Lately, I have been playing around a bit with the hydration of water-based English snuffs in order to change their taking qualities. For example, most recently I took some WoS Irish No. 22 up to around 25% hydration (from a factory hydration of around 10%-12% I believe), and found taking it to be a very different, and enjoyable, experience. Almost a different snuff entirely. Has anyone else done this, systematically or otherwise?
(I am using passive hydration to avoid to need to sieve clumps, and a precision jewelers scale in order to test rather small portions, no more than a gram or two at a time).
I haven’t done this with Irish, but 12% moisture matches the result of my measuring. So, in contrary to a popular belief, factory-fresh #22 is anything but bone-dry. Judging by the looks of some American dry snuffs, they are released with similar moisture level as well. Only Amazonian (tribal) ashed snuffs and Indian tapkirs (pale / “white”) oral snuffs are actually bone-dry powders. In fact, Madras-type is also made without a single drop of water, but it does contain 5-10% ghee or mineral oil, which adds to the texture, rendering “slightly moist” quality to it.
I did increase moisture level of small amount (5 g) Tops plain scotch once, to 20%, in the course of alkalinization (as vast majority of American dry snuffs, it originally comes not treated with alkalis and has rather low nicotine delivery capability). Not that I needed it any moister than it was, though (my can was quite fresh).
I have done this before in the past. Not with Irish 22 particularly but I had played with changing moisture and in all cases I ended up getting bored of the results after spending some days with the snuffs.
Whether it is a change in moisture or a mix of different snuffs I always end up regretting it and enjoy the snuff better as it is sold in the end.