Indian Snuffs

Hi, Today, me and a buddy went to a nice Indian buffet restaurant, which has a grocery store next to it. I have been wondering if they had any snuffs, knowing my favorite brand is Dholakia, from India. Well, they did have some snuffs, though no Dholakia. Thye had 3 which I never heard of, not being in the know about Indian snuff anyway, so I got all 3, which were cheap as well. They are: Photo 5 “Himalaya Snuff”, by Khetu Ram Rishamber Das, Delhi TAS Rathnam “Madras Snuff”, by Jayaram Rathnakumar, Madras Sugandhsagar “Rose Snuff”, by Pitamberdas Anandji Mehta, Gujarat The last one I just now notice has a “Best Before Aug 2008” date, but we know dry snuff lasts forever, plus it was sealed. I have not even opened these yet, I’ll post on this thread what each one is like.

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Sound like interesting finds Tom, I’ve never heard of any of them. Stefan

Check www.snuffindia.com

Great finds, Tom. I was told that you can find various Indian snuffs at Indian grocery stores as well.

OK, I have opened the 1st one, Sugandhsagar Snuff, by Pitamberdas Anandji Mehta, Gujarat Edit: It says 50g and Rose Snuff. It’s a big round can, maybe 2in tall, 3in across. It’s shorter and wider than the Dholakia 50g tubs. It was rather hard to open. It has decorative paper on it, a metal embossed lid. I had to take a knife and edge it around the metal top(a little rusted looking, but very slightly), and I removed that top strip of paper, and I had to find the edges of the lid and pry it bit by bit. I really need to transfer this to a better container. The whole can is metal as well. The aroma is very nice. It’s a brownish/red color. Has a picture of a rose on the label. After finally getting the lid off, I have it here on the table, after cleaning up a little spillage while wrestling with the lid. But it’s all there. If I had a web cam, I’d take a pic, so I’ll try and be as descriptive as I can. It looks really nice, and it was only $1.99. Smells very good too. My nose is a little bit stopped up right now, not bad, I only had 2 sniffs of Ozona Spearmint earlier. So I’ll try some anyway. I’ll use my snuff spoon. Mmmm, this is very nice! I just did a small bit with the spoon in each nostril. It even seems kinda coolish… hmm, maybe a slight menthol… this is really good stuff. It doesn’t have that disagreeable aftertaste I experienced with some other floral snuffs, like QWS Jasmine, and Wilson French Carrotte, and African Jewel(sorry Pieter). This is a big can. I may have to get a few back up can’s(just to have) next time I am out that way. This is really good snuff. I don’t get out that way very often, and this is the 1st time since I started snuffing that I was in that area. OK, after relishing this a bit, it’s still in my nose and noticable, I think I am getting that aftertaste, but with this it is very slight and is not dampering the experience. I’ll try a bit more. Second time as good as the first, though now I am getting a little nose water, which is common with me. Just did a slight nose blow. Could really smell it as I did that. Still retains the flavor. Gonna do a 3rd one, as I have only been using very small “bumps” with the small spoon. OK, this is a great find. Most places have an Indian community, and I suspect an Indian grocers, I’d recommed searching them out, and see if they have tobacco snuff. All these containers had their company name and the word “SNUFF” on them, so it shouldn’t be hard to find if they have it at all. I’ll report on the others later.

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Ok, been a little while since the 1st one, which was very nice, and I scooped some into a smash can to take to work with me tomorrow. Now on to the next can. As you know, I had no idea what I was getting, other than these are snuffs. So the next can opened is: Himalaya Snuff, by Photo 5, Khetu Ram Rishamber Das, Delhi Metal can, taller than the other, I guess 2.5in tall, square body, I’d guess 2in across. Just pryed off the lid. Has the number 5 and some Indian writing on it, embossed. On the paper design that covered the metal lid, under the price sticker, it says Photo Paanch Snuff. The color is like charcol black. Hmmm, interesting. It’s like a hard cake, yet the powder easily is scraped off it. The smell is slight, and has a… not sure, maybe a menthol like smell. This one is totally different from the other one. Well, I’ll try it… Oh my… this is nice… I think I like this one better than the other one. My nose and sinuses are opened. This is like a great menthol, but different. Not sure I get any flavor, but I get a very nice coolness and opened nose passageways. I feel like I am on the top of the Himalayan mountain and breathing in cool clear air. Another good one. Different, nice, cool, lasts good too. This one has a weight listed I just now notice, it says 50g. It was $2.99. Yep, 2 down, and one more to try. I’ll post when I open that. PS. They also had little bags of Betel Nut stuff. I didn’t get any, but does anyone know what that’s all about? And Pan Masala. And they also had bags of tobacco packs and the label said 100% Spit Tobacco, and what looked like metal cans of cigarette tobacco for $4.99.

