Okay, I feel that I am, or will be well versed enough with German Snuff, particularly Poschl by the time my next order gets in, which you can see in my previous thread.
With the last order that I got, were some English snuffs, GH: Whiskey, English Rose, and SP. SG: Black Coffee, Irish D, and Vanilla. All 6 in tapboxes.
Needless to say, I wont order any snuff in tapboxes unless its German.
I want to put in another order after the holidays, of just English Snuff, so I looked at all the brands that seemed most attractive to choose from, and the best size tins to buy.
I wound up selecting: GH 25g, SG 25g, McChrystals 21g, Toque 25g, and WS 25g.
Now I am left with the issue of which brand to try, but it seems like there are people on here that really love all those brands, so I guess im gonna have to try them all.
So this is what I am gonna do, buy 3 tins of each. Obviously if one brand is very popular for only 2 or perhaps even 4 then I will have to balance it out, but im not buying more than 14-16 tins as of right now.
I want to be able to not only try all of these brands, but also the different types of snuff, SPs, Toasts, Floral, Fruity, Herbal, ect.
So can you guys help me pick 3 very nice yet diverse snuffs from each of these 5 brands that will give a beginner a nice introduction to English Snuff?
I would be more than grateful, so please help me out, thanks.
EDIT: Perhaps I should get the 5g tins of WS, the 6 for 5 Toque deal in 10g tins, and either the 3.5g or 4.4g tins for McChrystals. Strange increments they use.
McC’s clove is the only one of theirs I’ve tried and I can highly recommend it if you don’t mind nose burn and you want diversity in your order. I myself have a lot more to try but if you’re looking for a floral I find Wilson’s wallflower to be a pretty good one, although I haven’t tried very many florals and it is a little soapy in flavor. I haven’t tried anywhere near enough SPs to find my favorite, but some pretty good ones also from WoS are Tom Buck, and Grand Cairo. The considerable nose burn and uniqueness of also apply to Grand Cairo, in addition to a quickly noticed nic kick. I haven’t tried enough GH or SG to make sugestions there. Toque’s SP extra is pretty good and a fairly unique take on SP and I think just about anybody would second my recommendation of Toque’s Whiskey and Honey for a pretty good toasty flavor although (maybe because) it is fairly darker and not as dusty as traditional toasts while still giving that smoky flavor. Speaking of toasts, I can also reccomend WoS Irish High Toast 22 although I haven’t tried any other toasts yet. Personally I’m fonder of sweet scotches, that are quite similar to toasts.
Ill get the Whiskey & Honey and SP by Toque, McC’s Clove, I dont know how many SP’s I should bother getting, are they much different? GH only has 1 SP I think.
GH: Western Glory, M4X, English Rose
SG: Kendal Brown, Black Rappee, Ma’s Ruin
McCrystal’s: O&G, Hopfen Schnupf, Clove
WS: Tom Buck, Crumbs of Comfort, Royal George
I haven’t sampled enough Toque yet, I’ll let everyone else chime in on those.
First off, I think you are mistaken to think that you are well versed in German snuffs, having only tried Pöschl. Outside the schmalzlers, the others are largely the same style with somewhat different flavorings. To truly be well versed in German snuffs, I suggest gettng a good sampling (7-8 different) Bernard, and at least one of the Sternecker. Anyway, to English snuffs, as you’ve discovered, the tap box is a snuff-killer. However, you do not have to confine yourself to the 25g range (roughly one ounce) size in order to sample a lot. For Gawith Hoggarth, and Samuel Gawith it is essential, but for Wilsons, Toque and McChrystal’s the roughly 10g size tin is amply airtight for sampling and economical. I strongly recommend reading reviews at snuffreviews.com. Chances are the snuffs with the most reviews are the ones that have stood the test of time. This question you pose is really rather hard to anwer objectively. No doubt you can return dozens of answers from fellow members with their opinions, but what you risk is getting a list of everyone’s personal favorites. Also dispel from your mind immediatley that there is any level of “brand loyalty” among the rank and file of snufftakers. Most experienced snufftakers will tell you that there is no “best” brand and that every snuff company or brand has its own unique character with its own personal strengths and weaknessess. Some do some things very well, but do something else very poorly. Personlly I vary my intake so much that in just english made snuffs, I probably use 5 different "brands’ daily. Nonetheless, I will try to put together a short list of what I think most would consider “essential” that are not neccesarily personal favorites but probably something every new snufftaker should try at some point. I won’t avoid floral or fruit scents, but will avoid anise, clove, and mint as these can be particularly divisive into love/hate camps. Fribourg & Treyer Bordeaux High Dry Toast Morlaix Old Paris Princes Princes Special Santo Domingo Gawith Hoggarth (imperitive to avoid tap boxes a.ka. “sneeze boxes” the tubs are usually only a few pennies more for more than twice the amount ofsnuff, so its really worth it) CM (Camphor Menthol) Dry Orange English Rose Fleurette Irish D Kendal Brown Kendal Brown, Scented M4X Sea Breezes S.P. Special Medicated Western Glory Whisky Hedges L260 “The Snuff” J&H Wilson (avoid the little blue boxes, get the 25g vacuum sealed tins) Medicated No. 99 S.P. No. 1 McChrystal’s JIP! Medicated Mild Lemon Original & Genuine S’nuff Smoker’s Blend Stammheimer Hopfenschnupf Violet Samuel Gawith (again, avoid tap boxes as if they were filled with plauge) Black Coffee Black Rappee Blue Crest Bouquet Irish ‘D’ Light Irish ‘D’ Original Kendal Brown Original Kendal Brown (Plain) Kendal Brown (Scented) Kendal Brown Special London Brown McCombie Princes Dark Princes Gold (a.ka. Princes Light) Red Crest Scotch Black S.P. No. 1 High Mill S.P. Scotch Yellow Crest Zip Toque Berwick Brown Cherry Cherry Menthol Chocolate Christmas [Xmas] Pudding Coke (cola) Lime Toast Original Peach Pomegranate Quit Rose Spanish Gem SP Extra Toast & Marmalade Whisky & Honey Wilsons of Sharrow Apricot Best Dark Best SP Brunswick Burgundy Camphor & Mild Carnation Gold Label Grand Cairo Honey Menthol Irish High Toast No. 22 Jockey Club Lavender Lemon Grove Lemon Toast Princes Queen’s Extra Strong (or Tom Buck) Rose (a.k.a. Rose of Sharrow) Royal George S.M. (Sharrow Medicated) S.M. Blue S.M. Gold SP 100 Strasbourg Strawberry Tom Buck (or Queen’s Extra Strong) Wallflower If the list is too long, don’t fret. These can be sampled over the course of years. I tried to limit it as much as could, excluding many personal favorites.
