Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. Sliced Black Twist

The UK has been a large part of my life as a half&half Brit American and there are many things I'm fond of from the old country, whether it be love it or hate it Marmite, good beer like my favourite: Theakston's Old Peculiar, or more infamous things like black pud or kippers in the morning. As I've smoked my way through blends, I've really come to respect good English Tobacco, admittedly falling in love with G&H's Dark Flake Unscented. So when I saw the drop a few months ago, I took the chance to order several blends I've never tried before and I've been happily smoking them ever since.

I ordered this having full knowledge of the strength this blend is supposed to have. There isn't much to say about a tin as I ordered my sample of Black Twist in bulk. This is a blend that comes as a cut coin. From what I can find this is the coin version of the Black Irish X that I never see in stock so I had to see what all the fuss was about. When I open my bag I see nice small coins of mostly black and dark brown tobacco. The smell is unique: deep, rich smokiness, almost a hickory sort of note, hay, beef, and slightly salty. In short it smells gorgeous. It came a bit too wet for my taste so some dedicated dry time will help you. When lighting it takes a light, but doesn't want to keep a light really well so the dryer you get it the longer it will stay lit. I also found that this does way better in a smaller bowl, in the larger bowls I've smoked it in it seems to really want to fight to stay lit. It will need more than the average amount of relights.

Now to taste. As I light up deep charbroiled steak notes take the forefront, that slightly seared taste you get on the outside of your steak when it's been on a grill. As you puff slower, notes of barbecue spice hit and some of the Virginia hay comes out. It is a little peppery on the retrohale and I don't know if that comes from the stoving but it's a nice quality. This is a nice show burning and cool smoking blend. It gives off thick plumes of white smoke.

The taste is a full. In a big bowl it dominates your pallet. The aftertaste is nice, and you will taste it for a long while. The strength is a strong. I ate a hearty lunch and I feel it in my throat, but I don't think it comes in close to HH Rustica. The strength is closer to HH Bold Kentucky. Don't smoke it on an empty stomach unless you are used to strong smokes. The room note is powerful and warrants sitting on the porch. A great powerful smoke, but one that is definitely not an all day blend.

Summary: a heavily stoved Virginia with a barbecue flavor and less strength than its less roasted cousins.

Like many ropes, this one benefits from the breakdown of tobacco vegetative structures so that delicious nicotine can sail free; in this case, they cover it with olive oil and roast the twist to give it a nice smooth flavor. I did not detect any Lakeland Essence on this blend, but a strong scent and flavor of olive oil gives it its barbecue taste, under which emerges a surprisingly sweet and slightly spicy Virginia. Although it takes some effort to get this one going, if you pack it lightly but with the little coins touching, and then give it a good blaze, it will keep itself going for a long, slow smoke with the characteristic black twist richness and smoky aroma.

I was lucky that I got granted a generous sample of this for several bowls from a UK friend (thanks Paul!)

Anyways this is a wonderful, hearty and full-bodied blend that deserves some love! Finely cut, with small coin-cuts inbetween the appearance is ll black, with very few dark-brown spots. It smells of beef, wood and earth with some learthery and bit of a smoky note to it. Mine came pretty dry, almost crispy, perfectly conidioned to be smoked right away.

S.B.T.'s taste is delicious, hearty and strong (both in taste and nicotine!) Of course it's not the most complex, but a honest, bold and tasteful blend! Very earthy, leathery, meaty and maybe a hint of some dark chocolate to it. Decently woodsy-smoky, with just a hint of sweetness to give it some contrast to the full-bodied and savory aroma.

Despite its strenght in the Nicotine-departement, I find it to be very digestible as a lover of dark fired leafs and stronger blends. I don't like this phrase, but this certainly isn't "for the faint of heart"! A small bowl is enough to satisfy one and make for pleasurable smoke. Performs even better in a Corn Cob, as it enhances the sweetness by a tad.

Delicious blend, that certainly deserves the whole 4 stars to me! For lovers of dark fired Kentucky, or other hearty dark fired leafs this is a treasure.

This is the most potent (nicotine-wise) blend I have yet encountered. Given due respect, though, it can be very satisfying for the experienced smoker.

The sliced form is friendly and requires little preparation - just a bit of drying and it is ready to load. It takes a few tries with the lighter to get it going well, but once lit it burns with a slow cadence.

