Does anyone age their snuff?

I ask this question as i am new to snuff and it is common practice in the pipe tobacco world.  I have half a tin left of J&H Wilsons top mill which would be at least 20 years old (opened earlier this year) and it is really great.  Darker in colour to new Top Mill that i have recently purchased and has a deeper spicyness to it.  Could this just be variations in manufacturing between now and then?  Do any of you deliberately do this?  Thanks!

the sugars in tobacco ferment and improve over time, to a point. Virginia tobacco benefits most from aging. Scentings will diminish, or even get weird, over time I would guess. The tobacco should be good for years and years and years though. I smoked some 35 year old Balkan Sobranie recently and it was brilliant. I had a similar experience with some 25 year old Sobranie Virginian No. 10, and the decade old tobaccos from my cellar that I’ve smoked have all been stellar. Snuff should be no different, in terms of plain tobaccos anyway.

I do have tobaccos that I am aging for snuff but I don’t intentionally age commercial snuffs. There are a few snuffs that I bought extra because I thought they would age well but I don’t think they will be around long enough for me to find out. I have always enjoyed fresh snuff over old snuff and I think the alkalizing agents in snuffs inhibit the aging that pipe tobacco enjoys.

My old snuff smells musty, has no original flavour and is very sneezy. Do not like.

that is interesting question @bignose !
after I moved from my previous apartment I left snuff worth about 150€ to storage. for aging you should concidered what is in the snuff. if there is some weird stuff like mineral oil (pöch etc) I doubt that aging creates anything pleasant. well in my storage thers is some pöchl snuff also…
we’ll see if I have time to check my “snuff account” anytime soon but I would think that over 2 years gives some time for snuff to react. at least I hope that WoS prime minister and aniseed extra would have been tamed a bit. no, I haven’t forgotten you my precious nosepowder <3
there is a bit of many european snuffs and some homemade as well :wink:

I haven’t tried aging any snuff, but I do have quite a bit of pipe tobacco set aside to age.  Maybe one day I’ll grind some of the aged stuff into snuff, just to see what happens.

I don’t think there is much to be gained from it. I have a small amount of very old snuff that is, pretty much, as good as new because it’s been kept in airtight jars, but I wouldn’t say it’s improved it, or if it has I’ve forgotten what it was like 30 years ago when I bought it. Ageing is important in the manufacturing process though, depending on the type of tobacco and the snuff that will come from it. I will be making a snuff at the end of this year with some tobacco that will have then been marinaded in a sauce for three years. It’s impossible to predict the outcome though. 

Thank you for the comments and advice Gents.  I think i’ll stash away a few vaccum tins of snuff that are reasonably plain and dry for the future and leave it at that. I’ll do the same as pipe tobacco in that i will try some at 12mths, 5 years and then ten years.  A long, but hopefully pleasurable experiment!  At least i know wilsons is good for several decades.  Cheers David.

I can tell you that I have several “aged” tins of Toque snuff, having stored them in my file cabinet several years ago and forgot about them, that are stale and going in the trash this afternoon. On the other hand, the contents of several canisters of American Plain snuff subject to the same treatment are excellent.

That’s just about the cans, not the snuff. So, assuming they had not been opened enough to get stale prior to storage, that might be something Toque need to look at. Toque has only been around a few years, an ‘aged’ Toque snuff over that period of time - given airtight conditions - would be indistinguishable from a Toque snuff bought today; there would have been no character change over such a short period.

I’ve heard F&Ts Old Paris ages very well. Reading G L Pease on aging tobacco, a relatively low moisture level (12-18% for pipe tobacco) seems to prevent molds. I haven’t been able to keep any tobacco I like around long enough to find out, but perhaps airing the snuff to a dry but still useable level and storing it in an airtight container at a cool but not cold temperature should do it. REhydrate before using.

I wouldn’t expose it to ar any more than you need to. I was into an old schmalzler today and found it considerably drier than when I last used it. I thought its jar was airtight.

I age myself pretty well. Right now I’m about 1,767 years old!

“Santa Claus has a variety of different names in different languages, but they all refer to the person of St. Nicholas who was born many centuries ago in the 4th century c 245 AD.”

I have some old snuf didn’t age it on purpose , Some get better with age , Some do not !

I have a few aged snuffs I keep in my humidor F&T, Tranters Gold Label and my favourite 1936 Levi Garrett. Our new tins are threaded and have a stay fresh seal, but even then I’d wouldn’t leave them in a drawer for more than a year without wanting to check on them. Time will tell how good they are.

Excuse my ignorance but when you say 1936 Levi Garrett are you saying it was made in 1936 or is that a type of Levi Garrett?