Tobaccos Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. - Coffee Caramel

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2005-04-22		Mild	Very Strong	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

I have a confession to make. I have an exceedingly sweet tooth. And that is why I am invariably drawn to pipe tobacco with labels like Strawberry Sherbet or Sweet Coconut ?n? Rum. Or Coffee Caramel.

This syrupy black cavendish is sold loose in many UK tobacconists, including my local. It is exceedingly moist, to the point of actually being sticky to the touch, due to the very heavy caramel topping. It was allowed to dry in its pouch for about a fortnight, which went some way to helping the moisture levels (or at least eliminating the stickiness). The colour is almost exclusively black, with occasional dark brown flecks.

The pouch aroma is incredibly sweet. The scent of the caramel topping is extremely pungent, the coffee taking a back seat. The aroma is reminiscent of soft caramel chocolates. It is very appealing, but pervasive ? I can smell the pouch, which rests on the coffee table, from across the room.

The tobacco is easily packed into a small, cheap pipe I reserve for aromatics. Lighting is easy. However, keeping the pipe lit can be awkward (due, I think, to the moisture level) ? this was resolved with careful puffing.

Upon lighting the initial flavour was, unsurprisingly, sweet. However, the taste was more of lightly toasted sugar than the heavy caramel topping would?ve lead one to believe ? I expected sweetness, but was surprised to find that a sticky caramel taste (as per the pouch aroma) was not really evident and that any coffee flavouring was undetectable. The sheer forcefulness with which the topping has been applied lead me to give a high flavoring rating, even if it is not as overpowering in smoking as one might expect from the unsmoked aroma.

The sweetness soon fades to a mild, tobaccoey flavour. It is fairly bland, but the smoke is thick, creamy and plentiful and there is just enough taste to maintain one?s interest. The nicotine levels are low and hints of the sweet topping occasionally burst forth during the smoke. At this early stage the pipe required frequent relights.

Perhaps due to the lack of flavour, my technique went a little awry and I puffed too vigorously. This tobacco does not bite excessively, but will do so if provoked by over-eager puffing. As the bowl progressed it began to take on a slightly sour edge. The sweetness was still occasionally present, but its influence had waned. The sourness was not, to my mind, entirely unpleasant. In paying more attention, I also cured the relight problem. As the smoke went on a little more strength was apparent in the tobacco.

As I finished the bowl, all sweetness had gone, the weed was stronger and more bitter and there was a slight (and pleasant) tickle to the back of my throat. My pipe was a tad juicy in the final stages (but only a tad) and it smoked right down, leaving no dottle, just a small clump of dry, black-grey ash. The room note was of warm, sweet caramel ? true to the pouch aroma, but without being overpowering. It fades rapidly.

Do I like this tobacco? In some ways, no. It is powerfully cased, a little dull and some work for the net result. However, I can also see its merits. The topping is very appealing and, since it is not as brutal when smoked as when sniffed pre-combustion, you get a sweet, mild, fine-smelling smoke, which, for me, is why I might choose to smoke an aromatic tobacco in the first place. Would I recommend this tobacco? Yes, but the smoker must take it for what it is and not expect too much.

5 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	ScannerDarkly7 (10)	2014-02-17		Mild	Extra Strong	Extra Full	Pleasant

This is an aromatic that delivers. What I mean by that is, the pouch aroma does come through in the smoke, if not exactly the same. Don't expect coffee, expect sweetness, expect the caramel. It's like smoking a dessert. The coffee may be in there, but it's too light for me to taste.

This tobacco is very moist, a very gooey aromatic. Be careful of the tobacco juice if you're not using a filter. I wouldn't recommend this in a large bowl, because it becomes quickly very sickly, as if you're smoking a bowl of sugar. I suppose that's what you're after, though. Take this one slow, as tasty as it is. I did get a little light headed once, puffing away on this like a demon, as the strength of the flavouring is very deceptive of the nicotine content, despite how mild it may be, it caught me out!

