Well I received two very old and rusty small tins of SG last month. I got one SP No. 1 High Mill and one Kendal Brown. The High Mill was quite dry but doesn’t seem to have lost much. I can still taste the citrus and I do get a moderate burn taking it. I can tell it’s not fresh but it hasn’t suffered much although I don’t have a new one to compare it with. The KB was a different story. It still clumped but was dry as sand and felt like snuffing rocks. Last night I read through an old thread where some people suggested different ways to moisten snuff. I didn’t want to use fruit peels so I used a drop of bourbon. I tried the snuff this morning and it’s really quite good. I get a dark smokey flavor. I should actually make this quite a bit moister and maybe I will. In the meantime I thought to post the results in case anyone’s interested.
Sometimes I use bourbon just to impart a nice sweetness and sometimes smokiness (depends on the bourbon) to snuff that are perfectly moisurized already. Carrots work well too. I wish I would have known this trick a long while ago as it would have saved a lot of tins of snuff from the trash can.
I’ve been moisturising some dry snuff with Super Cook’s Natural Vanilla Extract. Be very careful, if you try this as it runs fast from the bottle.
Yes it does a good job adding smokiness. Wish we could get cheap Wild Turkey! This bottle of Evan Williams 7 Y/O was way more than it’s worth.
LOL Bob it could have also saved alot of salads from the trash can as well!
There is no saving salads not in the scheme of things at least.
Here’s Roderick’s advice from an old discussion: ‘If you don’t have a humidor, you could try this idea from the fifties. Using a large jar, put your snuff to be refreshed in an egg cup and place the egg cup in the jar. Next hang a bit of blotting paper, infused with your chosen spirit, over the lip and replace lid. Put jar in a refrigerator for 24 hours and enjoy. Roderick’ You can, of course, substitute a piece of cotton, fruit slice, etc, for blotting paper and use plain water in place of hooch.
Couldn’t one spray just some mist of water on it, and stir it with a paper clip or such?
I’ve tried glad wrap successfully. I put some water in a big glass bowl, then put a cup in the bowl, upside down. Stick a saucer with a little bit of wonder gum onto the cup’s bottom and place your tin of snuff in the saucer. Seal the bowl with glad wrap and leave overnight.
I’ve been using watermelon rind this summer, because we grow a few here, and it works well, doesn’t impart any scent, and releases its moisture evenly. I’m getting some ancient SP # 1 in original tins from England, and plan to try this method.
Just fill a clean bottle cap with water and place it in the snuff tin, put the lid on, and leave it like that for a few days until all the water is evaporated. I know just what you mean with dry kendal brown, it’s like sniffing gravel when it gets like that.
I use a few drops of water from my dehumidifier (I live in a prefab bungalow from the 1940’s, so it needs one) - the water is pure so no chance of causing mould in the snuff. I tamp it down and mix it in with the end of a chopstick and it works well. I recently got a tapbox of Gawith Hoggarth Kendal Brown from a tobacconist in Kendal (where the stuff is made) so you’d think it would be a) pretty fresh, and b) looked after as they advertise themselves as a specialist tobacconist and should therefore know about these things, but it was like trying to sniff bits of rust. It’s come up nicely now I’ve rehydrated it, but strangely is closer to SG McCombie than SG Kendal Brown. Handy though, as I like McCombie and read somewhere that it’s now discontinued.
Yes it’s true. McCombie is no more (though I do have 250g of it stashed away). I seem to recall hearing that they couldn’t get one of the tobaccos for it any more.