Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. Sweet Maple Twist

Gee...numero uno! I feel a great burden to provide an incisive, substantive and accurate appraisal of this noteworthy blend...bringing forward all of its subtle nuances. Well, if there WERE any! KIDDING! Really...another amazing and 'to die for' twist from Gawaith & Hogwarts...with a very slight sweetness and equally subtle maple thing - just enough to take the edge off the Brown Twist. Just close your eyes and imagine the Rum Twist or the Whiskey Twist...now QUICK...swap in a hint of Maple. You got it! Way to go. OH YEAH! And BTW: like the others, small bowl...or prepare to have the EMT guy hand your butt to you. OH and BTW #2: for me, all these twists do really well with DGT. Just sayin'.

After loving Sweet Coconut Twist so much so that I now consider it my favorite aromatic tobacco, I decided to order all the flavored twists. So far, that experiment has led to me trying to others. This one and the sweet rum twist. I liked the rum better than this one.

The problem I run into is spelled out clearly in the beginning sentences of Steelcowboys review, I don't really like Irish X or brown twist unflavored and as his review points out the topping on this is very light making it taste closer to the unflavored twists than the flavored versions. I agree with his review and my perception is similar. The maple essence is very light and slips in and out.

I find these twists to be too stout and overwhelming without the topping. Hell, even with the topping, a medium sized bowl is difficult to finish in terms of strength alone. While I love the Coconut, I typically smoke it in small bowls or a large bowl over a few smoking sessions.

I am putting this one at two stars only because I want to differentiate my takes on these flavored twists, but I wouldn't disagree that someone who truly loves the unflavored tastes of these twists may love this blend as a change up.

Presentation is rope - brown, between nickel and quarter diameter. Looks and feels dry, but oozes oils when prepped. To prep, one must slice thin coins with a sharp blade and then rub out the coins. Needs some drying time.

The maple flavor is pretty good, quite accurate, but not terribly intense. This actually reminds me of REAL maple syrup more than the artificially flavored pancake syrup you get at the grocery store, so I think they got the flavor right. That said....it is sweeter than the whiskey twist, but I would have liked a bit more sweetness. I'd give it higher marks if it had a stronger dose of sauce, but I like it quite a bit.

This is brown rope...if you don't know what that means, here's what you need to know - prep is a bit of a pain, it takes a while to get it lit and it needs a higher than normal number of relights, and (most importantly) it is very very strong in nicotine. I'm not exaggerating - this is some of the strongest stuff out there.

I enjoy aromatics mainly for the endless possibilities of added flavors. Often I want the flavor to be very present, otherwise, why bother smoking an aromatic? I could not smell any maple out of the bag, instead it had that earthy barn/hay odor.

Some sweetness came through once lit, though any maple was too mild for my tongue to detect. I was surprised by the lack of soapyness (this was the first Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. I've tried without it). It was quite meaty and full of nicotine, and I could see why those fond of full tobacco taste wouldn't mind this as an aromatic.

I didn't mind smoking the rope, but if I buy a maple aromatic, I want some maple syrup in my smoke. To this I'll stick to McClelland's Town Topic.

I started smoking a big-bowled pipe of this and just had to put it down for a while because of the strength of this tobacco. This is definitely the "Copenhagen" of pipe tobaccos; meaning it is as strong as Copenhagen smokeless tobacco in terms of nicotine. I sliced it into coins with my cigar cutter and then rubbed out the coins to get a fairly consistent pile. Then I let it air out for a few hours to get it at the proper moisture level. The maple flavoring is very subtle for me; I can just now taste it on my lips after having put the pipe down for the last 10 minutes or so. In smoking, it is not goopy or wet like some other aromatics. This is my second go with this tobacco. The first time I tried it I didn't let it dry enough and it was difficult to keep lit. This and some Black Irish X was generously gifted to me by OnePyroTec from CigarBum.com some months back. It is an enjoyable smoke and a pleasant change of pace from most other types of tobaccos that I have tried up to this point.

If you're looking for a quality maple tobacco, look no further. It goes without saying that Gawath ropes are all of the highest quality and this one is no exception. As with all rope tobacco, you have to prepare it, but the end result is worth the trouble. Cool smoking real tobacco flavor with the taste of sweet maple throughout. This is amazing stuff.

This comes in a rope. Mine wasn't the neatest. It came a little unraveled. Maybe too much handling took place. The smell is just of strong, air-cured tobacco, but this has a touch of obvious sweetness in the smell, but not off-putting.

The taste is just like the rum twist un-sliced, which is a dark, cigar-like taste with wood notes, some smokiness, a slight floral quality. There isn't must sweetness, other than a dark, grainy sweetness, and just a hint of added sweetness somewhere in there, but this is certainly not a sweet blend. No cane sugar-like sweetness, and no flue-cured Virginia sweetness.

I would recommend this to the person that likes cigar blends, cigars (in general), and the person that likes twists. This is up there on the nicotine scale, but won't kill you if you take it slowly. There will be lots of re-lights no matter what, and drying it out too much will strip some of the flavor from the tobacco. I preferred to slice and use small scissors to cut it into even smaller bits to get a good burn. It's an okay blend for me. Not something I would buy twice, but something I'm glad I tried. I prefer more nuance and intrigue in my smoke. Somewhat recommended.

I recently finished a half pound of this. It is good, but I still prefer the unflavored brown ropes from GH and SG. This needed considerable drying time or it wouldn't stay lit. Good flavor but wanted to bite me a little. If I could no longer obtain S G Brown #4, GH brown twist or similar, I would likely keep on hand one of these flavored ropes.

A note on twist style tobacco. What you need is a sharp Chinese vegetable cleaver or meat cleaver. (A good electric knife sharpener helps.) Slicing this stuff is not much more difficult than slicing a zucchini or napa cabbage only it has the density of a semi-hard cheese, like a 6 month manchego. I realize this may not be much help to those like my father, whose culinary repertoire extends no further than Cheese Whiz on toast, but my point is that if you use a decent knife, it's really not much trouble. I don't understand using a jackknife to cut up a plug or rope. You're more likely to slice your finger and mangle the tobacco.

I received this 4 oz sample today and sliced it all up into coins about 1/8" thick and jarred it for aging. It's a little too wet out of the bag but I wanted to try it right away. The coins break apart into ribbons with very little effort. I'm smoking it in a little devil cutty cob, just to try it out. No trouble getting it lit and it burns to a nice white ash, but it certainly needs several relights at this moisture level.

The bag aroma is quite fruity (my wife says she smells pears, but mostly figs), and a tiny bit vegetal, slightly spicy like cinnamon or cardamom, a little smoky/woody like a dark-fired Kentucky, and very mildly floral like a bit of lilacs and lavender. It doesn't exactly smell like maple syrup. Maybe more like maplewood? Anyway, the maple topping is mildly present at most. I mostly get a sweet ripe fruit Virginia aroma and I would swear there's some dark-fired in there.

In the smoke, I get a little bit of that cardamom spiciness. It's a little sweet tasting, but more on the dry side. Definitely cigar-like in the first part of the bowl, in a very good way. The vegetal aspect comes through too. I guess you'd call that earthiness. The bottom line is it tastes like tobacco. Very good strong tobacco. It certainly does not taste like maple, though I wasn't expecting it to, so I'm not disappointed in the least. This packs a strong nicotine punch. I'm sure it will age magnificently.