Samuel Gawith Scottish Autumn Flake

Perfect composition of gold and light brown Virginias, easily rubbed out and lit. Sweet and rich flavour (honey and light fruit). Highly recommended full Virginia tobacco.

This is not a flake but a broken flake. Before smoking: opening the tin, the scent is the natural one of lemon Virginia. Very pleasant. The flake color is brown and dark brown and it is mottled with lighter streaks and strips. Sign of the presence of red Virginias. After lighting the taste is very good, typical of Virginia. Sugary and with a good body. Medium strength and taste. Satisfying, with a pleasant to tolerable room note. Extremely mild flavoring, almost imperceptible. Quality tobacco and the taste is pure Virginia. In the Four Season series Scottish Autumn Flake is probably the best one. Anyway, it is a matter of taste. Recommended for Virginia lovers. In my personal rating system (from 1 to 10) my score is 9 and three stars.

The collaboration project of Josef Stanislaw, Dan Tobacco Manufacturing and Samuel Gawith is a smart marketing gimmick that lets Mr Stanislaw to sell Dan Tobacco blends under a more respectable Samuel Gawith branding. Don't buy into the Samuel Gawith pedigree boasted here in the description, this product has little to do with the UK and SG. Like any other Stanislaw blend, it's made in Germany by Dan Tobacco. Actually, it's a rebranded Hamburger Veermeister, with exactly the same flavour and exactly the same cut. Which leaves a question of what Samuel Gawith's contribution to the collaboration has actually been (probably, just the trademark).

If evaluating Scottish Autumn as another Dan Tobacco blend, it's a fine tobacco. It's sweet, citrusy, gently sprinkled with Dan's signature honey essence, unobtrusive light blend. It's better than other Virginia blends by DTM. So, as a Dan product, it well deserves 3 stars.

If I were, however, naive enough to take for truth the Samuel Gawith pedigree myth, I won't give this blend more than a single star. Comparing to other SG flakes, it's sharpish, flavourless and very thin-bodied, made of noticeably cheaper leaf than any Samuel Gawith Virginia flake. It's far from being a substitution to BBF or FVF (I was hoping exactly that when buying this blend, and was really disappointed). I don't mean it's bad. I just mean it stands far behind any real Samuel Gawith's flake.

So, as long as I don't buy into Mr. Stanislaw's marketing ploy, I give the rebranded Hamburger Veermaster 3 stars. For a German product, it's a fine tobacco. For an English one, it's a joke. Luckily, it isn't English.

Try this if you chain-smoke and need something cheap and light to smoke a dozen pipes a day, back to back. You won't be overdosed with Nicotine. You might get tired of its citrusy tanginess, though.

Me, I won't buy anything Stanislaw anymore. Every time I do, I find something weird about its marketing. Any Stanislaw blend I've ever tried turned out to be just a rebranded Dan Tobacco. Why should I smoke through this "poor man's Gawith" while I may enjoy the real thing?

Tin notes of fig newtons, Rasin and bread. The flake is light brown and tan and a bit sticky but rubs out easily and burns slow with multiple relights. May need some drying. The strength mild, nic is mild. No flavoring detected. Taste is med and consistent, with notes of sweet tangy fruit, lemon grass and mildly spicy. Room note and taste are nice.

Opening the tin, you are welcomed by beautiful brown flakes. Looking delicious. After giving a deep smell I noticed some berries, hay, bread and citrus. Rubs out easily, or you can cut it up to little cubes and fill your pipe that way. Did not try folding yet. The moisture level was OK, could require a short dry-time. Lights up easily, but requires some relights. The smoke is sweet, creamy, cool and delicious. Taste of berries, citrus. Also reminds me of freshly baked bread. Taste gets stronger half way through, but never harsh, or unpleasant. No tongue bites, even when pushed. Leaves little moisture. Can highly recommend. 4 stars

It took me a bit to find this tobacco but after a while I was able to get hold of two tin cans. Sometimes it happens with some things that are delayed and then come at the right time.

After the opening of the tin, some nice frayed flakes appear stacked, wide, very wide, the widest I have seen to date, made up of shiny virginias and others that are darker.

The aroma of tobacco is absolutely intoxicating, with some very accentuated notes of chocolate. Every time I catch a flake I hold it close to my nose for a while to enjoy its aroma. To my surprise, considering that it is SG, it comes with a perfect humidity to load the pipe directly without the need for prior drying. It takes a while to start but after several puffs a variety of delicious flavors begin to appear, and although some of those flavors were similar to those of other virginias, other nuances seemed singular and unique to this tobacco (from what I know) , and they are related to those chocolate notes I was talking about. I have to deduce that it has a slight casing, since I had never perceived those notes in a straight virginia, but that very soft casing suits it perfectly to make it different from other virginias.

This may not be the place to talk about the ever-changing palate, and it may not matter to anyone either (understandable), but since I keep these reviews as a kind of personal diary of my life as a pipe smoker, I will say that I learned to value this guy. smoother virginias while smoking Classic Flake (Luxury Flake) by John Aylesbury. At the same time that this was happening, I began to substitute pipes with larger bowls for smaller and narrower ones for the softer tobaccos, where I have the impression that the flavors are more concentrated and the milder nuances can be better extracted, leaving the larger bowls for tobaccos where the flavor comes through. A second advantage is that in order to prolong the moment of smoking, it "forces" to smoke more slowly, helping to ensure that the flavors are not lost. Hence the comment in the first paragraph, since if this tobacco had come into my life earlier, perhaps I would not have valued it as it deserves.

In short, one of the best virginias I've had lately. I'll try to cover my back by getting a few more tin cans and then I'll post this review.

Tin note is lemony VA with a bee’s nest buried in a hay stack. This definitely has some topping, mostl likely honey and/or molasses. I bought all 4 seasons at once and I if I remember right I bought them at the end of Autumn and the beginning of Winter. I dove into winter and tossed this on the shelf...two years ago. With two additional years of age this is fantastic, but I cannot comment on a fresh tin. This may be one of the best VA flakes still produced today. It is bready, earthy and the honey topping is a fantastic compliment to the tobacco. There may be a hint of molasses that also boosts the tobacco flavor. There is some depth to this tobacco but it is not overly complex but the smoke starts out as rich, slightly sweet and bready and becomes more earthy and oddly enough, the lemon VA seems to come out more later in the bowl. I have only smoked 1/3 of the tin but I can see this becoming a top 5 VA flake. Not easy to find in the colonies and I only have 2 tins in the cellar but this may be the best in the series and a new favorite.

Very nice full rounded taste of VA. Very good smoke, without moisture. Nice sweet taste and aroma. Room note is very pleasant and sweet. Maybe it is just me, but I had feeling of some very gentle casing of fruits and ginger maybe vanilla and sugar. Strongly thing this will be one of my pure VA in my blend rotation.

Yet another damn fine flake from Gawith's.

I was impressed by the lovely aroma coming from the tin when I popped the lid and it seems to remain whilst I make my way through this really tasty flake.

It's quite a lot darker than I thought it would be and it can actually be smoked straight from the tin, which is unusual for Gawith's blends. I just hope it doesn't over-dry (?) as the days pass. Not that it will have much time to dry out anyway, as this is so delicious I keep diving in for one bowl after another.

A superb smoke, ranking with some SG's finest, including Best Brown and Golden Glow.

Get this while you can. No prizes where I had to go to get this.

And no there's not a drop of whisky anywhere near this and I have to say I really don't know why this classed as Scottish.

No scotsmen were harmed during the writing of this review.