Samuel Gawith Black XX Finest Kendal Twist

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fearsclave

Starting to Get Obsessed
Mar 9, 2014
209
0
Kendal Twist is interesting stuff. I ordered a tin of it from 4Noggins a while back, because I was intrigued by its preparation. As the name indicates, it's a Kendal Twist. To be precise, it's an extra thick stoved black rope tobacco that comes unsliced. In the tin, it sits there black, heavy, and menacing. Many reviewers write that it looks like something you'd find in a litterbox. There's a certain amount of truth to that.
Using my cigar cutter, I sliced off a few thick coins and rubbed them out. It was dense, and surprisingly hard to cut. I left the tobacco on a sheet of paper to dry for a half hour. Rubbed out, the tobacco is dark, oily, and quite moist. It swelled considerably on the charring light, generating incredibly thick, ever so slightly yellowish smoke. I tamped it back down and re-lit. I had to re-light several times, which is probably a good thing, in that it spaced out the nicotine delivery a little.
The taste? Acrid, raunchy, wild, almost rank. It makes Royal Yacht seem like a light aromatic. In cigar terms, it makes C.A.O. Brazilias seem like lite menthol cigarettes. If Escudo is a nine course meal in polite company at a fine French restaurant, this is a two inch steak of musk ox liver, slapped down bloody onto live coals to char, and eaten with bare teeth and a bowie knife in the middle of the tundra while you snarl defiance at the circling wolves.
This is by far the strongest tobacco I have ever smoked. And I like Brazilias. How strong is it? Well, the back of my head slid off about five minutes ago, and scuttled off to hide under the sofa where it is hissing at the cats and pretending to be a facehugger from Aliens. I'd do something, but I'm paralyzed from the knees up and my chest hair is trying to throttle me.
I think I like it.

 

weezell

Lifer
Oct 12, 2011
13,653
49,163
To me, if you REALY want to curl your hair, try Gawith Hoggarth & Co. Brown "Happy" Bogie...

 

novicemaker

Starting to Get Obsessed
Apr 12, 2014
223
0
that was by far the craziest and funnest review i have read to date. I love how detailed you made it.

 

latbomber

Part of the Furniture Now
May 10, 2013
570
4
I like black xx. Total BBQ taste, 1 dimensional, but good every once in awhile.

 

keith929

Lifer
Nov 23, 2010
1,484
5,148
Thanks for the humorous review. I will be adding Kendal Twist to my TAD list for this month.

 

murf

Can't Leave
Mar 1, 2013
446
1
If Escudo is a nine course meal in polite company at a fine French restaurant, this is a two inch steak of musk ox liver, slapped down bloody onto live coals to char, and eaten with bare teeth and a bowie knife in the middle of the tundra while you snarl defiance at the circling wolves
So... would you recommend smoking this in a cob first? Or would it result in burnout on the charring light?
I've been wanting to try ropes for quite some time now. Too bad my wife just got a peak into my cellar and said "AND your dad is sending you more?!"

 

fearsclave

Starting to Get Obsessed
Mar 9, 2014
209
0
Thanks guys. Glad you enjoyed the review. I sure liked the stuff, but it occurs to me that I should have included a legal disclaimer refusing any responsibility for anybody trying it on the basis of my review :).
Murf: The stuff should be fine in a cob. I just wouldn't try it in a very large pipe at first. The stuff packs a heckuva punch.

 

condorlover1

Lifer
Dec 22, 2013
7,995
26,613
New York
I love twist. I sent some very old twist down to a very venerable forum member who said 'Simon you have sent me a greyhound turd!'. This was followed up by Wow. It sort of reminded me of the scene from the film The Great Escape when they brewed up some moonshine and everyone was knocked catatonic by the stuff. I love twist as my tastes only extend to strong tobaccos as I can taste little else and that even includes the odd 'ring burner' chilly or a decent curry. I can break wind and knock a dwarf senseless at 15 feet if I eat to much of that type of food! See you all tomorrow in the US of A.

 

saltedplug

Lifer
Aug 20, 2013
5,194
5,097
I've been smoking rope for several years. The black variety is definitely an acquire taste, and I agree with my of the adjectives of the OP. I find it takes about a year of age to begin losing the machine-oil, cloying taste. The tastes that I love remain: dark, full, rich; one of the most idiosyncratic tobaccos extant. I've smoked more than a few high octane blends, and most of the time I ignore the nicotine.

 

stvalentine

Part of the Furniture Now
Jan 13, 2015
808
13
Northern Germany
Oh well, that review doesn´t help to dispel my fears about the "Greyhound turd" (sure true, the stuff resembles something that came out of our Greyhound today). 8O :lol:

 
Jan 4, 2015
1,858
11
Massachusetts
If you like the black and are ready for the "full monty" give Gawith Hoggarth Brown Irish X Unsliced a try. The process that turns the tobacco black also reduces the vitamin N levels. The brown suffers from no such fate.

 

fearsclave

Starting to Get Obsessed
Mar 9, 2014
209
0
If you like the black and are ready for the "full monty" give Gawith Hoggarth Brown Irish X Unsliced a try. The process that turns the tobacco black also reduces the vitamin N levels. The brown suffers from no such fate.
Good lord... you mean it gets stronger?

 
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