The flavor is strong - intense dark earthiness and meatiness (think well-done/burnt rind of a roast) coexists alongside the dark-fired notes (think GH Dark Flake), and is tinged with with a primordial roughness in an unapologetic assault on the senses.

The result is a very intensely flavorful blend which can be immensely satisfying even when slowly sipped, which is almost required given its strength.

The "burnt" quality to the flavor dances on the edge of being deeply satisfying vs. being offensive. In my review of SG Black XX I found this quality to come across as burnt machine oil, and I could see where some might find this characterization (or similarly, a burnt plastic note) applies to Sliced Black Twist as well. However, for my personal chemistry, I find Sliced Black Twist stays on the enjoyable side as being deeply satisfying, and that makes all the difference.

Perhaps also due to personal chemistry I find this blend to be the strongest nicotine experience, and a quite small bowl churchwarden is my limit. For me, it easily exceeds GH Dark Flake, GH Dark Birdseye, SG 1792, GH Brown Bogie and Brown Ropes in strength.

Strong, black, and heady. Not for the faint of heart or those of a delicate nature. This baccy will put hair on your chest. One of my favorites. The jackaro is an everyman's blend. If you are looking for one of those namby pamby parlour blends, look elsewhere. What we have here is a good ol' fashioned working man's baccy. Meaty with an off putting (to some) charred taste; I absolutely love it. This jackaro is also a real spinner with a lovely does of Vitamin N that will get your heart racing and your head doing die-does. Truly, a vintage English tobacco done in the traditional way as only Gawith and Hoggarth knows how.

Recently I got interested in ropes and twists and that led to an interest in Gawith & Hoggarth blends. So, in order to do some research on G&H blends, I ordered quantities of several of their blends, this being one of them. There's no turning back now, because I like all of the ones that I have tried so far. The appearance of this tobacco is a ribbony mass with the remnants of some sliced coins in the mix. It is black, of course, with some reddish tones when you turn it just right in the light. The aroma of the bag is very slightly floral, but not as much as some G&H blends. It is moist out of the bag, so I let it air-dry for about 30 minutes to an hour. It packs easily into the bowl and lights fairly easily, depending on how dry you allow it to get. I smoked it in a small-bowled BBB Sovereign Dublin and found it to be very tasty and a little sweet. There's not a lot of complexity in this smoke, but lots of good tobacco power and flavor. The strength (nicotine) of this tobacco is great, but I found it to be smooth and rich. It would be good to blend with some weaker tobaccos to give them a little kick. The smoke is relatively cool and dry. I really enjoy smoking this tobacco because of its pure, unadulterated tobacco flavor.

Wow but this is good stuff! Does need a good amount of drying (I leave mine open to the air for a day or so before smoking). Jet black leaves are quite easy to break apart but pipe filling takes a little more care than a ready-rubbed blend. Takes a few re-lights to really combust, but then the taste.... Remarkable and unique, I get salted ham, black tea, ozone and oil (the original ropes are cured in olive oil). Overall the taste is meaty and very satisfying. I can imagine sailors smoking this in charred nose-warmers during a force nine gale. Perhaps its the saltiness that reminds me of the sea. A very reflective and comforting smoke particularly when the wind and rain is hammering at your front door. Easily became my favourite tobacco.

This looks like their black twist just all sliced up. It has that Gawithy, Hoggarthy, black ropey smell to it in the bag. It needs some drying time. 15 seconds in the microwave made it feel ok but still it smoked slightly wet. Next time I go for 20. At first light, it's actually rather bland and disappointing. Like the virgin bride said to the groom, "just give me time baby!".

By about 3/4 bowl she's found her stride. Like their ropes, the warm, woody, nutty, leathery, full, and deep goodness of it all kicks in and it just stays there wonderfully throughout the rest of the bowl without much variation. I find this one and the rest of the the GH&Co. ropes to be delicious and the preslicing does nothing to the taste as you would expect.

To me really the biggest difference is the black ramps up to its sweet spot where as the Brown is there from the first light as is slightly stronger. If you've found the Brown ropes to harsh, give this a try. As SpinalTap would say, those go to 11. This one only goes to 10. Nic is still strong, just not as strong as the brown. If you are nic sensitive, go slow. 4 out of 4 stars if you like the genre.