I’ve bought a lot of snuff lately, and have lately been trying to devise storage solutions for it. I bought quite a bit of F&T snuff in the 50g tins (which I probably should have bought in bulk, but I’m still pretty ignorant) having heard that the tins with the screw on tops keep the snuff inside fresh “indefinitely.” So I put all my tins in a 3L hermitically sealed jar, being the obsessive compulsive idiot that I am. When I opened it up today to get a dollop to put in a smashbox, I was hit with a blast of fragrance. All the tops were screwed on tight, so how is the scent from the snuff getting through the metal sides of the tins? This seems to happen with all my snuffs; I have to store the unopened menthols away from the others because they heavily scent whatever container they’re stored in. I don’t get it.
When we smell something its because we get minute particles of the thing we are smelling in our nose. If your F and T cans have been opened - which they would have been - they are covered in tiny amounts of the snuff. When you contain them in a sealed jar and then go back to it you are probably just getting a blast of the aromatics that are clinging to the can. Menthol is very ‘clingy’ as an aroma - try getting the taste of menthol out of a cup that you’ve put Vicks and hot water in to inhale if you’ve had a cold. I’ve just got a can of F and T JR Justice and you can smell the snuff on the can even though it’s got a perfect seal. You can test this out by leaving a can out of the airtight jar as a control - you’ll find it keeps just as well as the cans in the jar. Other snuff cans - like the traditional WoS ones - are not completely airtight and the snuff will eventually go stale if just left in them. With cans like that they are effectively leaking the aroma out.
@ snuffster: In your opinion, what would you do in my situation, which is as follows. I have over one dozen different tins of WoS snuff (some menthol, others not). I want to store them for a period of a few years. I decided to store them in an air-tight military ammunition box, along with other brands of snuff. They are protected from air from outside of the box, but do I need to seal each type (same brand and flavor) of tin in a plastic freezer bag to prevent flavors from intermingling, or do the tins protect the scents from “marrying” just stored together in an air-tight box without putting them in plastic bags? Please let me know if I can better explain my situation. Thank you for your advice.
@snuffster. Your explanation makes sense. It seems pretty clear to me, but just to make sure: if I keep the leaky tins in an airtight container, wouldn’t that be the functional equivalent of the original tins (like the WoS ones) being airtight? **Edit: I see I asked roughly the same question as the poster above. I’m concerned about the same thing: storing potentially leaky tins in an airtight container, with the main separation being mints and menthols in one container, perfumed in another, and lightly scented like SP in yet another.
Hmm…The radioactive elements in tobacco only have a half life of 22.3 years? That is strange!
Depending on the planet you store it at. And if you manage to speed it FTL, shouldn´t it not only become fresher, but could it unferment again???
Yes Red Star but then it would be out of reach.
@ juxtaposer Not if your reach exceeds your grasp.
I store all my snuffs that I am not using in three gallon plastic bags in the fridge, flavours, menthols, toasts, everything all mixed up and have never noticed any transference of scent or flavour. In fact I am snuffing a tin of WOS #22 right now that spent a couple of months stored that way and it is just fine. Either I have a dead nose or you don’t have to sweat it.
Ordinary food grade jars that are airtight (or anything else like an ammo box) should keep WoS cans of snuff in good condition for a long while. I have kept some different types of WoS in their cans in an airtight tobacco jar for years and the snuff is in perfect condition. Any marrying of flavours is so minute as to be undetectable (and possibly isn’t happening on any level) It’s not necessary to freeze snuff but, as Nachman says, it would have the same net effect for different reasons; both methods would work. Plastic bags wouldn’t harm but I have my doubts as to whether they would be doing much. It’s possible to go overboard on this (to be 100% you would have to start using pressure controlled environments etc) but simple methods work just fine. I have some snuff I bought in the 80’s that is still as good as the day I got it. Enjoy!
i use eletricians ( spelling ) tape to seal my tins of snuff usually buy the yellow one at the local ace store …
@Nachman, snuffster, jpsks Thanks for the advice. I suspect some of us newcomers get a little obsessive compulsive about such things, but better to be safe than sorry. In my experience, most things are far more robust than we tend to think. I’m going to trust to the airtight storage jars for tins, and mason jars for things I end up buying in bulk.
F &T tins and the Swisher ‘Flav-R-Gard’ canisters are airtight and will keep snuff fresh for the long term. All others (Wilsons, McChrystal’s, Toque, etc.) I immediately transfer to small rubber-sealed clasp jars. These are very cheap (69 cents each at a restaurant supply), they have thick glass; are durable and reusable – and they will hold the contents of a 25g tin perfectly. They are very easy to take a pinch from, they keep everything fresh, and they look pretty elegant as well. I ran off some stick on labels for the hell of it. Larger sizes are of course available. Here is one next to a 25g F & T canister and a Swisher container. 
i don’t know what to say. I feel so out of touch. I simply have an old wooden cabinet hanging on the wall that I keep my snuff in. It has a door to keep the light out but thats about it. lol
@kjoerup That is extremely cool. I’ve got to go out hunting this weekend, but I doubt they’ll cost anywhere near $.69 where I live. On the other hand, I’ve got a bunch of empty baby food jars that hold a 50g tin easily and cost $.69 inclusive of the baby food. People like saucy_jack above, who are afflicted with normalcy and mental health, probably find it hard to empathize : )