FAQs

FAQS

Below you will find frequently asked questions. Please ensure your query is not covered below, before emailing our team. 

1. Can I order directly from you as a consumer? 

As a manufacturer we currently do not sell directly to the consumer. 

In the UK we sell via registered retailers (specialist tobacconists, convenience type stores, wholesalers) and you can see your nearest shop here [shop map to come]. Sorry we are not able to give details of exactly which products each shop stocks as this can change frequently. 

Outside the UK we operate via Distribution Partners in the many countries to currently export to. These importers then sell to retail outlets across their region. We are not able to give out a list of shops for each country as we do not have this information available. 

2. Where can I buy your products?

Please see answer above

3. Do you offer factory tours?

We are not able to offer factory tours as we are a working manufacturing plant and thus have machinery operating and fork lift trucks driving around. It would be very difficult with Health and Safety concerns to be able to make factory tours viable. We are also very busy making tobaccos to sell across the world as well as operating in a restricted space. 

4. A certain blend is not available at my local store or is out of stock in the places I have looked. 

Your local store may simply be waiting on an order to be processed and delivered or this maybe because your local store has opted not to order that product anymore if there was not enough demand for it to make it viable for them to order the minimum order quantity. 

Some products are special order only, meaning that they are made to order and therefore can take a little longer for the factory to send out. 

If you are outside the UK, then it is likely that the distributor for your country is waiting on an order to be produced and shipped to them. We only have a finite capacity to produce orders and export deliveries are made to order. Depending on the size of the order and our production schedule this can mean it can take weeks to several months to produce that order and for it to be shipped and to arrive at the destination country. It then needed to be processed and sent out to retailers for them to sell. 

Please see the website for the blends that we produce. If it is not listed here then we do not produce it any more. 

5. Why was a blend discontinued? Will you bring back that blend?

Blends are discontinued either because there was not enough demand for that blend to make it economically viable to produce and register (all blends must be registered and this incurs an annual fee) or because certain components of that blend are no longer available. 

It is therefore unlikely we would bring back any discontinued blends. 

6. I am a retailer and would like to stock your products. 

Please contact the office on enquiries@gawithhoggarth.ltd and the Business Account Manager for your part of the UK will contact you to open an account. Please note credit checks maybe done and references are required. 

If you are outside the UK you need to contact the distributor for your region. You can contact us at the same email address as above for this information. Please note that we may not necessarily have a distributor for your country. 

7. What additives do you add to the tobacco?

We only use two additives in the production of our tobacco: – 

A humectant to ensure the dry tobacco leaves absorb enough water to make them pliable and able to then be made into flake or twist or cut into ribbon cut or Roll Your Own. 

Propanol Glycol to ensure that the tobacco does not go mouldy before it reaches the end consumer. 

And then any toppings or flavourings are food grade and mostly natural oils such as vanilla etc. 

8. Are you products vegan?

A strange question but one we have had several times. None of our flavourings or toppings contain any meat products. 

9. Do you use alcohol in your products?

We do not use actual whiskey or rum for example for our tobaccos containing this flavour, however derivatives of alcohol are used in various processes. Any tobaccos with menthol flavour use methanol. Our American Blends use a synthetic agent, which generally does not contain alcohol as a solvent but it is manufactured and therefore if depends on the process. We cannot absolutely guarantee there are no traces of alcohol in these. Also Brown Flake Aromatic, Dark Flake Aromatic and Ennerdale Flake and Mixture use a scent that uses a methanol derivative. Perique tobacco is made by fermentation in a barrel that once held whiskey.  This information is for general guidance only and we cannot guarantee trace derivatives of alcohol have not come into contact with other tobacco blends and products we make. 

10. Is the tobacco you use GMO free?

We source our tobacco from a number of suppliers, who in turn source the tobacco from different farmers and crop sellers. The tobacco market is highly regulated and often government controlled. It is not possible to know exactly what is sprayed on the crops or how they are grown and harvested.

11. What is Lakeland Essence? What are Lakeland Tobaccos?

Lakeland tobacco is a term coined by the American market and used by retailers and smokers. It can have several different meanings. Generally it appears to refer to those tobaccos with a flavour containing rose geranium and being particularly floral and like a perfume. However, we as a company do not use this term and there is no one particular Lakeland essence added to blends. Tobacco blends are carefully crafted using a variety of flavourings. Lakeland can also refer to all tobaccos made by Gawith's as it can be used to refer to the geographical area of the Lake District. Lakeland blends usually refer to those like Grasmere, Ennerdale, Bosun plug to name a few but there is no definitive list as we, the manufacturer, do not use the term and it appears to be very subjective and mean different flavour profiles to different people. 

12. Who is/was Bob of Bob CH Flake fame?

The simplest answer……we have no idea. There have been blends referencing the name Bob going back to the last century or further; including Bob's Square Cut, Bob's Flake, Bob's Choc Ready Rubbed, Bob's Aromatic Flake. Certainly tobacco blend lists and price lists show Bob's Flake and Bob's Square cut being available in the 1930's.  Tobacco folklore has it that an American called Bob Lynch asked the factory to make a blend for him by adding latakia to an already made blend and Bob's CH Flake was born in the 1980's. Whilst it is certainly true that there was a Bob Lynch and he was involved in distribution to the USA, it seems unlikely that Bob's Choc Flake was actually named after him as there were already a number of ‘Bob’s' blends in production from much earlier. It is probably nearer the truth that a variant of one of the already existing Bob's flakes was done and became Bob's Choc Flake, it just happened by coincidence that the American connection at the time was a guy called Bob.