Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. Rum Flake

I'm really glad I gave this one a try.. it is my new favorite GH blend and possibly my favorite 'aromatic'.. I'm a fan of navy style blends and like a little rum flavoring.. but this as other reviewers have said is quite unique.. My tin, purchased new, did have some sugar crystals so there may well have already been some age on it.. it is very stout and the flavors are quite upfront.. the Virginia is a minor player compared to the burley.. as you go down the bowl the burley really starts to shine and the maple comes out here and there.. it does have a little strength to it.. not a powerhouse but stout.. the rum is very subtle and seems to be a darker rum.. the ingredients all work together beautifully and the aroma while smoking is amazing.. I didn't detect much Lakeland essence.. maybe it is different in bulk as many others seem to pick it up.. it has a decidedly sweet and creamy character.. I could see this appealing to many different types of smokers as it crosses over many genres.. it has plenty of natural tobacco flavor.. it is by definition an aromatic.. it is a burley.. and it does have some Virginia (though kind of in the background it is there) highly recommended

The presentation is lovely and rustic, seemingly 'old school' with the broken flakes typical of GH. The smell is kind of weird and perfume-like. There may be some Lakeland essence in this blend, or it could just be cross-contamination. The perfume doesn't come through in the taste.

Taste: sweet and bready, dry and nutty, molasses notes, maybe a touch of caramel. This blend produces lovely creamy smoke. Nice smell that comes off the pipe. The rum seems to add nice sweetness, maybe some wood.

Nicotine: I got a slight hit. I'd rate it medium. Strength is mild to medium. The smoke had some denseness which helped with the promulgation of flavors.

This may ghost your briar, but I haven't smoked it in any pipe consistently. I imagine it would do well in the sweetness of a corn cob.

I'd recommend it to the Lakeland smoker, or even the burley smoker, as long as you don't mind flavorings. There is enough sweetness to delight the Virginia lovers as well. It's not really an aromatic, to me. Tobacco flavors are on top of added flavors. I would buy it again as a treat tobacco maybe. It's also a nice intro into Lakeland tobaccos without getting heavy Lakeland ghosting, maybe, or heavy Lakeland flavors. A similar tobacco would be Peterson Hyde Park.

I found this on a second visit to various Lakeland flakes. This burns great, tastes delicious and complex. Enjoyed it in a small briar then a meerschaum and have stayed with that play. Probably one of the best navy-style flakes I have and will continue to enjoy. The rum is subtle and the other flavorings just seem to work well as the tobacco still rules the experience. It does have a goodly amount of nicotine so not too late at night is better.

Isn't it funny how our tastes change? I first sampled this flake a couple of years ago and I really didn't enjoy it very much, but having since developed a penchant for the Lakeland flakes I now find this to be a thoroughly delicious smoke.

Even though I usually don't like blends with more than a hint of burley in them, something about this one keeps me coming back. It's the exception that proves the rule, and I reckon that the composition of different varieties here is pretty much spot on - the richness of the topping compensates for what I usually perceive as a 'dry' and 'dusty' characteristic in burley tobacs.

The flavours on offer here have already been described pretty accurately by other reviewers. Maple dominates, then the soapiness, followed by the licorice/anise spice with the rum flitting in and out.

I like to smoke this roughly rubbed out in a medium sized bowl. Although I find it can be a tiny bit nippy for the first few puffs, it soon settles down and burns very nicely.

When I want to treat myself, I cut a thin coin of Brown Bogie, rub that out with the flake and load them up together. The small amount Brown Bogie just nudges the strength and body of the smoke up by a fraction and makes a subtle contribution to the flavour, rounding it out a little. It's an indulgence I can heartily recommend, as I can Rum Flake.

This is a tobacco I buy in bulk and keep for months, smoking it sparingly over time, perhaps a bowl a week or every two weeks. It is a typical dark, pressed G&H flake with a maple sugar aroma and this carries over into the flavor of the smoke. This is a strong tobacco, and has that pleasant astringent sensation of nicotine on the tongue underneath the tobacco flavors. The combination of the sweet maple and the somewhat bitter, dark pressed flake flavor are unique to this tobacco. There is absolutely no bite. I like the dark pressed, scented Lakeland flakes, and I like this the best of all. If you like a sweet tobacco now and then, but you want the taste of tobacco, this is an excellent choice. Highly recommended. Paddy.

If you've smoked G.L. Pease's "Sixpence" before, you will immediately feel familiar. I haven't smoked the two blends side by side, but based on my memory alone, these are pretty much identical. Nevertheless, I did not go back to look at my review of Sixpence because I didn't want it to influence my thoughts about Rum Flake. We will see later if they match.

