Samuel Gawith Black Forest

Subtle honey flavouring? Subtle? Not really.

Over time you can become accustomed to the honey, but it's always on the verge of overwhelming the tobacco, and when the honey makes itself known it's a little like smoking a Lockets cough sweet.

That's not to say it's bad. Far from it. Black forest makes a change from the usual aromatics and I'm glad it exists.

In a world of almost identical aromatics it's good to see that SG are marching to the beat of a different drum.

If I'm looking for a high tar alternative to the hot toddy this will be top of my list.

This is one of the few mixtures that actually tastes like its tin fragrance. It really does taste like honey - not some artificial chemical honey tasting concoction but true honey. It doesn't bite and it isn't goopy. I wouldn't want a steady diet of it but having a tin of it once in a while would add a bit of variety.

Fine cut tobacco, quite dark. Smells nice and a bit foresty from the tin.

Tongue taste (the taste you feel on your tongue when you first get the smoke into your mouth): mild virginias mixed with an almost sharp honey taste at the beginning. After a while the tastes start to melt together, all in all getting milder and slightly more "tobaccoish".

Snork taste (the taste when you roll the smoke around in your mouth and out of your nostrils): Mild scent of honey and forest fruits, but mainly typical virginia tones, not sharp but rather mild virginia.

All together: Smells nice and has a very pleasant taste at the beginning. The taste tends to get first milder, and then at the end almost disappear. Needs to be somewhat dried before smoking, and should be packed lightly to taste maximally. All in all a pleasant tobacco, but lacks the last pinch to be excellent.

I like this one. Suits me pretty well. Only got a 10g sample pouch of it, but it is one I would like to have again. It tastes nice, didn't bite me, didn't make me feel sick, and it smells OK. Not much more I could ask from an aromatic.

The first time I tried this blend I was a little underwhelmed. This is the second bowl I’ve now had and I allowed myself to slow down and try to draw out some of the nuances this tobacco has to offer. The Topping/casing isn’t very strong at all, in saying that I found neither are the tobaccos. The Virginias are mild and slightly sweet with the cavendish giving the honey a podium to stand on and rounds out any rough edges the Virginias may have had. I can’t confirm what the room note would be like but I was left with a pleasant after taste. I will probably make this one part of my rotation.

The weather is heating up, so I thought it might be the perfect time to crack open this tin I've had cellared for the past 3 years. The honey casing prevented the Virginias from aging, but the smoke did not disappoint. The honey flavour is definitely more than subtle, and detectable in the tin note. The casing is not soaking wet, so it's ready to smoke right away. The crispy Virginias and sweet Cavendish help give this a baklava-like flavour which pairs nicely with a morning coffee. Burns clean and leaves no residue in your pipe. This is a great aromatic for warmer weather — smooth, mild, and refreshing.

3.5/4 rounded up to a 4. This blend seems misunderstood in the comments. It's not meant to be a heavy aromatic, nor a complex Virginia blend. Rather, this is a perfect middle ground blend for non-aromatic smokers who enjoy the occasional flavoured smoke.


EDIT: I have to bring this down to a 3 out 4. This blend does fall a little flat, especially after the tin has been opened a while (I kept it in rubber seal jar which I know is sub-optimal but my blends do fine in these as long as I finish them within a year). After a few months, this blend tastes stale. The nice bakalava taste I was getting mid bowl just wasn't coming through much at all, and the Virginias began to be more noticeably uninteresting. I will keep this blend at a 3, because it is enjoyable if smoked fresh.

Samuel Gawith master blender Bob Gregory gave me a tin during the last Towpath smoke-off competition to try out. I am not into aromatics though, but I totally get the honey idea behind it. Despite the bright virginia it contains, it has sort of a dark character to it, probably, because of the added flavouring. Not as bitey as other aromatics out there, but it might cause some friction if you are not careful. I personally do not dislike it, but I am not loving it either. The tin note is nothing special, but it gives you a hint of what is to come when you light up. My tin was a bit on the dry side, but it smoked reasonably well. I think the citrusy notes combine well with the Cavendish, but this is not a tobacco I'd recommend if you are not into aromatics. I have put this tin aside at work for those days you forget your preferred blend at home because I know I won't be reaching for it, and there is nothing I hate more than tobacco going to waste. Taking all of this into consideration, I think a rating of 2.75 stars is about right.