With the huge diversity in snuff products, I’m curious if anyone has run across anything marketed or commonly used for multiple purposes.
American twists & British ropes are the only tobacco products still made that are/were traditionally used for all three purposes that I know of. There’s also Brazilian roll tobacco, also used in Schmalzer, & all kinds of traditional African roll & cake tobaccos. Video link showing the Brazilian fumo de corda: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J\_c1WCFYJZU
I’ve seen these in movies but didn’t know they were still made. Found this reference here on Snuffhouse. Wow, sounds brutal. http://snuffhouse.org/discussion/3490/my-first-twist-tobacco-experience/p1
I"ve ground some Brown (Happy) Bogie twist into snuff. To my surprise, it was very similar to a scotch when I was finished. For some reason, I expected something more like rappé. But I used a morter and pestle, so I should have expected fine and dry. If snuff were to become illegal, this is what I would use. It’s nice (if a bit on the strong side) in the pipe, too. I didn’t care much for chewing it, but I only tried chewing it once.
You have to go a long way back for anyone in Britain to have grated their own snuff, back to the tail end of the 1600’s early 1700’s in fact when large ‘carottes’ were rasped up in combination snuff/grater boxes, but these were not ropes as we understand them - they were large, heavy pieces of compressed tobacco. I don’t think any of the pigtails still made in the UK were in existence at that point. The UK made pigtails are still used as chew however.
Yes, you can use twist tobacco about any way you like. English twists are great, originally they were Irish of course. Eventhough twists seem quite pricey, small amount goes long way.
I’ve just received a selection of Kendall ropes/twists/bogies. Smoking these is the strongest pipe smoke I’ve had. Like the build up in a heavy robust cigar. Plain Black Pigtail is fine to chew. A tiny piece is more or less exactly the same as a bit of Oliver Twist without the sugar or added flavour. It’s ok by me. I haven’t snuffed pigtail yet, but I will give it a go to see whether it pulls off the hat trick for me.
I’m sure it would make nice snuff. I’m not sure if it has more nicotine than snuff tobacco or is just a heavier smoke, ie tar etc.
I’m going to try with a fine cheese grater. Surely, this can’t be a million miles away from rasped tobacco. I’m just using a pig’s tail for my carrot.
Yep. It makes a fine black rappee ( probably in something approaching the original sense of the word). But crazy in terms of cost effectiveness, in this country, to make your snuff from tobacco taxed at the smoke rate. It does work and is very interesting. I suppose good old fashioned plug could be used in these ways too.
I’ve never ground snuff, but I do like to grind my own spices. A nutmeg rasp quite resembles snuff rasp. Might be useful for some. 
Yes, that’s simply a rasp. I did think that the carrotte was a rather loose looking bundle of leaves, but I see that it must have had roughly the density of ‘rope’ to be grateable at all. OT, Xander - I have bought a box or, ‘dose’ in this case, and would like to make a few comments about it lest others have been similarly tempted. I simply get bored waiting for the picture file to download. Surely there’s a quicker way…or are our speeds over here simply in the stone age?
I’m on dial-up ATM, so no way I’m speedy. Try reducing the size of the picture first. You may have to download it to your computer, then re-upload it (reduced) to snuffhouse.
Carottes, from the couple of pictures I’ve seen, looked to be pretty tightly woven, they were also very large and people carried just a small piece of one with them. I think you are right in saying rope would be the closest modern equivalent - assuming carottes are not still made somewhere?
Jaap Bes has working on some carottes and they might still be made in Brazil.
What came first: the carrotte or the rope? Perhaps some people simply started to smoke their carrots which were a precursor to rope? No, that’s not right. (Completely OT but the nippled surface of a rasp looks very much like the surface of a raspberry, I have not found an etymological link). First use of tobacco in England was smoke - Walter Raleigh and all that. Was twisted tobacco something that he would have recognised? More likely that people began to grind their smoking tobacco rather than smoke their snuffing tobacco. Or Perhaps the several uses were understood and indulged in from the earliest times. But never, so far as I know, a beverage… If we all revert to carrottes, windmills and watermills will be out of business, not good for the economy.
I think Raleigh and his ilk probably used the ‘hands’ of dried leaves. I imagine his pipe tobacco to be more of a hot burning, not very well cured (if at all) virginia. The pipe he used also had a heavy tamper that was held and used during smoking, which makes me think as well that he was using a lively, rough cut of leaf. This is not my field and Im just remembering old stuff here so if anyone has bettter knowledge jump in. I think when carottes came about they were a storage and transportation method that probably also invloved (maybe by accident) some basic curing. I could see ropes being a pretty quick development from the large carrotes. Later in the Tudor period people were using much smaller clay pipes and maybe the evolution was fairly rapid?
I’m guessing that progression was driven by storage, preservation and transportation.
@Xander: this is what was historically used to prepare your own snuff from andouilles or scolten. They ware also available in ivory. Jaap Bes.
The smaller clay pipe styles which developed require a dense style of tobacco like plug or twist. Loose and less compacted leaf will be gone in a flash. Denser tobacco is much more economical to transport. Even today people remark on how little rope you appear to get for 25/50 gs. Why is it so strong? because, notwithstanding its density it smokes well. All things being equal more compacted tobacco will deliver a stronger smoke provided it burns OK, and rope delivers loads of smoke. I seem to recall something about rope from Havana leaf. I would be interested in that product. Oh, hello Jaap - congratulations on your Prins Regent snuff, I’ve just tried it - Lovely!