I don’t think it’s a bad idea, the law is ostensibly to stop children smoking, I highly doubt it would apply to businesses. I’m sure a lot of retailers would be more than happy to get, say, $5 to receive and hand over a package. I would ask my local tobacconist, but he’s an exremely rude man, who (rumor has it) only runs his store as a front to his gambling racket. Anyone know a tame tobacconist? Is it worth starting a new thread about this?
I think the licensed tobacconists are bound by a few laws (tax laws). The whole micro batch snuff deal sounds like a job for the ISTA (Remember the ISTA?). All we need is for the details to be worked out of which none of us yet has volunteered. A snuff club would be fun for a bunch of us to share our micro batch snuff there. Oh wait… this is a snuff club! On this subject I would direct you to Russ Ouellette at … http://pipesandcigars.com/fusionlab.html … what he is doing here for pipe tobacco blends is a fantastic idea and is certainly something that can be done for snuff.
@doctorbeat, your idea is workable, but the downside is most tobacco shops will only work with their distributors not directly with , say Toque, so if their distributor can’t get it they’ll tell you it’s not available. I have one local shop that said he would order whatever I wanted, as long as it was one of the 15 varieties of Wilson’s that he could get from his guy. When I told him Wilsons offered over 100 flavors he looked at me like I had just pooped on the counter. The other stumbling block is you would have to pay the local taxes and a mark up for the shops trouble, but you could still likely find a good shop to get limited options for you.
You don’t need an ISTA (an impossibility until someone invests some significant time and probably money) to share micro snuff around. Just get manufacturing. Don’t get bogged down in too much technical stuff, just get some tobacco and make snuff out of it. Create your own collective. It’s very feasible and a lot of fun. If any members want to get involved I will give you a stickie thread to blog it on. It could be one way out of the problematic availability issue. On the ISTA thing: if anyone did ever comes up with a workable way forward, and we have had several that came to nothing, I would be more than happy to listen.
As Stg. de Kralingse Snuif en Specerijen Compagnie De Ster en De Lelie is a non profit organisation we will be happy to help you with your experiments as we did with the Gingerbread Snuff. Jaap Bes.
@snuffmiller Could you tell us some more about the organisation Jaap? I know next to nothing and I’m sure others are the same.
@Snuffster: The organisation is a foundation which is run by some voluntary millers. The windmills in which we produce the snuff and grind the spices are monuments and owned by the city of Rotterdam. We started about twelve years ago from scratch and as the production of snuff in Holland declined already before the second world war and the only person (our mentor) who had seen the proces as a child is now 83 we had a lot to learn. Some of the knowledge was kindly provided by Mr. Hundhammer director of the snuff departement of Pöschl. We aquired all the permits needed to work with tobacco and the knowledge to produce snuff. Primarily we focus on historical recipes. We are sponsored by a Dutch tobacco merchand and untill it was merged with a large American spices firm, sponsored by a Dutch spices firm called Silvo. Our aim is to preserve and show the public the craft of historical snuff making and and spices grinding and as we don’t want to throw away what we produce we sell it. I hope I have given you an impression of what our organisation is about. Some more about the history you can find on our website: http://www.snuifmolens.nl/index\_en.html Jaap Bes.
Jaap, that sounds fantastic. I’d love to see that old windmill in action. I’ve been to your country twice before, and it is beautiful. The Dutch people seem to be in touch with their history and heritage far more than most, and were overwhelmingly friendly and tolerant towards us foreigners! I’d love to go back some day.
Thank you Jaap, that sounds like a fantastic project and I hope you go from success to success.