow, but then alights to a tangy, peppery, tart and full-bodied smoke that pairs best with a hearty dram. Delivers a nice dose of Vitamin N and a single flake will last an hour. I don't get any Lakeland essence but rather a light, coffee casing that burns off quickly. Best in class and an evolution of FVF.

When you open a tin and stick your nose in there you get a sweet smell similar to figs. This flake requires a l

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ng drying time. I've smoked it by folding the flakes and rubbing the flake out. Both ways are fine, but you get a slightly sweeter taste when you fold. The perique gives you a more of a fruity taste than pepper, but it's slightly peppery near the end. If you sip your pipe you get a nice sweet taste from the Virginias. I think this will not be an everyday smoke for me due to its drying time.

Delicious tin nose of fermented Virginia and fruity Perique. As always with Samuel Gawith, the tobacco in tin is soaking wet. A nuisance! First of all I take theses dark brown and thick flake straps, rub them out roughly, spread it on a plate and let it air for several hours or even overnight. Don’t overdo it with drying, the blend will lose a lot of flavours, not strength, even if you re-moister it. There is only Virginia and Perique in this mixture and I cannot detect any added flavouring, casing or topping.

It’s all top quality tobacco. The robust Virginias donate aromas of bread, yeast, fermented grass, earth, natural tobacco and sweetness, all in different grades and shades as you go on. The Perique is both, pleasantly fruity (plum/raisin) and peppery. ST. JAMES FLAKE is rather a strong mixture, due to the robust selection of Virginias on the one hand, and the peppery part of Perique on the other hand. Perique is the leader in this blend most of the time. Nic-hit is medium to strong. It’s a characterful Va/Per, but not an all day smoke.

I like St. James Flake a lot! It has just enough to Perique to make the smoke earthy and keep it very, very interesting without giving your tongue the sparkles. I rubbed this flake out, I haven't tried folding and stuffing it yet because as with a lot of Samuel Gawith's stuff, it tends to be pretty damp! So I rub this out and let it dry for around an hour, then I tear up the strands pretty well. It packs pretty easily using this method and stays lit well. The Perique in this flake keeps the smoke cool and dry!

Light up! This is a very subtly complex smoke. Very, very earthy. Minerals, like when you dig a hole in a shady spot in your back yard, wet earth, with all the roots and bugs and small stones and things unknown and unseen living in it. Have you ever walked down the sidewalk when the sprinklers hit it? It's kinda like that too. Walking through the woods with all the decomposing leaves and stuff. Warm wood in the sun. Wine barrel staves. Only slight sugar from the Virginias. Machine grease, motor oil, some tar, tire rubber and new electronics. Slight sweetness like green fig. Not green fig itself, just the sweetness you get from eating them, sorta light. Lettuce. Ha! That's really weird!! This flake reminds me of walking in the woods in San Luis Obispo, near where I live, it's kinda coastal. Some furniture polish with a slight, slight asphalt note. Very, very slight herbal quality that I can't yet put my finger on. Graphite, pencil shavings and some wet cork. Yay!!

There's a reason that Samuel Gawith is so legendary, besides being a really, really old producer. After more than 200 years, They still got it!