Hava any of you snuffers tried any or all of these? If so what is your take on them? I want to venture into South African Snuffs and I want to try a menthol first.
Yes. Though I may not have had the Babaton Green. There are only minor differences. Generally South African snuffs with menthol are only lightly mentholated. Not really ice cold skull-splitters in this family. Most SA snuffs are of the Gwayi style: very coarse, very moist, very heavy and barnyardy. Singletonâs I would leave alone (there are actually 2 SA varieties of this: one is more gwayi like [greentub with black top] and other tries to replicate its Anglo-German namesake [green plastic spin tin]). I would choose the Ntsu over Taxi, but that may be personal preference. You might also want to try Venterâs which has a nice addition of camphor and the SA version of Dr. Rumneyâs which is not quite as coarse as most gwayi, but also has the adition of camphor and probably eucalyptus and is pleasantly sweet. There is also Maverick out there which I have not had, and the South African Wilsonâs which is ok, but not really a gwayi style.
Of the four you mentioned, Iâve only tried Taxi green, and it fits Xanderâs description of Gwayi. The barnyard aroma has hints of raisin and some other sweeter notes in there too. I also second the Dr. Rumneys recommendation, which since it calls it mentholyptus on the white smash boxes I got mine in, Iâm pretty sure it does indeed have eucalyptus. It has only a faint barnyard aroma and is reasonably coarse, not to the extent of taxi. Now if you like barnyard aroma and really coarse snuff, knock yourself out on the SA snuffs you mentioned. Dr rumneys is only my personal preference as far as medicated or South African snuffs go.
I was just dabbling in these today the singletons super menthol is finer and dryer then the other three. lots of menthol but a different snuff then the others The babaton tub is backed tightly and is moister then, but the same coarse grind as taxi and ntsu The NTSU is courser and darker then Babaton and Taxi being the lightest in color. Like xander said personal preference, I like the taxi over the ntsu and babaton. The menthol is more in balance with the tobacco. All three of these you need to snuff with zeal and squeeze your nose so it donât fall out. I also must mention the strong ammonia that needs to air out.
The Babaton Green is the only one in which I detect some camphor. Other noses may vary.
The only one of the aforementioned Iâve tried is Dr. Rumneyâs, which in fact was the first mentholated snuff I ever tried back in the 1970âs. Iâve just ordered a couple 5 gram boxes from MS, and Iâm hoping the recipe hasnât changed since the '70âs. Also am hoping to find larger boxes/tins of the Rumneyâs. I can go through 5 grams very quickly. Would someone go into more detail as to what they mean by âbarnyard aroma?â If manure is what weâre talking here, maybe Iâll avoid any snuff described as having a âbarnyardâ smell to it.
âBarnyard aromaâ typically denotes a complex of rustic scents commonly associated with a horse stall. Yes, this does include a suggestion of manure. While initially off-putting, especially to those who havenât yet tried one of these snuffs, simply by being compared to manure, they are quite satisfying and find a niche in many a snuff palate once tried. The fact that âmanureâ sounds like such an awful thing to put in oneâs nose is the reason this particular aroma is often described as âbarnyardâ; a reviewer doesnât want to scare off potential snuffers by using an ill-chosen term.
@Uncle_Squinty the old Dr. Rumneyâs is long gone. The South African one is probably not strictly legal from copyright standards, and its not the only case of such (Singelton, Wilson) but no one has made them stop, and Iâm not making a fuss. Its a nice snuff, but nothing llke the English one. I think Snuffhouse tried to figure out if there was a modern equivalent. I forget what oue conclusion was, but I think it was Wilsons of Sharrow SM Brown. Try all the WoS Menthols, and youâll find a keeper. Thatâs what I did. Thereâs 9 of them.
I realize we are talking about snuff here but I am a cigar guy from way back. I find that the majority of real quality, top shelf cigars truely do have a barnyard/manure/grassy note on the prelight. I have yet to find one that does not turn out to be a great choice. So there is my two bits worth. I suppose I actually search out that âdefinitionâ and if I hear it applied to snuff, thats for meâŚ
In my experience, the âbarnyardâ scent tends to be in some(thankfully only some) of the Indian snuffs, and the ammonia in the South Africans.
The scent of barnyard is better than cat piss, The barnyard scent with the ammonia scent is part of the fermentation process when tiny little microbes fart all over your snuff. this is what they look like= https://encrypted-tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQfiCfYcFETM19HvveHMbulHPQIzK6B\_g-qdKRCq70aBS\_CIhNULw
I have tried them all, the menthol varies greatly in these, I personally like NTSU Green the best, I donât air mine out, I like the ammonia and consider it part of the experience.
Thanks for the barnyard definition/explanation. If youâre talking the same kind of aroma one might encounter when first opening a box of genuine Cuban Cohibas for example, I get it. Smokeed a genuine Bolivar (habano) a few months ago, and definitely got the farmyard aroma on prelight. Sad regarding the Dr. Rumneyâs. I loved that snuff. Knowing now that itâs not the real Rumneyâs, I am saddened that I ordered two 5 g. tins from MS. Had I known, Iâd have gone for the WoS Brown. Sorry to have pulled this one a bit OT.
To each their own, just like certain foods, there are some snuffs I just canât take, and Iâve been ok with all of the S. Africanâs so far. Still curious though, does the D African smell more like D Black or Ntsu, Taxi etc?
There is also Maverick out there which I have not had, and the South African Wilsonâs which is ok, but not really a gwayi style.
I really like MAVERICK - fits totally into the S.A. style and comes with some awesome looking (imho) plastic tin.
I miss magnet.
I just tried Taxi Green, and enjoyed it a lot. Nice strong menthol, not overpowering, strong nicotine rush. What I donât understand is the " barnyard" smell so many have mentioned. I live on a farm, we breed horses, and perhaps I am desensitized to the smell, but I never pick up any scent like that. The closest I get to the barnyard smell is from SG Blue Crest, and that is rather nutty in aroma. The ammonia smell is what I associate w/ horse urine, but I never get that smell from snuff. I had a hint of it once when I first tried Babeton Blue, but it wasnât unpleasant. Maybe my sense of smell is skewedâŚ
To me the âbarnyardâ aroma reminds me more of clean cattle manure, not a feedlot but definitely ;barnyardâ like where I grew up. (Sounds like I grew up in a corral).
I live on a farm. A tobacco farm before we took the government buy out some years ago. The SA types do not smell âfarmyardâ or âpetting zooâ in the least to me. They smell clean and earthy. They really remind me of the way the tobacco barn used to smell when the tiers were nearly full. Pure tobacco. Note I say âto meâ. I really think âfarmyardâ and âpetting zooâ are very misleading terms to describe this type. I was really afraid to try SAâs for the longest because I was afraid I would be stuck with a cow crap smelling tobacco. If you try it and dont like it because it smells too âfarmyardâ or âpetting zooâ Ill gladly take it off your hands. Buy or trade.
I never used âbarnyardâ or any other similar term to degrade a snuff. Some snuffs smell like poop and they are phenomenally awesome.
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