Good day fellow snuffers, Anyone grind their own snuff? I made some from cigarette tobacco, which was pretty good.

Pieter Claassen, snuffgrinder, stitch (that’s just off the top of my head). I won’t bother since cigarettes and cigars are more expensive than buying commercial snuff. If you’re using cigarettes, I’d be sure to use something without any additives like American Spirit, or Nat Sherman Naturals. American Spirit is available as bulk rolling tobacco, which will save you some money.

Cigarette tobacco is no good for snuff. The tobacco is treated with chemicals which is not desired in one’s nose!!! Either use pipe tobacco or go to your tobacconist and ask him/her to let you have their damaged cigars. I buy large havana handrolled cigars for very cheap and they make excellent snuff. Making ones own snuff is a nice hobby. And, of course, your snuff is unique in the sense that only YOU have got it even if it’s not very good!! Go for it.

I forgot to mention, I’m going to try rolled (chewing) tobacco next. I’ve ordered some from a co-op in Oudtshoorn where it’s still rolled by hand. I don’t know how to treat or “cure” it and any advice will be appreciated. @ Industro, do you have any experience in this way? PS Spoke to the lady who bought the chew for me just now. She got 5kg of this stuff and it’s all mine!!! What will I do with such a lot of tobacco!!!

Pieter, I would unroll it and throw it in the oven at 125-150f for an hour or so, that usually dries it out pretty good. Or just buy a dehydrator.

I very much enjoy grinding my own snuff. Cigars are good, but can sometimes overpower whatever flavor you are trying to impart on the snuff. I did just get a whole leaf from Stoker’s but have not ground any of it yet. @ Pieter - Regarding chewing tobacco, I have tried it a few times with mixed results. I don’t know if your chewing tobacco is the same as mine, but mine was very high in sugar/molasses which made it very difficult to get the grind and moisture I was looking for. One way to remedy this is to put the tobacco in a food processor with a bit of water. Then take the soupy mix and roll it out with a rolling pin, or just press it. The water will take some of the sugar out with it. Then let it dry and grind.

Yeah its fun to grind your own.

What methods are there to grind it?

mortar and pestle? coffee bean girnder? lots of creative minds here. There really have been a ton of past posts on this, with quite a few methods.

tom502, elecric coffee grinder for the initial grind, mortar and pestle for the crumbs which remain after the first sieve. Sieve in my case is a coffee jar with a piece of pantyhose stretched over the “mouth” of the jar. I use a rubber band to keep the nylon in place. Shake the jar and out comes the snuff!!! Easy as pie.

I bought a Vita-Mixer blender about 10 years ago. They are a lifetime appliance, excellent machines. It came with 2 containers, one for juicing, and the other for dry goods. The dry container works excellent for everything from dried peppers, tobacco, you name it. It will grind anything into a very fine powder if you wish, no need to sieve.

Thanks all. I tried the coffee grinder today, and it worked pretty good. Didn’t make it a powder, but did give it a grind similar to TAXI ROCK. I am gonna stick it in a ziplock bag with some mint leaves too.

I have been using just the mortar and pestle, which is VERY time consuming. Especially if you are making large volumes of snuff. The pantyhose method works very well. The tighter you stretch it, the coarser the grind you will end up with. Which makes it easy to get the grind you want. I do plan to get a grinder since I am planning to make lots of snuff, and grinding just by hand will take too long.

I don’t have a mortar and pestle, but the grinder didn’t do too bad. I’m just messing around, you know how it is when one gets an idea. I have some mint growing in the back yard, and I took some of that, made cuts in the leaves, and stuck it in a ziplock baggy with the coffee grinder snuff. I’ll let it stay in the bag for a week before I check it. I have no idea if it’ll work well or not. I also have some more of this snuff I made I am attempting to mentholate with some Vapor Rub, where I put the snuff in a small container, and took a plastic baggy, and rubbed the Vapor rub on the baggy, and then took the baggy over the container and put a rubber band on it. Again, I have no idea if this will work or not.

tom502, I would check it before a week. I would check it daily. The snuff will dry the leaves out within a day and you need to add fresh leaves. And f you have too many leaves in there it can get too moist in a sealed bag and actually create problems. And make sure to keep stirring/agitating/shaking the snuff a few times a day. You will most likely have a strong mint scented snuff after just 2 days. Also on ebay you can purchase menthol crystals very very cheap. I’ve bought some and they work great for adding to snuff. A little goes a long long way.

trout- Thanks, I’ll check it later today. I did notice the leaves are dried out looking.

