This is the first informal installment of our ASW pipe tobacco offerings. Enjoy!
It’s warm weather season, and for pipe smokers that means Virginias! Sweet, mild, and perfect for the sweltering heat, a pipeful of Virginia leaf with a cool beverage makes an excellent combo for outdoor smoking. Today we shall examine the mysterious allure of Samuel Gawith’s Golden Glow.
I’ve been curious about this one for a while, so we popped a tin that’s been on the shelf for a while…two years, maybe?
The paper was starting to stain and had that “come hither” appeal. As soon as the lid came off, the tin note was almost beyond description: Dates, prunes, a potpourri of fruit-stand deliciousness. As advertised, this is a broken flake of beautiful, bright Virginias in which some darker, leathery strands are intertwined.
I rubbed some out, removed a few stems and let it sit and breathe for about 30 minutes. (I’d safely say it could’ve been loaded and smoked right from the tin, but I gave it some air anyway.) Easy packing, lighting and smoking. Very sweet up front with some actual fruitiness coming through during the first third of the bowl; then it settled into a more classic Samuel Gawith Virginia.
Very similar to Full Virginia Flake at the 2/3 mark, with no hay-like notes but rather a developing burnt taste (buttered toast, perhaps?). Golden Glow burns to a fine white ash. I had to dump near the end, but was rewarded with a refreshing relight that lasted to the heel.
I enjoyed this broken flake thoroughly. Give it a try.
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