Samuel Gawith’s London Brown Mill: Coarse Color: Really dark “brown” (Black) Moisture: Moist (Almost spongy) Nicotine: Medium-High? (I have a hard time telling anymore) Menthol: Surely not! Samuel Gawith’s London Brown is a blend that I have wanted to try for quite a while. I received it in my order from Snuff.me.uk. Upon dosing onto the hand, the snuff is of coarse mill and moist content. As stated above, it has a spongy feel, very soft. I suppose you could line this up with Samuel Gawith’s other plain snuffs such as Kendal Brown, McCombie and other fine selections. This is indeed a straight tobacco snuff. It appears to have a deep fermentation which gives it a dark earthy flavor with leather tones. What a wonderful snuff. Lovers of plain tobacco and straight snuffs will love this. I can see a 19th Century Londoner snuffing this whilst walking the cobblestone streets en route to the pub for an ale. Once again, 5/5 pinches.
Very good review cstokes.
Give Black Rappee a try then if you haven’t yet. If you enjoy London Brown that much, Black Rappee should be a treat for you.
With that avatar it looks like Samuel Gawith himself is writing the review!
That sounds iike a snuff for me! I just tried Black Rappee from S Gawith. Wonderful snuff, but hard to take! It keeps falling out of my nose!
Thanks cstokes! This was one on the “gotta try this” list for me as well. Love the dry Scotches and HDT, but wanted to find something as a constant go to snuff that would balance everything out. Sort of an inbetween other snuffs snuff. In the 250 g. drum, it would go quite a long way!
Just received e-mail from snuffstore.co.uk They have stocked it in 20g vacuum sealed tins. Awesome! It was time to have Samuel Gawith in 20g tins. This is on my ‘must try’ list.
great, now i have to try this one too…
You make this stuff sound pretty damn good, I’ll have to get some with my next order.
it is pretty damn good, dude.
Be very carefull when buying this in the SG 10g tap box. Mine had dried out so badly that I had to get it out of the box and re hydrate it. Doesnt like being re hydrated. It was 'orrible. Tasted like a cross between well used engine oil and the diesel exhaust fumes from a london cab. Wont make that mistake again.
This was meant for fellow uk snuffers. Most SG in the uk are still sold in 10g tap boxes.
“Be very carefull when buying this in the SG 10g tap box. Mine had dried out so badly that I had to get it out of the box and re hydrate it. Doesnt like being re hydrated. It was 'orrible. Tasted like a cross between well used engine oil and the diesel exhaust fumes from a london cab. Wont make that mistake again.” A sound warning, London Jack. I buy London Brown by the pound, which arrives factory fresh in a drum. The real stuff is an all-natural brown rappee of tobacco fermented in brine. It is similar to French Morlaix that is no longer made. A while back was gifted some of those hideous 10 gram plastic things. The London Brown box contained only stale shotgun pellets. There is something uniquely British about this this level of manufacturing idiocy. Among quality controls the snuffs at Sam Gawith are subjected to tests for correct moisture to ensure perfection. Why the snuffs are then totally ruined by packing them in containers meant for paraffin based snuffs is beyond my comprehension. It’s good news that vacuum-selaed tins are available.
No, you’re not pissing in the wind, but why are you attacking London Jack? my first london brown came in a 10g tap box. so what do you want?
Looks like we have a new bulldog in town.
@Afterburner: Because its available in 20g vacuum sealed tins does not change the fact that the 10g tapboxes dry out quickly, London Jack gave a good warning no need to be insulting, and in defence of London Jack I’m, going to repeat your post “Oh! we just can’ read, can we?”, Oh! we just CAN’T spell, can we?
i sense a troll.
No, at the time this review was written it was the tap box, not the new vacuum container.
I see that Snuff store is now selling London Brown in the 20gm tins. We have PhillipS and London Jack to thank for that I’m sure. I would expect some of the others to be restocked in this manner as well. I hope Samuel Gawith didn’t buy too many of those tap boxes or it may well turn into a costly mistake for them.
Finally someone else can be the troll, I’m getting tired of it being me. And finally we have Samuel Gawith in 20g tins! Rejoice!
