Hello my snuffbrothers (& sisters), I’m writing in the hope that some of you with more experience than me can provide some advice. I live in Bavaria and am trying to get to grips with the local delicacy - Schmalzler snuff. So far I have had limited success. I’ve got two of Bernards brands - Altbayerischer and Klostermischung. The first problem I have with both of these is the act of taking it. When tapping it out onto the back of my hand half of it rolls off, and pinching is not an option because of the design of the containers. Without wanting to gross anyone out, when I snort it a fair amount just drops out of my nose. The only way to avoid this is to snuff it really hard but then it ends up in the back of my throat. The Altebayerischer burns like hell. I took a good hit outside the shop where I bought it and found myself hiding in a doorway with tears streaming down my cheeks. Passers by thought I was having some kind of emotional breakdown. The Klostermischung is milder and has a great taste, but as mentioned above I get more on my carpet than in my nose. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Don’t worry, Gonzo, Altbayerischer burns like hell for me too. If you have to, you can tap it into your hand. These snuffs are already moist, so it won’t hurt them. It might help if you rub the Schmalzler between your fingers to kind of break up the big clumps. If all else fails, search out some Poeschl Schmalzlers. Since you are in Deutschland, shipping from Rajek’s would be cheaper than it is for us in the USA. Mach’s Gut!

Thanks for the tips cstokes, especially the suggestion of Rajek’s, which I’ve just taken a look at. I’ve never bought snuff online but having seen their range I can hear my credit card weeping. As for the snuffing advice, crumbling the stuff up in the fingers certainly helps, as does tapping it into the hand prior to pinching. I will persevere! Actually, the fact that I’m spilling so much of this stuff is not such a bad thing - I quite like the faint smell of Schmalzers which greets me every time I come home from work.

Schmalzlers do smell heavenly. It’s all about finding what works for you.

Gonzo, I’m not overly fond of Bernard’s tap boxes. What I have been doing with these and also the ones that come in packets, is to pour the contents into a bottle or a wider opening tin such as a snus container. Athough I prefer to pinch most snuff, I generally use a spoon for these moister types. The spoon I use for this has a bowl with about 1.5 cm diameter. I chop up large clumps with it and then scoop it full and hold it right under my nostril (or even slightly inside) and sniff. This way I don’t have to sniff as hard as putting it on the back of my hand or on my thumbnail. I can even use it to sort of push the snuff in as well. This works well for the very course South African styles such as Ntsu or Taxi also. I usually can stuff 2-3 scoops into each nostril. With schmalzlers I have not had trouble with oversniffing them or with any burning, even with Altbayerischer. I do find that after 5-10 minutes my nose will begin to run quite heavily. You might try ebay to find a nice spoon. Sometimes you can search for them as salt spoons. I had two others identical to the one I use but I sold them to other snuffhouse members already. I might be mistaken, but I think some of the nice ceramic schmalzler bottles that Rajek’s sells have some spoons attached to their stoppers. You may also want to practice with Bernard’s Offenbacher Köstlich or Cardinal. They are a bit easier, I guess becuase they are not actually schmalzlers. I hope this is helpful. I never thought I’d give schmalzler advice to a Bavarian

I just snuffed some Altbayerischer with this method. I shook the box well and then tapped a fair amount into an empty smash box. No burning, everything is wonderful. Nice buzz too.

Hello Xander. Thanks for the advice! I’ve never tried the spoon technique before but I’ll see if I can find one in the shops. You’re certainly right about getting the snuff out of the box it comes in - I’ve been meaning to get a decent snuffbox for some time now - or perhaps a bottle with spoon attached (as you suggest) would be the best solution. I’ve just given the Altebayerischer another try and the burning is less severe than the first few times. I guess It’s just a matter of getting accustomed to the blend.

Hi Gonzo, You could also try the thumbnail method - you curl your forefinger around your thumb so the nail is sheltered, then tap out some schmaltzer onto it, the finger should keep it all on your thumbnail. Then you raise the nail right up to your nostril and sniff. I hope that works out for you.

I use a round German silver snuff box especially for my Schmalzler (Perlesreuter) and it workd fine pinching Schmalzler from a snuff box. Just rip open that ridiculous plastic container it comes in, and put it in your snuff box instead :o)

Good discussion, and timely for me. I’m about to place an order through Snuff Store UK for several Bernards Schmalzler’s, as they are not available from any US suppliers that I know of. I’m going to order six of them, to make the order worthwhile: Aecht Altbayrischer Schmalzler Amostrinha Brasil Doppelt Fermentiert Brasil Feinst Jubiläums Zwiefacher along with some Latakia AO1860 a few other brands/types I’m low on. I’m looking forward to getting the Bernards as I’ve never had a Schmalzler but they would seem to be delicious.

