The Viking Snuff. Still the same?

Hey folks, I need to get my next order ready cause I’m running out of snuff. Now, I usually add 10 tins of Viking Brown to my order as it is one of my favourites but I’ve noticed people complaining in the shops comments that it’s not the same snuff anymore. Can anybody confirm that? Did the brand switch to a new manufacturer? If it has changed I would try 1 tin first before ordering my usual amount.

Hi Carolin, I’m not 100% clear on the details The last couple tins of Viking Thor’s Hammer I received was in a WoS “large” slip tin rather than the SG/GH vac tin. It also had a WoS date code on the WoS under-tin paper label. So it Appears to me that WoS is at the least doing the packaging. I recall reading that WoS acquired G&H if not SG as well. SG made Viking and owned G&H. I Believe there was mention that WoS might try and save the old G&H tooling. I assess my new-packaged Viking Thor’s to be the same tobaccos but with a finer, more consistent grind and less moisture. The former could be from grinding on different equipment? Or perhaps all of it comes from the use of the WoS packaging line (drier since tin isn’t sealed, more consistent maybe there is a sifting station)?

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The grind is the main reason for buying SG snuffs. Is the old equipment no longer being used? Who knows for sure? If it IS no longer being used, that is a fundamental change to manufacture. We need to know what is going on.

Well… I just have the Viking Blonde in the nose right now, filled in the WoS tin.

The last time I had a tin of this was in spring this year. Made in the vac tins of SG.

IIRC the one I had in spring was very very similar to this one - if not the very same. The grind could be a bit finer. But SG was not very consistant.

I doubt they would not use the SG machinery, even when WoS would be the maker nowadays. This ancient mill is famous. As is the WoS mill. The fluffyness of SG is what it is - unique.

I dont know which maker does the Vikings today. But I still like them.

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No, they are not. Please tell us you thoughts, if you give this new Viking Brown a try, @Carolin4060.

Reportedly, the old Viking Brown used to be the same or very similar to Samuel Gawith Kendal Brown Plain.

Earlier this year (or in the end of the last) WoS launched their own version of Kendal Brown snuff (scented, not plain https://sharrowmills.com/product/kendal-brown-2) and black rappee type snuff - Brunswick Black Rappee (plain snuff, not scented: https://sharrowmills.com/product/brunswick-black-rapee). These two were preceded by another dark and moist snuff, Africa. Were they just expanding their own range, or was it a sort of a “warming-up”, a “rehearsal” before the production of these “new” Vikings, I wonder… Probably both.

@Humppa, they are made by WoS now. Please take a look at this: https://ibb.co/x6h1zY1

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Also, Wilsons & Co (Sharrow) Ltd is listed as the manufacturer of Viking brand snuffs in the official list (28-09-20) of notified tobacco and related products (available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/notification-of-tobacco-or-herbal-products-for-smoking , file “List of tobacco and related products notified under SI 2016/507”).

In the same document Gawith Hoggarth & Co Ltd is listed as the manufacturer of SG SNUFF VIKING DARK.

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@volunge - yes I saw this picture yesterday at the german spoken snuff site schnupftabakfreunde. A member posted the very same image. :slight_smile:

Thanks for letting us know.

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Some thoughts on the new tin, the vacuum sealed version was way better in terms of freshness. The act of opening new tin was a pleasure of its own. The ammonia blast, some other subtle floral/citrus scents jumping out immediately, rich moisture… With those thin little tins, the magic is gone. Look how they massacred my boy!

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@Johano, it’s WoS transparent shrink band “seal” to blame.

They should switch to vac. I wouldn’t mind paying some extra to get WoS snuffs vacuum sealed.

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@Johano if you liked the old Viking Dark, then try Silky Dark from SG.

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It is not the same anymore. But for me personally the Viking Brown is still good: plain earthy dark and coarse tobacco, Nice.

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I haven’t had it for a long time until recently and I didn’t notice a difference, but after reading this thread it must be due to not having it in a few years. It’s still a good snuff though.

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Since the closure of Samuel Gawith and the end of a long era of Kendal Brown (which I find most distressing) I’ve fallen back on Sharrow’s Best Dark. Obviously the flavour and colour is quite different but the texture is similar and Best Dark is pleasant to take and benefits from not pretending to be a snuff it is not.

Unfortunately, Sheffield is no more capable of duplicating Kendal snuffs as Kendal could duplicate Sheffield snuffs. In fact no manufacturer, wherever they reside, can duplicate snuff of another House precisely – there are just too many factors not included in a recipe that affect the finished article. When in 1831 a new mill was built above Westbrook House for Joseph & Henry Wilson who left Sharrow in the hands of William and George they would undoubtedly have been in possession of the latter’s mode of manufacture but were either unable to duplicate the original snuff or used a new formula. Their snuff has always differed from Sharrow’s.

Mark Chaytor observes correctly that despite the most up-to-date methods of chemical analysis in the 20th century Sharrow snuff is impossible to duplicate exactly and remains (and will remain) inviolate. Only at Sharrow can that distinctive Sharrow SP taste be made and nowhere else. The same reasoning applies, of course, to the Kendal manufacturers and Kendal Brown.

For these environmental reasons the relatively new range of Viking snuffs in Sharrow’s hands are bound to differ from the genuine Kendal originals. Writing in 1962, Chaytor admits on page 66 that Wilsons have never been very successful in manufacturing snuff not of their traditional SP-type and the company decided in the 19th century, therefore, to concentrate on grades of SP instead: Queen’s (1835), SS (1840), Tom Buck (1844) and SP Circle (1890). SP and Gold Label both date from the 18th century.

It mitigation it may reasoned that those with no olfactorial memory of the Kendal originals will be perfectly happy with the new versions of Viking and the slightly unpleasant ‘burning rubber tyre’ aftertaste.

(To be fair the Kendal Brown by Sharrow is still recognizable as Samuel Gawith’s KB Scented and is a vast improvement upon their previous version which, like Fribourg & Treyer’s KB, was wholly different from the genuine article in tobacco, grind and flavor. Well done, Wilson’s.)

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