Ammonia from a fresh tin..

Anyone else find that if a tin smells of amonia, even just a little, the taste is muted to a great degree?

I’ve only experienced this with Taxi Red, but I’ve never put the snuff in my mouth so can’t say if it affects the taste or not. I find the ammonia pleasant in a fresh can of Taxi Red. It’s a sign of freshness! What snuff are you talking about in particular @nosemboss ?

By taste of course I ment when its taken. I’ve noticed this with those subtly perfumed snuffs, Recently opened FoJ–that one especially…but I’m unsure with others like O&G and Wlsons #20

I personally don’t notice Ammonia but the guy at work smell it every time I let him sample new snuff. The only one I had was the taxi that was strong enough for me.I was a long time smoker so that may have something to do with it.

My dad thinks that nearly every snuff I have smells like nothing but “cat-piss”. I definitely get strong ammonia on some snuffs but a bit of airing always fixes it up. This Dholakia White I’ve been working on has actually started to smell more of ammonia as I’ve gotten deeper into it, I guess there was some ammonia “trapped in” under the snuff on top. Good thing about D White is I can leave it to air for a few hours without worrying about anything being lost in the process - I don’t think it’s possible for it to become drier than it is.

It happens, I’ve noticed it most with Toque and WoS, I will usually leave the tin open to air out for like an hour, usually does the trick. Also leaving it for a few days or a week with the tin closed after its been aired out, the flavour will come out and ammonia will fade. I seem to find the nicotine is most noticed when the snuff is very fresh, but maybe that’s just all in my head.

You will know if your tin has some ammonia if you try to take a sniff and instead of the flavor, you get a warm numbing sensation. Flours that are tightly packed are particularly susceptible. I always loosen the flour, air it out for a bit, and give it a couple days before using.

I get that out of a new tin of my F&T Santo Domingo. I put it (and several others) into a mason jar and after a day it sorts itself out.

I haven’t noticed ammonia on most, but fresh fresh snuff will have an ammonia smell. Toque in particular reeks of cat piss when new, so I air the stuff out for a couple of hours and that gets rid of the stink.

In my experience ammonia is caused by really fresh tobacco, which is good. Just air it out for a bit. I’ve only experienced this in ntsu and sg kb.

I kind of like the ammonia to a certain degree. Too much can be off putting, but a hint of it adds a little tang or bite to a pinch.

I always thought of ammonia as one of the things that make the South African snuffs stand out!

I personally like the amonia freshness and would not air it away and am a little sad even when it has gradually naturally dissapeared but I never got any in my tins of FOJ so pehaps it’s the juniper you are mistaking for amonia? FOJ is still amongst my very favourite snuffs. Dholakia White I like to mix with other toasts to add strength to those and add flavour to the Dholakia White. Works wonderfully.

I lurve the ammonia smell of fresh, or well-stored, snuff. It’s to snuff what turkey smell is to the holidays.

I always notice the smell of ammonia coming from a lot of newly opened fresh snuff tins. Especially Toque snuffs. So when I get a new order of snuff, I’ll basically open up every tin, set them out on my table, and let them all air out for a couple of hours. Some might people might claim it would dry the snuff out or such, but it hasn’t been a problem for me, and it usually works to let all the ammonia out. It really can ruin a snuff experience to be expecting a beautiful sent and instead have your nose filled with the overbearing stench of ammonia.

ammonia=fresh

Does that mean the new Dell laptops that reek of cat pee are just ‘fresh’? lol

Hey, may I sneak in a newbie question here? Why is there ammonia in snuff in the first place?

It’s produced by fermentation. Fermentation makes the tobacco milder, traditionally you’d stack huge piles of leaves up and let them ferment off their own warmth.

Oh! Well, that explains that!