Samuel Gawith Winter Time Flake

A predominantly dark flake with the occasional bright fleck, tacky to the touch and with a rich leathery smell.

Light it up and bam, you are greeted with the unmistakeable hit of Latakia, creamy yet a touch sour, buttermilk if you will. And then a steady sort of rhythm develops, with that distinctive flavour continuing, but just about kept in check by the Virginia.

There is not a great deal of complexity here, the two principal components perform exactly as you would expect. And as you would also expect from this distinguished blender, the quality of the leaf is unimpeachable. Overall there is something appealing about the simplicity of it all and it does the job coolly, smoothly and with the minimum of effort required.

So an agreeable smoke, but Lat lovers only need apply.

Recommended.

UPDATE 2015-02-01: What a difference four months in a jar makes. I am upgrading it from 1 star to 3 stars. It has transformed into a full, smoky, earthy, Lat-heavy contemplative blend.

The Latweed dominates, but the bowl is generally smooth and sedate - not boisterous or combative. It can seem simple, but sipping and quiet attention reveals intermittent wisps of sweetness and spiciness that enhance its contemplative nature.

Alas, there is still a tinge of bite, but sipping slowly evades most of it. Perhaps even more time in the jar will resolve this? The bowl burns well to the end, with the nuances continuing to peek out to the last. The Lat hangs heavy on the tongue afterward, in a good way.

Good for a quiet, restful time, or whilst reflecting on the mysteries of the universe.

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ORIGINAL REVIEW 2014-09-28: Perhaps I received a bad tin of this blend, but my results are contrary to the other reviews I see here. I found Winter Time Flake horrible. This is the first SG blend I have ever detested.

The tin aroma is not of smoky latakia or virginias, but is instead the aroma is reminiscent of burning tires. No matter, tin aromas are often misleading.

After a bit of drying and rubbing out, it lights moderately easily. However, the burning tire flavor is now pervasive, and in addition, I am unexpectedly experiencing bite from the VAs.

It improves slightly further in, but it is still unpleasant. I had hoped for something akin to, say, Lancer Slices, but instead it seems like a cruel combination of lackluster latakia, SG Black XX, and a hot VA. The room note is at least decent, but the taste this blend leaves in my mouth is most unpleasant. I will jar the rest and hope time can work some magic.

The smoky, woody, earthy, musty, fragrantly floral, spicy sweet Cyprian Latakia is the lead component. The Virginias provide a fair amount of tart and tangy citrus, plenty of grass, some sugar, bread, mild floralness, acidity, light tangy darker fruit, earth, wood, and a couple pinches of spice. They play a secondary role instead of being supporting players. The strength and nic-hit are a step past the medium mark. The taste is a step short of the medium of medium to strong. There’s no chance of bite, but fast puffing may result in a harsh note or two. Has some rough edges. The flake easily breaks apart to suit your packing preference. Burns clean and a tad warm with a mostly consistent, deeply rich, sweet and sour, floral, savory campfire flavor that extends to the pleasantly lingering after taste. The room note potently lingers. Leaves little moisture in the bowl, and requires some relights. Not an all day smoke.

-JimInks

This may just be me but I do not believe that there is such a thing as a "complex" Latakia Flake. I have read a bunch of the reviews of this blend and the chief complaint seems to be monochromatic, or that it lacks complexity. Of course it doesn't! It's a Latakia Flake (and I love Latakia Flakes btw). Brebbia Latakia Flake, HH Latakia Flake, Germain Special Latakia Flake (may be the one slight exception)....all good but none overly complex to me. Maybe it is my palate or that I haven't had the right one, but that is my 2 cents. Hopefully that is acceptable to the reading public. This is a nice Lat Flake. It is sweet and smokey and creamy. It comes a bit wet but I left the open tin (opened so well the lid wouldn't stay on tight) overnight and it was perfect to jar and smoke, I did dry the flake for an extra 5 minutes prior to smoking each time). The smoke like the tin note is Latakia, as one would expect. The tin note does have some "other" scent from a topping that I cannot identify, but it is nice in both scent and flavor. The sweet and slightly floral topping is only detectable to me on the relight, which are moderate for me...I tend to have a problem keeping flakes lit from top to bottom of the bowl, most likely from my inattention, A puff or two after the relight and you are back to the core flavors. I would describe the Virginia's as bready and it works wonderfully with the creamy Latakia. The VA sweetness seems to marry with the Latakia sweetness, really nicely. Very consistent in flavor. Hard to find and I have no idea what the dating was on this my tins came in an ugly box from the UK with the faces of death all over them, BUT the tin inside was beautiful with NO other info on it or any type of stamping or stickers. I like the balance the struck here between the God awful tobacco laws in the UK and preserving tin art. Kudos to SG, DTM and Stanislaw on incurring the extra expense! I wish this was easier to find and/or available in the US.

