Samuel Gawith Pensioners Mixture- Dark Fired Off Cuts

Sam Gawith - Dark Fired Off Cuts/Pensioners Mix.

Out of the two titles for this (Pensioners Mixture and Off Cuts) 'Off Cuts' definitely sits better with it, there are far too many bigger pieces of flake that need rubbing or breaking for it to qualify as a mix. We can also see the usual Sam G' issue, as you can probably guess it's too damp. Although there are those two minor faults they quickly fade from the mind once it's burning! It really is a good smoke! The first quality to enumerate is the temperature, quite a cool burning blend that once coupled with zero tongue bite makes for a wonderful experience. It isn't too strong with nicotine for me, mild to medium so I take bigger inhalations of smoke. Out of the two tobaccos it's the Kentucky that comes through stronger, I can easily get the Virginia but it definitely plays second fiddle to the Kentucky. There is a slight smokiness to the taste, nowhere near as smoky as Latakia but there is a pleasant light smoky quality there. Because I hadn't allowed mine to properly air after some time the pipe develops a slight gurgle, it doesn't sound too full of water but it highlights to me that a decent time to air is imperative for this. Despite the fact I haven't allowed it enough time to allow the moistness to decrease it still gives a good burn, throughout a bowl I only need to re-light a small amount of times. The room note isn't too much, it's a nice tone of the tobaccos but by no means would you say it's heavy. Although this doesn't bite I have noticed if it's puffed to forcefully the smoke can become a little astringent in taste, it's more of a gentle puffing blend.

This is a good tobacco but after about half an hour it becomes a little mundane and drops from four stars to three!

I bought 100 grams, it's Sam Gawith's, so I have a good idea what I'm getting, I got it from GQ in a plastic bag, crammed said bag in a 50 gram tin and promptly forgot about it. Fortunately when I do this I always date the tin and forget to label the contents, however if it's an SG tobacco, it goes in an SG tin, if it's something else, it goes in a plain unlabelled tin. This one has to be the dark. It was "tinned" 2 years ago, dry but not so dry as to be a harsh burn, the smokiness is very forward, a "rich tasting" tobacco, almost Lat like, good vitamin N content but certainly not overpowering. This has to be the off cuts from Lakeland Dark. A good nice smoke, may yet go into rotation I will definately be back for more. I think we are very fortunate to be able to get this at a very reasonable price.