Samuel Gawith Navy Flake

Storm-tossed seas, a howling wind, a ship with full sail beating into the wind and Jolly Jack Tar at the helm with his trusty pipe. Images which are conjured up whilst smoking Samuel Gawith's Navy Flake. A traditional offering of Virginias, pressed with just the right amount of latakia and flavoured with rum. Medium strength.




Bought it as part of a bulk order with the idea of leaving it enough time to dry out enough not to suffer from any relights from that famous SG moisture. After six weeks and several smokes in the past seven days, I now know I needn't have bothered.

The aroma from the tin is that of a mild rum, very pleasant. The flakes are nicely cut and have an nice healthy brown glow to them. Rubbing out is easy enough as is the packing. The lighting, well, that's where the problems start. Without drying, the tobacco does need a few relights. With drying - this is five weeks worth followed by three seconds in a microwave (yes, I was that desperate) - this improves only marginally. The smoke itself, well, what is there to say? It's just a sorry mess. For the first few smokes I got little bits of rum here and there and the odd whiff of a sea breeze, a fond reminder of a day trip to Whitby perhaps. It was a little dull but not unpleasant. However, as time goes by, the smoke has descended into some kind of intolerable awfulness that just can't be described, the taste of seaweed perhaps? Or the taste of French grapeshot maybe? This quickly descended into something unsmokable and, as a result, confined the remainder to the bin.

So, a very sad day indeed. The first few smokes, while dull, had a little promise. That little taste of sea air that pops up is to be admired, quite noble and ambitious of SG to try something like that, something a bit different. But this sadly, does not float my boat. In fact, it quite nicely sinks it. Which is fine by me because if I had a load of this stuff in the lower decks, I'd quite happily see it sink into a watery grave.