I tried snuff for the first time when I was 13 years old (now I am 28 years old). It was Pöschl’s Gletscher Prise and it’s hard to believe, but my first box of this tobacco is still in my house! It is already 16 years old! My second snuff was McChrystals Original Genuine. We sat with a friend in the park and sniffed it. I used to use snuff very rarely before. But I became seriously interested in snuff 3 years ago and now I have a large collection of nasal tobaccos in my house. There are a lot of various aromas. I tried this type of tobacco use and fell in love with it. Tell your story now

Started about 11 or 12 years ago, wanted to stop smoking cigarettes (still a work in progress, but a lot less than I was on then). I started watching Milverton68’s channel on Youtube (not sure it is around any more) and decided to give snuff a go. Pretty much fell in love with it, although I do go in cycles. I also found it useful when the smoking ban came in place and didn’t have to go outside for a guilty smoke every half hour.

I started in 2015. I was a professional quitter of cigarettes: I quit all the time!  I wanted a way to keep tobacco in my life. Nicotine supplements didn’t offer the same enjoyment as tobacco, and oral snus gave me uncontrollable hiccups. Around that time I saw an episode of QI where they talked about snuff the same day that I read a passage in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep where the main character took a pinch of snuff which was too coincidental to ignore. I called around and found a local shop that sold Silver Dollar original. I immediately tried it in my car and blew out both of my eyeballs and I’ve been hooked ever since.

Here’s that ridiculous QI segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri6Y-cXACqM

I started about 3 years ago.  I had tried almost every other type of tobacco and was interested in nasal snuff; I couldn’t find any at a local store but bought some peach scotch on eBay and have been in love with it since that day.

Probably 15 yrs on and off. It seems if you like the briar, and know others who partake, eventually somebody from that genre will turn you on to snuff.  All snuffers I’ve ever met personally were also pipe smokers.

“I was a teenage snuff fiend”

I have some pedigree with tobacco more generally. My grandmother made cigars for Wills & Castella and my Mum and Dad met whilst they were both working at Imperial Tobacco in the 60’s. The first time I took snuff was about 40 years ago or so when I was very [too} young on a camping trip, one of the older lads got a tin of McCrystal’s Jip out when we were around the campfire one evening, tapped a little out of the tin and snuffed it from his anatomical snuffbox. I was curious and wanted to try. I’d love to say the first bump was divine, but in truth it was dire and burned like hell! Everybody else split their sides laughing… More delicate sniffing did help on future attempts though

I started smoking cigarettes more regularly not too long after that, but smoking, especially when you are underage (as I’m sure that many will sympathise) is not especially discreet. Thankfully local newsagents and tobacconists always had some basic snuff available too, typically Hedges or JH Wilsons etc. It was the 80’s and folks were much more relaxed about tobacco then plus tobacco was very cheap, cigarettes only had teeny/if any health warnings, you could buy a cigarette and 3 matches from the shops for 8 or 10p, snuff was dirt cheap back then.

Things carried on that way for several years, smoking, snuffing (and drinking!) as social circumstances, convention or desire determined. I had expensive tastes in cigarettes (the story of my life unfortunately for me) and was fond of more exotic cigarettes, Marlboro Reds in those nice soft packets, Camels, Luckies, Sobranie and Cartier which meant that once I was able to, I would go to specialist tobacconist when I could to find those out, and more exotic snuff came via that route too. But I was still primarily a cigarette smoker. That changed in the late 90’s I guess, partly due to changes in personal circumstances, but also due to the rising cost of branded cigarettes, there was a guy who was a lorry driver that used to drink in our local pub who sold Drum rolling tobacco on the downlow very cheaply – I switched to rolling my own and snuff most of the time.

My snuff taking went up a gear dramatically in the late 00’s due to the UK smoking ban in public places, snuff had a newfound social acceptability and I revelled in that. The mushroom growth of suppliers and distributors like our friends at Toque was great too. Oddly this is when my TAD really started to really kick in for some reason, I started blending my own rolling tobaccos, and I also started smoking pipes and cigars more too. By the mid-10’s point I was really starting to get fed up with smoking cigarettes as I really wasn’t enjoying them anymore and coughed badly in the mornings. Candidly, if I could have smoked the cigarettes that I enjoyed I would have carried on, but it was like smoking 20 or so, and only enjoying 3 or 4 of these. But, even with the snuff and pipes I couldn’t let it go even though I wanted to.

