12 Months Later

Well I thought it was time to check back in and see how things were going here. Been under the weather but not enough to stop me snuffing.

This post is really to comment on my snuff experience after twelve months of using it. These are just my personal observations and I do not pretend to be have any expertise on the subject.

By way of background I am a non smoker so this was my first journey into nicotine having only smoked casually as a young person.

I can safely say that I do not feel in any way addicted to snuff. I can pick it up and put it down at will but (most importantly) I really enjoy it.

I am a secret snuffer other than admitting it on here no one else knows. A shame really because I would like to share it. But anyway I have a snuff family here to discuss it with. 

I don’t really notice the effects of nicotine. Some brands (and varieties) seem stronger than others (self-evident I guess) but none of them have induced the kind of effects that trying snus did.

The first few portions of snus I took gave me head spins, nausea and I seriously considered passing out (weak it may seem but true). These, I am guessing, are signs of excessive nicotine. So I have moved away from snus for the time being even though I did enjoy it in a peverse way. 

The other reason for not using snus was that it got hit by customs every time on the way in. I have only had two hits by customs on snuff out of many deliveries. For some reason these get through. At $800/kg tax this can be a real killer where I live.

First impressions of snuff were that it made me feel relaxed and sharpened my mental faculties when I was feeling dozy or tired. My nose would run badly after taking menthol snuffs but over time this seemed to lessen. Now I can take it all day with little impact. It did initially sting as well, particularly if it went too far back. The eyes would water and I got a taste of it in the back of my throat. Learned that lesson well. 

I didn’t overdo it with much snuff in the early days a few pinches across the day, but now I get through about 3-4 grams per day. 

I went with the shotgun approach of trying as many flavours and brands as I could. Some were good some were meh but none of them were bad.

I really like schmalzers now although the first time I tried them I just couldn’t see the fun in it, pushing what was more like a chew into my nose but the oils on them just make for great scents.

The fine grain of the Toque flavours caused a few problems again, from over inhaling and getting it into the sinuses and the back of my throat. But I am over that problem now my technique has improved.

Quite a few of the scents reported in the marketing of a product have proven difficult to pick up. I suspect my nose is still not finely tuned enough to get them although I am sure that some are more strongly scented than others. For example the McChrystals Summer Harvest packs a great raspberry punch but other lines that have a raspberry scent I can barely get at all. 

Taking the snuff I use the back of my hand snuffbox to inhale. This works pretty well for all types of snuff I have found although initially I had to go cross eyed and look at the snuff to make sure I got it in the nose. I tried the boxcar but that tended to get under my nails and look a bit average. Pinching can affect the flavours I experience particularly if it is warmed up by my hand for a moment before inhaling. 

I store my daily snuff in an old plastic film canister. It is inoccuous and easy to tap out when I need a bit. 

On hand I have about 100 tins of snuff now most stored and about half a dozen in daily use and open.

I have notice in the last twelve months a lot of varieties come and go and seen a few manufacturers shut up shop. A shame because some of their products were great. 

Reading a lot of what you folks post has been a great help in the journey and although I don’t comment often on the site I tend to read a lot of the comments.

This is my way of putting a little back into the site to keep it going.

Feel free to comment about your own experiences. I know when I started several others on the site started around the same time as me. It would be interesting to hear how they are going.

Nick

thanks for sharing this is very similar to my experience but im only in it for about 3 month and am not anywhere near 3g a day i dont know how you guys do that i mean i am already constantly snuffing all day :smiley:

i still have a lot to try for example all toque all dholakia many wilsons and mccrystals amongt others
loving the english types but some are really unsnuffeable for me so dry i am not even sure that is supposed to be like this they might be old tins or dried up fast from low humidity. for example the crystals smokers blend and sicilian blast or wilsons grove those go straight into the lung from the slightest wiff and the tincans are less than half full freshly opened speaking for a lot of humidity loss.
i would love to take big hits of the english like you can from all the german snuffs

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Larger pinches, SunnyDay… if I’m just using snuff as my nicotine source I use a lot more than when I’m snuffing in addition to using snus or smoking a pipe or cigar, and I think it averages out to around 2g a day.

That said, my tolerance is such that it takes quite a bit to feel much of anything. The only time I really feel a nic rush without trying is early in the morning when the snus, snuff, and coffee all hit at the same time.

Thanks for sharing, OP, I’m in much the same journey as you, though I started my nicotine habit with a pipe and also use snus quite often.

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I’m of similar background. I started off smoking pipes and cigars, but I don’t crave or need the nicotine like some do. I enjoy tobacco. I thought I’d give snuff a try. I wish I tried it sooner though.

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