Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. -- Sweet Rum Twist

Brand: Gawith, Hoggarth & Co.
Blend: Sweet Rum Twist
Style: Twist
Pipe Used: No-name Apple
Price: $6.89/1oz.

Appearance: 9
Taste: 8
Room Note: 6
Value: 6
Overall: 7

When you embark upon the hobby that is pipe smoking it's with the understanding that you're venturing into a world rich in history. And nothing harkens back to the days of old quite like classic rope or twist tobacco. This is the stuff that was chewed, snuffed, and smoked before the days of our relatively modern tobacco mixtures and flakes.

I've always been intrigued by the gnarly looking ropes of tobacco featured on many a tobacconist's shelves -- virtual or otherwise -- but was scared off by the notoriously strong flavor and high nicotine content typically found in this style of tobacco. But in my latest order I finally worked up the courage to add in a sample of Gawith, Hoggarth & Co.'s Sweet Rum Twist.

When the tobacco arrived I was greeted with about a seven inch long tobacco rope (thanks for the generous extra amount smokingpipes.com!) that was fairly moist and had that rich tobacco aroma I typically find in my cigar humidors -- what a great scent! I sliced off three thin coins of the stuff, rubbed it out into ribbon form, and then set it aside to dry overnight.

When I went to load up my no-name apple-shaped pipe this afternoon the tobacco was still a bit moist but I still forged ahead. It took a few extra charring lights to get it going but soon I had a lit pipe and an insanely great volume of deep, rich tobacco smoke swirling about my head.

Sweet Rum Twist is supposedly made up of full-leaf Virginia tobacco that's topped with a sugar and rum mixture before being twisted into ropes and cold-pressed. So what you have here is a pipe tobacco blend that is created in much the same way as a rudimentary cigar so perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise that the flavors reminded me very much of a good cigar while at the same time tasting nothing like a cigar -- if that makes any sense.

The taste was very full and strong but still pleasant with the natural Virginia sweetness combining with the added sugars to bring out a robust flavor similar to a mild cigar but without the complexity that comes with the addition of the wrapper and binder leaves. And the faint presence of rum also reminded my palate of Esoterica's Stonehaven to some extent although the Rum Twist was much stronger.

Make no mistake, this blend is very heavy as the lack of stoving or heat-treating of any kind makes for a very raw and powerful tobacco flavor and punch.

As mentioned, this blend produced scads of smoke and it was pretty heady stuff as well so it isn't likely to win any prizes in the room note department.

Since the tobacco was moist I had to relight the pipe frequently but that actually helped in a way by causing me to slow down and not smoke as fast as I usually do which is probably why I encountered no ill effects from the heavy nicotine content. Since I tend to be very sensitive to the vitamin N this is probably the smoking cadence I'll stick to with this blend.

Gawith, Hoggarth & Co.'s Sweet Rum Twist is true tobacco classic and I'm glad I finally worked up the nerve to give it a try. What I found was a strong tobacco loaded with heavy flavors and lots of smoke that should be smoked slowly and savored while the mind harkens back to the time of tall ships and tobacco-loving sailors.

This certainly won't become a part of my regular rotation but as an occasional treat Sweet Rum Twist fits in nicely between typical pipe blends and cigars on the tobacco strength continuum.