In late 2015 I swore off all tobacco products and started solely vaping. I did have a very occasional lapse by choice or by accident and have a cigarette, cigar, pipe, or pinch, but this was very occasional, one season to the next and sometimes more. Over the course of the last year, I have slowly started to return to snuff, and also to enjoy a pipe sometimes on the rare occasions that I go up to the pub these days. I’m not sure if I will continue snuffing or if this is a temporary reversal. But the odd pinch of snuff and an occasional pipe isn’t the end of the world to me currently, I have enough stocks of both to last me until the end of my time if I so choose. Snuff is very practicable and is the only one that I really ‘miss’ or reminisce about so for the time being at least; that’s how I’m living - All in all nearly 40 years

@MisterPaul I for one am grateful you have returned to the occasional pinch if only for your contributions to this forum which are always looked forward to. I wish I had discovered snuff in the late 1980s instead of taking up cigarettes. I first encountered snuff in the late 90s. A colleague at work had been a small tin of strawberry scented snuff as a “Secret Santa” gift. It ended up being passed round the pub table and I remember joyously snuffing a good few pinches. I gave up smoking in 2005 due to high prices and a desire to go tobacco free. I maintained this until around 2011 when I relapsed and became a furtive secret smoker for a few years which is truly the worst of both worlds. In 2020 longing for tobacco again I read mention on Twitter of all places of someone enjoying a tin of Grand Cairo. I did a quick internet search and ordered a small tap tin of the same which I slowly consumed over about a month. I have not looked back since and am an exclusive taker of snuff.

@Huysmans - Thanks so much for these kind comments Sounds like you have worked your way into a favourable position from the above - Good for you; well done! 

Although there’s not been any vitamin N in mine for some time, vaping is really starting to get on my nerves a bit now, though it has reduced significantly anyways since I started taking snuff more again - I think that if I can get vaping out of the everyday I’ll be sitting pretty more or less

I first bought a tin of “Cokesnuff” in 1968, at a head shop in California. Then, as a student in Scotland, in 1970, I wandered into Rattray’s tobacco shop in Perth, to buy some Golden Virginia rolling tobacco. Behind the counter, was a display of Smith’s snuffs. The proprietor then asked me if I would like to try a pinch. I did, don’t remember the name, but he helped me pick out about ten little glass jars. I used it all rather quickly and bought a bunch more before I returned to the USA. Fast forward to 2004 or 05, after discovering cigars, and quitting cigarettes, I somehow found a local store with a few cans of Garrett Sweet. Bought a few, enjoyed it a lot, then I found Mr Snuff and Toque, and one from Germany also. That’s about it. Still a snuff addict but I quit all the smoking.

I would have first tried it probably 2000/2001 with Poschl’s Raspberry and a sweet scotch snuff.  That’s all I was able to buy locally at the time, and now I can’t even get them. 

I first started snuffing regularly 2006/2007, when I found this place, things went a little bonkers. 

I had well over 300 different kinds of snuff at one point back then. 

When my sons were born 11 years ago I kind of forgot about snuff. 

But then over the last couple of years I fell back into a Copenhagen habit, which is ridiculously expensive, so I ordered some new snuff to kick the cope.

I think I was 15 or 16 when I first tried snuff. I’m 28 now. It hasn’t been a consistent hobby for me, but I’ve usually had some snuff lying around for all those years.

I first tried snuff when I was 16. In 1970 I was a foreign exchange student in Scotland. Perth was the closest big city, and wandering around I found a store called Rattray’s Tobacconist. I smoked ryo’s back then, Golden Virginia iirc. Anyway, I saw a shelf with little jars of snuff, and asked if I might try a bit. The proprietor took out a jar of of Smith’s Cardinal. Long story short is I bought five or six little jars, I remember the Carnation being particularly nice. I used the ones I bought, and bought more that year, taking several home when I returned to California. Fast forward to the early 2000s, when online I stumbled across Toque, which was a new brand at the time. 15 years later I’ve quit smoking and become a snuff addict and collector.