It's a tobacco that, once packed and puffed properly, will deliver and meet expectation for you sweettooths out there. I did not experience any bite, but it does burn quite hot. The cavendish quality itself is fantastic, giving this tobacco a pure black appearance, and you'll end up with slightly sticking fingers when packing. Fantastic room note. A perfect combination of the tobacco and flavouring delivers a full aromatic experience, and perhaps a little too overwhelming for some with the amount of sweetness here.

A highly recommended aromatic to anyone looking for something this sweet, for a more neutral audience, however, consider whether you want something so gooey and sweet to smoke.

Pipe Used: Butz Choqin Briar

Age When Smoked: New

Purchased From: Havana House Bear Shop, Cardiff Tobacconist

4 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Pardox (1)	2022-01-15		Mild to Medium	Very Mild	Mild	Unnoticeable

As a beginner to pipe smoking I bought this within an 8 different blends sample. Having only tried 3 blends and all were aromatics this one is on my top 3 haha. I enjoyed the subtle coffee taste although it was most noticeable at the first few draws. I would like to try this blend again in the future when my palette is more developed.

Pipe Used: Meerschaum Corn Cob

Age When Smoked: New

Purchased From: Smoke King

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Pipestud (1829)	2015-02-20		Mild	Mild to Medium	Medium	Very Pleasant

I really wanted to like this blend because I have a craving for Caramel and true Coffee tasting blends. Yes, I tasted both in this one, but the strength that I enjoy just was not there. I mixed in some Five Brothers (powerful shag cut burley that adds strength without adding much flavor) in the hopes it would perk up the blend. It did, and that was fine, except it diluted the Caramel Coffee taste. Oh well...

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2013-02-16		Extremely Mild	Strong	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

Very moist , nice tin note , very sweet, almost a sickly sweet Carmel smell. Once in the pipe and lit , after a few attempts, there was very little taste of anything to be honest, flat, tasteless and very mild. One I won't be buying again.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Dr.sadik (120)	2012-09-28		Medium	Medium to Strong	Medium to Full	Pleasant

ready rubbed jet black mixture. moist out of the pouch but not overly..packs well and could make use sime drying to get a perfect light however i lit directly and had few relights (not a tiersome tobacco at all). the casing is brilliant and i can taste the caramel and coffe by sipping on the pipe before and after lighting it! the strength is more than i usually encounter with aromatic but wont knock your socks off. the room note is sweet and acceptable to many. i guess gwaith and hogarth stand for its reputation one more time.

2 people found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	StevieB (2076)	2017-02-26		Very Mild	Strong	Mild	Very Pleasant

Gawith Hoggarth - Coffee Caramel.

Simple: lots of caramel, lots of coffee, and a very mild flavour of Cavendish. In all fairness, the coffee requires retro-haling to make it clearer, otherwise the caramel rules the roost! Tongue bite? None, plus, the temperature's icy cold, making for an exceptionally comfortable smoke! Just the room-note makes it worth smoking!

A brilliant aro'.

Four stars.

Pipe Used: Various

Age When Smoked: New and cellared

Purchased From: Various

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	henwrench (16)	2011-08-12		Mild	Medium	Medium	Pleasant

Without a doubt, my favourite pipe tobacco. As with snuff, I find the name of a tobacco is just that, so don't expect this to be particularly 'coffee' or 'caramel'. It is, however, a wonderfully easy smoke that leaves me satisfied. There is a sweet bitterness to the taste that I find most agreeable. I buy this stuff loose from my local tobacconist, the excellent 'West Cornwall Cigar Co.' in Penzance, Cornwall. And at the current price of £5.00 for 25g, I can't think of a better way to spend a fiver!! I smoke this stuff all day, everyday. Yum, yum...

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Susanna Hoffs (74)	2010-06-05		Mild	Mild to Medium	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

Same as cherry and vanilla, just a different flavour. The tobacco quality is the same, and as I said in my review for C & V an average aromatic that isn't bad in all fairness.

I mixed it with C & V and created quite a pleasant aromatic concoction.

Coffee, caramel, cherry and vanilla......Mmmmm!

It certainly turns a few heads...

1 person found this review helpful.

