Just wondering. Many of our snuff from different brands have the name of a French town: Strasbourg, St. Omer, Bordeaux, and there were many more in history. In Holland the coffeeshops that sell weed have names like Thai, Jamaica, Nepal or Libanon. when you know these names you can order your favorite strain in coffeshops you’re not been before and get what you expect. Kind of a standard. So can I assume each French town name snuff is made to some kind of standard, a recipe with only slight differences amongst the manufacturers? And I also begin to believe the French were important in spreading tobacco throughout Europe. The French protestant refugees took their town recipe with them to Holland and England?
Where is all the french snuff blenders today? I ask you
Well I don’t think there are any. Never saw snuff at a tobacconist when I was in France. Use is extremely rare in that country and I didn’t meet French users on this forum yet.
I don’t see any Spain snuff blenders today either .They should exist since tobacco was first imported to spain from the new world in the 15th and 16th centuries
These names are a certain tribute to the history of tobacco in France. Many snuffs are named after the cities were the Royal Tobacco Factories were placed. The most known were those from Strasbourg, Paris and Etrennes that provided the rest of Europe their snuffs. Can’t really say what those snuffs have to do with the English snuffs, since the French weren’t making such blends as we can see them in Wilsons/F&T products. Probably picked the fragrances of the leading snuffs of those particular Royal factories and turn them and named them cleverly to get the right attention.
@Filek I think you hit the nail. If you read French, there are some texts (like this) that can confirm your point. There you can see some types of tobacco named after the cities in which they were produced (Morlaix, Strasbourg, Seville…). In the case of the latter, Seville, I can assure that this specific variety (known as “tabac en poudre de Séville”, “Seville snuff”/“Seville powder tobacco”, “Sevilla Schnupftabak”,etc., depending on the country) corresponds to the more widespread sort of the Seville range of snuffs of the Golden Age: the one known commonly in Spain as “Fino” ( or “Tabaco polvo fino lavado” in long).
Ah, the Spanish and French tobacco factories! Their names bring us a humble memento of the great variety, quality and effort than once was put into snuff manufacture… A reminder of times that have already gone by, but at the same time are hopefully yet to come! There’s that funny thing happening in Spain (and I’m sure that the other Spaniards here would agree with me) about the general oblivion of the best things from our past: cultural, industrial, etc., caused by almost two centuries of decadence and poverty. Spain would have much to offer from a historical point of view… specially snuff-wise.
@basement_shaman As snuff-making/taking was associated with the “bourgeoisie” class and pro-royalist sentiments during the French Revolution, likely some of their heads ended up in baskets not long after that of Louis XVI. And finally Napoleon III felt it was important to France to “modernize” during the period of the reconstruction of Paris and he thus deliberately shunned snuff in lieu of heavy cigarette use likely put the nail in the coffin for the snuff artisans of France and may well explain the current derision of snuff culture.
@Ivan I think you’re at least partially right, but there are several postcards from the beginning of the twentieth century that show how snuff use was still common among the poor population of rural areas (specially on Bretagne, where the Morlaixcigar and snuff factory was based, and Normandie). Here (tabatieres-snuffboxes.chez-alice.fr/cartes_postales.htm) there is an unending collection of such postcards that support the idea that nasal tobacco was incredibly well known in France (and the British Commonwealth, for that matter) before WWI. I think it was WWI, in fact, what put an end to widespread nasal tobacco use in France: it’s not a coincidence that the most popular RYO tobacco brands on France (caporal/scaferlati style) were similar to the ones included on army rations. Because we always say it’s not hard to kick cigarettes with snuff… but quitting snuff with cigarettes might be even easier! (By the way, the French page I linked is not just good for memorabilia enthusiasts, it also has the best online collection of snuffboxes).
@Ivan Napoleon had a rather large snuff box collection and wasted lbs of snuff https://snuffhouse.vanillaforums.com/discussion/1002/napoleon-the-sad-truth https://snuffhouse.vanillaforums.com/discussion/1867/napoleon-and-his-snuff-habit
yes @basement_shaman Napoleon Bonaparte (aka Napoleon I) was obviously quite fond of snuff, but I mean Napoleon III his nephew and successor to Napoleon’s son (Napoleon II) saw snuff as part of the ‘ancien regime’ and thus counter-productive to the reconstruction of Paris and so as @MarvinLapsus indicates its use moves from the powerful and wealthy to the rural poor.
The snuff nomenclature is really fascinating, since it can be distinguished in several ways. If we’re on the subject of French snuffs, let’s say for instance “Martinique”, which was a product originated on that island. How about “St Omer”? The famous tobacco that was cultivated in that city, being a key component. “Robillard”? Named after one of the snuff manufacturers, who made it. As for the theory why F&T named their snuffs with the French city names. Wasn’t Fribourg Swiss? Maybe the family was from the French canton, or the family branch was actually from France itself?
As for the F&T snuffs I have the opinion - since the company doesn’t exist anymore - Sharrow Mills should release the recipes to the general public. Because just as like De Kralingse they can be classified as historic.
and the French were famous for their perfume manufacture some of which no doubt found it way into powdered tobacco…
Fascinating subject. Does anyone know off hand, if DK St Omer is actually made from that particular tobacco? I have about 1/4 of a 100 gm tub of it, and I can’t tell what type of tobacco it is made of. I’d just like to know. Its very good snuff. Yeah, I have wondered about the names before, but when I want answers, I just come here where the experts reside. This is a great site.
@Mouse : F&T used Grasse perfume oils, the best known in the world (or at least so said their brochures from the 60’s available from ermtony’s page), and it would be no surprise to find that the French snuff makers also did that… but there’s far less literature on them available.
@mrmanos, it’s a Virginia tobacco snuff, but the Dutch experts from Rotterdam know how to imitate a good quality tobacco (see Latakia and Hermbstedt’s Brasil).
@mrmanos Virginia from different parts of the world. Some tobacco even grows around the windmills…
@mrmannos: As Filek and Salmiak said The base tobacco of our St. Omer No. 1 is Flue Cured Virginia. It is prepared according to the Karotten method. Which is quite different from the actual snuff productions. At the moment we are working on another Karottensnuff: Doppelmops or Fine Rotterdam Snuff. As the Amersfoorter Bestgoed doesnot exists anymore we try to use Burley instead. At the moment we have 10 kg as Karotten fermenting and have to go to 30 kg before we are able to use the windmill for chopping. In the meantime we will try to revive the Tabac de Paris à la Robeillard. I’ll keep you all informed about the progres. Jaap Bes.
Very intriguing thread! Since we are talking about France and karotten, I’d like to add an interesting tidbit that combines these both. The french tobacconist (bureau de tabac) ubiquitous red signs, “Carotte”, are a vestige of tobacco karrotten. The old signs didn’t even have the “TABAC” text, but were just orange/red shapes of two conical shapes. See examples here. 