Hi. My first time was 15 years ago, when I was 26/7. A friend of mine, a friar(!) was a heavy user and he gave me a pinch. I still remember vividly the effect lol. I began to use snuff regularly in September '17.

7 years ago I took my first pinch. At that time, I only used one or twice a week. This was the trend for my first year and a half of snuffing. Now, I pinch every day, throughout the entire day, typically letting my nose rest at least one day a week. I’ve come to love and appreciate the hobby and the nostalgia associated with it. Now the goal is to help more people find out about this wonderful hobby.

An uncle who matriculated at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford had become a snuff aficionado while an undergraduate and it was he who introduced me to snuff. My interest in snuff was prior to 1965 but it was only in that year (or thereabouts) that I started buying it. My local House of Bewlay had a good stock but it was Wix in Piccadilly Circus and Bacon Brothers in Cambridge that had the largest assortments by far. Absolute Mecca’s for the snuff enthusiast.

After the wholesale closure of traditional tobacconists in the early 1980s there was a long hiatus in my snuff career that lasted at least a decade or more until I discovered from a chance encounter with Vivian Rose (snuff-man at Charring Cross) that G. Smith & Sons and Wilsons of Sharrow operated a snuff by post system. You would tick from a printed list what you wanted and in what quantity, tot-up the cost including postage and send the form back with a cheque. That access rekindled my snuff interest and I’ve never looked back since. Wilson’s only stopped the postal system for online access quite recently.

My first try of snuff was at age 13. I’m 63 now. An elderly uncle let me have a go. Woah! My head exploded. He encouraged me to perservere and it got better. After finding a mentholated snuff for me I got to like it more. On and off during my teens I continued to snuff, but I was also smoking cigarettes and a pipe. At age 20 I was sharing a flat in London with a long time snuff taker who only liked Fribourg & Treyer, Dr. James Robertson Mixture and Princes, Princes Special. We went to F&Ts wonderful old shop in the Haymarket and that became my source. I bought a rosewood snuff box and paisley handkerchiefs. I haven’t stopped snuffing since.

Wooow this is very interesting for me

Thanks a lot. Glad you enjoyed it. I could tell a lot about my snuffing adventures when very young.

Graeme

I really love stories) so if you have time, be sure to tell me them. I will definitely read it over a cup of coffee and a snuff tobacco.

Oh nice. I have a few about my young years and snuff. I could send you easily by audio clip if I had somewhere to send them to you.

Best wishes,

Graeme

I tried sending you a private message. Check the messages, I should have succeeded))

Nasal snuff is a new activity for me.I started smoking at 17,in 2018. From that moment until relatively recently ,i smoked,vaped or used heated tabacco most of the time. With all of those producs, i inhaled the aerosol deep into my lungs. But some two years ago,2021, i started disliking smoking and so began my journey of quitting. I went into a cycle of “quitting” for one week,then smoking for a few days,and repeat. That was the situation in the new year eve 2023, i wanted to quit,badly. I did a lot of personal research on tabacco related subjects,in order to figure out a way to quit.One cold winter evening,i stumbled on a wiki article about tabacco and it’s methods of administration and found it, Nasal Snuff. “Nasal tabacco,wth?”, I thought to myself.On further reading and watching on the subject,i concluded that nasal snuff is maybe the safest way of using baccy,but it isn’t the same as pulmonary smoking,maybe closer to pipe smoking.I went to my local tabaconist and got one tin of lowenprise. I wasn’t smoking for 5 days when i got my tin,and after doing some snuff,i felt it.This time it was different.The sensation of “loss” of tabacco wasn’t there and the mental craving of cigs,slightly diminished. I used snuff for 3 weeks straight ,and never smoked cigs again.Now I have a small collection of snuffs,all german, which i plan to extend.Nasal snuff is wonderfull! I will still smoke a pipe or cigar once in a very long while,but i don’t inhale,like it should be done!

Interesting to read your story. Glad you got off vaping.

Yes, nasal snuff is certainly the safest way of enjoying tobacco.

I prefer the English snuffs, especially Fribourg & Treyer and Wilson’s. Such a range.

I enjoy cigars and pipes too.

Happy snuffing!

