I am a newbie in the snuff taking world.I use it almost daily,but in my country(romania) snuff seems to be in decline.It used to be that you could find multiple types of snuff on almost all online retailers and sometimes even at the local tabacco shop.In the last 3-4 months the local snuff stock began to decrease,and now you can find only 2 poschl types of snuff on 2-3 online retailers.How is the situation in your area?

Well, @StevenSpark, at least you have locally available snuff. Here in the North Eastern US, there is none. Back 8 or 9 years ago some of the local tobacco shops used to carry the little tap box tins of Silver Dollar (which I understand was Toque’s US export brand), which is how I got started. Now, one has to go mail order or know someone in the Southern US where American snuff is sold locally.

strange laws in the us.you can order snuff online(or any smokeless) from uk but not from local producers.have you ever met another snuff taker in person?

I have not, to my recollection ever met another snuff enthusiast in the wild. I will admit to having gotten a co-worker started with it, so I do know at least one other person who enjoys it. The vast majority of folks to whom I offer a bump (as etiquette dictates) immediately decline. My standard patter when asked WTH I’m putting up my nose is something to the effect of “this is nasal snuff, which is powdered tobacco. You will most likely hate it, but on the off chance you do like it, you will really, REALLY like it”. I remind my friend that I gave him this exact warning (repeatedly), when he tries to say I got him addicted.

In fact, Americans are not allowed to import snuff… But most orders slip through.

The domestic sales and cross-border distance sales of nasal and oral tobacco products are banned at my side (the wider Baltics - Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland. However, before July 01, 2021 LT and LV customs didn’t care about mailed parcels with smokeless tobacco products and anyone could order anything. In contrast, EE and FI customs were more scrupulous and being fined for illicit import there wasn’t unheard of.

Now that (after July 01, 2021) online ordering smokeless from outside the EU is not a thing for me anymore, I have fully switched to homemade snuff and snus. Whole leaf (yes, they ship within the EU!) and still relatively cheap additives-free rolling tobacco and cigars to the rescue! Snuff making 101, Old snuff recipes.

i find that most people like the idea that it doesn t have smoke but very few actually try it

i didn’t try to make my own but i will surely do in the future!

I think a part of it is also the “baggage” the act of insufflating brings with it. Those not in the know (which is 99.99% of folks, around here, anyway) invariably think cocaine is the only drug insufflated.

and it isn’t like they understand the method of administration.inhaling smoke into your lungs is very similar with injecting the drug directly into your veins<smoke has an almost instant absorbtion in the alveoli of the lungs,which goes directly into the blood from the lungs> but yeah,snuffing is viewed as more extreme by some.ok,snorting cocaine but how about smoking it?or injecting it,which is shockingly similar to inhaling into the lungs?i understand that smoked cocaine has a worse reputation in the US,right?why isn’t it the same with nicotine or tabaco in general

edit:spelling

Folks I wish people and especially snuff newbies on Reddit wouldn’t give a shit about how popular is snuff (which is not). Why the need to make snuff popular back again and “sAvE peOple frOm bad cigArettEs” ??

I think the last years with the new snuff youtubers “pushing” nasal snuff videos to people who didn’t knew about it (increasing awareness about nasal snuff on youtube) or newbies on reddit preaching about how everyone should snuff is the reason that one day the big companies and anti-tobacco laws will spot this old forgotten form of tobacco and ban it.

Also the mindset of a niewbie snuff taker “everyone needs to begin taking snuff its the best form of tobacco” is so wrong it reminds me of the stoner pot-head stereotypes that tell everyone they know to smoke weed because its the best lol. There isnt any “super product” really that anyone needs to try and just because it helps someone for a certain time doesnt mean you are missing something.

Nasal snuff is pure enjoyment, hobby, passion for many of us and lets let it be that. I never met a cigar smoker preaching others to start his hobby. We are a small but strong community! We dont need to be more popular.

Give a traditional tobacco product much attention on internet and soon enough you will get it ban, these days.

Personally I dont want everyone to know about snuff, I just want snuff to be available in the future and not banned by anti-tobacco waves in the next 10 years.

