Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. Four Squires Flake

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago in a land far away, there were three squires. These three squires loved their food, but could never agree on which flavour was best. One liked the liquorice flavour of fennel, another liked the spiciness of Madras curry powder while the third was a bit of a fan of the quirky Theakston's Old Peculier. So they got together and combined all three. However, unbeknownst to them, a fourth squire, who was a bit of a tosspiece whom no one liked, got wind of this and sneaked into the King's castle where they were residing and plastered the new flavour with Bovril. History does not leave to posterity what happened to the flavour or the squires, it is known, however. that the king of said castle managed to sneak in a little known addendum to the Magna Carta soon after, stating that, regardless of all other flavours, everything must carry some waft of G&H's Glengarry Flake.

Yes, I know that's an extremely self-indulgent start to a review, for which I profusely and, once again, self-indulgently apologize for. Never the less, it's the only explanation I have for this little known flake. Having bought 25g of this one, just as something a little out of left field that's a bit of an unknown, I had little idea of what to expect. I certainly chose not to get my hopes up. Upon opening the packet, I was greeted by flakes that are long and thin with a mixture of gold and deep browns with strange wafts of fennel and madras curry powder, this flavour also appeared in the first couple of smokes along with a waft of Theakston's Old Peculier, one of the nicest beers going, these quickly faded into a dull, fairly tasteless smoke. Subsequent sniffs of the packet, however, have morphed into the smell of Bovril, giving a mild meaty smell while the smoke has developed into tasting of an extremely mild version of Glengarry Flake with a certain oakiness to it, with the other flavours disappearing pretty quickly. There does seem to be traces of something sweet on floral underneath but it is very difficult to pick up, let alone determine. I have done a little reading round the two websites that I've found that actually sell this stuff and it's supposed to taste of maple, not that I could tell.

All in all, a strange one. Those weird smells and tastes do make me wonder if this sampling has got tainted at some point as they seem so darned unusual in a tobacco, especially a lakeland one. It is also very mildly flavoured, it took four smokes, a good ghosting of my briar, to get a good flavour up, also drinking while smoking this one doesn't help either as it clears the palate a little too often. I found my self giving it time to allow the flavour to build up on my tongue. I do wonder if I have a keen sense of taste because in most of my reviews I seem to pick up a lot of flavours in a tobaccos that others don't. Of course, I could be deluding myself and be picking up stuff that isn't there. However, my advice re: this tobacco stands as thus. if you like mild tobaccos, it's worth a go and you might just enjoy it, if you like something a bit stronger, don't hesitate to completely ignore both my review and this tobacco, as I doubt it will serve you well. For me though, I enjoy the mild Glengarry flavour and anticipate some more in future, see if those bizarre notes continue.