Samuel Gawith Black XX Rope Review
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I'm going to give this one a run tonight. First time trying it. Cut thin coins with a cigar cutter this morning and letting it dry for a bit. I'll rub it out this time and stack later on.
It's good stuff but I think its even better mixed. I usually toss in some Latakia and Black Cherry but it makes almost any solo flavored blend better by giving it depth and richness.
To everyone pre-slicing and drying your Black XX, I HIGHLY recommend smoking it straight off the rope. It's difficult, you will need about a dozen warning lights, and you'll be relighting frequently until you get the proper packing technique and cadence down, but in my opinion this blend loses what makes it so good if it's not smoked straight after slicing off a fresh rope. That oily, palate-coating texture isn't as pronounced when it's had time to air out, and it loses a few notches off of the depth and complexity.
I had decent luck by slicing it extremely thin with a very sharp knife, and rubbing it out into a fine shag. I still can’t decide whether I like it or not, but I didn’t have too much trouble lighting it or keeping it lit.
I once had a bowl of Black XX and must say that this kind of jack-tar stuff is not my cup of tea.
Well, to each their own, but what really sucked about it was that it ghosts like hell. I had smoked it in a lovely Jeppesen and could still taste it after the next 10 smokes in the same pipe.
So if you like it but not so much that you want everything to taste like it, make sure to designate the pipe to it!
Well, to each their own, but what really sucked about it was that it ghosts like hell. I had smoked it in a lovely Jeppesen and could still taste it after the next 10 smokes in the same pipe.
So if you like it but not so much that you want everything to taste like it, make sure to designate the pipe to it!
Having my second bowl of this now. This time in my meer. Tastes much better this go ‘round. Actually tastes like tobacco, Virginias even! ? The first time, it tasted like cardboard and old cooking oil, but this is good. I still think I like Brown #4 better though.
They are very very different. Just because you like one does not mean you’ll like the other. If the Brown Twist is day than the Black is night.
Gotcha. What about the black twists head to head, SG v. GH?
I pressed my luck and tried to smoke some Black Irish X in the living room last week. The feedback from the other end of the couch was not positive.
LOL I got that feedback too but I’m not lucky enough to smoke on the couch in the house.
I'm pretty lucky that my ol' lady tolerates indoor pipe smoking, so I can't complain when she vetoes one.
Really appreciate you circling back and clarifying this point - have done exactly that, and agree it's a superior smoke.
Lee
Just splash some canola oil on a hot pan and breathe it in as it smokes off. You can thank me later.
It took me 10 years to tame that wild beast, Black Irish X. Once done I went forth to bring down its Brown progenitor, which I only partially subdued, never publicly admitting that it was too strong for this warrior of strength.
At the close of my career I had smoked five times as much of the Black than the Brown. Like you my initial take had not been favorable, and thus it is not surprising that some of you are ambivalent in the same way I was. I would smoke it once a month and renew my dissatisfied dissatisfaction only to circle back once again. But with each encounter I befriended it a little more, deciding after 5 years to include it in my rotation, that virtual list that includes favored core tobaccos and outliers on their way in or out.
I don't think that it is its dark flavor that takes time for the palate to grasp but the baked oil. There's nothing that tastes like the Black perhaps because no other tobacco is so baked? Not that I know of. It took about 5 years to not be put off by the taste of machine oil and instead to concentrate on this tobacco at hand, a symphony of complexity at the core of potent darkness.
At the close of my career I had smoked five times as much of the Black than the Brown. Like you my initial take had not been favorable, and thus it is not surprising that some of you are ambivalent in the same way I was. I would smoke it once a month and renew my dissatisfied dissatisfaction only to circle back once again. But with each encounter I befriended it a little more, deciding after 5 years to include it in my rotation, that virtual list that includes favored core tobaccos and outliers on their way in or out.
I don't think that it is its dark flavor that takes time for the palate to grasp but the baked oil. There's nothing that tastes like the Black perhaps because no other tobacco is so baked? Not that I know of. It took about 5 years to not be put off by the taste of machine oil and instead to concentrate on this tobacco at hand, a symphony of complexity at the core of potent darkness.
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