Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. Bob's Chocolate Flake

First is a light incense-like taste of latakia with a slight cocoa flavor growing beneath it. Then comes a mushroom-like sweet mustiness hinting at the characteristic quality of Shortcut to Mushrooms, a blend made by Just for Him, and as that blend does, Bob's Chocolate Flake tends to make me hungry. If this tobacco has a place, it might be as a smoke after a heavy dinner to stimulate the appetite for dessert.

In the second third, the three flavors merge, the latakia loses some of its sandalwood character, and the smoke tastes more like spiced dark chocolate. However, at least for me, the latakia keeps it from tasting really good with coffee until the last third.

By the last third, the flavor is a nice rounded very mildly flavored English blend, and the aftertaste of smoking a bowl of this blend is delicious. But for me, the first two thirds make it somewhat difficult to get there.

This dense speckled dark brown long flake smokes cool and dry, the smoke produced being of medium strength with good body.

This review was made possible by generous samples from pipesandcigars.com of both this blend and Samuel Gawith's Chocolate Flake, both smoked in a few different pipes. For its better balance, I prefer this blend.

I must disagree with Mr. MozzMann a few posts below. My friend Chuck Sassan and I regularly enjoy this blend with a fine cup of java. We have not noticed that the this blend infuses our fine briars. The smoke it tasty, cool and is very easy to light. 3 stars. Pick up a tin and give it a go yourself.

This is some goofy stuff, but I like it. I really, really like it. In small doses.

I bought in bulk and am impressed by the thin cut of the slices and the ease to rub out completely to near shag strands. The Latakia helps keep this from becoming a confection instead of a pipe tobacco. The flavorings are of good quality and applied with a gentle hand...no goop in this one.

Packs and lights with the greatest of ease and stays lit. It does leave its ghost in the wood, so I dedicate a few medium size classic shapes to this flake exclusively.

In the colder times I like to sip a high quality dark hot chocolate liberally spiked with Rumpleminze schnapps...sort of a sweet "fire and ice" combo.

I have wanted to review BCF since I first tried it over two years ago. It is truly a unique flake and an excellent example of G&H?s creativity and expert blending. A lot has already been said about this flake and I will admit it has its pros and cons but I have kept this in my rotation mainly because there is so much to experience when you smoke this flake.

First of all smell it?for awhile?.Then there is the medicinal like floral aroma that is present at the match which you did not smell and what others describe as a soapy taste. It is an acquired taste to be certain (as is Samuel Adams lager which I also appreciate on occasion). This is then combined with a strong vanilla taste with cocoa in the background. What makes this so amazing (as if this is not enough) is that there is wonderful hay like Virginia underneath all of this that flirts with a subdued smoky Latakia aroma. Your mouth should be watering. Simply remarkable.

To some this sounds overwhelming and to some it just might be. It all comes together quite nicely and is comparable to nothing else. G&H has managed to ?blend? all of these wonderful tastes and aromas together making BCF a contemplative smoking experience. I guess this is what I appreciate about it the most. It is serious when it needs to be and not so much when it doesn?t.

BCF does come very moist and needs considerable drying time. The moisture can wreak havoc on the roof of your mouth if you are not patient. Steamed gums are not cool.

And one last thing about BCF, it is an aromatic tobacco in the sense that it produces a very alluring room note but I would not agree it is such as far as taste. It is a heavily scented virginia flake in the traditional British style and a superb one at that (it has chocolate). This tobacco has a lot of character and should be given some attention to be fully appreciated. It will be well worth the effort.

This is one of my first sampleings from G.H.& Co. Being a lover of Virginia blends, I had to give this one a try.....glad I did. For years I mostly smoked Latakia blends, and eventually fell out of love with them. Recently I have mostly been on the Virginia hiway. This blend bridges the two worlds nicely. While BCF is a Va. blend for sure. the 8% latakia addition only gives a nice flavor to this blend,. The Va. sweetness is still the "main character". After the usual drying, I find this flake is best rubbed out. Packing, lighting and burn are excelant. Nice lightly sweet taste.... stays lit,dry bowl, complete burn. I can find nothing bad to say about this blend. It may work it's way into my daily rotation, but for now, due to all of the great blends, it will be an occasional treat. Rated * * *

Has a perfume taste to me,but the nicotine kick is very good!

This one has been reviewed plenty of times already, so I'll keep this short.

The bottom line is that I enjoy this tobac, but not as much as I enjoy Samuel Gawith Chocolate Flake.