I am surprised, I must admit, for these flakes seem to be so easy going and forgiving. Not that I did not enjoy things such as Navy Flake, Balkan Flake, and so on, but what sets Winter Time Flake apart is this apparent lack of complexity and the fact they are so easy to approach. I can detect some sweetness here and there, and the latakia side of the argument is rather mellow, creamy and so soft on the palate. And the fact they are so easy to crumble due to its thinness and consistent cut will tick another box. Also, I cannot detect any tongue bite and they don't seem to smoke hot in your bowl. In true honesty, I wasn't expecting it. I think I might buy again.

WTF is one that I purchased impulsively right before Christmas. I was at the local B&M buying McClelland's Holiday Spirit as I have for the last two years, neat little tradition and as I was checking out I see this gorgeous snow covered tin. Take note tobacco companies: as with all colorful labels or anything with the words "Autumn, Winter, Haunted, Spooky, Christmas, Halloween, Strong, Scary" Etc. Young Piper is and always has been a sucker for pipe Marketing 🙂 it was a must have for my collection regardless of contents. I was certainly not disappointed when I got home and looked up reviews on the blend. My tin required a couple of days drying until two notches below crunchy which is perfect for this blend, folded and stuffed is my preferred method for WTF as rubbed out it burned a tad hot. I have enjoyed smoking WTF as a before bed smoke and its quite nice for a strictly Virginia / Latakia blend but honestly I do prefer Orientals providing some complexity in my smoke. I think those that enjoy Lancers Slices or Commonwealth would also enjoy WTF since they are all very similar with light nicotine and in the Medium English category (IMO). No bite, smokes cool and no real complaints on room note but certainly not going to win non smoking friends. Worth buying just for the tin art, high quality tobacco's, recommended, but not a favorite for me.

WINTER TIME FLAKE: Excellent partnership between Samuel Gawith and Josef Stanislaw. For this season, Gawith and Stanislaw suggest a classic: a Virginia/Latakia flake, an English blend with a lot of Latakia and a sweet and gentle high quality Virginia. Latakia fits perfectly with the winter season and this is a good choice. WTF is a medium strength flake, with an intense and smoky flavor. Persistent taste. Not a great blend, but a very good one. Personally, I would prefer a little less Latakia but all in all this is a balanced flake with no defect. Not as complex as other English mixtures. Anyway a little gem for Latakia lovers. But if you don’t like Latakia stay away! In my personal rating system (from 1 to 10) my score is 8 and three complete stars.

This is the third of the four seasons blends that I have tried. I purchased one of each shortly after they were first released around 6 years ago. From the three I have tried, I believe the theme is that they showcase the Virginia leaf. As Sam Gawith IMO makes perhaps the finest Virginia blends offered today, it seems they are sure to be great. I won't delve into the joint venture with stanislav as I know little of this blending house or who did what. For what its worth, I would not have bought them if SG's name was not on them.

I certainly loved the English Summer Flake and actually purchased more of it because it was so good. It was a straight Va which certainly fits the season. This also does well to fit the season as the cold weather of winter makes me and, I like to think most pipers, think of Latakia.

To my knowledge and perception there is nothing but Virginia and Latakia in the blend. The components made me think immediately of SG Navy Flake which also has Va and Lat with a touch of rum. SGNF is one of my favorite blends by SG. This is different from NF in that the Latakia is more prevalent yet it never overwhelms. There is no way one could characterize this as a Lat bomb.

I have been slowly losing my attraction to the lat heavy blends that I used to love, but this one was quite good, because there was enough virginia sweetness to carry the latakia for my tastes. IMO this does not rise to the level of SGNF, but it is pretty good. I liked it, but would not buy more as I did with the English Summer Flake.