What is your favorite rappee snuff ?

I’ll be interested to see peoples thoughts on this because although the only coarse snuff I have tried is F&T Princes Special I would love to get recommendations on more coarse snuff to try.

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SG Black Rappee and SWS Aged Border Rappee have excellent tobacco flavor. If you want something scented, I’d recommend Fribourg and Treyer’s Santo Domingo. I wouldn’t call any of these course but medium-coarse in grind.

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Ah yes, I have some black rappee, which i liked at first but then went off, now i seem to be liking it again as its very persistent… Its a little heavy, and tends to drop out more and gives a bit more back drip than my other rapees…but im coming back round to liking it a lot the SG Black Rappee…

By the way, the tub i have they actually spelt it Black Rapee…SG made a spelling mistake with its label.

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Best Dark, Kendal Brown, Viking Dark, Ambrosia, Thors Hammer, Brunswick, Santa Domingo, London Brown, Toque Coarse Plain…

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My understanding is that a black rappee has undergone multiple fermentations and has been brined. Maybe one of the “old timers” could chime in here?

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Princes, and WoS best dark…not sure if that is a black rappee…the princes is real nice…

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@SammyD13 I don’t think there is a hard and fast definition for Rappee anymore. This from Meriam Webster Definition of rappee : a pungent snuff made from dark tobacco leaves Furthermore, I think it is traditionally a coarse ground snuff as it was ground coarsely with a rasp that could be carried with you. The name comes from the french word rape (sound like rapay, wont let me put a mark over the e) which translates to grated.

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@Roderick there’s a recipe in my next post. Double dare you.

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@sammyd13 here is an image exerpt from 1899 describing a rappee as well. Capture+_2019-07-08-18-34-25

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@rostanf thank you for the article, and also for clearing up the pronunciation. I was saying something different in my head and just really never got into that :smiley:

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@rostanf, thanks for the excerpt, very interesting genuine formula with calamus root an bay leaves there! 

As someone noticed it before, it seems that SWS Roslein was inspired by Violet Strasburg. So, one more rappee :slight_smile:

Ah, by the way, Hollandse Bolongaro was categorised as rappee in one old encyclopedia, too. My fave! I’m slowly gathering all the necessary ingredients for a repro run.

HB and French rappees were not black and did not contain fire cured tobaccos. Judging from the amounts of sodium carbonate in French rappees’ recipes (app. 7%, if I remember it right), French rappees were very strong snuffs (sauced with Burgundy and Medoc). Those recipes are very basic and could be reproduced easily. Sourcing proper leaves for authentic tobacco bill could be a pain, though…

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@ar47 you’re welcome. I tried to spell it with the punctuation over the e and lost half my comment earlier.

@rostanf excellent citation! Very informative.

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Wow what an article @rostanf, Off the top of my head, i believe syrup of the red poppy is OPIUM…

and the aromatic sulphuric acid …WHAT ?

those guys were getting a proper hit from their rappee… i think you said its pronounced like toupee

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@eblip thank you. Yes poppy syrup has opium in it but it was somewhat of a decoction. Here’s a recipe from Moxon 1764 decribing its preperation “Take two pounds of poppy flowers, two ounces of raisins, shred them, and to every pound of poppies put a quart of boiling water, half an ounce of sliced liquorice, and a quarter of an ounce of anniseeds; let these stand twelve hours to infuse, then strain off the liquor, and put it upon the same quantity of poppies, raisins, liquorice, and anniseeds as before, and let this stand twelve hours to infuse, which must be in a pitcher, set within a pot or pan of hot water; then strain it, and take the weight in sugar, and boil it to a syrrup: when it is cold, bottle it.” As the active componds in poppies are easily lost through heat it is the second soaking that would instill the “medicinal” effects. Here is a link that has an audio clip of the pronunciation of rape. Cheers. https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/râpé#French

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@eblip a little further investigation revealed this concerning syrup of red poppy. It is made from papaver rhoeas, a much safer brother to the opium poppy. Botanical name: Papaver rhoeas Related entry: Rhoeados Petala.?Red-Poppy Petals Preparation.?“Take of fresh red poppy petals, 13 ounces (av.); refined sugar, 2 ? pounds (av.); distilled water, 1 pint (Imp.), or a sufficiency; rectified spirit, 2 ? fluid ounces. Add the petals gradually to the water heated in a water-bath, stirring frequently, and afterward, the vessel being removed, infuse for 12 hours. Then press out the liquor, strain, add the sugar, and dissolve by means of heat. When nearly cold add the spirit, and as much distilled water as may be necessary to make up for loss in the process, so that the product shall weigh 3 pounds 10 ounces (av.). Its specific gravity should be about 1.330”?(Br. Pharm., 1885). The directions in the British Pharmacopoeia (1898) practically agree with these. This syrup is prone to ferment, but this is retarded by the addition of the alcohol. It has a handsome red color. Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.?The proportion of opium present in this syrup is very uncertain, consequently but little reliance is placed upon it as an opiate. It is chiefly used as a coloring agent for mixtures. The dose is about 1 fluid drachm

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@rostanf what are your sources? These snippets are quite intriguing.

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@sammyd13 The Pharmaceutical Era https://books.google.com/books?id=dcvmAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA312&dq=rappee&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiS54Xsr6bjAhVxds0KHRWrAXI4ChDoATADegQIBxAB#v=onepage&q=rappee&f=true Foods Of England http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/syrupofpoppies.htm Syrup of red poppy. https://www.henriettes-herb.com/eclectic/usdisp/papaver-rhoe\_syru.html

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@rostanf thanks! You’re a Snuffhouse Archivist Emeritus! 

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Black rappee (a corruption of the French word râpé, for grated) is made by crushing dark tobacco in a strong brine or Bay Salt liquor. It is then left to ferment, the parcel being turned once a week for at least two months or more in cool rooms after being compressed into batches of several hundredweights each. Thereafter it is pulverised and remoistened with brine. Traditionally it is gros (coarse) and moist. The method of production in the UK is known as the Paris Method because of its one-time associations with France. That’s how Samuel Gawith made it. The history of the company and their snuff was written by J.W Dunderlade.

Though made by a different manufacturer the Viking Dark Rappee is recognizable in taste as Samuel Gawith’s Black Rappee. The latter was the genuine article but Dark Rappee comes close. Both are/were unscented single base tobacco snuffs but the biggest difference is in the grind. Dark Rappee is less coarse and more evenly ground whereas Black Rappee contained ‘shotgun pellets’ and was very uneven in texture. Consequently, Viking Dark Rappee is easier to take.

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