As long as people are making nasal snuff more popular, nasal snuff will one day get banned by the anti-tobacco laws etc.

Think about it mates. Food for thought.

Don’t get me wrong,we are on same page here.Snuff shouldn’t be too popular because big tabacco will ruin it sooner than the goverment,in my opinion.I too want to be available in the future but in my country it did the oposite,the variety shrank hard.
If you want snuff to survive,you have to at least bring some awareness because most people don’t even know it exists.Nasal snuff has some big pros compared with other forms of tabacco and it can help some people.
Think about it .If your country/region ,nasal snuff would have the popularity it has in uk/germany(about 1% of general population),the selection will increase without intervention from big tabacoo/goverment.
Or we start making homemade snuff,which isn’t a bad idea at all!

nasal snuff isnt a magical theraputical thing nor is it healthy or for everyone. We should protect our hobby in this small strong community.
Increasing awareness of old traditional tobacco products like snuff can only lead its extinction, in this time of era that we live in. They will replace it maybe with some fake tobacco nicotine snuffs or wipe it totally off the market sooner or later if it will become popular.

Like do you believe that if it was more popular would anyone praise it? of course not mate, most people will focus on the side effects and will treat it like cigarettes.

I am talking about the bigger picture here.

Think about it… I think of snuff as cigars… its not for everyone and it shouldnt be. The less the better.

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That’s a good point regarding the camparison with cigars.I will add pipes to that.
Nicotine is also facing an increase in what it seems to be “utilitarian”,people who use it more like coffeine,for a boost in focus.Andrew Huberman made a great podcast about it’s uses.It isn’t magical,but can be used therapeutically/utilitarian,not just for the sake of being addicted like it is with cigs.
People will not treat it like cigs.You dont inhale smoke into your lungs,no second or third hand smoke,no 6000 additional substances that come with nic/other alkaloids.But maybe you’re right,it doesn’t have to be mainstream.

Its just my opinion mate!
I just think its stupid to be overhyped about anything.

To each their own. Who am I to say to people to use snuff instead of cigarettes? Am I 100% sure about the minimal side effects? No . So i will never promote snuff to anyone as I will not promote cigarettes or any kind of habit to anyone.
I can only advise others to cut cigarettes not to add a new addiction to their life.

You know that the person is a real goofball if he pushes to other people everything new that he discovers. Like you just discovered snuff for yourself and without seeing how it affects you short and long-term you advise others to use it?? Thats hellish. Its like the pot-head stereotype that keeps telling you everyday to smoke some weed because for them is “the best thing” lol. You cant help anyone with something that you havent tested for yourself for real. Thats so irresponsible. And especially its is wrong to advice people to jump on a new addiction.
Also, snuff is classy and with all that culture and history behind it that I would hate if it ever (which will not happen) get popular/ mainstream. It is for those who know.
Thats my point of view.

How theraputical or utilitarian is something (herbs etc) is completely subjective.

hey man i am a newb but not that new.Been using snuff for several months now.I said what i said because i was a smoker for 2 years befor(cigs,inhaled into the lungs).You can’t compare those two.The addiction when inhaling into the lungs is very similiar to injecting into the veins,and that’s not coming from me,my own father is a doctor and i heard it from other profesionals in this field.Whould i recommend snuff to anyone ?no.Are you a smoker?get off cigs.Do you want nicotine for it’s uses with a much less dangerous addiction if you do it every day?Snuff.Pipes or cigars once in a while.Maybe vapes,if you don’t inhale into your lungs.
You are a moderate man,it seems.A pot smoker once preached to you something,(eat the weed,don’t smoke it)i understand(it once happend to me with a vegan).
Snuff is a great way to use nic/tabacco and should not be viewed the same as cigs.you know,we have some evidence for the used of nic,it’s not subjective,look it up.

yeah exactly dont be that vegan guy trying to push their habbits to others lol.

I was not referring to you mate. I get your point of view.

