Hi Have been snuffing a year now. Tried a vast amount of varieties in that time but what I can’t do at all well is identify varying flavours/aromas in complex snuffs. Folks like snuffster and xander amaze me with their abilities to deconstruct a snuff. Is this a natural gift or something you can learn over time? Any advice on how to learn this skill would be gratefully received 
Cheers Oscar
Read the labels of the ones that have a single clearly stated scent like “clove” and memorize them. Read descrptions, especially those published by snuff makers. Jaap Bes lists all his ingredients, also the Sheffield Exchange lists several of the WoS and F&T scents. Also there is published historic documentation, much of it our archive section, that can help with that. You can then compare knowns with unknowns. It can help to have a familiarity with foriegn languages, or at least a familiarity with google translate. Lastly get familiar with your spice cabinet and or vist a shop that sells essential oils and has them out for samples. Smell them and try to remember them or where you smelled them before. I really just fuddle my way through. A good memory helps. There are people in the perfume business that do it for a living, so I guess they have a natural gift.
Just enjoy the stuff and don’t think about it so much!
I think it’s partially a talent and partially learned. You can experiment with spices and essential oils and learn to identify some fragrances, but it definitely helps to have sensitive sensory apparatus. On the downside, however, sensitivity to sensory stimuli can be a distinct disadvantage in many ways. I have a strong aversion to noisy places, and having to share an elevator with someone wearing way too much cheap scent can nearly make me physically ill.
it’s like sex the more you practice and try the better you’ll probably get, but some people just aren’t capable. So mostly practice.
here is your first homework assignment. Write a really detailed review. Don’t even try to figure anything special out. Just discribe everything you can focusing on how this menthol is a little sharper then that one. You’ll start noticing more and more things as you do this.