I bought three amounts of tobacco grown here in East Java, Indonesia. Virginia, Dark Fire Cured Besuki, Kasturi. All in leaf form. The Virginia is flue cured, Kasturi sun cured and DFC is fire cured, of course.
I ground each one separately in an electric two blade coffee grinder. It took some time to get a fine fluffy mill. The Virginia needed a little more milling as the leaf was moist. The others are beautiful, like flour.
I decided initially not to add sodium carbonate or glycol or salt with distilled water. Another day I’ll take half the quantity and add it, jarring for a week for it to do it’s work. I’ll report back.
As they are, pure tobacco snuffs, they are very nice. The Kasturi tobacco leaf is used in Indonesian clove kretek cigarettes. Its naturally spicy. I sneeze with It initially then my nose got used to it. There is a nice ammonia-like burn.
I am VERY happy with these.
My next experiment is to add some perfumes. I have bought little bottles of natural oils of bergamot, violet, tonquin, musk, patchouli, attar of rose and coffee to play around with. I’ll sprinkle a little on blotting paper and add it to the jar for a few days. Only the aroma will be absorbed, not the oil.
These snuffs produce a wonderfully thick nasal snot, which I love. I just let it run down onto my upper lip and I allow it to drip from there before using my handkerchief to mop up. Beautiful sensation.
See some photos.
Graeme
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Four more snuffs made. Dark tobacco, Vanilla, Coffee, and one made from Cypriot Latakia. They took a while to mill to a fluffy consistency. Very nice aromas.
For some reason I’m nervous about adding sodium carbonate and salt, add glycol. I think I’ll take a small portion of each and add. Should be interesting to see if there is any improvement. In the meantime, these are very good and so inexpensive to make.
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My next experiment is to add some perfumes. I have bought little bottles of natural oils of bergamot, violet, tonquin, musk, patchouli, attar of rose and coffee to play around with. I’ll sprinkle a little on blotting paper and add it to the jar for a few days. Only the aroma will be absorbed, not the oil.
This is similar to the process used by manufacturers who rarely applied scents/oils directly but through the medium of G (instead of blotting paper) which was an extremely coarse-grained tobacco product made for that purpose only. The full process by Taddy & Co is described somewhere here on this forum. In the making of Queen’s Scotch, for example, the 100 S.P is mixed with G once the latter has absorbed Bergamot, English Lavender Oil and Cinnamon before the G is sieved out. The manufacturer is at pains to demonstrate that the S.P absorbs the scent only rather than the oil itself. This was probably the only way of scenting parcels upwards of 2,500 lbs without direct application of scents/oils.
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What exactly is G? I’m not at all sure.
G is very coarsely milled tobacco used only for scenting and is discarded once it has served its purpose. Only the G receives scent/oils directly and not the snuff to be scented which absorbs the aroma of G. Using blotting paper serves the same purpose as you are not applying the oils directly.
Cuba Rappee as made by Taddy & Co is one of the few snuffs where arrack is added directly to the snuff. I downloaded this recipe and others several months ago which you may find interesting.
On the other hand, snuffs such as S.P Scotch derived their flavour solely from the tobacco used, specific layering of stalk and leaf, and the process of fermentation and liquoring which includes Pearl Ash, Lime and Alum. A poster here (Volunge) calculated the ingredients by mass (1220 kg tobacco + 580 kg water + 78 kg potassium carbonate + 77 kg potassium oxide + 45 kg potassium aluminium sulfate = 2000 kg snuff ) and reckoned that the flavour would be similar to the original Kendal Brown. He was going to attempt a homemade version. Again, the original Regency recipe for Taddy’s S.P as well as a full description of making it commercially on an industrial scale was downloaded several months ago.
I have no interest in recreating any of these Regency snuffs whatsoever - but am interested if others manage homemade versions.
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That’s very interesting. Thanks!
Another homemade snuff!
Some very nice cigars are made here in East Java Indonesia. I tend to buy bulk and have them made to my size requirements - 6.5 in x 48 ring guage - Churchill size. They are made from local tobaccos that were introduced by the Dutch during the Netherlands East Indies colonial period. I last bought 60 cigars of that size for a great price. About $1.10 each. They came to me packaged in an old ice cream tub.
A couple of my cigars had become overly dry, so I decided to mill them in my coffee grinder. I got a very nice flour that was soft fluffy and smooth. Nothing else was added to the tobacco.
The aroma to the nose is one full of cigar. It’s strong but not harsh. There’s just a little sharp tickle to the nose, which I like. Almost ammonia like. Each pinch requires another. It’s a very fine experience. I keep going back for another pinch.
I’d recommend this exercise to others.
Graeme
The last picture is one of three tobacco leaf types used to make the cigars - wrapper, binder, filler.
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