I know about the researches mate I am scientist too.
But mate nicotine alone doees so much bad to the brain and the heart vessels in the long term. So I cant advise anyone to get into it.

“Do you want nicotine for it’s uses with a much less dangerous addiction if you do it every day?Snuff.Pipes or cigars once in a while.”

I disagree because of nicotine’s bad well known effects on heart vessels and brain. Also pipes and cigars arent that safe too. Einstein died from blood vessel burst near his heart from pipe smoking.
I would advise that person who wants nicotine for it’s uses with a much less dangerous addiction to stop dreaming and get grounded and to cut nicotine down. There isnt any magic in nicotine to begin with. It can only make you focus a bit or relax a bit. Thats all. Not worth it.

Seriously, choosing what tobacco/ nicotine product is the “best” is literally like choosing the knife with which you are gonna stab yourself.
There are differences between each knife but all are gonna damage you.

but we can agree that inhaling condensate with nic into one’s lungs is much worse than the other knifes,right?:))
great conversation mate,i really liked it.I am sorry if i made some preachy statements.i myself enjoy snuff much more after a period of abstinence (it never felt like cig addiction).It seems to almost eveyone views nic usage as an addiction,when it can be used in a productive manner.take it or leave it.

yes mate exactly I agree. Snuff at least is not that big of a knife like cigarettes. But I like the knife and stabbing analogy because after all nicotine has many bad side effects.

it seems.i treat snuff and coffeine the same.do they have benefits?yes.but if you use them eveyday:
1.tolerance will decrease the benefits and increase the bad side effects
2.the quality of life will decrease over time
soo it’s best for them not to become a regular thing,maybe 2-3 times a week,1-2 week per month?

Lol I snuff and drink coffee everyday for over 5 years. Some days I even snuff a lot like all day long. What I am saying is to each their own. I am just not gonna promote or praise it to people who dont snuff.

Cheers

Snuff-taking in the UK is decreasing despite the Chancellor removing all Customs and Excise duty from tobacco intended for snuff manufacture in 1978. Samuel Gawith is just one manufacturer in a long line of businesses that have folded in my lifetime.

The reason, as I see it, is twofold: Firstly, the collapse of the coal mining industry and secondly and most importantly the persecution of tobacco users. Anyone born in the 1950s or earlier must mourn the traditional bricks and mortar tobacconist shop like Wix in Piccadilly – an absolute mecca for cigar, snuff and pipe tobacco aficionados. But since the start of the 1980s the war has taken its toll. All branches of the House of Bewlay (once found in every large town) have disappeared along with just about every other tobacconist shop. Newsagents which used to stock snuff rarely do so now. In short, the outlets for the purchase of snuff have folded. The only way to buy snuff now is online.

As I wrote in a post in this forum about ten years ago, snuff-taking is a quiet backwater. But this poses a dilemma because a business will only remain active if enough new snuff-takers come on board. On the other hand publicity – particularly that which associates snuff-taking with trendy young people – risks the attention of a nosey busybody who will question it and then make it her sacred mission to eliminate snuff. A huge hike in price would likely be followed by a complete ban using as justification all sorts of spurious evidence affecting health. That this has not occurred yet is simply because snuff is largely unknown relative to cigarettes. It is a quiet backwater and getting quieter all the time.

It looks gloomy: Either a collapse of snuff manufacturing through a dwindling number of users or some meddling Member of Parliament causing its swift and dramatic demise through a Private Members’ Bill.

That’s an interesting insight.Great point about teenangers using it,that would really piss off the goverment.
Isn’t it viewed as a less harmfull way to use tabacco?

Although we all can agree that snuff can use a bit more recognition,it must remain a relative niche.The goverment can ruin it with taxes,yes,but image what big tabacco can do if they get the chance to make some money(i don’t even want to think about it).

The fact that I can buy snuff in Romania,a country with zero snuff traditon ,says that it is not dead yet,and it will likely stay with us for a long time.And if i doesn’t,we can make our own!

It’s a good reason to stock up on your favourites while they are still there, I did the same with pipe tobacco a few years ago and plan on getting a few pounds of my favourites to last me through to old age. Also helps out those snuff manufacturers as well.

