Having some Gawith Hoggarth Jamaican Flake in a Dr. Grabow Lark, pairing it with a hot mug of French roast.
I'm now 5 days in to smoking Jamaican Flake (formerly Rum Flake) every day, and while I initially found it to be a rather bland and unexciting blend, there are some aspects of it that are really growing on me. The only real prominent flavor I get from it is nutty, earthy, slightly sour Burley; but with a really remarkable smoothness that isn't typical to Burleys while retaining all the nicotine strength you'd expect from a good boutique Burley blend.
Normally Burley blends really irritate the back of my throat and sinuses on the retrohale, but this one is utterly smooth and gentle with only the slightest tiny little rough edge to it. I'm guessing that's from the steam pressing and the very lightly applied rum, licorice, and vanilla casing; the flavors of which mostly go unnoticed to my palate. Every now and then I'll get the faintest hint of licorice or a little bit of rum on the aftertaste, but by and large this is just an exceptionally smooth Burley blend wherein the natural sourness of the Burley leaf is cancelled out by the casing to create a very neutral and inoffensive flavor profile. It doesn't taste sweet to me at all, but there are just enough sugars in there to tame the Burley and make it palatable to someone who typically smokes Virginias.
Speaking of which, I know there are Virginias in here as well, though my tastebuds don't seem to be sensitive enough to pick them out. To me it's just a simple Burley blend of almost codger-like smoothness, but with the rather strong (high end of medium I'd say) nicotine punch you'd expect from a Gawith made Burley flake. I think I may keep it around for when I want a Burley that won't make my throat feel like it just went 12 rounds with Mike Tyson!