	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Luckyluke (11)	2017-08-14		Medium	Medium	Medium to Full	Very Pleasant

Very nice caramel tasting tobacco, i definitely get the coffee with a retro hale. You can get some sweetness along with some bitterness from the coffee which goes great together with the caramel. The room note on this is one of my favorites, very comforting and relaxing. Also a great tobbacco to combine with others.

Pipe Used: Briar

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Soulfly (2)	2016-07-13		Mild to Medium	Medium to Strong	Medium to Full	Very Pleasant

I first took to pipe smoking back in 2006. I visited my local tobacconist and left with a cheap, straight briar, a 3-piece pipe tool, some pipe cleaners and a packet of Coffee Caramel.

Now I must admit that I have a sweet tooth and the promise of caramel in this aromatic blend was the sole reason I purchased the packet. I was not disappointed.

Back then, I was totally unaware of pipe-terms like tongue bite, tamping, cake and gurgling.....I managed to learn and understand what they all meant with my first few bowls of this delicious mix.

The coffee is a back note to the heady aroma of caramel, and the smoke is cool and sweet (as long as you sup and don't chug!). I like to smoke a bowl of this in the morning with a nice strong coffee, although I have taken a packet of this to my favourite pub and paired it with a porter or stout; the combination is marvellous!

If you like aromatics that maintain their flavour right down to the bottom of the bowl this is for you.

This is my first review; I'm now off for a bowl of Peterson's De Luxe Mixture......which I'll review in a couple of days time.

Enjoy !!!

Pipe Used: Cheap straight briar

Age When Smoked: straight out the packet

Purchased From: John Hollingsworth, Birmingham UK

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Esskie (6)	2016-02-26		Medium	Strong	Medium to Full	Pleasant

Coffee Caramel was one of the first aromatic tobaccos I tried when I first began smoking pipes and I enjoyed it a lot!

I hadn't had anything much to compare it to (my first aromatic tobaccos were this one and Licorice Sambuca, I think it was Century Sambuca?) but I know what I liked and I liked this. Pouch note is sweet with tones of caramel which isn't entirely unpleasant, my mouth waters when smoking a bowl of this.

On smoking this tobacco I got more sweet, caramel/toffee than coffee although it isn't non-existent. A bit goopy but I've found a lot of G&H aromatics seem to be that way.

I would definitely buy a couple of oz of this again, or even in bulk to enjoy the odd bowl now & again whenever my sweet-tooth needed to be appeased.

Pipe Used: MM Cob, Dr Plumb Meerschaum lined, Peterson 30

Age When Smoked: Fresh

Purchased From: The Pipe Shop, Edinburgh, Scotland (0131 553 3561) - http://www.thepipeshop.co.uk

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2012-07-13		Medium	Mild to Medium	Medium	Pleasant

As a lover of aromatics, I was amazed at how long it took me to discover this stuff. The first thing worth mentioning is that the tin note is, in my opinion, otherworldly. Mouthwatering aromas of treacle/caramel mask a more subtle coffee undertone, with a hearty Cavendish presence sitting as a backdrop.

Lighting isn't too much of an issue, and once it gets going it burns like a dream. Perhaps this product just suits my smoking style, but it burns evenly and smoothly throughout in my experience. Little tongue burn to speak of as well, which is always a plus.

The flakes are medium cut with the lovely dark appearance, the kind we have learned to expect from a quality base tobacco from G&W.

The room note is simply divine. As we know, some G&W aromatics can lose a little of their topping once burnt, and this one loses a touch of its coffee unfortunately. However, its caramel remains fairly prominent.

Overall, was very pleased with this and would highly recommend to lovers of aromatics in search of something new to try.

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Emeritus Account (30125)	2012-03-30		Medium	Strong	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

I was reccomended this blend by a regular customer for whom we placed a special order. when it arrived I could not resist trying it myself to see what he was raving about. I was not disappointed.

Im not a huge fan of heavy Aromatics as a rule, prefering plain Virginia blends perhaps with some cavandish (black or otherwise)thrown in for a touch of sweetness.

This tobacco is very moist indeed in the hand and gives off dark syrupy notes of caramel and chocolate.

I found it had to be packed quite loose to get it to light which is always a problem with very moist blends.

