Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. Black Irish X Unsliced

A twin with SG's Black XX rope. This came a with tad more moisture, perhaps, making it slightly limber. To my surprise this was easily rubbed out. The burn is very cool and dry to a powdery ash. No tongue bite. No throat irritation. This has the same full, grilled meat-on-a-stick flavor. A blue-collar smoke. Nothing fancy. Call it retro, a relic, a throwback, but it is an honest and satisfying, big and bold smoke. Tasty, desert island tobacco.

07/27/09 UPDATE: I am revising some of my reviews. I have given out more 4 star ratings than anything else. That practice is probably not helping. So, I am reducing BIT to 3 stars, not because I like it less than I did before, but because I am limiting 4 stars to fewer than 25% of all my reviews. One day I may use the 4 star rating to designate my top five.

You can tell from the reviews here this is a love it/hate it blend. I love it. Mellow, strong, all tobacco. Slice, and dice...let it dry out, rub it out. Packs, lights, burns well. At this point in my tobacco journey this is my desert island choice.

If you want something different, this is your smoke.

Heavy - and it lends a nice flavor to the pipe. I liken the taste to roasting meat (or fat.) (Black Rope ... It's PEOPLE!!!)

Indeed, my wife often mistakes the smell of smoldering black rope to chicken burning on the grill. Now, if that ain't a reason to try this smoke, I don't know what is! You get tons of people who liken the smell of burning latakia to "Campfires in the fall" etc etc. Well, how many tobaccos can you smoke that remind you of summer barbecue??

For best results, smoke in a clay, as it was meant to be smoked. Chew it first, and then let it dry out and smoke it for a REALLY authentic experience. (It tones down the nicotine ... really! Try it, I dare you.) Baking soda will get the stains off your teeth, I promise.

P.S. I'm pretty sure the term "OLD TAR" comes from the aroma that old sailors who smoked too much black rope must exude from every pore. What more could you possibly want?

I enjoy chopping things up, like ropes and plugs of tobacco. I can't decide if this is a good waste of bad tobacco, or a bad waste of good tobacco.

A brutal head butt of a smoke with no subtle aspects.

**UPDATE**

This tobacco grows on me, a bit of this rope have now been in my tobacco jar for a while, and it has done a bit for the taste. Perhaps due to a different moisture level (I have also changed the pipe I use for this tobacco). The taste of this tobacco is a bit fuller right from the start, and I feel the taste of very dark chocolates, and some grape fruit.

As before, the sweetness builds up nicely as the pipe progresses. Sweet and mild smoke tastewise, probably a powerhouse nicotine wise, as I usually break a sweat while smoking it.

*Original review*

My first impression on this tobacco was very bad, smoked it in a small bowled pipe, and perhaps to swift. The roof of my mouth got a coating, and I got a heart burn as well. The taste was that of wet but smoldering card board.

Drying it out a wee bit, and then smoking it in a medium sized meer or a billiard briar, and smoking it slowly, it reveals a completely different character. The first half of the bowl is very mild, and not tasting much at all, but as the sweetnes of the VA's builds up and gains momentum, the taste gets sweeter, fuller, more satisfying. This tobacco do need alot of attention, at least the first half bowl of it.

Very nice on occasion, or when you are all out of dark birdseye. A bowl of this in the morning perks me up.

Mmm, a barbeque in a pipe.

It's a simple smoke, nothing wrong with that, that will hit the spot (for flavour) when nothing else can. Just don't let yourself be fooled by the mildness of the aroma: you'll get bitten almost instantly if you puff too quickly. Though after getting it lit, it's a tame rope and not a crazed viper.

This is not an exceptionally strong or rough tobacco. The core of it's kick lies in it's smoky and earthy character, not in lashings of nicotine and tar. Latakia may be smoky -though it is confined to the realms of lapsang souchong- Black Irish on the other hand is like putting a few pounds of dry bracken in your mouth and letting your neighbour run at you with a flaming torch.

This is a perfect smoke to accompany a coffee, but it does lack a long nicotine hit and won't keep you going as long as other twists.

A suitable nightcap.

Itlooks great and smells great. It`s really something exotic and different by the looks of it. I really anticipated a lot more from it. To me it wasn`t really strong. The taste was something between iron,salt water and blood. Very sour. I just couldn`t finish the bowl,because the taste just wasn`t for me. Although I can perfectly understand that for some it`s just "the" thing. But on my personal experience,I can`t recommend it. Just too different. But... it`s worth a try anyhow,just for the sake of it!

I really like Gawith's twists, that is when I'am in the mood to handle the high nicotine strength. This is calmer in the nicotine department than others of it's kind do to I'am sure the cooking process making it jet black. Still somewhat strong and full though. It has a wonderful smell in the tin/pouch like cinnamon spice from all that dark fired leaf. However it's smoking qualities I did not enjoy. It is somewhat moist in texture so it burns a little slower. The tastes is round, mild on the pallette but in conjunction with it's burning aroma I found unpleasant. Its' very odd and am not sure what to liken it to, perhaps burning plastic with a degree of sweetness. Yes, I mean it, it tastes oddly different and "synthetic." It's texture reminds me more of being in line with chewing tobacco. I have read somewhere that precisely that is what these types of blends are for, both chewing and smoking. If one has ever experimented with drying out and burning chewing tobacco, a similiar smoke quality is pressent. I think it has to do with moisture penetrating the leaf in such a cooking process. So I tried chewing a small sclice and it tastes more in line with being a chewing product. Skoal fans may like this. But it made me severely sick and almost lost it, stomach contents that is. So experiment at your own risk.

Not recommended.

A friend shared some of his rope stock so I could try this style of tobacco - Thanks James!

This was quite a departure from the blends I usually smoke. And that is an understatement. I will never again think that drying and rubbing out flakes is a tedious procedure. This stuff actually requires tools to get it ready to smoke.

I tried cutting it into slices, but found that shredding it was quicker. End result is the same. Then it had to dry.

The taste reminded me of a backyard barbeque - not altogether unpleasant, but unexpected. Actually quite smooth, not the harsh horrible beast I expected. The room note was more potent than the taste. Nicotine content was fairly high. I smoked back-to-back bowls without ill-effect, though there was some effect.

I'll probably re-visit this one, but it's nothing I will want on a regular basis. Just too 'plain-Jane'.