A "Degustation" for neophytes

Tonight (6 hours for now), I’ll be introducing a few of my friends to the joys of snuff tobacco, in a sort of “guided degustation” like the ones you do for wines etc. I’d like to give them the chance of appreciating every sample (allowing for differences in taste), so I need to introduce the different kinds of snuff in steps, so as to have the strongest sorts towards the end etc. For this reason, I was thinking of maybe starting with some Toque’s fruit, before progressing to some menthol snuffs and eventually to the few toasts and scented sorts I have. What do you think of my plan? All suggestions are welcome, of course - here’s the list of snuffs I could take with me (we’ll meet at a pub), if someone would like to suggest a specific introductory progression: Toque Apricot Berwick Brown Blueberry Cherry Chocolate Grapefruit Lavender Lime Toast Menthol Original Peach Peppermint Pomegranate Raspberry Rose SP Extra St. Clements Toast & Marmalade Vanilla Violet Whisky & Honey Poeschl Ozona Ozona President Gawith Apricot Gawith Cola Packard Alpina Radford Ozona Raspberry Ozona Orange Andechs Spezial Gletscher Prise Schmalzler A Other McChrystal Stammheimer Hopfenschnupf McChrystal Mild Lemon Fribourg & Treyer Princes Special Fribourg & Treyer Seville Fribourg & Treyer Bordeaux Fribourg & Treyer Morlaix Wilsons Camphor & Mild Wilsons Cinnamon Wilsons Grand Cairo Wilsons Lemon Grove Wilsons Peach Melba Wilsons Rum & Blackberry Dholakia Ganga Several non-tobacco Thanks in advance!

Just lay out a can of NTSU and Bruton, and say here, try it.

@tom502: _“Just lay out a can of NTSU and Bruton, and say here, try it.”_Sorry, I should have mentioned that I’d like them to *enjoy* the experience =D

Well, you do have a lot of nice ones. Though, it seems kinda overkill with that many. I think I’d be more inclined to pick a good solid 10 at most. Sone nice menthols, scented menthols, non-menthols, I’d go with mostly medium grind, medium moisture, but I might include one toast, and a natural, which it seems you have.

If someone who wasn’t a snuffer tried all those he would be puking and sweating with nicotine overdose.

The Toques are a good bet - (perhaps not the toasts, though) they’re pretty easy for beginners to start with. I would go for a plain SP, a floral, a menthol/mint, a fruit and perhaps a schmaltzer or a perfumed F&T…

I’m sorry, what I meant was: please help me pick half a dozen or so among the ones I have listed - I wasn’t planning on taking them all! =) I was thinking along the lines of: (Before dinner) Toque Raspberry McC Mild Lemon Gawith Apricot McC O&G Toque Original/SP Extra (After dinner) Toque Whisky & Honey Toque Chocolate Toque Peach (For the most adventurous) Dholakia Ganga F&T Princes Special I’ll also bring a couple that have been specifically asked for by my friends after reading the reviews on snuffreviews.com; still, if there’s anything I’m blatantly missing or something I really shouldn’t offer a neophyte, please tell me! =)

Ozona Raspberry Ozona Orange Chocolate Original Whisky & Honey Wilsons Grand Cairo McC O&G

I definitely agree with tom502. The fruitier Ozonas are what introduced me to Snuff. Once I got the training wheels off, other more sophisticated stuff has been the order of the day, but if someone had passed me a tin of HDT at first, it probably would have been my first and last try. Let us know how this goes!

Won’t the Ozona’s menthol overwhelm the guys’ noses and reduce the enjoyment of the more delicate Toques? If you think that won’t be a problem, tom’s list seems an ideal introduction (perhaps trading the Grand Cairo for something else, since it’s very fresh and the ammonia is still rather strong).

Wouldnt it be better to keep the snuffing until after dinner as snuff distorts some peoples sense of taste.

Nah dinner isn’t the star of the show I’am assuming. How many people are we talking about and what do they already like in other consumables?

I ended up with a larger selection - tom502’s suggestions and a few more that had been specifically requested by my “guests” - and everything went really well. We started with Ozona Raspberry, which surprised them (“Hey, this is actually good!”), I allowed them a few minutes to enjoy the menthol etc, and I immediately followed up with Toque Raspberry, so that they could begin to appreciate the difference between “german” and “english” snuff; surprisingly enough, we manage to sample Toque Raspberry without a single cough or anything, which I guess was a big part in the success of the evening. Following that, I mostly followed the original plan, with milder and “easier” stuff to begin with; the only true surprise (for me) has been the general consensus on WoS Grand Cairo, unanimously awarded the Best of Show medal - apparently, if you don’t know that it’s too strong for you, it isn’t =) Anyway, thanks everybody - with your suggestions I might have managed to convert a few people to the snuff side enough to buy bulk with me =D

Your guests showed good taste. The Grand Cairo was the best of show in that group.

Congrats on winning over some converts! It looks like you sped up the “learning curve” on them as well, so double kudos for that. (Why do I suspect this post will now go on the OOCQ thread Lol!)

Why is F&T princes special for the ‘adventurous’? I’ve always considered its flavour and grind as perfect for beginners?

princes is very beginer friendly I guess some people might not like the scent or something,