Graeme

I would really like to try some more snuffs,but right now i have like 300g of product and i use it in a “slow” manner,like 1-2 g’s per day,in the days i sniff all day long.Most days,i use it in the morning and some days I don’t use it at all.Soo it’s hard to justify an expansion of the snuff stash.

Nasal snuff can be very economical for this reason! I remember that I used to smoke 10-15 long cigs per day(10-15 g). That’s a big change for me.

That’s interesting Steven. I’m a heavy snuff taker using about 15 gr or 1/2 oz a day. I love tobacco and the nicotine stimulates my libido.

Cheers

Graeme

Damn, that’s a lot of snuff, I’m usually good for 1-2gms a day. And if it stimulates certain urges I hope you don’t wear out your partner too much!

Haha. I’m more worried about my appendage. Lol.

Cheers!

That’s interesting. Nicotine decreases the Testosterone to Estrogen conversion,which is a normal phenomenon in both sexes. Bad for women ( it can agravate hormonal problems) but kinda good for men.

I also find that I am , let’s say,more aroused being around my girlfriend, while i use snuff.
There are some erotic ways to use snuff with your partner, take that as a bonus :))

erotic ways to use snuff with your partner?

like sniffing a line of snuff off her booty or boobies? lol why ?? Snuff tobacco isnt illegal drugs or anything

nah, more like a bump.
what does it have to do with it’s legality?

there is the classic stereotype of rockstars for doing cocaine in sexual ways, lines off a woman’s tits or something. First time heard someone treating snuff tobacco like this lol

Enjoy my friend
Cheers

I didn’t get the legal connection either.

Ok sorry for the misunderstanding guys!
Happy snuffing! Cheers!

No problem at all ALLex.

Cheers

First tried Samuel Gawith (Poschl) Apricot – now called “original” when I was 17 or 18. I used to dip so this nasal snuff thing is a nice change of nicotine pace again in my early 30’s.

I have been sniffing this wonderful stuff around 5 or 6 years. Started after watching Uncle Squinty videos and man I fell in love with this form of tobacco. ATM I have a giant collection and it will only get bigger.

When I was 18 I had graduated high school in the US and took year off to live with a friend in Germany’s Black Forrest and attend Gymnasium. It didn’t count for anything academically, but I became proficient in the language and went on to study German at my college in the States afterward. That was '96. I’ve been back a few times and still maintain some friendships. The Black Forrest was the first place I saw snuff and was offered it to try. I don’t even remember which blends I tried, definitely Poshl and Bernard, though. I smoked cigarettes off and on at the time. I remember thinking that the type of person that took snuff in southern Germany was fairly analogous to the cowboys that dipped where I grew up in Texas. Rough country boys with an attitude about it. “I don’t care if my spit cup (or I guess soggy, brown moustache over there) grosses you out. I’ll do what I want where I want.”
It didn’t stick as a habit or hobby, but I’ve had a relationship with tobacco since my Dad started letting me smoke his pipe at about 15. Later I was done with cigarettes, and I wouldn’t touch one now, but cigars and pipes are a completely different thing in my experience, and not something I feel like I need to cut out with the frequency I smoke. I don’t like feeling dependent on anything to the point that I suffer when I have to do without.
Having been introduced to nasal snuff as a teenager, I probably only picked up a random, small tin here or there from a local tobacconist until about 8-10 years ago when I wanted something to use at the office. My coworkers were going through constant drama with office decisions about whether to allow vaping in the building or not, or how far away from the entrances cigarette smokers were allowed to stand. Nobody ever made a single comment about me taking snuff at my desk. Aside from cigarettes I think dark fired, sugary or otherwise treated, American oral tobacco products, while enjoyable, are probably the worst tobacco related health risk available in my part of the world. Snuff is the clear choice.

Also I recently purchased a small farm of 20 acres with a lot of shop space, so I’m starting to get more serious about experimenting with my own blends and possibly growing some tobacco in the next few years. This is my real reason for joining SH recently, though I’ve come here for reviews and information for a while.

Sorry if this is bumping an old thread, but it looks like the previous posts were pretty spaced out, so maybe this is appropriate.

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Hello! Thank you very much for your great answer!) This is very interesting. I absolutely agree with you! I don’t like feeling dependent either. I stopped using cigarettes and only used tobacco for my nose. From time to time I will allow myself to smoke cigars and a pipe, but this will only be in the summer or spring. It’s cold now Good Morning!)