First of all, I want to thank all of you for the suggestions and the advice. @Xander I guess you are right, the only brand i really know is Poschl, and although I will soon have almost all of their current line of snuffs, I dont know any other German snuffs such as Bernards. I guess I am just eager to find what kind of snuffs I will tend to prefer. However, I thought that most snuffers stick to only a couple brands once they find their niche. The contrary is news to me. Also, this huge list you presented me with is somthing I will definantly use for reference for orders to come. For my next order, I wont be spending a lot of money, 100-150 USD depending on how things go, and I also want to get some accessories or boxes with the order, So this is a rough draft of what my order might look like. I want it to be diverse, yet like you said, snuffs that every snuff taker should try at some point. Btw you said somthing about anise and that its love or hate, and tbh I have been snuffing my Lowen-Prise all night It is a very nice snuff indeed.
Fribourg & Treyer
Bordeaux
High Dry Toast
Gawith Hoggarth
Western Glory
English Rose
M4X
McChrystal’s
Original & Genuine
Stammheimer Hopfenschnupf
Clove
Samuel Gawith
Vanilla
S.P. No. 1 High Mill
Kendal Brown Special
Wilsons of Sharrow
Strasbourg
Tom Buck
Grand Cairo
For a first order of English snuffs, I recommend the following: one SP, one KB, one Rappee, one Toast, one Floral and one Medicated. This will help you figure out what types you like and your following order will be much better informed.
Good brands to try first for each type would be:
SP - Wilsons Best SP
KB - SG Kendal Brown Original
Rappee - SG London Brown
Toast - Wilsons Irish High Toast #22
Floral - Wilsons Princes (this one was the hardest to pick by far, it won because it’s rather lightly perfumed and it’s a bona fide classic)
Medicated - McChrystals O&G
Maybe add a couple more that really appeal to you for variety, and that would constitute a well-rounded initial tour of English snuffs.
As for containers, smash boxes are perfect. I have some wooden boxes, but they absorb humidity and flavour out of the snuff so in the end I’m using them only for toasts and scotches.
Lowen-Prise has no anise. Licorice is not the same as anise and although anise is used to support flavorings described as licorice there is a distinct and noteworthy difference.
I just picked up some McCrystals Anisette myself and boy is it good. One suggestion I would make on top of the others is to make sure you try samples of the dry (meaning not oiled) English menthol snuffs. These are described as Medicated and are quite interesting with different combination of menthols, eucalyptus and camphor. Another thing that is outstanding is Wilson’s Gold tobacco blends which are made with gold Virginia tobacco from America as opposed to their standard tobacco base.
@Vito that looks like a respectable sampling for a first order. I do strongly recommend that you add one rappee into that order. My preference would be to one of the Samuel Gawith ones (Scotch Black, London Brown, Black Rappee). Other than that, it looks like a fairly well rounded beginner order. Incedentally, looking over your existing stocks again, your Irish D is probably in acceptable condition even though its in a tap box. Toasts, being naturally drier snuffs, have less moisture to lose, and can survive longer in a tap box than their moist and medium counterparts.
I would suggest trying out a lot of F&T and Wilson’s of Sharrow. The screw on cap allows me to keep F&T in my freezer forever. I recently opened a tube that I purchased 3 or 4 years ago and it is perfectly fresh. (When I find something that I really like, I stock up on it and save some for a rainy day.)
Ill consider getting a Rappee, the name kinda turned me off, it looks too much like Rape.
I opened up my Irish D and tried it, It was a very fine grind and very dry too. Like dust. I probably wont ever get another toast, or at least for a long time. It is quite the opposite of what I look for in snuff. The SG Vanilla was the most moist of all the english snuffs I had, and I took it out with me for a day and it was fantastic, I loved it, I let my friend try some later that night and immediately he wanted to buy it. I sold it to him knowing id be buying a 25g tin anyway.
I stand corrected in my statement that Lowen-Prise has licorice in it. Having just blown the door wide open on just about every tobacco product in Germany. I see now that Lowen-Prise has star anise (Illicium verum) in it. Not to be confused with pimpinella anisum which is the aniseed that I was so sure is not in there.
My go-to snuff is Toque Natural Toast. Gotta get some Toque Quit while you’re at it. I don’t even want to guess how many grams of Natural Toast I use in a day.
I think that we all should have at least one of everything on the market, I thought I heard Oscarwabbit discussing something about financing that for us! Just trying to be funny…
It is a very nice snuff indeed.