Is that fact? I have been waiting on my order and wondering if stopped

Recently I’ve seen a Tube video about the increased use of snuff among the members of British Parliament because of the ban of smoke. So I can guess it will take maybe a lot of time before someone could think to ban the snuff in UK (for once, I want to be positive).

I sincerely hope that you are right. As far as I can recall the following is a list of snuff-makers and/or snuff-blenders that have headed west into the sunset in my lifetime. Some of these businesses were of great age.

P.J Carroll & Co
Fribourg & Treyer
Gallaher Ltd
Samuel Gawith
Illingworth’s
Alfred Preedy & Sons
Singleton & Cole
G. Smith & Sons
J&H Wilson Ltd, Westbrook Mill

Sheffield and Kendal were major centers of English snuff production and now only Sharrow is left. If Sharrow folds up it will take much of the snuff available today with it as it is, I believe, the last major manufacturer in Britain. McCrystal’s and Mullins & Westley have survived but the latter is tiny and is not a snuff manufacturer. Neither is Jaxons.

When the tobacco retail trade collapsed (and before the advent of buying via the internet was possible) manufacturers could not sell their products – there was simply nowhere to buy them from. Formerly, traditional tobacconists such the House of Bewlay stocked most snuffs made by the above companies, bought loose from 2lb tall tins into paper packets by the quarter-ounce or pre-packaged in small bottles or boxes. In the case of snuff, however, it was a double-whammy occasioned by the wholesale closure of coal mines and the loss of a significant customer base.

I remember as a boy going to the Derby at Epsom (no mining there) and seeing in the litter scores of discarded Top Mill and S.P No.1 containers. Amongst the litter today it’s unlikely you would find one. Not a very scientific barometer, perhaps, but indicative of a general decline in the snuff-taking population. Every now and then one reads of an upturn in snuff sales but the overall direction is down.

As for the Parliamentary snuff-box at the entrance to the chamber of the House of Commons it has not, apparently, been touched since 1989. Under the Freedom of Information Act, in a response to a query we read that ‘Members do not replenish their own snuff boxes from this one and we are not aware of any Member who has one.’ Caroline Lucas wishes it to be removed.

Some of those former brands are now subbrands (ex Samuel Gawith),and it may look bad but from what i understand snuff usage increased in the past 10-15 years.Internet sales saved nasal snuff in this timeframe and it will help it grow in the future.We have to understand that selling nasal snuff isn’t nearly as profitable as,let’s say,ciggaretes.A cig smoker can consume 10-15 grams of tabacco per day with ease and for a snuff taker 3 grams is considered heavy use,right?
The snuff market is very competitive.If it wasn’t for snuff exports,UK may have had half the snuff manufacturers it has now.
What about toque?aren’t they a new producer which in doing rather fine in the past years?

Discarded snuff.What a waste.Those were sad times for sure!

Discarded empty tins of snuff, I assume. And yes, it’s a fairly good indicator. Such method (random public bin inspection) is widely used for estimating the share of smuggled smokes in the market.

Internet sales, unfortunately, are getting more and more complicated. They are doing good job domestically in the UK, and to some extent in Germany (in contrast to the UK, snuff is still a free-range product, widely available there, from tobacconists to corner shops and gas stations all around), but that’s pretty much all about it. True, it’s still sold to the US-based buyers, but such practice is illicit, and the number of parcels rejected by the US customs are growing each day. Other countries, like Canada or Australia, effectively halter import with huge taxes, or ban cross-border (and) distance sales (i. e. importing and domestic distant sales) of tobacco products altogether, like half of the EU member states. So, it’s challenging, to say the least.

And Toque… Let me put it like this - they are drawing their water from the good old Sharrow well. Balances out the numerous discontinued WoS products.

do you feel like it is shrinking overall?

