Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. Bob's Chocolate Flake

This would be my second attempt with latakia in a blend and Bob's came reccomended by a few aquaintances. mY FIRST lATAKIA WAS A FLOP. My choice was a poor one as the latakia was too strong.

But this came as a good as any introduction blend to latakia. Well I'm sadly dissapointed.

First off the tin note is nice. The packaging is better than most other flakes in that its wrapped in plastic packaing in the tin. Out of the tin the flake is of good moisture content and reuqires no dry time. In good lighting you can even see what looks like tiny shimmers of sugar crystals. Lights up fine from the get go. Burns perfect with a nice mild to medium volume of smoke.

The Chocolate burley and latakia flavors are evident in the smoke and they work well together. Latakia is neither too strong nor dominant in this blend. Vitamin N is for Nicotene and is present here. But it won't get your hair in a dander either. No room spinning buzz. But my tongue did tingle a bit.

At this point I would give this blend 3 stars (maybe 4) were it not for two very serious short commings that ruin the latakia and nice burley note and I do not see how anyone could enjoy these two elements either.

Soap and Perfume. These come slightly after your light up when you say "hey this ie pretty good stu....woah nelly whats with the Dawn dishwashing liquid flavor?

Lakeland perfumes do not belong in pipe toby. Keep it in yer snuff if you like.......but it just over powers the flavor of everything else thats in toby. I wonder if G&H think lakeland scents don't ghost pipes?

So I'm over powering the stars you think you deserve here....

-1 star for the soap -1 star for the perfume.

A big let down for what could have been a good tobacco.

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.

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.

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.