I rehydrated (indirect method) a small batch of snuff, and noticed that it suddenly became very sneezy. It was a little too hydrated anyway, so I spread it out on a piece of paper to let it dry out. I noticed that the more it dried, the less sneezy it became, but even when it was totally dry again, it was still more sneezy than before I hydrated it. I also noticed that the grain size looked larger than it did before rehydration. It seems that rehydrating it caused the grains to swell, and re-drying it did not cause the grains to contract to their former size. I believe that this made the snuff grains ‘sharp’, ie fibers sticking out. I put the re-dried snuff into my mortar and pestle, and ground it for just a few seconds, and sure enough, it has regained its former appearance and is silky smooth and not at all sneezy now. I think that the problem was that I over hydrated it, making the grains swell bigger than they were originally. This may explain why F&T used to sell wooden mortars and pestles for rehydrating snuff. Water alone does not seem to restore the snuff correctly, and some mechanical processing is also needed. Anyone else experienced this?

Only in the sense that it never seems the same when it has been re-hydrated. I think aromatics get lost with the evaporation. I rarely have snuff dry out because I only use a couple of brands and I buy in bulk, but when I have occasionally bought a tin that was dry (WoS usually because the seals aren’t perfect and if they sit on a shelf for months they do slowly dry out) I just put the snuff in an airtight container with a chunk of apple. Slow, indirect re-hydration that also gives a little fruity zing and puts some of those aromatics back in the flour.