Yes. Also noteworthy, Big Tobacco companies are loosing interest in… tobacco. The future is nicotine-based and tobacco-free.

i have to disagree with you.Big Tabacco is pushing heated tabacco hard.anecdotally,i don’t have any friends who vape anymore.most of the former vapers either got back to smoking ciggs ,started using heated tabacco or quit all inhaling.that’s in romania,but it seems that classic vapes are going niche in all europe.disposable vapes are popular with young people,but that’s more likely to be a phase.
I found some data: Tobacco consumption statistics - Statistics Explained.
It is from 2019,a bit old,but the idea is there.also,nicotine pouches flopped hard in this country,but maybe that’s only a regional event.

No, empty containers trampled into the grass.

As mentioned, since January 1978 Tobacco intended for snuff manufacture is not subject to Customs and Excise Duty which is why it remains (if bought by the pound canister) relatively inexpensive. As far as I’m aware the same applies across the EU. One has to hope that this happy state of affairs is not revoked as your pocket would be severely dented if it is.

I have numerous trade journals from around that time written by tobacco journalists Sonia Roberts and Jacques Cole. The tax situation combined with favourable reports produced jointly by the Addiction Research Unit of Psychiatry and the New Cross Hospital Poisons Unit – not to mention The Lancet – all pointed to a predicated renaissance in snuff-taking. It didn’t happen despite an advertising campaign by the likes of Hedges and J&H Wilsons.

Manufacturers of cigarettes don’t benefit from the extortionate cost in the UK: the Treasury does. In the UK 80% of that cost is tax. However, globally, cigarette production is still profitable despite the UK tax hikes, and I agree that it is more profitable than snuff.

I’d say that 3 grams of snuff a day suggests a very moderate user.

Anyway, you asked if snuff-users are dwindling and long-term in Britain (over the last 55 years or so of my snuff career) my humble opinion is that it has - and quite dramatically so.

That’s a Snuff history lesson.I can’t believe that snuff taking didn’t increase,at least a bit,with all that publicity.

I found that snuff is between a rock and a hard place.It doesn’t please cig smokers because the effect is milder and isn’t a subtitute for inhaling into the lungs and non smokers generally think that nic is only consumed for addiction which is not necessary the case.But maybe is better that snuff remains a niche activity.

did you ever found another snuff-taker in the wild?

Yes, the big transition to tobacco-free mainstream mode will be smooth, just like that from snus to nicotine pouches, featuring quite a few intermediary products. And as you can see, it IS smooth, been ongoing for decades. Current heat-not-burn products still contain tobacco. The Recon* one. Not a tobacco in my books, but vast majority of “smokers” do not distinguish, and technically (by industry standards) it is… ridiculously enough, tobacco. Smokers even didn’t mind the DIET one in their cigarettes previously, lol… Next step will be an “upgrade to a healthier, non-tobacco carrier, providing the same satisfaction”. Cellulose, MCC - you name it.

Snus will go. Most young Swedes already don’t distinguish between snus and nicotine pouches. They call both “snus”. Language is everything, my friend.

Snuff - the least demanded, least profitable tobacco product - will stay. But we’ll witness the inevitable flavour (menthol including, obviously) ban, which will lead to even lesser demand and further business closures.

*Recon(-stituted) tobacco, aka homogenised sheet tobacco, is a paper-like sheet approaching the thickness of tobacco laminae. It is made from tobacco dust, fines, and particles, and from midribs and stems; various additives may be incorporated. In the past, most of these “tobacco by-products” were wasted.

we shall live and see.it seems reasonable to say that if minors won’t create a huge trend out of snuff,we are safe.

By the way, disposable vapes are very popular in the Baltics, especially among teens. Heat-no-burn, despite aggressive promotion and wide availability, aren’t nearly as popular here. I’ve spotted just a few buyers since their advent, and know only one user.

here in romania disposables are found mainly in high schools.most adults here smoke cigs or smoke heated tabacco.calling heated tabacco tabacco is a blasphemy,as you said.
This country is bonkers.Even cigar or pipe smokers most likely also inhale into their lungs cig smoke.I once smoked a small cigar(cigarillo) with a cig smoker and halfway through the cigarillo,my buddy got up,and lighted a cigarette.BONKERS.i felt so bad.the cigarillo wasn’t good?no.The addiction demanded smoke to be inhaled into the lungs and of course,directly into the blood.
That was the moment when i realised that,cig smokers are “satisfied” only by inhaling smoke.i can’t believe i was one of them for some time.too bad they are a vast majority in my country.