However when lit it was a real treat burning very slowly and very cool. Keeping it lit was tricky but when got right it smouldered so slowly that 2 pipefulls burnt for an entire afternoon!

The taste was subtle creamy and slighlty bitter with a definate caramel flavour.The coffee was in my opinion a bit light but just about there as the pipe burnt to the middle. considering how much topping there is on this blend its not overly sweet and cloying.

The room note was again subtle and low-key, a fairly soft burnt chocolate smell.

Further experimentation lend me to blend it 3 parts with one of a light american virgina called Sparrow. In this form it is far easyer to light and keep lit, without detracting from the flavour. Furthermore this helps to eake out what is a fairly weighty blend, the moisture meaning you get slightly less for your money.

I like this Tobacco a lot and will smoke it again. The quality and smoking properties of a natural/traditional blend with all the taste of of a fine aromatic.

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	The Full English (31)	2009-11-03		Mild to Medium	Medium to Strong	Medium	Pleasant

An extremely dark, heavily cased weed that is not overly tacky in feel, this is a reasonable choice for lovers of the aromatic, albeit not quite as good as I'd primarily hoped.

The pouch is irresistibly sweet, with a well-pronounced coffee aroma riding shotgun next to a deliciously faithful caramel scent. It's a great one for exciting the senses and remarkably like stepping into the warmth of a Starbucks on a cold, winter's day.

Like many of the Gawith aromatics, it smokes a little wet and would probably benefit from some air time. Initially a sweet smoke, it becomes a tad bitter as the flavour comes through as you get past the topping. Unfortunately, the coffee/caramel doesn't extend much past the first few puffs and the smoke isn't quite as smooth as you might expect, which relegates this to a round 2 tobacco in my book, and not the 3 that it could perhaps have been.

Having said that, it's a nice enough morning smoke and one which stokes your coals, complementing your first coffee of the day and the newspaper.

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	pencils (57)	2007-08-20		Mild	Strong	Mild to Medium	Pleasant

If you like an easy aromatic, this blend will give you a pleasant hour. Nice tasty, thick, creamy smoke - not so strong on the coffee flavour at times, although it is more noticeable when exhaled exclusively through the nose.

Bit moist and hard to keep lit all the way through the bowl, but not hard to relight and no bite whatsoever.

I am really enjoying this.

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	Reviewed By	Date	Rating	Strength	Flavoring	Taste	Room Note
	Greenwell (2)	2005-03-21		Mild to Medium	Strong	Medium	Pleasant

Coffee Caramel is an extremely rich smelling blend, it?s sold loose at my local tobacconist, and every time I open the jar my first though is to grab a spoon as the caramel smell puts me in mind of pudding. Yet while it has an aroma that makes mouths water the smoking properties leave much to be desired. The black Cavendish dominates the smoking experience; it also gives the tobacco a predominantly dark appearance. The tobacco is also very damp, a by-product of being heavily cased, very much in the American style. While this does not overly bother me, I know that others out there find it not such a favourable trait. I find drying it out for a while before smoking improves it, reducing the pipe gurgle, yet will not eliminate its tendency to become very bitter at the end of the bowl. If smoked slowly it never bites so this is one of its positive traits. Taste is quite good if you like heavy Cavendish blends, but I would not recommend it to a dedicated smoker of English blends.

A good friend of mine used to smoke this on a regular basis and it was through his experiments that I became familiar with the positive blending possibilities of this blend. Now I normally always blend it with another tobacco rather than smoking it straight, as on its own can become overpowering and monotonous (trust me it may not make much sense but it does). I would recommend playing around with mixing it with other blends yourself but suggest as a starting point to use 1 to 1 mixing ratios. I have found myself smoking it regularly of lately, as I smoke often in mixed company and people have become more vocal of late in expressing displeasure with blends that don?t smell so nice. This has forced me to leave the Latakia blends for long walks, when I?m on my own. In social situations Sunset Breeze or Classic Port are preferable in aroma but their high cost often means that this is a good substitute.

My subjective opinion is that this is a nice relaxing smoke that puts one in the mood to discuss weighty matters in the pub over a good pint of real ale, without offending the rest of the pubs patrons.

3 out of 5 overall.

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