Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. Kendal Cherry Cream Flake

Dear me. There's something inherently foul at play when an aromatic (and supposedly a simply flavoured one) tastes absolutely nothing like its description. No cherry; no cream; nor the remotest hint of caramel. Just a massive hit of that much maligned Lakeland flora. I'd have even taken cheap cherryade flavouring over this for the sake of saying Gawith & Hoggarth actually made an effort. Indeed, my experience with this flake was so left-field that I found myself inspecting every other pouch from my tobacco sampler for fear that the tobacconist had mislabelled them.

This is not to say that Kendal Cherry Cream is a bad flake. By all accounts, the tobacco itself is typical of the Kendals: marvellous quality; cool and voluptuous, and all all round brilliant smoker. Puff hard enough and there is some underlying sweetness - but it's not cherry. I tried to get a handle on the flavour, and in smoking too fast, managed to deliver a shot of something extremely bitter and the bowl turned on me thus from thereon in. A new flake and a second bowl the following day revealed a much more well behaved character, with less floral essence and a shade more sweetness, but the bitter ghost always threatened in the final third.

In a regular situation, I'd be inclined to give this the thumbs up after wrestling with it for a couple of days - a possible two, even three stars at a push for the benefit of the flake itself. However, it's such a crime against trade descriptions that it's called "Cherry Cream," that it infuriatingly relegates itself. If the folks at Gawith & Hoggarth cared to re-brand it, giving it a much more deserving moniker and a truly faithful description, then there would be a lot of happier punters - myself included.

Try it and enjoy it - but not on the basis of a cherry aromatic.