Bob's is a very well behaved offering and it has that trademark Lakeland flavor not found in the Samuel Gawith offering. Most seem to experience the Lakeland essence as soapy and/or floral, and I certainly can see their point, but I experience it as an astringency that approaches bitterness. It plays very well indeed with the cocoa and vanilla flavorings of Bob's.

There are some great tobacco flavors here, too, and they are well-blended enough that picking out one particular leaf isn't something I can do with ease.

Virginia lovers will find Bob's a pleasant experience. Aromatic smokers may have an eye-opening experience, particularly if they are used to the more heavily-cased, goopy offerings. English/Balkan smokers will find this a nice change of pace, especially if they are of that ilk that can pick out the Latakia in this blend.

This blend is my favorite of Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. It is the only one worth the exorbitant price they charge for a bulk tobacco. Normally I do not like food flavored tobaccos especially when they are paired with latakia. This blend smokes very smoothly and has just enough chocolate taste to be a great anytime smoke. I like it because I can get a latakia fix and not have my wife complain about the smell. I also like the fact that the casing does not ruin the balance of tobacco. Overall this tobacco is the best blend of aromatic/english on the market, but would still take a straight English any day of the week.

I keep trying to get past this damned perfume that has been liberally dumped on Bob's Chocolate Flake because the underlying tobacco and cocoa/chocolate flavoring is really good. This weed smells like a cheap whore when you light it.

Unlike SG Chocolate Flake, I can actually taste the chocolate in this one.

Why anyone would ruin a perfectly fine tobacco by dousing it in perfume is beyond me. An unscented version of this one would be awesome. Hint...hint.

Who cares if it's only 8% latakia - it's the only blend with wich I can get my latakia fix indoors without being served with divorce papers. It does have a bit of that soapiness/floralness or whatever you want to call it typical of these lake disrict flakes but it's held in check by the chocolate and vanilla flavoring. And you actually can notice the influence of the latakia in the blend while your wife can not! That alone makes this stuff worth 5 outta 4 stars... When I smoke this the chocovanilla flavoring doesn't fade in and out as some others noted - it's pretty constant to me. Still, it's among my favorite dozen blends or so, and the only really strongly "flavored" one among those... Blowing smoke rings, Chad

To me, the tin aroma of this Flake is of a very light Lakeland essence. Smoked slow, it burns cool and dry. The Latakia is indiscernible. While very well behaved in all aspects, what brings me back time and time again to BCF is the tobacco flavor itself and its truly medium bodied character.

Regardless of prep or packing method, the trick to getting the most out of BCF is a slow cadenced pull. Anything above a very slow sipping like pace will result in a complete loss of the already faint and elusive chocolate flavoring. Hitting the zone with this one however, is truly sublime and worth the effort involved required to get the most out of it.

The burning leaf smells of ash and latakia. However the smoke is the most pleasent part of this blend of tobacco as it really is not noticable upon ones clothing.

The flavor was not there at all, just an ashy ciggarette taste with the occaisonal watered down tast of vanilla and latakia. The best flavor came at light up when the 15 matches that were needed to get it burnign, fully rubbed out, provided some nice sulfur taste.

Burns well, cakes well, burns slower then PA in a smal bowl.

Simply put, this is perfect in a large bowl with a cup of coffee. Another great blend from G&H!

A wonderful Tobacco. If I were stuck on an Island, and could only have one blend this would be it. Smokes cool, no tongue bite, and burns to a dry clean ash. The Chocolate and light Latakia makes this flake my favorite. A must try. Up-Date!!! I am glad I was not stuck on an Island, Because this Tobacco has turned out to be quite boring. after smoking a lot of this stuff, I am changing my review. bland, not complex and slightly bitter. Next review I will not jump the gun.

If you like a good quality choco/english aromatic then this stuff is for you... kinda like Squadron Leader with diabetes. Pay no attention to the Ivory Soap and Chanel #5 that were accidentally dumped into your tin...

Peterson bent brandy

Yuk. Just yuk.

If you like lake-district blends, this may be for you. It's not for me. The aromatic component overwhelms the tobacco, it's cloying, and (to me) generally unpleasant. The only tobacco so far where I've not been able to finish the bowl. "Chocolate bar meets urinal cake", and the stink clings tenaciously to a pipe.

I bought this because of various ravings about its flavor. Indeed, in the jar this has a restrained smell of lightly cased natural tobacco. When flame touches weed, however, all bets are off and the casings club you about the palate. If you want tobacco that tastes nothing like tobacco, this is your blend. You can have my share.

Update: Over the years, this has grown on me. I pick up a little from time to time, and can enjoy it on rare occasions. I wouldn't recommend it unless I knew someone really liked Lake District flakes, but I don't abhor this as much as I used to.