My Brother-in-law’s father gave this to me today. He said it was seven years old. It’s a full tin of G. Smiths & Sons Café Royale snuff. It’s only had a few pinches taken out. He didn’t really like it so, he sealed it with electrical tape and there it has sat in a shoe box for the past 7 years, until he gave it to me today to try. My questions are; Is it still good after setting for so long and why can’t I find it on any on-line Snuff Stores? Any info would be greatly appreciated.
It will still be good if the tape did a good job sealing the tin. If not it will have lost moisture and flavor. You can still use it as it is, or rehydrate or add your own scents. Smith’s snuffs were made exclusively for their shop in London and were once famous. They did for a time export them and also did mail order, but never had a web presence. They also never sold them via other online vendors, except briefly McGahey’s had a few. It was rumored that they thought webshops were undercutting them too much, and wouldn’t deal with them. Their shop went out of business and closed down about two years ago. There are many threads here about them, including some photos of the shop. The snuffs were notoriously high priced, but since they were made for them by Samuel Gawith and Gawith Hoggarth (each at various times) usually the same snuff could be found under another name elsewhere for much less. At one time many years ago, Café Royale was supposedly in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s most expensive snuff. CR was said by some to be a mix of SG Black Coffee and GH Tia Maria. Others said it was just a clone of Black Coffee. Snuff Store for awhile had the some of the same snuffs made as their own house brand, and called it Café Noir. That one you have looks to be in a tin from when SG was making them. There is one review only of that snuff, by Nigel, on Snuffreviews also with a bit more of the history: http://www.snuffreviews.com/browse/g\_smith\_\_sons/products/cafe\_royale Smith’s snuffs live on at Davy’s (Mullins & Westly of Covent Garden also of London): http://www.davy.co.uk/segar-and-snuff-parlour.php?menuid=4 The column on the right side of the menu is all the former Smith’s snuffs, sans the Smith’s name and some with changed names to respect Smith’s copyrghts: http://www.davy.co.uk/documents/cigar\_and\_snuff/Snuff-Menu-and-Guide-August-2013.pdf Currently made for them, as was the last generation of Smith’s, by Gawith Hoggarth, and come in GH style tubs like the photo:
Thank you, Xander. How would I rehydrate it?
My preferred method is to nestle a clean bottle cap into the snuff, then fill the cap with water from an eye dropper. Close up the snuff tin and leave it overnight. The snuff will absorb the water. Depending on how moist you want it, you can either use less water or repeat the process. You might have to mix the snuff a bit afterwards to restore consistency. There are lots of rehydration methods. Have a search of the forum for more tips.
@Xander Ok, got it! I opened the Tin today and the snuff itself looks like my new Tin of WoS Crumbs of Comfort only darker and dryer. I haven’t tried it yet, but is there any method to bring back lost flavor? It definitely smells of dark coffee, though.
Well, you probably can’t restore the original flavor, assuming its lost, but you can add flavor. There are lots of ways to flavor snuffs: Add essential oils or liquors, or just sit and absorb from them, let them sit with fragrant things like flowers or tonka beans, or bits of fruit, mix in herbs or spices. I’m not a coffee lover, so I can’t advise precisely on that one. Others here have experimented in this area. Be sure to search old threads.
@Xander Ok, here’s what I’ve done; To rehydrate, I put three cups of distilled water in a veggie steaming pot and brought the water to a boil. Once it was boiling nicely I turned off the burner and placed the open Tin of Café Royale in the center of the veggie strainer and put the lid on and let it steam for 15 minutes. This changed this color drastically. WAY darker from the moisture, I’m sure. After that, to try and bring back some of the flavor; I removed the open Tin with cooking mittens and nestled the Tin down in a small bag of Kopi Luwak coffee and gently sealed it up. I’m going to let it set for a week and see what happens. Wish me luck! (Impatiently Waiting)
Fingers CROSSED!