Samuel Gawith St. James Flake

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!

Picked up a tin in Strasbourg, France, and smoked it in the shadow of the EU bureaucracy. It was wonderful - somehow the flake presentation brought out the best of the perique punchiness. I'm not sure if, after this, I'll be able to go back to the pure Virginia flake. There was just too much going on that I'd miss. Close finish between this and Navy Escudo Deluxe in the VaPer olympics.

Wow....Great flake! The tin aroma is rich, dark fruit and raisin and some hay. It is rather moist, even after drying for half an hour. The good thing is this is one of the coolest burning Va's I ever had which is nice as I tend to over puff, especially when the tobacco is moist. This one is so pleasurable. I can;t wait until I can smoke some after it has dried some and there are not so many relights. Still even with all the work, this is a nice, rich Va flake.

Update:

Every time I smoke this blend, I love it even more. Such a full flavored Va Per, yet so cool burning. It's impossible to NOT enjoy.

Yet another fine flake from SG. Sweet and subtle tin note. Nice beige flakes with brown streaks. Crystalline formations along the lines. I was lucky to find a sealed aged tin. I think the aging must make this a smooth smoker. I hand rubbed the entire tin to relieve moisture and find it a one light smoke after gravity feeding, charring, tamping and lighting. The top third of the bowl is rather nice with a mild sweetness and a wonderful aroma. Mid bowl is a bit better but the bottom third is where I find this flake to comes alive. Sipping, rolling round my tongue and exhaling through my nose lets me get the most from this flake. There is a lot to be said about these flakes that are flavoured through aging rather than chemicals. Smooth. Moderately mellow and a genuine joy to smoke. Recommended

Gave this one a few tries because of the reviews it has received and also because I like perique. Actually, I purchased a new Caminetto business billiard for this tobacco alone because I was certain I'd love it. Nope. I give up.

The smoke is just terrible. Flat pepper that's dense and heavy mixed with moldy moss. Typically, I try to get through the whole tin when trying something new. However, only half of this tin was burned and the other half just hit the trash can with a thud.

At the last third of this bowl I said to myself "Why? What's the point?" There's no sense in trying so hard to make this work for me.

If this was all there was to smoke out there, I'd have to quit. It's just that bad.

This one is thrashed and trashed.

I can't say much about what comes in tin's but the 2 ounce bulk came very wet and even after 24 hours of drying it was like leather or beef jerky. Would not rub out properly and require many relights. Much more hassle then it's worth for a flavor that was too mild for me. I won't waste my time or money buying it again.

Virginia and Perique the two soul mates in tobacco blending join together once again in St. James Flake. And what a relationship it turned out to be in the beautiful blend. Some have commented on it's closeness to the "King of VaPer" the esteemed Escudo. I too have to agree with that comparison and when this mixture is dried to nearing brittle but not too close it shines like the rising sun on the wake of an Atlantic sea. Deep, powerful, stewing in plum, raisin, and fig delivering always a truly remarkable experience. A companion for each of us with unconditional loyalty. Three cheers for SJF!!!