“To n9inchnails, I’m not insulting, but wanted to stress that we are talking about vacuum boxes on here, not the leaking tap box.” No, not insulting - just rather simple. The topic is not vacuum-sealed tins but London Brown. Grasp that undemanding fact and your anguish will quickly fade. Hope this advice is of assistance to you. Best wishes.
@PhilipS: Well said
Anyway, it’s good 25g vacuum sealed tins are making comeback, they’re the best containers ever. 2 Sam Gawith’s snuffs have been available in those tins at Peterson’s of Dublin for a while. Hope all range will be available in the future, also the toasts.
The only way I will try any of the sams is with a vacum seal.
I’ve ordered a vacuum tin from snuffstore as I’ve been wanting to try London Brown for quite a while, hopefully this will be better than the tap boxes. Frankly it couldn’t be any worse lol. Stefan
@ AllanH: Can you pester Petersons to get London Brown or other varieties for you in tins? Would they do special orders?
@Xander I asked once about that and they promised to look into it but seems they forgot the whole thing. Might try again or send a goon like our friend whistlrr there, I’m not so good with people.
Good news that at least one SG in vacuum sealed tins is finally available online ! I think I’ll wait and see if Mr. Snuff manages to get some more varieties in stock.
Keeping this discussion open as the review has been cross posted in the reviews section. Category has been reassigned and delted users posts have been deleted.
Good stuff indeed and our man @cstokes nailed it absolutely right! London Brown is simply a very good snuff and a good example how wisdom of tradition works.
London Brown/ Black Rappee. Just received these and must say they are very honest, straight up tobaccos. Very coarse indeed but I tend to like that. Much like a los snus. Rich deep flavour un-tainted by confusing scents. Good strength and probably not a beginners snuff but worth a go for all who would like to experience a “naked” style of snuff with just the taste of fermented tobacco. A true classic from the snuff box of history. BTW: we have it from HR_pufnsnuff that these snuffs are one and the same. See thread: http://snuffhouse.org/discussion/comment/291096#Comment\\_291096
guess i’m a “little” confused. if buying the snuff in a tap box is not an option—how do i try the stuff? can’t rehydrate into a representative sample?
@bogybill The only way I have ordered SG snuffs are in the vacuum tins. Always fresh. Of course I live in the US so order through MrSnuff. If you buy from a B&M then ask them to stock the tins. Yes you could re-hydrate but best to buy fresh. Always iffy to get the tap box. I have seen many Poschl snuffs so packaged here in the states and can never be sure how fresh they are. Probably not very as use of snuff is not common where I live.
I LOVE this snuff. I’m still very new, but this is currently my fave. I have it in a tap box and towards the end it dried out and was near impossible to take, but it rehydrates very well and easily. And what’s this McCombie mentioned in the OP? That’s MY name… I guess I’m gonna have to check out my snuff. There is snuff named after my town (Ozona) and state (Mississippi) and now I find a snuff named after me, lol. Maybe it was fate that I started snuffing.
Both of these are my favorite SG snuffs. In fact, just thinking about them got me over to MrS., where I ordered a good supply of LB, still have some Black Rappee. Wonderful snuffs.
Funny - I now have almost all of the SG classics… but this one has slipped through the net. I love Black Rappee. How does this differ?
Related to the comment posted earlier in this thread ( http://snuffhouse.org/discussion/comment/291096#Comment\\_291096 ) I can attest that BR and LB are not at all the same. They are both good, but they differ in color, grind, moisture level and other aspects. I have just opened one fresh 25g vac tin of each and have them in front of me. LB is more fluffy, and even has some lighter colour bits mixed in the base tobacco. To me it seems more refined and sophisticated, both pack a certain level of satisfaction, but BR is simpler, stronger basenote, while LB shines on middle and top notes. And these differences are beyond batch variation for sure. I plan to buy them both in bulk very soon, and will come back with detailed descriptions.
Sorry I never got back to my “detailed” descriptions. What I wrote I still believe. Others have described them probably better than I can. Nevertheless, the Viking Brown is good, simple, tasty, and mixes well with other plain snuffs.