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This is very interesting Tom, how about some pics?

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Now on to the 3rd can, the "Madras Snuff’, see above for full name/info. This is in the tall skinny can. If you ever get this one, be sure to open it over a piece of folded paper, and slide the large fallout into a smash box, I swear 5gs fell out of the lid of this one. Ok, I think the effects of the previous ones are about gone now, and my nose seems clear(enough). Comes in a metal round can, maybe 4in tall, and maybe 1.5in across. The weight listed is 50g. Color is a light brown. Also very caked solid, and had to scrape it, which it easily comes off in fine powder. This one was $2.29. Ok, now the spoon try. Hmm, a little nose burn. Tobacco flavor, strong, pleasant. I don’t detect any flavor additions. Just a nice tobacco aroma. Good linger. I’ll try another sniff. Yeah, not bad. Kinda reminds me of Toque Natural. Yeah, this one is a decent pure natural tobacco snuff. Not like a scotch or HDT. I like the aroma ones more, I think as I write this. But for a nice natural snuff, in the style of S’nuff, or Toque Natural, this isn’t bad. Well that’s my 3 I found today at the Indian store. These were the only ones they had too, I asked. A Natural, a Rose Floral, and a Medicated. 50g cans. $1.99, $2.29, and $2.99.

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I found this on that companies website: Himalaya Snuff The black coloured Himalaya Snuff is our prevalent product in India. Its tremendous retail sales, indicates that it has become India’s favourite and widely recognised brand. As the word Himalaya symbolises, this snuff gives a cool sensation and freshens up a worn-out consumer. The right composition of musk, menthol crystals and high quality tobacco, makes it a classic blend of snuff. Packing available: 10g, 25g, 50g, 200g, 500g and 1 Kg http://www.snuffindia.com/products.html#proda This is from the 5 Photo Snuff site, it also says: What is Snuff? Snuff is a hygienic preparation of tobacco with aromatics, perfumes and menthol. It is to be inhaled through nose.

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Very cool find. I would definitely be interested in finding an Indian market somewhere close by and searching for snuff. That would be quite an adventure. ~Snuffy

Nice find tom, will have to venture into an Indian store next time I find one. Great prices as well.

Here is a pic of the Indian snuffs I got today, with a few known snuffs for size comparison. The big round one is the Rose, the tall skinny is the Natural, and the square one is the Medicated.

Those are some pretty wicked looking tins! Thanks for posting the pic!

Great find Tom! I’ve been meaning to check out the local Indian market myself (Snuffy, as I’m not too far from you, I’ll post the names and addresses if I find anything). I was told by some Indians of two places to look, but they didn’t use snuff or Indian tobaccos themselves so they couldn’t be sure. I had heard of 5 Photo before. Tom, I imagine you have some good bargaining chips for trades now!

Pieter - interesting web site indiasnuff - but what nonsense you may read there: “Many European countries are promoting snuff in order to help people to shift from smoking to snuff-taking.” The situation is the EXACT opposite! Sweden can’t export to EU countries - Germany can’t export to EU countries. Snuff is not sold in several countries, including Denmark. Norway has a fair supply - but they are not in the EU! I have conducted a long correspondence with health organizations in Denmark advising to the Government - and all I ever heard was politically correct nonsense founded in total ignorance about snuff. They didn’t even know the difference between snus and snuff, and kept refering to research in chewing tobacco!!! Well, I just wrote to the Indian web site and asked them where on earth they got THAT idea from?

Now it seems that may be the actual case in New Zealand.

Apparently dip has overshadowed all forms of non-cigarrette tobacco to the extent that nobody in the medical or legal professions understands what snuff or snus are. Because of the bad reputation of dip for causing oral cancers (and I have no idea if that is even true, that is just the reputation!) they are painting snus and snuff with the same brush. I haven’t seen anyone point a finger directly at snus for a cancer link and certainly not snuff. If the accusations about dip are true I wonder why snus and dip seem to have different effects. Why is snus thought to be relatively harmless and dip accused of being so dangerous?

Snus is made in a totally different way, that’s why, and why you can swallow the juice, and you can’t with dip.

If that makes it safer then why don’t they change the way they make dip?