Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. Ennerdale Flake

Bought half of a pound and smoked a couple bowls. I wish I didn't smoke it in a briar pipe:( This is my first Lakeland blend and I thought it had to much floral notes. I was hoping for more fruit toppings but I will not make that mistake again. I read lots of good reviews but it isn't my type. To bad because the flakes were beautiful and smoked easily.

Got a bag of this today and opened it up to smell an old lady wearing cheap perfume. It should be a crime to ruin such good tobacco with such horrible toppings. I am starting to think the person responsible for making their flake tobaccos has no sense of smell or taste. I guess I am going to have to throw away a few dollars on a cob, cause the ghost this tobacco will leave is sure to last. First I have to get up the courage to work my way passed the perfume. Until then I will settle for the Bright CR Flake that came with this shipment. I am a huge fan of their shag tobaccos, but I am finding that all the toppings and additives in their flakes tobaccos are less than pleasant to my taste buds. Who knows when I do get up the courage to try this maybe this one will prove to be a winner, after all it is said to be their best seller, though I find that hard to believe.

WARNING! After smoking only one bowl, the flavoring is extremely strong in my pipe. I have tried cleaning with alcohol, reaming, even the "GL Pease activated charcoal oven" trick. Ennerdale flavoring is still very prevalent a month later. The flavoring is what I would describe as very strongly scented bath salts. It is overwhelming and gives me a sour stomach after only a few puffs. I truly would like to know why they would ruin such a beautiful Virginia flake with this overpowering flavoring. After reading the positive reviews here, I honestly wonder if I got a goofed batch or something. It is truly unsmokable, in my opinion and my friend's opinion, due to the ridiculous amounts of scented flavorings added. I've smoked Virginas, Burleys, heavy Latakia blends, even the occasional guilty pleasure of super sweet aromatics. I never thought I would find a pipe tobacco that I truly could not smoke but this is it. You have been warned.

Well, when you turn your attention to a famous classic, you so want to like it, thousands of other smokers can't be wrong, can they?

So, in the immortal words of the Rolling Stones: "I try and I try and I try and I try..." But I just could not get beyond the overpowering taste of soap. Not for me, I'm afraid.

Whilst I have a great deal of respect for Gawith & Hoggarth, I cant deny that this is probably my least favourite offering from them. I wanted to like the blend, and was really taken by the initial note the flake gave off in the tobacconists, but this stuff gets overwhelming and sickening very quickly.

The tobacco itself, as with all G&W blends, is second to none. Excellent quality flake which is pleasing to the eye. Its the flavouring of the blend which lets it down. In my opinion, the soapy floral overtones are downright overpowering and sickly sweet. Not only that, but it will ghost any pipe you put it in. As well as this, you'll be tasting it on your tongue for anything upto 4 hours after.

Admittedly, floral lakeland blends have never sat well with me, so I'm perhaps the wrong person to be reviewing this, but to me its like smoking pot pouri and fairy liquid. I'm usually a fairly forgiving reviewer, but this didnt sit well with me at all, for all i tried to like it.

Avoid this chemical experiment or you will pay the consequences. What have they done? Colognes and aftershaves are not to be smoked. I know this blend has many friends - and many of my own love it - but i couldn't tolerate it even when i tried to dry it out, the chemical aftertaste was still present.

In the beginning I thought I mistakenly bought an after shave in solid form. Then I understood that indeed that was sold as tobacco (yes, there is a ghost of tobacco in the background). I put the rest of the tobacco in the compost in the garden, but then I thought that we need the worms in there alive, to facilitate the composting process. So I went out, put it in a small plastic bag, sealed it hermetically and in the garbage it went. The poor pipe sits with cotton balls and pure alcohol. Hopefully the mistake will be forgiven. As we said, it's love or hate...

Another Marmite tobacco: either you love it or you hate it. To me, it's absolutely dreadful. I would go so far as to say that it's one of the most unpleasant tobaccos I've ever tried. I can see why it's so popular, though. It rubs out and packs easily, burns well and slowly, gives a uniform result all the way down the bowl, and doesn't bite you unless you smoke so hard that anything will bite you. It's worth a try if you like a hefty casing - but be warned: ‘hefty' is the operative word.

Like some of the other reviewers here, I found the scents/flavours strange, crude and overpowering - to say the least of it. God knows what they put in it to make it taste and smell the way it does, but IMO tobacco shouldn't smell and taste like this. EF is, I think, a tarted-up version of G&H's excellent Brown Flake. It's a tobacco that seems to be trying too hard to be interestingly different. In terms of flavour, it has what I can only call a general, overpowering, sickly, chemical, artificial quality. To my mind, EF is way, way over the top of where a tobacco should be; it tastes and smells like a tart's boudoir.

"'English type' flavours which give this tobacco its distinctive, yet typical 'English' aroma"? I don't really understand this description. There's no Latakia here, and I can't see anything 'English' about this tobacco as I understand the term. Indeed, I've never come across anything quite like it.

I have a suspicion that EF will improve if you cellar it: the flavours may well mature into something a bit less riotous and raw. It leaves a very noisy and assertive ghost, by the way, so maybe try it in a corncob or meer first. The room note certainly isn't to everybody's taste, either; it'll probably kill the fleas that the dog brought in. Maybe it'll even kill the dog. Not recommended, I'm afraid. On the contrary, actually. I can see that many people like it, but I entirely fail to see why. I would counsel anyone who doesn't like tobacco to taste like a cheap aftershave to avoid it at all costs.

This is tobacco? Pretty to look at, and looks like quality leaf. Durn shame they treated it like a rented mule. The mule smells better, IMHO.

Strength: I'm no nico-weanie. I was weaned on a Tabasco bottle and Picayune cigarettes. Strong, spicy flavors and a good nicotine hit don't phase me. This stuff was so over powered with scents, I couldn't tell if there was any nicotine in it.

Flavoring: No Kidding!

Taste: I let the cat take a few puffs on the pipe and he started licking his butt. Probably to get the taste out of his mouth.

Room Note: Janitorial and mausoleum like. I see dead people.