Sam Gawaith And Moisture

[Milleniumsmoker]

Hello All,

Wondering how many of you have experience with Sam Gawaith. I tried a few blends and enjoyed them, but found them to be extremely moist. Prior to this I have mostly had only Rattray's and Drucquer which I find to be far less dry.

Do you all dry out the tobacco a bit prior to smoking? I found it not to be too wet to get a good light going but I had to smoke it too hot to keep it going for my liking and it left a bad taste in my mouth afterwards.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Do you all dry out the tobacco a bit prior to smoking?

I leave it out overnight.

 

[condorlover1]

I like it wet but that's just my personal taste and probably something to do with smoking old meerschaum pipes!

 

[Milleniumsmoker]

Got it, I heard about people doing that before and I never felt the need with other blends. But this one in particular was much wetter than anything I tried before

 

[Milleniumsmoker]

I do a

I like it wet but that's just my personal taste and probably something to do with smoking old meerschaum pipes!I

I do as well! But I really had to puff to keep it going. I felt it was even wetter than Erinore flake which is pretty heavy on the moisture content. I kind of fell in love with the Drucuer blends which are all drier in comparison. They don't have a pressed flake that I have seen, but the broken flake which is a bit drier and easier to just stuff in there.

I remember fondly my first few visits to a pipe shop where an ancient tobacconist rid me of the notion I had to rub flakes out. He said "just stuff them in there."

It worked until I encountered this particular blend. It needs some time to dry and I think probably does need a bit of rubbing to get it properly going.

 

[condorlover1]

I smoke G&H plugs and apart from the lopsided dosing of the Rose Geranium topping I have always folded and stuffed.

 

[sablebrush52]

Hello All,

Wondering how many of you have experience with Sam Gawaith. I tried a few blends and enjoyed them, but found them to be extremely moist. Prior to this I have mostly had only Rattray's and Drucquer which I find to be far less dry.

Do you all dry out the tobacco a bit prior to smoking? I found it not to be too wet to get a good light going but I had to smoke it too hot to keep it going for my liking and it left a bad taste in my mouth afterwards.

Oh, yes! Hours of drying, or there's little to no flavor. When I first tried FVF I let it dry for an hour and it tasted horrible. A member here told me to dry it out for 5 hours. I figured nothing ventured, nothing gained and did just that. The result was like night and day.
As a rule, I smoke my Virginias and Virginia variants just shy of bone dry. Dry to the touch when squeezed, while still pliant. No coolness or feeling of moisture against my fingertips when squeezed. That's the sweet spot for me. That's when I get the most intense flavors.

Too moist and the flavors are masked and too dry and some flavors are lost.

 

[renfield]

Gawith usually needs more than 4 hours, depending on your local humidity.

I prefer their stuff dry, a bit short of crisp, with no real hint of moisture. Anything moister and it becomes a flame retardant steam generator with little flavor.

 

[STP]

I’d rather tobacco being delivered moist rather than too dry. The former is a little easier to remedy than the latter. Simply place the tobacco on a plate for a few hours, or overnight, and you’re good to go?

 

[weezell]

Crispy is not for me. I like mine on the wet side, more to my taste...

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

Unless you want to go through a can of butane, you have to dry extensively. If I'm planning ahead, I lay a flake or two out on a napkin and roll it up over the Flakes for hours. As Jesse said, you really can't get it too dry. I also nuke a couple of Flakes for 10 seconds. I don't like that as well but it works. Bottom line, either approach and the SG smokes fabulous.

 

[Milleniumsmoker]

That sounds like great advice all around thanks!

 

[Winterreise]

I like it on the moist side , when dry i always got the feeling some of the taste is gone . Butane is cheap tho

 

[leonardbill1]

Dry but not brittle, if that makes sense. If it's too dry it burns too fast and hot, at least for me.

 

[karam]

For me it depends on the blend, Full Virginia/StJames Plugs I cube cut and let to dry to the point the cubes feel like lentils, or pebbles. A year and a half ago I posted my extreme annoyance with StJames Flake not dried to an absolute crumbled crisp. After an overnight drying in dry Greek summer weather and crumbled to dust before smoking it delivered in spades. Same goes for their ropes for me.

On the other hand, for some reason, Dark plug, Lakeland Dark, Dark Bird's eye, Balkan Flake and flavoured stuff like Bob's choc flake, Conniston, Dark flake scented, 1792 seem to work, and work much better in terms of flavour straight from the tin/bag.

 

[jpberg]

For me it depends on the blend, Full Virginia/StJames Plugs I cube cut and let to dry to the point the cubes feel like lentils, or pebbles. A year and a half ago I posted my extreme annoyance with StJames Flake not dried to an absolute crumbled crisp. After an overnight drying in dry Greek summer weather and crumbled to dust before smoking it delivered in spades. Same goes for their ropes for me.

On the other hand, for some reason, Dark plug, Lakeland Dark, Dark Bird's eye, Balkan Flake and flavoured stuff like Bob's choc flake, Conniston, Dark flake scented, 1792 seem to work, and work much better in terms of flavour straight from the tin/bag.

One of my long term goals is to smoke some Dark Plug straight from the press.
As others have said, the fresher the better.

 

[OlJawBone]

I also let em sit overnight. For the twists i will let it sit for 24 hours

 

[originalnutcracker]

Gawith is famous for this issue. As above - just leave it out a bit.
I find if I open a tin, the seal is lost and it will reach perfect state at about week three.

 

[kschatey]

FVF takes 18-24 hours or more to dry enough to smoke it, but YMMV.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

For SG flales, I picked up on a trick from Peck. I cube cut the flakes and let them dry till the feel dry on the outside, which is variable on times, because of ambient humidity. For me (In a very humid area of the world) that is usually a day or maybe a few hours on a coffee mug warmer. Then I close them back up in a container. This allows the moisture inside the cubes to equalize a bit, so that they aren't like crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside. this works great.

But, even so, I sometime prefer to just go ahead and let them get a bit more crunchy. I love a dry smoke, and smoked slow, I find that I get more flavor. But, I suspect that everyone smokes differently, because many don't like them very dry. YMMV