Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. Dark Flake Scented

Let me start this review by stating that I could have sworn I ordered Dark Flake Unscented and not the scented variety. Perhaps the Scouser on the other end of the telephone was a little hard of hearing?

I first realized something was amiss when I opened my package containing six new to me blends, the smell that emanated from the box was one of heavy perfume and as five of the blends were in tins the only culprit could be the single plastic wrapper. Sure enough I had 50g of Dark Flake Scented and I was not best pleased!

It was a few weeks afore I got around to trying it out so I did my usual routine of rubbing out and drying for a couple of hours. The somewhat straggly, still damp and very dark brown flakes rubbed out ok but were very sticky and somewhat coarse. The scent by the way was pretty overpowering. I loaded up my McQuade bent bulldog and attempted to light the stuff. My goodness, this has to be the most awkward blend to take a light. Finally it got going with the coarse shreds coming alive and climbing out of the bowl. Huge plumes of smoke confirmed I had a burn going.

Initial flavours were nothing but perfume, no tobacco taste whatsoever though I had read that they tend to kick in mid bowl. Why oh why would someone go to the trouble of blending a tobacco only to soak it in perfume? The mind boggles.

I persevered and after countless relights the perfume did start to recede but was always present. Come mid bowl I could indeed taste some tobacco but what tobacco I couldn't really say. As for the maple and liquorice flavours noted by many reviewers they were simply not there for me.

Fast forward a few weeks and I am now smoking this in a smaller L. Roux poker after giving the already rubbed out tobacco a fleeting blast in my coffee grinder and very little has changed. Still many relights are required and still that damned perfume spoils what could have been a good smoke had I got what I originally wanted i.e. the unscented version.

This blend certainly has its adherents but I am not in that particular club and nor do I wish to be. A 2/10 score is a generous one.

Rather worryingly and perhaps stupidly I have since ordered some Ennerdale & Grasmere flakes, both of which appear to be drenched in the very same perfume as DFS is, the latter being the strongest.

This here tobacco trialling game is a fun one but just occasionally one gets it hugely wrong as I clearly did here.

I am tempted to think that as a pipe maker will rusticate a flawed stummel, might not a tobacco blender pour perfume all over a blend that didn't quite turn out as expected? I honestly cannot think why else they would do this. Flavoured tobacco does of course have a place in the market and I have enjoyed many, but this is way OTT.

Now for a bowl of Condor to put things right.

The smell and taste of Tonquin reminds me of opium incense. The smell would be suitable for perfume or incense, but it does not belong in my mouth. Yuk. If there was licorice or maple, it was overrun by the tonquin. If you think you'll like the taste of bitter-leather with a hint of mint, you might like tonquin.

Usual G and H bag note, had high hopes for this one. Dried it out several hours (it IS G&H after all, and I prefer dry tobacco). Rubbed out and smoked in my "lakeland bulldog." Fairly disappointing though. Smoked like warm air. Tasted like smoking OGS or Sixpence, which is to say, there was no flavor at all. The smoke didn't even give me a whiff of pleasure, usually the best part about smoking an aromatic.