Samuel Gawith St. James Flake

This review is for the bulk version. Very nice, medium dark-brown, leathery virginia - perique flakes, which show the sparkle of tiny little crystals if held in the sunlight. Can burn down consistently to a pepper and salt ash. Smoking characteristics depend on packing and smoking style. Rubbing out the flake and smoking at a relaxed pace works best for me.

Rich, tasty and spicy aroma with sweet undertones. Hmm, undertones is an understatement. It can get pretty sweet at times and I get the impression of flavours like anise, liquorice and honey. I am wondering, how it would go along with a glas of anise liqueur.

The perique presents itself tingly, peppery and nicely, without being overwhelming, or obtrusive. High in nicotine. Soothing and very satisfying. No tongue bite, no gurgle.

In my opinion a honest and delicious smoke, if you like sweet virginia-perique flakes and know how to smoke them. The smoke get's harsh and bitter easily, if you are in a hurry, so it has a somehow educating effect on me. It says: "Slow down, relax, enjoy!"

This flake definately is something to be savoured.

Edit: After almost 9 years I am smoking a bowl of this in a Vauen 526. Still great!

A most unsatisfactory smoke.

This is my second tin of this. In both tins the presentation has been poor consisting of broken flakes rather than whole flakes. The tobacco itself is too moist to be used directly and would probably benefit from drying before smoking.

High maintenance smoke; difficult to light, difficult to keep lit and puffing enough to keep it lit results in tongue burn. Requires frequent tamping. For me this tobacco is not a relaxing and pleasant experience.

To begin with I am not very much into VaPer blends in general. As to this particular offering, I detect the typical Samuel Gawith VA base so well known from smoking tin after tin of FVF and especially BBF. That makes for a promising beginning. However, I must admit that the Perique does not really add anything to my personal enjoyment of this blend. It's not a bad smoke but then again there's nothing that convinces me to depart from my usual VA fare. 3 out of 4 stars.

Edit: Turns out I had just given up too fast on this tobacco. Agreed, it took me roughly 3. oz of St. James Flake to figure this one out. It is a revelation none the less. I am upping my rating to 4 out of 4 stars.

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 really appreciate Samuel Gawith and his mixtures, but this is not my Va/Pe. Difficult to smoke, very complex, certainly rich in nuances but too laborious. In my opinion a complicated and not very clean taste. I don’t know if the Perique is pure St. James or Acadian (I think the first one because the taste is quite different than Acadian), but, on the whole, there is something that doesn’t work.

By the way, there are two kind of Perique on the market: the straight and pure St. James Perique (100% Perique) is really rare and difficult to find, while Acadian Perique (Kentucky Green River Burley mixed with the St. James tobacco) is most commonly used to make Perique. Most mixtures employ the Acadian Perique, but I believe in this mixture there is the straight St. James (and this is a plus).

Finally another flaw is that this mixture is too moist. So, on the whole, it doesn’t convince me. At the moment, in my personal rating system (from 1 to 10) my score is 7 and two stars. Probably in the future I’ll give it another chance (it’s so difficult to find a mixture with pure St. James perique).

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.