I see Samuel Gawith have new labels on their tins. I received an order today in which I had 2 tins of their Kendal Brown Snuff Plain, but the tins I received today just have “Kendal Brown Snuff” written on them. So, I wonder if I have been sent the “Kendal Brown Original”? Does anyone know which one is in this new tin that only has “Kendal Brown Snuff” written on it?
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I assume it’s the OG - Samuel Gawith Snuff KB Original 25gm Tin Smoke-King. A presence of the citrussy note would be a teller, though. Plain comes w/o citrus scent.
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Samuel Gawith was dissolved on 21st November 2017 and the last accounts were made up until 30 September 2015.
Samuel Gawith were the only company to include Original when referring to Kendal Brown as per Thomas Harrison’s original Kendal Brown recipe of 1792.
The rights and recipe, therefore, must have been passed to Gawith Hoggarth and made at 27 Lowther Street (presumably) rather than Kendal Brown House.
It’s nice to see the hound reappear on tins.
I’m going to see if the old distributor of Kendal snuffs, Simon Jackson of Preston, is likely to re-supply tins/canisters of the Gawith Hoggarth version as the Wilsons Sheffield version doesn’t really cut the mustard for me.
Failing that I’ll try Smoke-King. Are they reliable?
Samuel Gawith made four versions of Kendal Brown:
Kendal Brown Original – light citrus – single base tobacco
Kendal Brown Special – light citrus – tobacco mixture
Kendal Brown Plain or Scented – (citrus scent stronger in the scented version than the Original or Special K.B) – tobacco mixture
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My buddies are loving that Smoke-King for online ordering .I can’t shop there : too many interesting smoking supplies to tempt me 
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Drat! I’ve discovered from a contact in Kendal (who wishes to remain anonymous) that no snuff whatsoever is now manufactured in Kendal. The supplier to Gawith Hoggarth for their Kendal Brown is Pöschl Tabak. Gawith Hoggarth then add a flavouring so that it becomes a ‘Kendal’-Made’ snuff. Moreover, there appears to be a problem with the tins so that the vacuum seal is often lost due to the tin rim not being cleaned. Anyone here ever experienced that?
Can anyone who remembers genuine S.G Kendal Brown compare the original with the Pöschl version?
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Yes, I do remember the genuine S. G Kendal Brown, @PhilipS2. Disappointingly different the current version is. Please have a glance at the looks of the new KB flour in this photo: Reddit - Dive into anything.
The picture isn’t mine. Although I have tried the new KB Scented (recently discontinued; Special gone for good, too) and KB Plain and can confirm that it’s one and the same new base. And KB Plain comes plain, literally. Oddly enough, the Scented one had just a hint of citruss.
So, there’s just a couple of snuffs left in the KB series - KB Original and KB Plain.
In regard to Pöschl flour under GH snuff labels, also:
"At Kendal, the two Gawith families mirror the Wilsons in having split
into two companies well over 100 years ago. Samuel Gawith, a totally
independent company trading since the early 1790s works amicably
alongside Gawith Hoggarth and the two buy snuff from one another, even
though Samuel Gawith admits they are fighting for a share of an ever
declining market.
“There is no record as to how the Gawith brothers split but whatever
reasons there were seemed to have been forgotten,” said a spokesman for
Samuel Gawith.
The main difference between the companies today is in trading. “We are
rather bigger and all our snuff is now imported from Alois Poschl in
Germany,” says John Gawith, chairman and md of Gawith Hoggarth. “The
company makes our base snuff after which we apply the flavours and
blend them together.”
His company is run as two operations: Gawith Hoggarth & Co and Gawith
Hoggarth Tobacco. The former, the company’s manufacturing arm, is run
in partnership with Poschl. “Our sales are not huge but Alois Poschl
has a keen interest in snuff sales and holds something like 90% of the
German snuff market and is the world’s biggest snuff producer,” says
John Gawith. “It imports to Europe and most countries worldwide which
require snuff.”
Samuel Gawith makes all its own snuff at Kendal using the same mill
brought from Scotland in 1792 with the original oak mortars and steel
pestles.
“Our factory is more of a museum and we attribute the quality of the
snuff to the old way of producing it,” said a company spokesman. “The
only change over the past 270 years is we now use electricity whereas
before the mill was driven by a water wheel.”"
Source: Tobacco Europe May 1999 (A profile of the British Snuff industry).
P. S. Issues with vacuum seal are not unheard of.
P. P. S. GH ceased making it from scratch pre 1999.
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The one in the photo is the same as the two tins I recently received. On opening them I noticed a lemon like citrus scent. Whilst I usually buy the plain, I am pleased they sent this one by mistake, very nice, I will be stocking up on it in future.
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