I have today received the chew from Oudtshoorn. Does not look like something I will ever stick in my mouth!! I’ve unrolled some leafs and have it in water at the moment. Some are dark and others light brown in colour. I will stick in the oven tomorrow while my wife is away playing ten pin bowling! I trust it will be dry enough for grinding by tomorrow night. If I come through this without to much pain, I will report back on Friday.

Good luck Pieter. I had to wait for my wife to be out of the house before I could stick tobacco in the oven too!

I had to tell my wife I’d buy her a new coffee grinder, though the tobacco really grinds clean.

I ground some of the chew today and I’m really disappointed. It’s not at all what I had in mind. I soaked the first leafs in high quality brandy for 4 hours and then dried it in the oven. The result is snuff smelling like freshly cut grass. The brandy had no effect. The second lot I did not treat at all. Just unrolled the leafs and dried it in the oven. Almost same result, a bit stronger but also smelling like grass. Should I let it sit for a while? Any chance that the taste will change with time? I do not want to “cheat” by adding other snuff because then it will not be original any more. What effect will it have if I should soak the leafs in brandy, maybe with a touch of pure honey added, for say 24 hours? My dream is shattered!!

I would let it sit for more than 4 hours. I don’t think that would be enough time to absorb the flavors.

I’d take some tobacco, mix it with more brandy and a wee bit honey. Let it sit a day. Boil away the water without actually …boiling . Try to do this at almost 54* C (130F). (Use a huge metal container filled with water and a thermometer on the stove , a jar with the tobacco inside that ) keep your eye on the thermometer , and don’t use a medical one , glass breaks and mercury ain’t fun. Apparently heat destroys tobacco goodness. In fact , I’m guessing you can ferment tobacco in low quantities with a modified chicken incubator , just turn it up to 50 C and take the leaves out to cool from time to time. Anyway , take the result , grind it up once more and keep in a sterilized glass jar for a (few) month(s) or so. Mix it around once in a while.

Pieter, my good man. These things cant be rushed. Four hours is hardly a ship’s voyage. The chew is likely a finished product. You should dry it before soaking in brandy and after, the drying should be done slowly. These are not facts that I am presenting but simply conclusions I have made knowing that some of the finest tobaccos in this world have been aged for years and years. My advise would be to start now and when you are eighty six you may just have the “jewel” that is in your mind’s eye.

I’m just guessing here but i do believe nicotine is water soluble and i would think that anything to do with boiling or soaking tobacco in any quantity of water could potentially lower the nicotine content to quite some degree. Just an observation hope it’s helpfull.

I think I’ve saved the day as far as my disappointment with my chew snuff is concerned. I’ve flavoured some of it with nutmeg, cinnamon and clove, it’s been sitting for 12 hours now and it’s OK. I will now leave it alone for a week or two to settle. I’ve made a small hole through the plastic lid of a coffee jar with a heated paper clip. Then I pushed a plastic covered paper clip through the holed and bent a hook on the side which sits inside the bottle when the lid is screwed on. I made a little pouch out of cheese cloth by “stitching” it with a stapler. A pouch can also be made out of a piece of pantyhose. I filled the pouch with snuff and attached it to the hook on the lid, poured some peppermint essence into the coffee jar and screwed the lid back on. The pouch now hangs above the liquid without touching it, in a air tight container. There is no danger of spillage when I take the lid off because the tobacco sits snuggly inside the pouch. I’ve tried the snuff after it’s been in there for 12 hours and I’m happy with the result so far. I’m going to leave it in there for another 12 hours or more until I’m satified with the flavour. I will do the same using rum, coffee, cherry liqueur etc. In the mean time I’ve received advice on how to treat/cure the chew which I will now proceed to use. Rome wasn’t built in one day and I’m not switched off because my first try with tobacco leafs did not turn out the way I wanted it. I wil try and try again until I get it right.

I’m making some guava snuff, using my coffeejar gadget. Also made some peppermint flavoured snuff, using the same method. This gadget works 100% without any possibility of spilling some snuff. Works perfectly for moisturizing dried out snuff as well.

I ground up a whole twist of Cotton Boll over the weekend. It all fit into a little latch-jar, about an once. Man that’s some strong snuff! I love it.

Do you actually mean “if all continues to grow well” ?

Good luck with that snuffgrinder. My plants gave up last month. I should have tried to start again, but we have a short season to begin with. Next year, next year.

I have some N. Glauca twists in the curing process. From this point of view it looks to be years from done. I also have some N Glauca leaves in a hickory press in hopes of a Perique style cure. That supposedly will take only one year.

I wonder how a kahlua snuff would be?

Carol, make some and then tell us what it’s like!!!

I might just have to!

I think Kaluah snuff would be scrumptious.

Picking it wild, Snuffgrider. It’s a noxious weed here in Hawaii.

My grinding and flavoring attempts were not good either. I have lost the interest now, and will leave it to the professionals.