Same here, and as an ex smoker I have to admit I wasn’t any better… Referring to inhaling of pipe and cigar smoke.

Let me cheer you up, I had a pipe… Even whole two of them, actually. Or… Rather one and a half, for one was really small, made from cherry wood by a friend of mine; I mostly smoked rolling tobacco in it.

My grandfather had a pipe. He mainly smoked rustica with it. Rarely, though, for he was a cigarette smoker. I had spotted him filling his pipe with cigarette tobacco a couple of times. Literally, a tobacco taken out of a cigarette… He never had a proper pipe tobacco, not a single pouch. That is, as far as I remember. I doubt he knew anything about different types of tobacco, for him it was just either “mahorka” or cigarettes (and papiross, a thing of a bygone century).

My father, a cigarette smoker, had a pipe, too. He got it as a gift from some pipe-smoking friend of his, along with a pouch of Amphora, I believe. Or was it CB Cherry… Back then I was too young to notice if he inhaled the smoke, but it’s safe to assume so. Most probably he was warned to not inhale the smoke, yet… As far as I remember, he hadn’t bought a third pouch. He still has that pipe. It has seen things, but not in the hand of its owner. Heaps of mugwort and what not, blame me and my brother in our silly -eens…

“Puffing is a sinful waste of good thing” kind of approach is still prevalent where I’m at. Of course, it feels either suffocatingly strong or harsh, inhaled, so pipes and cigars aren’t popular here.

ahahah.pipes are misunderstood.I like that pipes “cool” the smoke ,making the smoke tolerable for the gums and tongue.and great taste.those damn cigs,they stain other forms of taking tabacco.Good for you that you stopped inhaling,life is a bit better now,eh?
Mahorka.I think i heard some stories from my father and my great grand father about it.Old people used it.It disapeared after 1989,never to return again.Maybe in the form of rustica snuff,who knows!

“Puffing is a sinfull waste” sounds eerily like a cigarette ad :))))

What about toque?aren’t they a new producer which is doing rather fine in past years?

Toque Snuff was dissolved 16 April 2020. It was wound up by the provisions of the Insolvency Act 1986. The brand name is now owned by Sneeshyn whoever he is or they are.

Companies House holds records on UK businesses. Both Wilsons of Sharrow and McCrystals are floating along for now but net assets and profit/loss demonstrate just what a tiny and vulnerable niche the UK snuff manufacturing ‘industry’ is today.

Oh I did enjoy the hit of pipe tobaccos and cigars, as well as loved the taste and smell of smoke. Inhaled smoke, I mean. It’s a shame it’s really not suited for inhaling, tho. I tried really hard - mind you, most of my pipe tobaccos haven’t met a pipe. Maybe 1/5 of all the baccy I had I smoked properly, and by “properly” I only mean smoking it in a pipe. The rest part was turned to rollies and snuff. However, rolled up it wasn’t any easier on lungs. I wasn’t aware back then that Scandinavian pipe tobaccos which I gave a whirl to contained quite a few more ingredients than aromas… I wish I knew of the existence of pure, non-flavoured pipe tobacco blends when I still was a smoker.

The shrinking snuff clientele becomes even more apparent when compared with output in the late 18th century. In 1789/1790 the Excise Officer (John Harding) recorded 208,000 lbs of manufactured snuff by Sales & Pollard from mid-October 1789 to mid-March 1790. Based on these figures, their annual output, therefore, would have been just shy of 500,000 lbs. This, by just a single manufacturer of many, compares with 273,742 lbs total output in 1982 as recorded by The Society of Snuff Grinders, Blenders and Purveyors (of which Vivian Rose snuff-man of G. Smith’s was a member).

