Samuel Gawith St. James Flake

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FurCoat

Lifer
Sep 21, 2020
10,247
96,602
North Carolina
I had good results rubbing out first, then drying it to a crisp (although not so dry it breaks into dust). I even tried the microwave trick one evening when I didn't want to wait. Nuked a bowls worth on a paper towel for 15 seconds, then let it sit 10 minutes. It was also a fantastic smoke, pretty much indistinguishable from air dried.
I will try that. Smoking Commonwealth this afternoon and two thirds down the bowl, I couldn't have kept it lit if I used a torch. Good smoke but not as good a BF IMHO
 

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
20,979
50,229
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
I want to love St James Flake but it's got a little too much of that hay/alfalfa flavor straight out of the tin... which is never a good thing so far as I'm concerned. I'm hoping some cellar time will cure the sickness.

My current VaPer favorite is Deception Pass. It's got pepper and flavor in spades! No monkey business or cellaring needed--it's already there. (Thanks again to @hoosierpipeguy for turning me on to it. It may have had too much pepper for him, but I'm loving it).
I like Deception Pass a lot, but fresh it just burns the hell out of my mouth, like no other blend. If I open the tin and let it sit for a couple of weeks it balances out nicely.
 

hawky454

Lifer
Feb 11, 2016
5,338
10,234
Austin, TX
Anyone remember Tavern Tobacco (KnoxCigars brand)? SG made a bunch of stuff for them. I have probably 10 tins of Laurel Flake which I think is the same or similar to SJF. Can’t remember. Anyone recall?
Yes it was indeed fun! Here is the link to the group tasting that @ashdigger put together, it might answer your question.

 

hairvise

Can't Leave
May 23, 2018
440
2,713
San Francisco
I enjoy the hay notes in the fresh SJF, so I don't necessarily see that as a negative, but I also think that time will turn that to rich Virginia sweetness. As for Deception Pass, it is the one VaPer from which I have not had a great smoke yet. I picked up a tin about a year and a half ago. Didn't really like it at first but I was still developing the right technique/cadence for smoking Va. I dip in to the jar about once every couple of months. Tried it about 2 weeks ago, and it just tasted flat and harsh. I've still got a few bowls left from the tin, so I'll give it another shot in a month or two, but so far, I have not quite figured that one out.
This is very sage advice embedded in here--all newish pipe smokers (like myself) should take note. I really appreciate, @musicman , the way you say that you haven't figured out how to smoke this tobacco yet, rather than just passing judgement on the blend, perhaps prematurely. I haven't tried DP, but I've gone through similar travails with Virginias. Trying it, putting it away, changing technique/cadence, and recognizing that you haven't figured it out (and may never) is in my mind, what makes this pipe smoking journey so complex and fascinating!
 

hawky454

Lifer
Feb 11, 2016
5,338
10,234
Austin, TX
Rather than just passing judgement on the blend
I concur. This happens too often! Someone tries a new tobacco, gets half way though the bowl and wants to tell the world that the blend that everyone loves totally sucks cause they don’t like it. I can’t even count the number of times where I fell in love with a blend that seemed bland and boring at first. It really takes time to get to know the subtleties and nuances of an unfamiliar blend.
 

hairvise

Can't Leave
May 23, 2018
440
2,713
San Francisco
I concur. This happens too often! Someone tries a new tobacco, gets half way though the bowl and wants to tell the world that the blend that everyone loves totally sucks cause they don’t like it. I can’t even count the number of times where I fell in love with a blend that seemed bland and boring at first. It really takes time to get to know the subtleties and nuances of an unfamiliar blend.
Of course, if @jiminks gives it a bad review, then I take back everything I said! :)
 

ofafeather

Lifer
Apr 26, 2020
2,770
9,071
51
Where NY, CT & MA meet
Yes it was indeed fun! Here is the link to the group tasting that @ashdigger put together, it might answer your question.

Thanks for sharing. A great read. I decided to crack one of my Laurel Flake tins from ‘06. Will try some tonight. Quite moist but looks beautiful. C7B66461-FC87-495B-88A0-B83F73A45128.jpeg
 

saltedplug

Lifer
Aug 20, 2013
5,192
5,116
St James is one of the worlds great vapers when properly aged. Don't lose patience smoke it with 6.347 years or more.
Anything less and you will ruin the experience.

