Like the title says, which English manufacturer’s base tobacco do you like the best? I suppose it comes down to Toque, Samuel Gawith, Gawith Hoggarth, and Wilsons. F&T is too diverse to be said to have a base. Oh McChrystal’s and Hedges too. I am not familiar enough with Toque yet to judge it, it’s still a mostly unexplored manufacturer for me for no good reason but I like most of what I’ve tried. The Samuel Gawith base that you find in Scotch SP and the floral snuffs and all that does have a lovely smell, kind of sweet and meadow-y, but I don’t favor the medium grind. It just doesn’t feel right being blown out, I’m picky. Gawith Hoggarth base is like hay and I get a yeasty smell at times too like bread rising, I don’t care for it though I usually can’t detect it much unless the tin is getting old. Wilsons is my favorite base. Very warm and biscuity. McChrystal’s and Hedges have excellent bases too, very very similar to Wilsons.

I like SG snuffs the best probably because they have the most variation in their tobacco bases. Not just one base with different aromas added, but many. And no one else manufacturers rappeés but SG anymore.

To hard of a question for me to answer. They all have good to excellent IMO.

I don’t like the fluffiness of Samuel Gawith. Somehow it is just uncomfortable to snuff. I suspect that every Gawith Hoggarth I have is too low on moisture. I mean they probably have dried a bit and now I don’t like them (except Irish D). I like the Wilsons of Sharrow base flour. Toque is not bad either.

I like Samuel Gawith’ darker base as well as Molens. To me both are superb, full bodied, and able to carry whatever is put on top of them

Oops…I just realized this was to be restricted to English manufacturers Please chalk my above post up to yet another instance of Americans’ notoriously bad sense of geography :"> That is, unless something has happened in the last 24 hours or so that has drastically changed the borders within Europe

I like the dark SG base as well, although I love the scent of Toque. Toque tends to be too fine for me, so I’m doing a bespoke with them to be more coarse. I actually am asking Roderick for German styled oiled mentholated snuff, so I’m interested to see what he comes up with

SG for variety and quality, Hedges for the way you still get the base through the über-menthol.

I like the dark WoS and SG snuffs, but also GH and Toque coarse. Aside from maybe Jaxons SP Premium, I find the paler snuffs are generally ground too fine for my nose unless I already have a coarser snuff in situ. This often means I can get the top scent, but probably lose the subtleties of the base tobacco. Although, having said that, I’m more concerned about the whole rather than trying to discern constituent parts. If I sit down to a big bowl of soup, I’m not trying to figure out the ingredients and various elements, I just enjoy it (or not) on the overall result, and do much the same with a pinch of snuff. I’m the same with music too. Many would say i’m a heathen, and that’s fine with me. Being unburdened with complexity of taste means I can find enjoyment where discerning palates might not

A bit off topic, but along the same thought line…I prefer a snuff that isn’t based on a particular flour. My preference is that the tobacco bill is created with the end snuff in mind. The scenting cocktail is then cooked up to fulfill that end. The two are given a courtship period of whatever length is suitable, and then the milling begins after whatever toasting, drying or whatever it takes to make the leaf mill friendly. Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing at all wrong with scenting a flour to create a finished snuff. That is a long and honorable tradition. There is something about a “bottom up” snuff that makes my nose happier. It also leads to large piles of snuff that are certainly not suitable for human consumption but make damn fine and nicely scented insecticides,take that you evil little aphid bastards!! I like soup.

@chefdaniel that is what I think makes you an artist and not a manufacturer. I wouldn’t know where to start with tobacco. Like, I get the concept. I mix snuff all the time with decent results, like I have an end result in mind and an idea of how to get there. What you do though is have an end result in mind and know what tobaccos and “cocktails” to put together to get there. That takes true skill and I would imagine some of it can’t be learned

I think Samuel Gawith and Toque source the better tobaccos ! *O* ya I. M. O.