Santo Domingo, what a delightful aroma of well matured tobacco and some cedar wood… But watch out with the tin! Sometime before, I discovered some tiny crystals in my SD that I didn´t care about initially (seemed to be tiny salt grains). But recently, the tin developed some “bubbles” under the painting, so I emptied it in a glass bottle. There were rust spots inside, and the white grains proved to be aluminium oxide. Fortunately there´s not any important health risk inhaling some of this matter. I have another F&T varieties, and neither of them has shown these white particles. Anyway I will be aware, specially with the dark and moist sorts (I´ll take special care with my “Princes”).
@snuffvillian Aluminium can only rust when mercury is applied; it does how ever oxidizes and is called corundum a very hard material.Some vacuumed sealed tins will rust from the inside out. So I highly recommend air tight glass jars for decanting all snuff into. Aluminium is often found on the brain of Alzheimer sufferers. So never cook on or drink out of aluminium. Some plastics are not much safer, they perminate chemicals that are suspected of causing cancer or disrupting hormones
1 Like
It’s noteworthy that the F&T price-list from 1974, which lists a total of 31 snuffs, has 30 of these at £4.25 to £5.00 per lb, and only one - Santo Domingo - at £8.50 per lb. Clearly their flagship product.
@basement_shaman Aluminium gets easily oxidized in contact with oxigen, so anodising treatment is applied to form a very thin layer of protective coating of alumina (or Aluminiun oxide) on the surface (but thicker than its spontaneous alumina film). It usually prevents further corrosion if applied. Aluminium is very active material, and easily corrodes if exposed to water+salts, strong acids or kept in contact with different metals (copper, iron, mercury…). I suppose that F&T tins are anodised, but what happened to my SD tin inside, tells me that this snuff has something that corrodes the metal in contact with it (probably common salt dissolved in its high rate of moisture), leaving spots with accumulation of white particles of, if not Alumina, should be Aluminium hidroxide salt grains. Whatever, it ruins the tin and the snuff appearance, so I second the glass jar decantation motion with moist snuffs. (Sorry for the chemistry nuisance)
Sooooo… I too have experienced the misfortune of my Santo Domingo tins showing similar spots of oxidation… still safe enough to snuff? New tins that will certainly be placed in mason jars promptly.
Just ordered 50gm from MS to re evaluate. I found this snuff nice in every way even though I had a hard time finding the violet absolute( thanks xander) scent. I like the dark earthiness, moistness, and character of the tobacco.
@mrmanos yeah the violet is very very muted. IMHO this is what more “scented” snuffs SHOULD be - added scents playing off strong-smelling, quality tobacco where you can’t tell where the tobacco ends and the added scents begin.
@smreno77 et al. here is Wiki for Aluminum hydroxide, not poison as it is used as an antacid but probably not good for you either: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium\_hydroxide
My first F&T was SD and I love it! I didn’t know what was in it when I first took it and I was hit with nostalgia and memories of the smell of some of my dad’s stuff, which now knowing SD has cedar oil in it, connects some things for me since he used cedar. Some don’t like SD, but I love how cedar smells so I’m sure that influences me. 
It’s so well blended though that it is its own animal. I just got the HDT and that’s great too, and I have some Macouba, Old Paris, and Bordeaux on the way. I hear good things about Macouba (and the others really) so maybe I’ll find I like it even better! Seriously, where have I been all these years without snuff? I’m so glad my friend introduced me to it a few years ago! I’ve never used words like ‘love’ with tobacco before, but now it’s appropriate… that vixen Lady N. =p
Yep the absolute of violet is an extract from the whole plant, leaves mainly, so is not really floral. It smells planty and fresh.
I’m not sure where to put this bit of information, but since we were discussing scents, violet in particular, I thought I’d mention this fascinating old book I discovered on Google Books, complete and free to either read or download. It’s called " The Art of perfumery and the methods of obtaining odours from Plants", by G.W. Septimus Piesse, London, 1862. This book goes from A to Z covering all species of plants used for scenting. With a curious 19th century slant, there are descriptions of how ottos, liquors, concentrates, etc. are made. Distillation processes, uses, storage, just about everything related to perfumery. To our snuff making members I can recommend the chapter on scenting snuff. It is quite interesting, and though not a manual for making snuff, its descriptions about how snuff is scented, including a rather long rant about ammonia, are interesting from a historical perspective. It even mentions the famous, or infamous Lundy Foote! It also contains a curious reference to “our good Queen Anne”.
2 Likes
Not a tin of Santo Domingo but I thought that some images can illustrate what happens to some F&T tins with dark moist snuffs inside, totally ruined Old Paris in my case… This can is more or less 1 year old, always kept jealously inside my snuff vault, besides the oxidation I noticed another thing not mentioned in other cases of F&T tins corrosion, a very (and i mean VERY) high concentration of ammonia inside that was not there the day the tin arrived one year ago (I sampled it then and yesterday side by side with a new tin) . Corrosion worked it´s way from the inside of the tin to the outer layer (photo 1) creating a type of “vein” pattern, on the inside there were the “white spots” that everyone mentioned (photo 2). Lesson learned for me, from now ALL F&T snuffs apart from HDT will go into glass jars inmediately!
You all convinced me to try it! Being new I plan on trying each of what you call iconic or irreplaceable snuffs. My carpenters say that my snuff barn should be built in about eight months.
Do take @Wulfensteinsson’s advice and decant immediately into air tight jars. This corrosion has been happening with F&T tins for decades so I doubt anything will change soon. Good advice.
Love this snuff, a favorite all day snuff. For those who like it, any reccomendations for similar snuffs?
Love this snuff, a favorite all day snuff. For those who like it, any reccomendations for similar snuffs?
WoS Best Dark is very similar, IMO. Never tried them side by side, though.
Out of curiosity I added a 5g tin of Santo Domingo to my last order from Mr. Snuff. Well since the order arrived yesterday morning I’ve hardly snuffed anything else, the little tin is nearly empty in fact.
What an absolutely exquisite concoction this is. Very easy to snuff due to the grind and moistness. I don’t even know what the main scent is, ceder people above have said. But that’s not the only scent. I even get something like coconut from it.This is a complex snuff with a delicious smokey tobacco base and a satisfying amount of nicotine.
Up to this point the only F&T I’d tried was my favourite HDT. I’ve just placed an order on the Wilsons website for a large tin of SD and four other F&T’s that I’ve never had. I think this might just be the start of a beautiful relationship :x
2 Likes
was gonna order some santo domingo today, was soldout…
Why not order directly from Wilsons? Their prices are great, especially for the large tins, and their shipping rates are very reasonable too…
cuz i ordered more than F&T product
1 Like