@Z They are all available at Nicotine Rush Tom

I shake the tin like I’am trying to snap it’s neck and it seems to break the balls up pretty good.

When snuffing off the back of your hand ther is no need to rush. Keep your nose over your hand so you can just snuff up whatever drops out.

Tom, When did you get schmalzlers in? Damnit now I need to wait til Friday and put an order in

@zonesix: he got them on Monday. There was an announcment a few threads down the page. Also its a good idea to keep a watch on Tom’s blog to see what’s in the “coming soon” department.

Thanks Xander. Yes, you will usually see new product announcements first on Nasal Snuff Blog. BIG announcement coming in about 2-3 weeks! STAY TUNED! Tom

@Gonzo, I’m a little bit late on this thread, but while everyone is offering advice on how to take Schmalzler’s I would like to mention a few of my favorites, especially if you are ordering from Rajeks. My favorite Bernard tins are Zweifacher, Amostrinha and White blue Also, you should really try some bulk schmalzler. You’ll need a snuffbox or something convenient to transfer some for daily use though. My favorites are the Poschl Doppelaroma and Perlesreuter but you might also like the Bernard Virginie.

snuffegnugen: Yep, zweifacher is great - picked some up a few days ago. I haven’t tried pöschl’s doppelaroma but I find their brasil a bit too ‘alcoholic’. I’ll see if I can find some Virginie this week.

Zwiefacher (not “zwei”) is one of the few mentholated snuffs I can take. it is not overpowering, and has a very nice, mellow tobacco base. One of the Schmalzlers I wish would come in bulk size containers. Lids off to Bernard! :o)

I was wondering what zwiefacher meant today. Just typed it into google translate and got twofold as the meaning. Seems like an odd name for a snuff. Is that just poor machine translation?

I think it’s “Two More” but since it’s a Bavarian word, it’s hard to tell.

“Couple” perhaps? The image is a man and woman (a couple) dancing. This snuff is also supposed to be a marriage of snuff and schmalzler, so without knowing the literal meaning, I think that’s what the gist is. We have a lot of native German speakers around here, hopefully they can fill us in. I try to translate all my foreign snuffs, and even the English ones with odd names.

It very well could mean Couple. “Two more” is just my attempt at a literal translation, but it could be slang for couple.

I dont speak the bavarian dialect, but my interpretation would be that zwiefacher is an old word (or dialect word) for zweifach which means double, dual or twice. could have something to do with the tobacco or so, but Im just thinking aloud here.

@ Xander/cstokes: Your damn close…loosely translated it could mean two types, or two subjects, to two of something combined…like Schmalzler and Menthol.

it’s also a type of dance I’ve been told.

@viking, thanks for your pedantic correction concerning our erroneous transposing of the e and the i in Zwiefacher: "Zwiefacher (not “zwei”).

Thanks for all the answers.

Well, this thread apparently truely stumped everyone. Now that we all know the correct spelling of this particular Bernard Schnuptabak GMBH product (including myself who apparently can’t read the label in front of me), here is a definition of the word Zwiefacher from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwiefacher However, even though it is spelled Zwie…which apparently is intended to mean two (2), the correct spelling of two in German is Zwei. So the incorrect spelling Zwie is either a mistake that’s been ‘lived with’ or a dialectual thing going on…ya got me. Fach it !!

Hmm, well even though Bavarians speak a different dialect, they write high Deutsch. I’m going to contact Bernard’s directly and will report back.

And just to confuse things further many Bavarians use ‘zwo’ for two (pron. tsvo). Zwie is just a variant.

I learned what little German I know while living in Heidelberg for several years, and even there in the State of Baden Wurtenburg ‘zwo’ (pronounced as you indicated: tsvo) was often substituted for zwei. And the Bavarian dialectical quirk of truncating words with the letter L to form the diminutive, i.e. kindl vs. kinder , madl vs. madchen, was also common “on the street”. Tschuss… (Note to self: need to figure out how to type umlauts on an English keyboard)

ö is alt + 148 ë is alt + 137 ü is alt + 129

Ä is alt + 142 ä is alt + 132 Ö is alt + 153 Ü is alt + 154

You could just install the Norwegian keyboard layout. Most of it’s the same, but you can use the right alt key to make pretty much any accent you want. I’ve never seen ŋ in a word, but I can type it now.

Facher is a type of voice, uasually revered to in operas. Search for “facher” in wikipedia and you will see what I mean. Zwiefacher thus means “two voices” like an alt and a soprano, for instance.