@Asherael, what tobacco did you grind?

I took some Levi Garrett and let it soak up aroma from some Kaluah. I used the snuff-in-a-snus-tin-inside-a-Glad-container-with-a-Kaluah-soaked-napkin-standing-up-within method. It sat for like 36 hours. It is still strongly smokey, but with a nice light Kaluah flavor. It has several layers of flavor, I find it pleasant, but not as intensely liquor-flavored as I would like. Perhaps the best thing is, the added moisture makes it easy for me to take huge pinches of LG! I would drop some liquor directly into the snuff, but I’m afraid it will make it grainy. Maybe another 24 hours will improve it.

Bump…Fresh ground Mapacho log. Organic N.tobaccum from Argentina. I’m going to cook it with some aluminum free baking soda at 120’ in my towel warmer and see if I can get some ammonia going. As is, there’s a bit of mold that needs a spankin’.

I usually make my homemade snuff with Grape Brandy & Honey flavour. I really like it and I see here some ideas how to improve it. Next time I’ll try the method with the jar to remove large particles from my snuff. I dry cigarette rolling tobacco by leaving it on the sun. Tobacco dries very quickly. Then I use coffee grinder. Then I put the snuff in tins and moist it with the grape brandy. Add a drop of brandy and stir it well with the snuffspoon. If still dry, I add another drop of the brandy. If too moist, I leave the tin open and stir again until it dries to the best moisture. Then I close the tin and leave it for a day. I use home brew grape brandy with honey. Its a special recipe that honey is added to the brandy while brewing. The result is good, strong drink and good snuff. The taste of this snuff is brandy with sweet honey finish. You can make the moisturing substance with ordinary brandy by mixing a drop of honey with some drops brandy. The result is nearly the same. For good snuff use homebrew brandy (in Bulgaria we call it rakia). It is made from fruit and have long lasting taste. Most of the comercial rakia or brandy is made from cheap spirit and some chemicals for the color, taste and smell - no good for snuff.

I made a cool one w/ cigar tobacco and lime. The tobacco is strong flavor but the lime complimented it nicely. I ground the leaves in a coffee grinder which got it as fine as S’nuff. Then I spread it out on a plate. I took one lime and grated the rind and piked that up on one side of a tupperware container. I sliced the lime and laid the slices on the other end of the container. Then I took the 2 ends and squeezed the juice into the tupperware container also. I placed the plate in and covered it for three days. I opened a Corona and took a big ole pinch. Fantastico! Now that is removed from the presence of the lime and into a baggie the essence has settled in nicely. It does resemble lime, but now it predominantly tastes of iced tea and the added moisture helped it. Now, it’s about as moist as a Toque original. It’s yummy stuff. I think I’ll try a cardamom and carrot one next.

@ wickedkitchen: What kind of cigar did you use? I’m thinking that one of the dry-cure cigars (Parodi, De Nobili, etc) might make a fine snuff.

I want to say it was a Montecristo, but I’m not certain. I’ve only done this once, but I would surmise that the lighter cigars would work better than the dark, robust ones. It was a cigar from my brothers wedding. I don’t care much to smoke them anymore so I cut off an inch or so before I gave it to him to smoke. I did, however keep the wrapper in the mix. I thought it was a Connecticut wrapper which are supposed to be among the best so I just tossed the whole nub into the grinder. Next time, I’ll just use the inside and see if there’s a difference.

@wickedkitchen: Why the preference for the lighter ones? I’ve always enjoyed the scent of strong fire-cured, and the dry-cured cigars are nothing but. TSNA’s, true, but then again, the scent is wonderful.

I just think that it would not allow the new scent to be fully introduced. That being said I have yet to try this with a strong, dark cigar…so I’m clearly speaking out of school here.

All is well with the Mapacho snuff. It smells a little like Rodericks tobacco. The N.rustica snuff is nice and soft like South African snuff. I’m planning on letting them sit for a while. The N. Glauca I picked is not quite cured yet but I ground up one of the mini twists to try. Smells like a good Candela. Which leads me to believe that a good fresh snuff can be made with dry green tobaccum without the fuss of special curing. With all this experimenting here I can really appreciate the top quality snuff that is readily available at retail.

@juxtaposer, when I tried dry green tobacco, I got a lot of “freshly mowed lawn” smell in there. I was told it’s because of the chlorophyll in the green leaves. No matter what I did, the grassy smell stayed, could not even kill it with lots of flavoured snuff blended in.

Thanks… curing is more fun anyway. I suppose this stuff is half cured. It’s going to be great if it gets any better. I have a three gram tobaccum, rustica and glauca mix. I’m hoping I can leave the aging jars alone at least for a few months more.