I keep telling myself that the rectangular shaped 100-gram tins should come with a “Best By” date stamp. I keep telling myself not to buy said tins because I know what I’m going to find. A nice, tightly packed, cellophane wrapped bundle of dried out tobacco. For some reason, I am still buy tins like this.
To be honest, when I found several tins of long out of production Samuel Gawith Limited Edition blends – from 2013, 2014 & 2015 – I kept saying, “you know that tobacco is going to be dry.” And I ignored myself. I had heard good things about the Limited Editions and wanted to experience one of them myself. I settled on the 2015 edition.
According to tobaccoreviews.com, Samuel Gawith’s Limited Edition 2015 is a “mixture of burley and golden Virginia Leaves with a rich double-fermented sweet black cavendish, added a splash of amaretto to give a smooth flavored tobacco with a soft room note.”
And, it was dry. It wasn’t crispy dry yet, but it was close. In fact, I know a number of pipe smokers who would say it was perfect for smoking. I personally like mine with a little more moisture. In my opinion, this makes for a cooler, longer smoke. The bigger problem is as tobacco loses its moisture, it loses some of its flavor.
How I Rehydrate Tobacco
Another concern? The tobacco is dry to start with and it only gets drier without rehydration. One method I use, is to move the tobacco into either a bail-type jar or mason jar and add a Boveda 60-gram humidity pack. I seal the jar and let it sit overnight. The next day I remove the pack, dump the tobacco onto a sheet of paper and then return both to the jar. In this way, it mixes the tobacco which has absorbed some of the moisture first with the drier tobacco. After several days I find the moisture level to be closer to what I like.
There are other methods to rehydrate dry tobacco and I use them on occasion, but I like the control that the Boveda packs provides. They come in a variety of RH levels from 65 to 85% but I buy the 72% Rh to maintain the moisture level in the tobaccos I am currently smoking.
While it will work for rehydrating aromatic blends, it won’t restore any of the flavors or aroma of the toppings and/or casings. I know some people who will mix whiskey or rum with distilled water and spritz the dried tobacco to restore some flavor. I have not tried this, so I can’t say how well it works.
Samuel Gawith Limited Edition 2015
The predominate aroma I smelled when I first opened the package was the nuttiness of the burley. The amaretto was there, but because of the age of the tobacco, it had been reduced to more of an accent. After that I get citrus notes from the Virginia leaf and sweetness from cavendish. What I’m not sure of is where the smokiness comes from.
My rehydration process has given me a blend that smokes cool but with a decent burn once lit properly. The only exception is when I sit on the porch and smoke while its raining. I then may have to do an occasional relight.
I wish I would have thought to buy Samuel Gawith Limited Edition 2015 when it was in production.
© J. Gibson Creative Services. July 30, 2019