That would make sense. 1) it’s a mix of Schmalzler and snuff 2)there are 2 people on the tin, and they look like they are singing!

The first documented usage of the word Zwiefach was in 1780. It loosely translates as “two times”. Although this may be indicative of the two different time signatures, It is believed that the title actually refers to the couple being tightly wound against each other, a departure from earlier traditions. The dance was originally known by various other names in different regions, such as Schweinauer, Schleifer, Übernfuaß, Mischlich, Grad und Ungrad, Neu-Bayerischer and, above all Bairischer (meaning Farmer Dance and sometimes confused with the Bavarian Polka.)–from wikipedia thanks to Z_2K. Note it says “the couple being tightly wound against each other”

Thanks for the info Xander. Here is a link to many of the alt codes you can use with windows. Note: the numbers must be entered on the number key pad not the number keys above the letters.Alt key codes

Weiß-Blau whoo hoo!

alt 0223 or alt 225

wait are you saying I’ve been pronouncing the name of this snuff correctly the whole time???

I don’t know about the 3 digit codes. I have never used them. They may be for another OS or another system I don’t know about.

I don’t know, bob. I can’t hear you. Say it louder, please.

Here is the reply from Bernard’s:Hello Mr. Stokes, thank you for your Email. To answer your question: “Zwiefacher” is a traditional bavarian dance, a combination of two parts. The snuff is also a combination of two parts the Snuff and the Schmalzler, that is the meaning of the name "Zwiefacher. I hope you like our Zwiefacher and now you also understand the name. Kind regards, mit freundlichen Grüßen Bernard Schnupftabak GmbH

Well, now we have it from the horse’s mouth. This MUST be the most informative snuff forum on the net!

That was very nice of them, and very quick. I really do enjoy Zwiefacher. I think Bernard Schnupftabak an outstanding company.

@stokes, did you tell them to check out our wonderful forum?

@ cstokes4, many thanks for taking the time and posting.

@snuffegnugen: I have mentioned it to one of their staff before. I also begged and pleaded to sell their products in the US again, that was before Nicotine Rush got the Bernards in. They are a wonderful group of people that will stop on a dime to help a customer. The person that emailed me back, Toni, is the GM of the company.

@cstokes4: Did you ask them why they use Zwie vs. Zwei in the name. Do they pronounce it "tsvee-fahker’ or “tsveye-fahker” ?

Definitely “tsvee”

The thumb-finger method Toffeenose talks about is what works for me, like a champ.

Anyone have any idea what the “Shelf-Life” of a Schmalzler happens to be? Just curious as I have just recieved a 100g bag and am not sure how quick I need to use it up! Thanks!! The Wiz!

Wiz, Best to call in sick and don’t leave the house till it’s GÖNE!

And don’t forget to share your thoughts on that schmalzler Wiz.

For those having trouble with schmaltzer rolling off the back of your hand. Hold your fingers together and stretch your thumb out to an extended position. You will notice a depression, not on the back of your hand, but between your wrist and the base of your thumb, more or less on the side of your wrist. This depression holds more snuff and it holds it more securely. This is where you should pour your snuff from a tap box, not in the more shallow depression in the web between the thumb and first finger on the back of the hand. I know this refers back to the very beginning of this thread, but I just now read it. I’m sure most of you know this, but I have seen it done the other way, with limited success.

OTD…The Poschl Perlesreuter Schmalzler is an unusual snuff.First of it is very dark,heavy and somewhat oily(?).It is hard to take with the pinch method I normally use(I actually tried Nachmans method from the last post here with better success).I also find I take greater portions at a time,than that of other snuffs,and blow out quicker as the nose starts to run.The flavor is still hard for me to comprehend…but I do detect tobbacco(very sweet and mild),a note of coffee,and a fruity scent(which could be dates as another reviewer mentioned).It’s is very pleasent in the nose,and the flavor does not drop as quick as some other snuffs I have tried to date.Nicotine level I would say is medium…on par with a Toque or WoS.It is a very nice addition to my growing collection…and quite a large portion for the $. I would classify this as a dessert/breakfast snuff. The Wiz!

I’ve got a few schmalzlers on my wish list now. Wiz, your description is similar to others I’ve read, makes schmalzlers sound like your partaking in some kind of a dessert bread or possibly an actual meal!

Almost OTD…This stuff will take some getting used to for sure…glad time is on my side!! The Wiz!

I have a few schmalzers from a trade with ermtony. I love the flavors but I never seem to be able spend much time with them. Today I’ve been doing a pinch of schmalzer followed by Dholakia white. This works really well for me, nice buzz and great flavor.