Samuel Gawith St. James Flake

This tobacco has a very nice tin aroma. Dark fruits and a surprising note reminiscent of Junior Mints (an American confection). The smoke is very easy on the tongue and can be puffed a bit more than other VA's I smoke. the Perique is well balanced and quite complimentary. This blend can be smoked a bit wetter than FVF with a good burn. The dark fruits carry over to the taste making this a good smoke when you feel like something sweet and spicy. I would pair this with a small batch bourbon.

KD

I realize my taste sensations may not be those of the average briar enthusiast.

However, S.Gs St James is in my sort of humble opinion like the Milky Way of VAPERS.

It has this really delicious caramel flavor derived completely from the tobaccos and not some artificial topping.

Others have compared it to Escudo (good luck finding that anywhere nowadays) and I would agree with most of those comparisons. Escudo: 10, St James: 8.

When all is said and done, and youve laid down your hard or easily earned money, you wont regret your purchase of this quality tobacco. I bought 4ozs as a trial, and will be receiving a pound in a few days. I really like it.

This is a budget Escudo! The taste is very similar... not quite equal to Escudo perfection but its bulk price point carries it over the top. Highly recommended to VAPER lovers and crazed hording fanatics!

In a fit of paranoia, paroxysms of fed fear, I bought a buttload of tobacco to cellar in the beginning of March. I don?t know why exactly, the pipe tobacco tax is going up maybe a buck fifty a pound, sure it?s hundred and some percent increase, but still? Anyhow, among the tins I bought to cellar, I picked up four ounces of St. James Flake in bulk, in a large part because of the reviews on here. The positive ones. Funny thing that, I ignore the negative ones when I?m planning on getting a tobacco anyhow.

This came very moist in the bag, long dark thin flakes, with a strong peppery perique scent. I rubbed one flake out just to make it dry quicker, when they are a bit drier I?ll probably try just folding a flake into a pipe. I eyeballed the flake and figured it would fill my Castello billiard, in between a Dunhill group four and five, perfectly. Even if I was wrong I wouldn?t admit it, but it was a real good guess, one flake is about a pinch more than a group 4. It still took the better part of an hour to dry enough to smoke.

Once dried it was an impressive smoke, assertive, flavorful, tasty. It?s a little heavier with perique than most factory blends out there, except when I?ve added perique to a Virginian I like I can?t remember having smoked a VA/Per as Per heavy. That?s not saying much, I?ve smoked maybe ten factory made Va/Per. In this blend it works well. Though I haven?t had a Gawith blend I didn?t like, I don?t consider their regular Virginians as real high end, or not in the same class as say Rattrays or Reiners. This is a perfect blend for them, a great balance between the Virginians and the perique bringing out the full flavor of both. Am considering ordering another pound before it shoots up another buck and a half (it?s a weak excuse, but any excuse to stock up on good tobacco is a good one).

Maybe it?s a bad idea to review a tobacco after just one bowl but I think of first impressions as the best. So far I haven?t needed to go back and edit a review, my opinion remaining pretty static, although, honestly, I haven?t tasted some of the Dunhill blends I?ve reviewed since they switched from Murrays to Orlik for the American export.

Four stars for St James flake, a heavier perique VA/Per, good solid, bold smoke.

This is a review of the bulk flake. It has all been said before. One of my top three favorite VApers...Escudo, St. James, Dunbar.

07/27/09 UPDATE: I am revising some of my reviews. I have given out more 4 star ratings than anything else. That practice is probably not helping. So, I am reducing SJF to 3 stars, not because I like it less than I did before, but because I am limiting 4 stars to fewer than 25% of all my reviews. One day I may use the 4 star rating to designate my top five.

08/22/09 UPDATE: I found a pipe last month that is especially suited for smoking VApers. I have rotated several blends in this pipe, and for me bulk St. James Flake aged a year stands above the rest. I think it contains superior Virginias that are sweeter and present a greater range. The perique is tastier and more pronounced. Some VApers are near unidimensional in comparison. This is my King-O-VApers. Thus, it goes back to 4 stars.

One of the older blends that I miss is the original Escudo but I have to admit that SG's St. James Flake is as good, if not better. It is, however, smoother without that Escudo "zest" and never seems to bite. The distinctive perique taste and flavor becomes more apparent as the smoke goes on, but doesn't dominate. St. James is particularly enjoyable when alternated with pipefuls of good English and/or Balkan blends. If there is a better va/perique blend out there somewhere, I would love to hear about it. Right now, it is definitely my favorite in this category.

This is an excellent blend. I have found that smoking it in my Big Ben nose warmer with a 9mm filter suits it nicely, and allows me to smoke a bit more vigorously.

My blend was dry and I crushed it in a tobacco crusher. This creates a lot of edges which burns very well. I gravity fed the bowl slightly tamping it down. Lighting it was a breeze. The blend burned cool. Would work as an all day smoke.

Perique being my favorite spicing tobac, I found this to be a nicely blended mix. I can't say that it was too strong like other reviewers experienced.

It's a bit difficult for me to compare this to other vaper blends. More mild than Escudo and Solani 633, having with an identity of it's own. Who would expect less from S. Gawith and company?

Highly recommended.

No need to add anything to the many fine reviews on this blend. Taste is a very personal issue and for me SJF is an excellent smoke. I rank it right up with Escudo Navy Deluxe. If you enjoy Vapers, this one is certainly worth a try.

This is one great tobacco! Not for everyone, I'm sure, but for me, this is wonderful stuff.

Samuel Gawith's flakes are, as a group, among my very favorite tobaccos. They are no-messing-around, straight-forward, full-flavored good ol' tobacco. I love a good straight Virginia, and to me there's no better Virginia than SG's Full Virginia Flake. The Virginia in St James Flake is very similar to FVF and to Best Brown Flake (which are actually the same tobacco, the only difference being the length of time they are steamed and pressed). So you take the best Virginia in the world and add a generous helping of perique from St James Parish, Louisiana, and St James Flake is what you end up with.

I'm a self-proclaimed Freak for Perique, loving blends like Butera's Kingfisher, Dan's Limerick, Cornell & Diehl's Kajun Kake & Haddo's Delight (which is a little more nuanced and less straight-forward than I usually prefer my tobaccos), and the highly-esteemed Escudo (though to me, it could actually use a little more perique). Not McClelland's St James Woods, though, because it smells/tastes like McClelland ketchup.

Well, if you like perique, this blend delivers. Perique is used skillfully and successfully as a condiment tobacco in all manner of blends, but if you want to try the simple, frank VA/Per experience, this is what it's supposed to taste like. St James Flake, to me, is the quintessential Virginia/perique flake. The perique is not as overwhelming to me as it is in Kajun Kake, but it definitely is the primary flavor in this blend. It's spicy, musty, tangy, wonderful stuff that delivers a good healthy dose of "Vitamin N." So, if you're an inexperienced smoker or overly sensitive to the effects of nicotine, this is one I'd smoke with caution. It's not an all-out nic-bomb, but it is strong.

I give it 4 stars because of how excellent it is, not necessarily as a recommendation, because this much perique or this much strength in a tobacco is not going to be for everyone.