Toque have moved to the Isle of Man some years ago, when they found the new annual mandatory notification costs of all the tobacco products they… sell, let’s put it like this, too high to continue carrying on their business in a proper manner. Roderick was fairly open about it here on Snuffhouse.

One (most probably) wouldn’t find a single Toque product on a List of tobacco and related products notified under SI 2016/507. However, I managed to find only a couple of files - from the year 2017 and 2020, and I’m not sure if the latter is the latest and up-to-date.

Cost reduction relocation.If it makes sense,why not?
If a company can reduce their operating costs and keep a good end user price,go for it.It isn’t like it affects the job market,most snuff manufacturers have less than 10 employees,right?

I still remember the impact of TPD in the UK with the reduction in ranges and renaming of some of the surviving varieties. It seemed like the beginning of the end then but we’re still here.

In my country, Argentina, I met snuff during the COVID pandemic. I know a guy who got fond of it in that time too. Anyway, I do not think it will become popular in the future: as I learned in another thread here on the forum, the snuff that we legally get is old (though it smells better than some neftobak that I tried years ago) and the company is currently not importing new snuff.
Besides this, a couple of things I want to share:

• When I showed my snuffbox to a friend of mine, he told me that the jewish branch of his family always kept a box for some occassions. Now he gets some of my snuff and it brings him good memories his childhood.

• There is some people who makes a religious ritual use of snuff. I refer to shamans and the like. I think this mode of using snuff is on the rise in my latitudes. It is even the only form of fresh snuff that I can get (the so-called “Amazonian snuff”), although my religious beliefs go other ways.

Interesting thread!

I believe young people these days dont appreciate traditions and they might low key want to change/ destroy them… And appreciate more the spiritual boo-hoo “woke/ awakened/ enlightment” bullshit fairytales… Many of them see tradition as the stem to all their problems (problems with their parents usually lol).

Thats why Amazonian snuff is becoming more popular in youngsters than traditional snuff.
They are treating it like the other drugs they swallow like candy (pills, coke etc.).
They want to feel some form of a drug effect from it and combined with the “shaman/ spiritual” bullshit it is the perfect marketing for this confused generation.

They advertising it like it is magic and you are gonna feel so much deep shit and also the high pricing for small quantity bottles that they are selling is spot on. This generation might think it deserves to be that high priced probably because they treating it like a drug and it make sense to their head that if they pay 80 bucks for a gram of coke then 10g of Amazonian spiritual powder with magical effects for 40 bucks is reasonable price for them…

Try to talk to young man about F&T High Dry Toast and its history/ tradition and then try to talk to them about “spiritual/ woke” bullshit and Amazonian snuff rituals… They are gonna choose the second one and get hyped about it like its a miracle… This is sad because it shows me that young guys nowadays are seeking a quick fix to their life problem maybe (?) and clearly the majority of them dont even know themselves or what life is about…

I am 32 years old and back when I was younger we all have the common sense to separate the frauds from the reals… if anyone pushed those woke spiritual magical bullshit (that these days is a trend) back then they will all laugh at him because these are Middle-Age stuff really… If back in the day I was offered an Amazonian snuff with the spiritual descriptions and effects they claim to have I will probably not even accept to try it because it stinks fraud from kilometers away…

Not to mention health warnings. I was dismayed sometime in the late 1980’s (or early 1990s, I forget the year) when snuff containers were suddenly marked, straight out of the blue, with the words CAUSES CANCER.

The advertisement campaign had a positive effect but it was short-term. Geoff Capes (the World’s Strongest Man) endorsed Hedges L260 snuff at athletics events and his picture appeared on advertisements with the caption Lift Sales by a clear head. J&H Wilson’s, meanwhile splashed out advertisements claiming that they were more famous for pinching than the Italians. (For anyone born in the PC era, unlike old duffers like me, this referred to the Italian habit of pinching desirable ladies’ bottoms.) I’ve dug down into my archives to show the advertisements which were displayed.

Imagine the furious backlash if these advertisements went out today. The Geoff Capes advert equates physical health and mental well-being with tobacco while the J&H Wilsons advert is demeaning to woman.