Out of the tin I immediately get vegetation and alcohol. Not much of sweetness or anything else.

Lighting it up, the first notes that appear are alcohol, spice, pepper, wood, and smoke. The latter isn't reminiscent of Latakia or even Dark Fired Kentucky. But nonetheless, it has a smokey flavor.

Carries a certain complexity. On the one hand the overall woody, nutty, and sweet notes, wrapped in this smokey rum blanket. Excellent balance and very interesting complexity. However, it doesn't make it too complicated, making it simple enough to be enjoyed all day, if you'd like to.

Despite the description giving the impression of a heavy smokey blend, if I had to put it into a category I would've said that this is a standard Virginia-Burley flake with added Rum. While the Virginias don't add much natural sweetness, they do help to balance out the Burley tobaccos, preventing the blend from being a nutty/cocoa/earth type of blend.

I like to rub it out to small ribbon and give it sufficient drying time. Once it's ready, it's very easy to pack and smoke.

Medium in body and strength. Requires minimal relights, if any at all, and maintains its flavor throughout the bowl. No tongue bite.

I enjoy this blend very much. It's great for walking outside, doesn't require you to think too much, but is also not boring. It satisfies the need for nicotine and leaves a nice aftertaste. Not sure I'd get a lot of it, but it's a great blend to have from time to time. Never disappoints.

I picked up a tin before reading the reviews in my quest to find the rum flake /tobacco that I really would like as I enjoy rums as my brown liquor of choice.

That being said, I was pleasantly surprised by what I got. It has a faint lakeland scent that comes through from time to time. I picked up the maple/sweet/rum mostly in the first 3rd of the bowls. The rest of the time it was a nice burning medium flake that is complex in a good way. The room note isn't a favorite with my wife. My bulk is from 2021, so I'll be interested to see how this one ages and look forward to having it as a treat from time to time.

For some reason unknown to me, this tobacco is found in different countries in different packaging, with different labels and names. In American stores I have seen it with a label of dark green color, in the EU the manufacturer had to change the name of Jamaican Flake or R&M (Rum & Maple) Flake. Nevertheless, the manufacturer claims that in all the variants described it is the same blend.

Jars of this company's products, unfortunately, are not marked with the date of packaging. So we have to refer to the 2012 excise stamp. Judging by the smell, the tobacco has obviously been in storage for a while - the rum has weathered, and the maple syrup reminds of molasses. In addition, the bouquet has a very faint, but familiar Lakeland flavor (mostly rose oil), as well as the tobacco's own smell - a nut, some stale hay and, for some reason, rye flour.

In appearance, the slicing of the tobacco is no different from other G&H flakes - it's still the same sloppy and slightly broken, as if they were chopping tobacco with a knife by hand. The plates vary in thickness from a millimeter to two, and one plate at different ends can have different thicknesses. I can't say that it makes stuffing the pipe easier, on the contrary. The best variant for this kind of tobacco is a pipe with a wide bowl. The color of the tobacco looks like a long-lasted bitter chocolate, fully covered with a light coating: through the light flake of the shade of stained white oak you can see the veins of cocoa color. If you look closely, you can see very small sugar crystals glistening on the tobacco. The consistency is dense. The moisture content is moderate, no moisture when kneading.

The taste was quite unassuming: a nut, a little earth, a drop of rum, baked pear, bread from a mixture of rye and wheat flour, rose oil.

The strength of the tobacco is medium, and gets a little stronger as you smoke it. The tobacco does not bite, is soft, burns slowly and cool, while it burns - increases in volume, leaving a loose, but fine ash. Despite the apparent relative dryness, it leaves moisture in the pipe and even the mouthpiece. Nevertheless, I don't recommend a pipe with a filter - I had to take it out to taste the nuances of flavor.

The smoke from the tobacco has a fairly consistent but neutral tobacco smell with hints of rose and walnut.

Bottom line: an everyday blend for those who like burley with subtle hints. I personally don't particularly like it, but I can't help but note its harmony and lack of any distinct flavors or aromas.

I got this in a sample from a friend. There was a slightly heavy sweet pouch note. The flakes were mostly broken in the sample and moisture level was good. I rubbed it out to smoke.

This is a slightly sweet smoke with some earthiness and a hint of Lakeland. There was an odd flavor I picked up that I have found in other Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. blends. There is something I am getting - celery seed maybe? It is not unpleasant, but it is unusual.

I found this burned a little slow and was enjoyable.