Same snuff, different label?

madhatt

I've been going through the spreadsheet, "Notification of tobacco or herbal products for smoking", and I noticed WoS - Best SP listed under the same section as M&W - Jock's Choice and M&W - Particular. I also see that M&W - Mature Crumbled is listed with WoS - Gold Label.

I was under the impression that this means they are the same snuff. Am I mistaken?

Viking - Dark Rappee is listed with WoS - Brunswick, Viking - Brown listed with WoS - Kendal Brown.

Reference: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/notification-of-tobacco-or-herbal-products-for-smoking

Just_Browsing

@madhatt Most interesting, thank you. I knew certain other snuffs are the same, such as nutty fella in india and nutty ella in UK, rebranding for different markets is common in many products, not just snuff. Good link

Huysmans

@madhatt I can see the resemblance between Best SP and Particular but Jocks Choice is a very different beast!

volunge

It's an interesting document, in quite a few other aspects, too.

As far as I know, currently WoS produce Jocks Choice only under M&W brand. I dare to suppose that at some point they had the same snuff placed on the market with different name under their own WoS brand (before 2016), but it's just a bold guess, for I haven't tried most of the discontinued ones. Other M&Ws are WoS-own re-labeled products.

The point here is, why bother making two (or three) different snuffs, when you can make one and sell it under two (or three) different brands? This trick just works. As you have noticed, there's also a Turmeaus line. And yes, those few tried by some snuff video reviewers were found to be very similar to WoS-own snuffs.

Given the variations among batches (see https://snuffhouse.com/discussion/12650/wos-inconsistency#latest), it seems that discussion about M&Ws being same or different is doomed to re-emerge every now and then. I can personally witness fairly dramatic differences among various batches of the same WoS-made snuff. Talking about M&Ws, last batch of Particular had little in common to the snuff I used to love some years ago, when it still was available only at the Covent Garden.

At some time Gold Label and Mature Crumbled were identical. I haven't had them for a long while, so can't tell how things are at the present point. However, Older Particular used to be different from the current Best SP (both tobacco base and flavoring-wise).

Now, wondering why 4 different snuffs within one brand have the same product code assigned to them, it might be simply down to tobacco products notifying costs reduction. They might be similar enough from some technical point of view to consider them identical (or this is merely what the manufacturer wants the registrar to believe), despite them actually being day and night different to nose. Again, just a thought, for I have no idea if the notification fee applies to only one product (instead of four) in such case.

madhatt

I have Jock's Choice, and find that fairly heavily scented. I haven't tried Best SP yet, but understand the scent is subdued.

I see that both flake and plug of the same pipe tobacco are listed together, as well.

volunge

"Turmeaus" descriptions completely match to Wilsons of Sharrow.

DELUXE SM – WoS S.M. 500
TIS THE SEASON – WoS Crumbs of Comfort
FIREBALL – WoS Ani Extra
LUCK O THE IRISH – WoS Irish No.22
KABOOM – WoS Dynamite
KRISP KOALA – WoS Extra M
DELUXE – WoS BEST SP*
FROM THE MILL – WoS S.P. 100
ELIXIR – WoS Super M
ASCOT DELUXE – WoS Jockey Club
SOLID GOLD – S.M. Gold

volunge

@madhatt, Jock's and Best SP are different, but you can expect Mature Crumbled to be very similar to Gold Label.

Huysmans

@volunge I heard that Jaxon's are another brand produced by Wilsons of Sharrow on behalf of a retailer. Do the Jaxons range have their WoS equivalents in the same way as Turmeaus do?

madhatt

@Huysmans, I see Jaxons listed as manufactured by McChrystals, they do not appear to be duplicate products based on the spreadsheet.

madhatt

In fact, now I see Highland Ice and Original & Genuine listed together. Clearly not everything in a single row is exactly the same, perhaps the same tobacco base?

volunge

@Huysmans, I had only two Jaxons, Frosted Red (berry menthol) and SP Premium. Haven't tried WoS berry-flavoured snuffs, but had a bunch of McChrystal's, and found FR akin to them in the intensity and sweetness. I would describe McChrystal's/Jaxons flavours as artificial (synthetic).

Jaxons SP Premium was not unlike WoS Plain. Not sure if they 100% same, but feels similar. Never did side-by-side comparison. Interestingly, some people describe SP Premium as "bergamot flavoured", but the tin I had 3 years ago was absolutely plain.

mrmanos

I think it’s been done for a while now, with different snuffs and different manufacturers. I have a few old tins of Jaxsons, the same vacuum lids as the SG 25 gm tins. I recall two or three Jaxsons that were all but identical to the SG versions. The vanilla, raspberry, and apricot looked and smelled the same.

volunge

@mrmanos, Mr Snuff's Snuff Store brand snuffs in vacuum tins were made by Samuel Gawith as well. Same snuff-different label thing. Dave was absolutely open about it.

Talking about M&W, reportedly, the flavour of Mature Crumbled is now more akin to that of WoS Grand Cairo, but Keen Scented and M&W Black Rappee still are indiscernible from WoS S.M. and WoS Brunswick Black Rappee.