The figure of 273,742 lbs I supplied earlier was for domestic sales (UK) in 1981. Export sales were slightly less at 233,893 lbs. The total manufactured output of snuff in 1981 was therefore 507,635 lbs. J&H Wilsons and Illingworth’s made up the bulk of output. Both Houses are no more.

Although the Society which compiled the figure no longer exists it would be revealing to know output in 2023.

Hedges (1) - Copy929×593 37.5 KB

Wilsons - Copy443×576 37.5 KB

Those ads are great! I’d like to find a hi-res scan of the Hedges ad, I’d frame that and put it up.

There were 247,000 coal miners in the UK in the late 1970’s. According to a contemporary trade journal miners would consume a small box/tin of snuff per shift. Obviously not every miner was a smoker/snuffer but taking a conservative estimate of 100,000 snuffing miners over a week with five shifts meant around half a million containers of snuff consumed each week. According to the journal, Illingworth’s was the largest supplier to the mining industry followed by J&H Wilsons. The collapse of the coal industry together with the tobacco retail market slump was the death warrant for many snuff manufacturers including the two mentioned above.

Another loss which I forgot to mention was Tranter’s. Although they have survived, Tranter’s no longer offer, to the best of my knowledge, snuff. They once sold snuff in the same tall tins as Fribourg & Treyer albeit with a paper label on a plain tin.

Anyway, here are 1965 price lists for some of those business’ that no longer survive. Some readers may find them interesting and they make for nostalgic reading for older ones who remember the old shillings and pence.

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G. Smith & Sons (1) - Copy585×641 176 KB

G. Smith & Sons (2) - Copy1024×534 172 KB

Gawith, Hoggarth & Co - Copy896×768 155 KB

Or the telephone numbers where you were first connected to an operator, which number, please? Kendal 47. Thank you.

I’ve just paid nearly 30 bob for a mini tin of Jip!

Most enjoyable reading these lists, if a little sobering as to so much no longer with us.

My word! Thirty bob for a snuff tin. Just goes to show how inflation has soared. Here is the Sharrow List for 1965, my earliest.

The ‘Bottom Mill’ brand by Wilsons of Sharrow was an attempt to duplicate the popular ‘Top Mill’ by J & H Wilsons. Note how much more expensive Sharrow’s highest grade snuff (Gold Label) was - made exclusively from Kentucky leaf.

If Mark Chaytor’s 1962 claim that ‘Gold Label’ is the company’s oldest snuff which has remained unchanged is to be believed (and there is no reason why it shouldn’t) it is Britain’s oldest snuff brand, beating ‘Kendal Brown’ by around ten to twenty years. The name Gold Label (like ‘Royal George’) is, I believe, unique to Sharrow. It possibly derives from the colour of the paper label glued to snuff containers upwards of 10lb which became mandatory in the 1770s, the gold denoting the highest grade of American leaf used by Wilsons. (Perhaps someone with knowledge of revenue labels can chime in here.) Gold Label is mentioned by Roy Genders in his ‘History of Scent’ as among the very earliest of Sharrow snuffs. Rappee snuff is older but of course that’s not a brand name.

Closure of Sharrow just doesn’t bear thinking about and one can only admire the Wilson family at Sharrow Mills for their tenacious survival and business acumen in the face of adversity since 1737. They survived the bankruptcy of Joseph Wilson the First, the Lundy Affair, the very damaging Top SP Affair, German incendiary bombs in 1940 and tax hikes. They also survived the mortal threat when their doorstep rivals (J & H Wilson) was taken over by a tobacco Colossus in the shape of Imperial. And they have survived the collapse of those industries associated with snuff-taking as well as the wholesale closure of tobacco retailers.

Frankly, I’m a little surprised that they are still with us – but am profoundly grateful they are, and may they continue snuff-making for many, many years to come.

Sharrow Price List1024×762 178 KB

Thank you for all your inputs on this thread.It is a great source of snuff debate,history and predictions!
Every member of the snuff world can learn a thing of two from this.I learned a lot,great people here!

In India, so many varieties are available all time.