Reviews
Date Added: Sunday 02 September, 2018
It may or may not be true that some tobaccos favour
particular pipes... hmm... but it is true that a tobacco
that tastes wonderful one day can seem bland the
next. A curious phenomenon possibly to do with
biorhythms... maybe?
Whatever the reason I like to write reviews on a good
day - like today. I always enjoy Solani blends but
have put off trying Silver Flake in case I didn’t like it
and got stuck with a 100gm tin. Needn’t have
worried. The flake is folded into a neat clump and
separates easily, smells great, packs and lights
effortlessly and tastes of fine Virginia and Kentucky leaf.
I am on my second bowl this morning and looking
forward to a third. There is no topping that I can detect - just the taste of good pure tobacco. So why is it not a great blend? Hard to say - it is certainly a good smoke but lacks the character that would make it truly remarkable.
Date Added: Wednesday 15 August, 2018
Having enjoyed a variety of Samuel Gawith flake tobaccos I decided to give the Full Virginia a try. After breaking up the flake and giving it some drying time the tobacco burnt well from the get go. A decent smoke output, but certainly not vast plumes. The tastes from the get go are, as you may expect, a mild-medium note of slightly sweet, Virginia tobacco. After smoking it for a while I notice notes of hay/straw/grass in the aftertaste which proved to be very pleasant. There are certainly no flavourings or toppings that I could detect which gave a pleasant hour long smoke from a filled bowl. Personally I dont think it has enough in the taste to become my regular pipe tobacco, but it was certainly a very pleasant smoke. If you are the type of pipe smoker that enjoys multiple bowls in the day then I think that this would make a fine early bowl.
Date Added: Thursday 12 July, 2018
When I first started pipe smoking Ithought I would try the basic tobaccos used in most mixtures to find what they were like individually and in combination... in fact it was such good fun I might do it again... maybe. My impression of Burley at that time was that it was good as a filler but a little non-descript on its own.
So it took some time for me to try a pure Burley tobacco. This blend of three different Burleys is very good - much better than I expected. Malty, nutty and smooth with no detectable topping, its rich natural flavour is ideal for any time of day. Although my preference is for stronger more complex blends I can see this becoming a regular in future orders.
Date Added: Tuesday 26 June, 2018
What an amazing tasting Whisky. Full of incredible flavour and an amazing syrup finish, this is definitely a collectors item. Perfect with your favourite cigar.
.JPG "Solani White and Black Pipe Tobacco 50g Tin")
Date Added: Saturday 02 June, 2018
I tried this years ago when I was looking for a good Latakia blend but thought at the time it was a bit deficient in that department But I included a tin in this month's order and I am glad I did. This is a truly delicious tobacco - you could almost say it is a tobacco-y tobacco in the sense that if there is a topping it is probably tobacco juice... although the added richness is likely due to a toasting process.
It is a broken flake so a little moist - no bad thing because it takes the light easily and smokes sweet and cool straight from the tin. The flavours are intriguing... nutty, earthy with hay and a hint of liquorice in the background. It is one of those delightful tobaccos you hope will never end so you sip it gently to make it last longer. Towards the bottom of the bowl there is even a hint of pine... remarkable.
Date Added: Monday 26 March, 2018
Somebody kindly posted a message to me on this forum that Samuel Gawith flakes are always very moist and should be dried out before attempting to smoke them. With that in mind I took out a couple of flakes, rubbed them down to something that I thought resembled rubbed tobacco and then left them to dry for 3 hours and certainly appeared to be less moist. The dry notes of this tobacco are a very strong scent of alcohol (I dont believe this scent is near the sweetness of rum, closer to a whisky scent) and a strange, almost plastic note in there which threw me a bit. The tobacco notes were strong, I believe this may be Latakia as it is quite a bot stronger and bolder than the other tobaccos that Ive tried.
I put it in my Peterson straight pipe (with a filter) and, after a bit of difficulty on the initial light, eventually got the pipe going. The tobacco smoked really well after the initial lighting stages, although it did go out on me unexpectedly once (two thirds of the way down) and again at the end.
The smoke was quite strong, but certainly was more to my liking given my prefer
