Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. Sweet Maple Twist

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.

I got to try this rope recently. Having made both terrible and excellent experiences with G&H ropes I was puzzled about what would await me. I like maple flavorings a lot when it's mildly applied - and Sweet Maple Twist is one of those blends with an exceptionally mild flavoring that intertwines with the tobacco component.

Unburnt aroma is of stewed fruits, a whiff of cigar-ish spice and very mild notes of maple-syrup, which actually reminds me of forest (honeydew) honey. As usual with G&H ropes the twist is very well crafted and you can see from its coloring that this is a stout blend.

Lighting the Sweet Maple Twist opens the gates to a warm, sweet and spicy-stout taste. The Virginias give me notes of stewed and dried fruits, smooth and mellow caramel-y sweetness, as well as a decent share of spicy earthiness. A note or two that reminds me of cigar leaf comes through every now and then. The maple flavoring is light handedly applied and underscores the tobaccos merits in an unobtrusive way. To me it more tastes of forest honey rather than maple. It has a very 'warm' feeling on the palate. Like a nice spoon of honey that you'd dip into your cup of tea. Slightly herbal in character. Only downside I encountered whas that it - albeit being dried out to being 'cripsy' - burned rather poorley, but as I only had 2 bowls of it this may be due to my packing technique.

I surely wouldn't classify this as an 'Aromatic', but rather a 'Semi-Aromatic' at best. In the same vein as blends like University Flake or 3P's (Perfect Plug). Bold tobacco base rounded with a mildly applied, underscoring aroma. Great tobacco, definetly 4-star worthy for my taste. I'll buy a couple ounzes of this when I have the chance, a nice change of pace for my Burley-heavy blends I usually prefer.

I bought this in tandem with the Happy Brown rope. Both are unabashedly strong smokes that are full of taste and enjoyment, but the Happy has a better flavor and is a smoother smoke to me.

Having said that much, I must stress that the Sweet Maple Turd - Twist, I mean - is not an unremarkable smoke. I’ve just cut and rubbed some, and I’m excited to taste it again. The bouquet of the cut rope is incredible. It’s a pleasure smoke, and the maple taste lends the prominent savor of aged leaf something almost erotic. Sensational might be more like it.

This would be, in my opinion, an excellent introduction to the world of twists. It offers plenty of nicotine but still has a soft, pleasant tobacco flavor. I personally find myself often wanting to smoke something with the quiet, unassuming pleasant flavor of say half and half, but much higher in nicotine. This is a perfect fit. Not to say that this tastes like half and half; it doesn't. But it satisfies in a similar way for me. Plain tobacco flavor with a slight added sweetness just to tick up the deliciousness. Best in a cob in my opinion. Thoroughly enjoyable and has the goods. Highly recommended

This is a great tobacco: oily thick pieces of dark brown rope, smelling faintly spicy and very earthy, keeping moisture forever as expected. The smell gives no maple to me.

I cut coins as fine as I can, rub out and let dry for several hours before lightly packing and smoking. It requires a lot of relights.

It is quite strong, the taste is quite oily and somewhat spicy, a bit herbal, very earthy but not like burley. It is not a bright Virginia at all. The constituent tobaccos are quite obscure to be honest, since Brown Irish X - which is supposed to be the same twist without any added flavouring - lists "dark fired" in G&H's description, and "Kentucky" in TR's description. I pick no Kentucky in this rope. I do pick up a lot of Kentucky in Samuel Gawith's Brown No. 4 but different manufacturer (well now the same but different brand). Brown Bogie is also supposed to be a straight Virginia. I'm going to go with straight dark air cured Imperial Virginia personally. It has faint hints of sweetness, but it is not at all a sweet tobacco, without being bitter. Some ideas of cigar are there, but again tastes very much unlike SG's Brown No.4 which clearly states the presence of cigar leaf.

The maple is there, but only as an aftertaste, or even afterthought. Don't come here expecting a maple tobacco, it is not. It works very well overall. I'd LOVE a bit more sweetness and maple flavour, maybe I'll cut some with MacBaren's Dark Twist Roll Cake (a tobacco I have already bastardised with G&H's Dark Bird's Eye).

Nicotine is strong, but it is so smooth it doesn't really hit you. I'd call it satiating.

The room note is not good, it is quite pungent and earthy.

Nice twist. Not overly sweet. Some sweet maple in the beginning that fades into a good dark fired blend. Has good a good amount of nicotine like most Gawith Hoggarth twists do.