Samuel Gawith: Best Brown Flake 50g Pipe Tobacco

Product Number: 003-059-0008

Samuel Gawith was the son-in-law of Thomas Harrison, a snuff manufacturer who moved his trade and equipment to Kendal, Cumbria, England from Scotland in 1792. Gawith inherited this equipment from Harrison, and the company has been crafting premium tobacco since, with one of Samuel's two sons continuing the brand while the other joined with Henry Hoggarth to establish Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. Though offering separate blends, both brands remain forever linked and still share the same manufacturing facility in England's Lake District, utilizing processes and techniques that date to the brands' 1792 roots. In many of their mixtures, Samuel Gawith maintains the standards enforced by the United Kingdom's strict purity laws of the 19th and 20th centuries — such laws dictating how much and what type of flavorings could be added to pipe tobacco and ensuring that sub-quality leaf wasn't hidden under the veil of exorbitant toppings.

Samuel Gawith's Best Brown Flake features hand stripped, flue-cured Virginia tobaccos, free of topping to showcase the leaf's natural flavor profile: a smooth, delicious smoke with a subtle hint of natural sweetness.

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Customer Reviews
Overall Rating:
4.0
40 reviews
Moist...
December 27, 2024
Product: Samuel Gawith Best Brown Flake 50g
Tastes great if you can get it to light. Its really wet. I let it dry for half an hour. It was fresh when I got it so it will get better. Hopefully.
Excellent
February 11, 2025
Product: Samuel Gawith Best Brown Flake 50g
Smooth. No bite. No bad after taste. Sugary and mellow. BROWN :)
The tobacco is good, high quality, but not mine!
October 16, 2023
Product: Samuel Gawith Best Brown Flake 50g
I have mixed feelings about this tobacco. The tobacco is good, high quality, but not mine! Is unfortunately for me chemically bitey. I think the merging of Samuel Gawith and Gawith Hoggart ruined the mixture. Unfortunately, I enjoy many other types/blends of tobacco and will put this one aside and doubt I will ever return to it. I'm glad so many people think it's exceptional, but it won't stay in my rotation....Read More
Good Blend
August 27, 2023
Product: Samuel Gawith Best Brown Flake 50g
This blend has good flavor but is unfortunately for me chemically bitey. The first I have found from S.G. to give me problem if not for that solid 4 stars
Not Sammy’s Best Brown Flake, But It Still Scores Five Stars
February 28, 2021
Product: Samuel Gawith Best Brown Flake 50g
In all of Samuel Gawith’s body of work, Best Brown Flake (with its braggadocio-rich name) might play second fiddle to the magnificent Full Virginia Flake. But in my world, it still clocks in at a full five stars. And if not, at least four-point-five. And not because of the fact I’m an Anglophile who loves Samuel Gawith’s blends. With Best Brown Flake, Samuel Gawith delivers an excellent medium-bodied Virginia broken flake. I might be wrong, but the brown sugar, honey, citrus and grassy hay notes all seem to result naturally from inside of the prime Virginia leaf here, and not from any mystery toppings.

The tin note is to me very much like green tea, with Full Virginia Flake smelling like green tea mixed with some unknown other tea variety. Green tea is not as present, however in the flavor post-char light. Instead you get the flavors I mentioned before.

This easily could become an all-day, with its mild nicotine levels and mild flavor, but it is at least an ideal morning puff for a pipester with Virginia on the mind. Rub this out and dry for a couple or few hours before packing the bowl, for best results. 5.0 stars.
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Aged well
June 10, 2021
Product: Samuel Gawith Best Brown Flake 50g
I'm so lucky to find a 1995 tin at local shop. It fermented well with tangy, sweet. But still hard to stay lit, need some dry time but not to long .
Not what it use to be
June 04, 2020
Product: Samuel Gawith Best Brown Flake 50g
This use to be a full length flake with a deep semi sweet, nutty characteristic in taste and a nice nicotine punch. Now it's a broken flake with and sour sharpness that bites me. I think the samuel gawith / gawith hoggarth merger has ruined this blend. It was one of my favorites but now has been replaced as one of my top picks. I'm sadly disappointed....Read More
Delicious and Light Flake
August 16, 2019
Product: Samuel Gawith Best Brown Flake 50g
BBF has a subtle charm that sets it apart from the many Virginia flakes out there. It is a broken flake, pale brown in color, somewhat mild in flavor, and easy on the nicotine. It's reminiscent of Capstan Blue Flake in many ways, but with the usual je ne sais quoi that Samuel Gawith often has. BBF has a fairly subtle but distinct brown sugar flavor that's just delicious—which is perhaps where the name came from—as well as the typical bright Virginia notes of grassy-hay and mild citrus. Although the tin note gave me a faint whiff reminiscent of Grasmere Flake, there are no flowery Lakeland flavorings in BBF—none whatsoever. There's almost no potential for tongue bite, if any. However, smoke it slow all the same, because its delicious flavor can be ruined from puffing it too hard and/or burning it too hot. Room note is pleasant for pipers, but isn't anything special for non-smokers; those in my house say it smells better than cigarettes but not great. Its mild and flavorful characteristics make it a perfect first smoke of the day. Just like all SG products, this is a moist flake—very moist. You will never enjoy smoking this great tobacco unless you dry it out quite a bit before you smoke it. I recommend leaving it out overnight, or a microwave oven for just a few seconds....Read More
Smooth!
December 23, 2019
Product: Samuel Gawith Best Brown Flake 50g
Ill be quick. This is superb. Browb sugar, honey, no bite. NEXT!
Unique and in the best possible way
October 31, 2017
Product: Samuel Gawith Best Brown Flake 50g
My daughter took the tin from my hand and took a whiff and said "it smells like tamarind". That's it! I was trying to find a way to articulate the great tin note, which happens to translate into taste as well. Tangy dried fruit with a lasting and satisfying aftertaste that is both sweet and tart. It smokes well (maybe a bit hot at times but that's probably on me for smoking it too fast) and is an easy flake to become one's daily go to....Read More