I am not sure that there is much to be said about this blend that hasn't already been said, but here goes. I am finding myself for the past couple of weeks smoking the same blend over and over again. I didn't have time for too many bowls, but since fall is getting its presence felt more and more, I reverted to my beloved English Blends. I finished smoking a jar of Virginia, and I figured I pull one more English out of the cellar to fill the empty container. Well, since the English dedicated pipes in the rotation kept getting their rest, I only smoked English lately and nothing more. But without realizing I smoked the same blend over the past two weeks, the one I opened, that I mentioned above. I am talking about Samuel Gawith's Squadron Leader. I bought this maybe a year ago ... not giving it much attention, one of those "Eh ... another English in the cellar can't hurt". Quite frankly I avoided it for a while, as mistakenly I thought it was a flake, and I have too much flake open right now.
One thing I can say about this blend: whenever I thought I can no longer be impressed by an English Blend, here comes this weasel. It's simply amazing, and the most amazing fact about it is its simplicity. Nothing fancy, a constant mellow sweetness from first light to the last puff, with a whisper of latakia (so yeah, for all you lat bomb fiends, this one ain't for you). I was thrown off at first, as when I read the review a while ago, before actually trying the baccy, Latakia was listed first in the blend composition so I figured that would have been the dominating note. In fact, this is a Oriental/Turkish forward blend, that is very well balanced by the Virginia with a fantastic consistency of taste all throughout the smoke. No bite, regardless of how hard you try to punish it, right moisture out of the tin, sweet mellow nose in accord with the taste (hardly any smokiness, also hardly any dark/black ribbon visible to the naked eye) ... shoot, I may have found my golden tobacco. Ask me again in six months, but if you find me having the same opinion of the Squadron Leader, I may reduce my winter rotation by half next year ... unless I over do it, smoking it to the point I really get tired of it, it has happened before :roll: :lol:
One thing I can say about this blend: whenever I thought I can no longer be impressed by an English Blend, here comes this weasel. It's simply amazing, and the most amazing fact about it is its simplicity. Nothing fancy, a constant mellow sweetness from first light to the last puff, with a whisper of latakia (so yeah, for all you lat bomb fiends, this one ain't for you). I was thrown off at first, as when I read the review a while ago, before actually trying the baccy, Latakia was listed first in the blend composition so I figured that would have been the dominating note. In fact, this is a Oriental/Turkish forward blend, that is very well balanced by the Virginia with a fantastic consistency of taste all throughout the smoke. No bite, regardless of how hard you try to punish it, right moisture out of the tin, sweet mellow nose in accord with the taste (hardly any smokiness, also hardly any dark/black ribbon visible to the naked eye) ... shoot, I may have found my golden tobacco. Ask me again in six months, but if you find me having the same opinion of the Squadron Leader, I may reduce my winter rotation by half next year ... unless I over do it, smoking it to the point I really get tired of it, it has happened before :roll: :lol:
