I took a punt on yet more tobacco which is pretty stupid as if I carry on smoking 1 bowl a week as I have been over the last 2 weeks then it will take about 500 years to get through the amount of tobacco that I have stockpiled! It's not far off but at 4g a bowl it would take 125 weeks to get through it all which wouldn't actually be true as I can only smoke in fair weather so being limited to about 6 months over summer and then accounting for shit weather and also having other plans and not getting time for a bowl means its safe to say that I have a few years supply. I think the only style of tobacco I do not have is english style's with smoky Latakia. I have one 10g sample of Red Rapparee and when I initially got it I thought it smelt awful and like burnt poo. I didn't order any more after that however I opened the jar and after it had been sitting for about 10 months it smelt divine, it was rich and thick and layered and I don't think I have experienced anything like it. So I will get more Balkan/English/Latakia styles and put them in jars to sit while I get through the other 125 weeks supply. As for the Louisiana Flake I have been meaning to get some for ages and have as my settle in blend. This and the Jamaica Flake however they have been out of stock for ages so I was delighted when the website I ordered them from came up with it in stock and I ordered 25g of each. That leaves me with Louisiana, Jamaica and the Unscented Brown flakes all from Gawith Hoggarth to break myself in with piping! By the time I will have gotten through these the other Virginia blends I have like Capstan and St Bernard and Salty Dogs will have had plenty and plenty of time to get some age on them which I suppose is one way of getting a deep cellar. Buy a lot and don't smoke that much and you'll end up with some bewts. Opening the packet I was met with a luscious moist long flake speckled with black and mottled all over. The smell was oily and rich and nutty and I could just drink it in. Writing this I have had to go and throw my nose back into the packet to get to experience it again. I have read previously that GH tobacco is almost always best rubbed out and almost always best left to dry before stuffing into your pipe. This was certainly true of this Louisiana Flake and a newbie like myself could tell this just by the moist flakes. Previously I have smoked the unscented Brown Flake and I have not rubbed it out, partly down to time and also partly down to not really thinking properly. This time I took great pains to rub out the flakes and let them dry out on top of my notebook before stuffing them into a corn cob. The broken ribbon/flakes were a lot drier than when I started when it came time to stuff them in. I went with a fairly heavy stuff and tamped down with the end of an old pen. After having a classic work from home lunch of Heinz soup and some Warburtons white sliced bread it was time to head out into the garden for a puff. It was a beautiful March day with piercing bright light and I sat on the patio with my pipe and some matches and my fancy tamper thats made of Sheffield Steel. I do not really quite understand the difference between a charring light and a true light and I think that maybe it was something invented by Americans on Reddit to add complexity to an otherwise perfunctory task but it got charred and then it got lit. The initial light the taste is like a cigarette and it is consistent across all the pipe tobacco I have tried so far, its like an Amber Leaf baccy roll made from scraps of old ciggies and I am not sure if this is the pipe or something specific to pipe tobacco. You have to get it puffing away nice and hot and then the flavour unfurls over your mouth and tongue. It coats your taste with its rich deep tobacco-ness. The blend is supposed to be topped with Chocolate and have a dash of Perique which is peppery and while I did get the pepper taste I got none of the Chocolate. I have went all in on Perique/Virginia blends as I absolutely adore pepper in food and I am starting to become a little relieved to find that the flavour profile does translate across from food to tobacco. It is not a 100% like for like but it is close enough that it matches which is good to know as I go forward in this journey. I read some stuff about people imparting this and that flavour and I really at the moment get any of it. It tastes like this and that tobacco and I can tell the difference between the Burley and the Virginia and the Perique leaf but as for everything else all I can say is that I enjoyed it. The aspect of pipe smoking that I am enjoying that I did read about but thought it was actually probably just bollocks was the part of it where it is just time for you to sit or stand and not have to do anything too particularly taxing or strenuous but just be in the moment with your thoughts and your pipe. It takes your focus and provides it with a singular narrative for a small portion of time. Not 5-10 minutes, today's smoke was about 50 minutes all in. But it was 50 minutes where I went outside and with everything going on in my life at the minute and all the stresses and strains that that entails where I did not think about much. I just was as I am when Im relaxed and focused and I enjoyed that very much. Gawith Hoggarth Louisiana Flake I enjoyed it very much.