Off and on, I’ve been using snuff for 30 or so years. My first snuffs were from Smiths and I used to love visiting their shop when I was in London. I took a break when my kids were very young but I’m back in the harness now. I find I’m loving the plainer snuffs these days; Samuel Gawith KB Original is a real favourite.

I’ve been snuffing since around 2007-2008. Started as an accoutrement to snus and pipes…which I used to quit smoking cigarettes, but snuff fully took over around 2016.

When i was growing up my stepfather chewed and smoked twist tobacco. I thought he was weird to chew the stuff. Back then as a kid one could go into a shop and buy tobacco and tell them you were picking it up for your mom or dad, no problem. So one day for some odd reason at about the age of 12 I asked for a can of W E Garret I saw on the shelf whilst picking up chew fro my stepdad. I knew you were supposed to sniff it or dip it because i heard it in conversation. I was with a friend and we ducked back down an alley and had a sniff…BOOM! We were writhing around in pain and dizzy and thought we might have made a mistake and were going to die. lol Never touched it again until when i was trying to get off the cancer sticks and was vaping at the time. Saw a can in the UK and decided to buy it. That was 12 yrs ago…the rest is history. I mostly do snus and snuff and on occasion stuff a pipe . Albeit the pipe VERY infrequently, a few times a year tops. I am 58 now and am so glad to not smoke on a daily basis like i used to. I still LOVE tobacco and the nic hit, but have other means, and for that I am grateful.

Only since Sunday lol.

@Snugar Right there with you! I just started as well. Took my first pinch the other day.

Snuffing for about 6 months or so. Perhaps a bit longer . I tend to prefer the more natural tobaccos. No fruity/food flavors. WoS best dark. Viking thors hammer and scotch dark. Pfalzer donnersberg

Just four or five months ago, but every day and through all those days since. Hedges is my favorite early morning coin, followed by a Bernards, afternoon I have some Viking Dark, and then it’s just whatever I’m in the mood for afterward. But I’ve noticed that a small pinch before bed helps me sleep amazingly with vivid dreams, and I feel very rested.

Anyone know why?

Odd you should say that: I have sleep apnoea and I’ve found that it’s got better since I started taking a pinch before bed.

Like you I start the day with Hedges. There’s nothing quite like it for waking you up.

How are you finding it, mate?

Would be interested in your opinion as a fellow cigar smoker.

@Snugar It’s been alright so far. I’ve only gotten to try one blend so far (W.E. Garrett Sweet) which I didn’t like (just smelled like an average Connecticut Broadleaf cigar in my mind, nothing all that interesting) but my local shop restocks tomorrow and I’ve got a ton ordered so it’s a matter of waiting.

Even though I didn’t like Garrett Sweet, I did enjoy the snufftaking process, so to speak. I liked the pinching, I liked the nose hit, the brief burn, the fragrance roaming around, all of that was enjoyable, Garrett Sweet just wasn’t great to me, at least for now

How interesting… On the contrary, I can’t sleep if I take a good pinch of tobacco before bed…

I’m enjoying this thread. To the cigar smokers (I’m one as well) out of all that I’ve tried Dragon Madras has the most distinct cigar notes to my nose. There are also several mentions in threads on this forum of grinding cigars into snuff, so if you’re so inclined, you might search for “cigar” to find some suggestions. I have a couple of LFD Double Ligero’s that I let dry out in storage and unfortunately crumbled apart. I will probably try with those, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet.

I honestly haven’t noticed an effect on sleep either way, but it seems that I get less out of the nicotine at night, so I was thinking of trying to lay off later in the evening to see if my tolerance will come back down a bit.

A little over 1 year. I’ve tried alot of different snuffs but what I’ve learned is that the classic snuffs like the SPs and toasts are still around for a good reason. Most of the other snuffs are novelties and wastes of time and money. Gawith Silver and Charivari are exceptions but in general I prefer the old time stuff.

Started a month ago, already found my niche. I’ve loved snuffing, it’s a comfortable habit for me.

I’ve been snuffing for 15 years with patches where I snuff more, or less. It just scratches an itch that nothing else can.