Tasting Notes: Gawith Hoggarth & Co. Best Brown No.2
Welcome to another episode of "Tasting Notes." I'm back on track here with the promise that I made to myself to smoke through all of the flakes made in Kendall by Gawith Hoggarth & Co. and Samuel Gawith. Today I am revisiting an old friend, Best Brown No. 2.
Note: The following transcription has been edited for clarity and brevity.Note: The following transcription has been edited for clarity and brevity.
I have smoked pounds and pounds (kilos and kilos) of this tobacco over the years. Best Brown No.2, in my opinion, is the best place to start if you are a Virginia smoker or if you're a flake guy and you want to get into these Kendall-made flakes. It's the perfect middle of the road blend and is a very natural-flavored flake that's produced by GH&Co., and I would say that I go back and forth between this blend and Bright CR Flake when I'm looking for something that's more straightforward and more tobacco flavor forward, not necessarily with a lot of the Lakeland essence.
Best Brown No.2: Naturally Sweet
Best Brown No.2 is actually a blend of both Burleys and Virginias. It appears to me to have very light stoving; there's some darker leaf in here from the pressing, and I think maybe it was stoved just a little bit during pressing. It is a naturally sweet and beautifully produced flake that I think pretty much anybody will be able to sink their teeth into. And that has a cult-like following for a lot of guys too.
In the tin, as usual, there's really beautiful, supple flakes. The tin note for me has just a hint of that Lakeland essence. Now the thing is — people will argue about this — Best Brown No.2 is not flavored. I think because of the presses that are used with the super old machinery and the physical proximity to other tobaccos that are heavily flavored with the Lakeland essence, there's this slight undertone of that quality across all of the blends that are produced at Gawith. I think that's what really ties the whole portfolio together and gives it that signature feel.
However, even though in the tin note I do pick up a little bit of a very light cocoa and licorice aroma, it's mostly bready. kind of sour, kind of tangy, and a little bit earthy. If you are at all sensitive to the Lakeland essence or if you're trying to get yourself into this style of tobacco, which is super unique, I think this is a good place to start. In the smoke, that doesn't come through. What comes through is the quality of the leaf itself. But like I said, it has that signature Gawith vibe even though it's not one of their actual flavored tobaccos.
Appealing to Virginia and Burley Smokers
I think everybody out there that's a fan of Burleys, Virginias, or Virginia/Burleys is going to find that very appealing. Like most of the Gawith-made flakes, moisture content out of the tin is a little bit on the high side. I think that depending on personal preference you can either go straight for it and have a really slow burning and rich experience with a lot of natural sweetness. I tend to, depending on whether I'm outside or inside, rub these flakes out either more fully or less fully. I leave them a little chunkier if I'm smoking outdoors and I rub them out a little bit further if I'm smoking indoors.
I give Best Brown No.2 just a little bit of drying time. The trade off when you dry out your tobacco is that you're losing a little bit of the natural oils, and I don't want to lose too much of that. So this one, I wouldn't go too far past maybe like 15 minutes or so. And mostly I'm just aerating this when I rub it out. It does pack very well in a variety of chamber sizes and takes to the match just fine. With a slow puffing cadence, you're able to really coax out the complexity and the richness from an otherwise relatively straightforward and unassuming blend.
First Light: Bready & Earthy
Upon first light, you're getting the typical fermented hay and bready-like notes. I do immediately get a little bit of earthiness and a hint of warming spices, especially through the retrohale. I'm attributing that to the Burley leaf here. If you puff really slowly, there's lots of natural sweetness with this tobacco, which I think is really appealing. If you pay attention, there is a lot of complexity here and you can really appreciate a lot of nuance, but this is just a no nonsense Virginia/Burley that will elegantly fade into the background where you can just enjoy yourself. You can just pack your pipe, little to no fuss, and enjoy what you're smoking.
Rich & Complex Flavors
As Best Brown No.2 really gets going in the bowl and you progress past the first third, again, the natural sweetness amps up a little bit. I start to get some richer flavors, almost like molasses-type notes. I still can't tell if it's because of the tin note, but I do feel like I get some cocoa and chocolate notes that are very faint, particularly on the retrohale.
I almost exclusively smoke Virginias and have smoked a ton of Virginia/Burley blends over the years. There's something about the process that Gawith has with Best Brown No.2 and some of the other flakes that they produce that are just straight Virginias or Virginia/Burleys. It almost reminds me of smoking a really nicely balanced Latakia blend with a creamy texture to it. The smoke is very dense on the palate, even though I don't associate that note with Virginias and Virginia/Burleys typically.
A No-Nonsense Tobacco
Today I'm smoking Gawith Hoggarth and Co.'s Best Brown No.2 in my trusty AKB Meerschaum by Tekin. As I'm revisiting a lot of these blends that I've smoked a lot over the years, I'm mostly sticking to clays and meerschaums to reevaluate them after many years of smoking them in briar pipes.
I'm getting a little further down here. There's a lot more of the tanginess and the malty character from the Virginias coming through. Like I said, there's a nice foundation of earthy notes from the Burley. I'm getting a little bit more of the warming spices on the retrohale and I'm getting a sweetness that does kind of remind me of toasted marshmallow a little bit, which is pretty cool. I really like Best Brown No.2. It's a no-fuss tobacco. It is one of the best examples of what a natural tobacco flavor with minimal amount of processing can be. It's super approachable, it's an all-day smoke and like I said, it's a great entry point if you're trying to explore the flakes that the Gawith houses produce.
Comments