Judging from some travellers accounts, local nasal snuff is ubiquitous in Morocco and is sold in small plastic baggies. It's popular among taxi drivers - just hop into the cab and have a talk with a man behind the wheel.
Please get back to us here, if you manage to procure it. It would be interesting to hear your thoughts about this snuff and to see a pic of the powder.
As far as I understand, @Johano, this guy is grinding local rustica with a dash of ash or calcium hydroxide. He shows a bowl with alkalizing agent somewhere in the first half of this vid. Later he waves a small baggy with some aromatic substance and clearly pronounces the word "arrromaaat". Dried mint? Not sure. Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to learn Arabic. I asked for a translation in the comments (in French, using machine translation), at least of ingredients and proportion. He mentions in the comments that snuff has helped him to quit smoking 20 years ago, but he got hooked on it. In other comment he notes that only local taba (?) (tobacco) can be used for snuff (someone asked if other tobacco can be used, an Argentinian one). I think this can be explained by the fact that rustica is grown exlucisively for smokeless (oral/nasal) stuff in Maghreb and in some parts of the region (namely, Tunisia) it's even called a "snuff tobacco plant". I'm leaning to think that homemade nefha/neffa is a common thing there. For what it's worth, this video has 11K+ views.
Recipe of Moroccan homemade nefha (the above posted video): 1 part rustica ground with 4 parts Christ's thorn jujubeashes (another non-identified local tree mentioned as an alternative ash source). A small amount of water is added during the grinding. It's fine and dry snuff, no other ingredients mentioned in the video. I'm pretty sure that any wood ash, rich in potassium, would fit the bill.
@Roderick, four legit formulas are posted on 101 thread, page 10; all natural ingredients. And you are not running low on rustica, are you? Come on, just make us some, what are you waiting for ;). It's an easy and instant snuff. You make it, you pack it, it matures on its way to us in the tins. Cheers.
I personally would really like to see more experimentation with some more organic alkalizers. With snus as well. I am not saying that I want super, super, potent snuffs, though.
Comments
in Morocco and is sold in small plastic baggies. It's popular among taxi
drivers - just hop into the cab and have a talk with a man behind the wheel.
Picture source: http://www.modernsnuff.com/albums/albums/Snuff-Brands-O-U/Nefha-Snuff.jpg
Trip report:
https://offatthewrongstop.com/2012/02/05/ninas-travel-rule-15-unidentified-brown-nose-powder-in-morocco-is-probably-tobacco/
For comparison, some pictures of the nasal snuff, produced by state-owned tobacco factory in Tunisia. It comes packaged in small sachets, too:
https://web.archive.org/web/20190109001824/http://www.rnta-mtk.com.tn/en/nosproduit.php?rub=2&code=4
http://www.rnta.tn/produits
Some reviews of Moroccan Nefha Superieure:
http://www.top25snuff.com/regie-des-tabacs/discussions/review.html?id=2256
http://top25snuff.com/regie-des-tabacs/discussions/review.html?id=2257
P. S. Call it a "PHOENIX" ;)