Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. Glengarry Flake

Summary: taming the Virginia flake by making it into a light aromatic, this flake smokes easily.

Perhaps the English blenders want to show us what a good aromatic would be like with "Glengarry Flake," a Virginia flake of mixed brown and bright varieties which gets a treatment of honey, liquor, and Lakeland-style flavorings to spin its flavor toward an aromatic direction without overwhelming the malt and grain flavors of the Virginia mix. This one takes a long time to light but once it starts, will not go out, smoking down to ash dust over a couple hours of a light mixture of pleasant flavors.

Beautiful sticky flakes covered in honey with a lovely floral-honey taste that compliments the top grade tobaccos brilliantly. The taste of this delicious flake reminds me of fresh clover honey. The flakes come a shade moist; however, dry quickly. Easily rubbed out or chuffed out into chunky ribbons of pure smoking pleasure with a light and easy burn. This baccy is an excellent all-day blend, and one that I would highly recommend to any that wish to give the Lakeland Genre a go. Cheers

Another excellent Lakeland scented tobacco. Scenting here is mild – one of the mildest scented Lakelands. It is sweet and complex, I could say it reminds me of roses, pine cone, freshly mown grass, earth, honey. What they do at Gawith Hoggarth’s with tobacco scenting is amazing.

Glengarry Flake comes at perfect moisture, rubs out very easily, takes to light very easily and burns very slow. It produces an immensely satisfying smoke where the natural earthy tobacco taste - as with all Lakelands the tobacco taste is always there and it’s exquisite- of the Virginias combines perfectly with the mild and sweet scenting. Taste-wise it’s close to Ennerdale though much less scented and milder in strength.

Glengarry is not only one of the milder Lakelands as regards intensity of scenting, it is also one of the milder in strength, on the mild side of medium I’d say. Because of this it can easily be smoked all through the day and it's the ideal tobacco for an introduction to the Lakeland style.

The topping is light here; here you will not find the overwhelming "Lakeland essences" of Ennerdale, or even of Kendal Flake. The "light honeydew" topping goes well with this type of Virginia, which is claimed to be a similar blend to Bright CR Flake (one of my favorites from GH), and is never overwhelming. Indeed, it is quite subtle to my tastes, though I have smoked many of the more strongly topped and floral offerings from GH and SG, so perhaps I am somewhat jaded. There are those who are so turned off by these "Lakeland essences" that they will claim to find them in a product such as Brown Flake Unscented, which might have picked up something of a whiff of those essences simply by being in the same room as the likes of Ennerdale and Kendal, but for those like me who enjoy the entire spectrum of GH tobaccos in their varying degrees of flavorings and scents, this tobacco is just right for those times when, though I may not want a very strongly scented Lakeland flake, I also do not want a purely unscented Virginia either.

As always with this manufacturer, the quality of the Virginias used is excellent, and I do tend to believe the description when it claims the blend is similar to Bright CR: it tastes like Bright CR with a very mild topping. This would be a good tobacco for lovers of Virginia Flake who would like to begin to explore those "Lakeland essences," which seem to be almost of a love-it-or-hate-it nature, without going straight to loading up one's pipe with the likes of Ennerdale Flake.

The flake is attractive and somewhat mottled, though with the lighter shades predominating, and breaks apart easily. Since I have been smoking this flake, it seems to be one of those tobaccos that require some relights, and I am not sure why, but it may be simply because with this blend, I like to sip very slowly and lightly, as this seems to give me the best results taste-wise.

No hint of bite, just a clean, gentle smoke with only that subtle touch of flavorings, and a very pleasant room note. I have no problems with it in any way, though there may be nothing overwhelmingly enthralling or knock-your-socks-off special about it. It is just the usual quality Virginia smoke one would expect from GH, on the low (but not no!) end of the flavorings spectrum. Recommended!

Edit: 5-19-13

Glengarry Flake is actually a good blend for any GH fan to keep around. When you get tired of the really flowery, Lakelandy blends like Ennerdale or Kendal for the moment, this one provides a much purer Virginia smoke, with just a light touch of sweetness, sort of that "honeydew" thing, but again, very mild topping. It's like Bright CR Flake, if anyone has tried that, but a little milder on the nicotine, and with only a touch of flavoring. Certainly no aromatic. I've got a few bowls left, and could see getting some quantity at some point.

By far the worst of the GHC offerings.

Don't get me wrong, I love lakelands, but this stuff is undoubtedly the worst of its kind.

The flavouring is rather flat and does not manage to introduce any real depth to the experience. Instead it offers a range of unusual headaches (nothing to do with the nicotine content) and a struggle, as you try and avoid getting bitten. All this didn't manage to relax me and if a tobacco cannot do that well, it's a complete failure.

For the life of me I cannot understand why Glengarry is so popular.

If you like the Lake District flavored flakes, you are probably going to like this one. It is first rate quality with excellent tobacco taste. It is not heavily scented as say, Bosun's, Conniston, or No. 7, but it does possess a trace of that unique aroma found in many of the G&H blends. For the most part it is straight tobacco, and it is plenty sweet. You won't find heliotrope, cloves or other exotic flavors. I make this out to be just good, straight tobacco with a lightly scented sweetener added. This could be an all day smoke for the lover of this type of Virginia flake. This tobacco, I think, could bite if pushed, but when enjoyed in small sips, it is a fine smoke. I smoke it slightly moist which makes for a slow burn. Well recommended. Paddy.

I am either becoming more tolerant of the soap flavoring, or this blend isn?t as heavily loaded with it. Make no mistake, it is there, but I found that it tended to fade quickly from the initial onslaught.

Once the flavoring receded the underlying leaf began to assert itself a bit more. It never got very strong, and at times the soap flavoring wafted back in to remind you that this is a G&H flake. The honeydew flavoring never showed itself.

The last third of the bowl seems to be trying to gather some strength, it just never quite makes it.

Though the tobacco tried to make a comeback toward the end, I didn?t feel that the effort justified going through the first two thirds of the bowl. It doesn?t readily bite, and smokes dry and clean.

Package note of hay, fermented vegetation and mild floral honey. Tobacco is a flake of marbled light and dark browns. Moisture content is great. Flakes rub out with a little effort. Burns slow with a few relights. The strength is mild to medium and nic is mild to medium. Flavoring is medium, with notes of Honey Dew and sweet Whisky. Both flavors begin just shy of medium and end a little stronger than mild. Taste is medium and very consistent, with notes of honey dew, sugar, spices, sweet whiskey, floral, wood, semi-sweet ripe fruit, bread, orange zest, earth, lemon grass, savory, mildly acidic, tart and tangy citrus, a sweet hay background note, and a mildly peppery almost smooth retro. Virginias are leading with Flavoring supporting. Room note is pleasant to tolerable, and aftertaste is great.

There is a crisp sweetness to this blend that is unlike any other Virginia flake that I have tried and I love it. This is one of my desert island blends for sure. I literally cant get enough of the taste and smell.