Oh yeah, you might want to dry it a tad as even after 10 years that shit is fire retardant.
I like the precision of 6.347 years though unless derived by what you aged and smoked, no clue how you arrived at it.

I remember how wet it came. I remember drying it down the first timed I bought bulk, on cookie sheets, but then I read an opinion that said it smoked better that way. I went with the fire retardant but I dunno.
 
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seanv

Lifer
Mar 22, 2018
3,108
11,131
Canada
I just received my first box of SJF. It was moist but not over the top. It is jarred now until I get through some other open blends. I'm looking forward to trying it but it probably won't be until next spring or even summer.
 

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
20,979
50,229
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
St James is one of the worlds great vapers when properly aged. Don't lose patience smoke it with 6.347 years or more.
Anything less and you will ruin the experience.

Oh yeah, you might want to dry it a tad as even after 10 years that shit is fire retardant.
C'mon Harris, you're just pissed because those coupons for a free party doll if you bought 10 boxes of it , turned out to be a gag your pool boy played on you.
 
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sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
20,979
50,229
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
All of mine is at the perfect smoking moisture, which came about by accident. I bought 250 gram boxes of it which I put away to jar, then forgot that I had. 2 years later I found the boxes. Naturally, because the tobacco was in a baggie inside the box, it hadn't retained it's moisture. It hadn't dried out either, but had dried down to about what I find to be the optimal moisture for smoking and getting all those flavors. I jarred them and now I don't need to dry any of it and it's continued to improve with age.
 

saltedplug

Lifer
Aug 20, 2013
5,192
5,116
One opinion says buy in force what you like, and put it away to age. When you come back, you find you have 5? lbs. to smoke. Multiply that by the number of blends and you come up with quite a bit of tobacco.

Another says you aren't pipe living well unless you try a good number of the new blends on the market. If they are better than what you've already cellared, cellar them, too, in the same large quantity.

Of course, you'll never smoke all that tobacco. You will have earned a seat in the Hell of Incessant Hoarders. (You should have bought only what you will smoke.)

You see how this works to the advantage of the blenders. Cellar/hoard; buy the new stuff and cellar and hoard it.

We wink wink at the megatons of tobacco in our cellars in the same way as we nod in complacently to our growing gut from too any large dinners.

I was of the cellar large quantities of all tobaccos persuasion, as well as cellaring the same amount of new blends.

But at this date it seems to me that running lean would have been the better practice. We tell ourselves that we need to cellar deep because of the FDA. Makes sense; and we need to buy now all the tobacco we will ever need until we drop dead. OK.

But how long until then? And will your health withstand more of those years of tobacco incursion?
What about changing tastes. Are you still going to love a blend the way you do now so the 20 lbs. you bought of it going to get your attention?

Could be that less is more.
 

hawky454

Lifer
Feb 11, 2016
5,338
10,234
Austin, TX
I always try to buy the boxes, they rarely come as wet as you’ll find in the tin but honestly, I’ve never had sopping wet tobacco from them, be it tin or otherwise. Now Esoterica’s, their blends come wet! I’ve had it take about 8 hours to dry out Dunbar in the past. Guess I’ve just been lucky with SG. I mean I’ve had flakes arrive moist but that’s a good thing in my opinion. Age em moist, smoke em dry.
 

Worknman

Part of the Furniture Now
Sep 23, 2019
983
2,908
I sort of had the same behavioral issues with SJF that I did with Fvf. Even after extensive drying.
 
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musicman

Lifer
Nov 12, 2019
1,119
6,058
Cincinnati, OH
I sort of had the same behavioral issues with SJF that I did with Fvf. Even after extensive drying.
Interestingly, I have thus far found this to be far better behaved than FVF. Perhaps it has something to do with my FVF being from a tin and this SJF being from a box, but it seems drier, on the whole, and it seems to dry out more consistently than FVF. FVF has the distinction of being able to feel perfectly crispy dry and still somehow retain a bunch of moisture.
 
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